Best newborn purchases and regrets

[mariebaby3]

Hi all,

My LO is now 9 weeks old but while pregnant I really enjoyed watching YouTube videos of people sharing their best and worst baby purchases and I wondered what everyones were on here? I was super organised and purchased everything in advance but in hindsight I should have held off on a few things so that I knew what DD was like.

Here's my list!

Best:

1. Perfect prep machine - absolute lifesaver
2. MAM glow in the dark dummies
3. Babymoov cosydream - we use this primarily in the pram as DD has reflux so hates lying flat and used to scream bloody murder in there before we bought it. It also makes her feel more snug and secure.
4. Tommee Tippee snuggle sleeping bags - great at the start as she would only sleep with arms in but now we've undone the poppers so she's arms out
5. Ergobaby aura wrap
6. Frida baby nasal aspirator
7. Nappy caddy - we have one upstairs and downstairs filled with nappies, wipes, muslins, change of clothes, bibs etc and they've been so useful.
8. Asda donut nursing pillow - only £10 and great for when I was breastfeeding and now bottle feeding early in the morning or late at night.
9. chicco next2me - I love having her sleep next to me with the side dropped, and was a lifesaver during my c section recovery.

Worst:

1. Aldi sleepyhead dupe - this is more personal as DD hates lying flat so we've just never used it. One of the items I wish I had waited to buy.
2. baby swing - DD hated hers so we ended up selling it on gumtree. She's a sicky baby so the movement and seat position just made her throw up every time she was in there.
3. Buying so many of the same types of bottle - we bought loads of MAM bottles and she just didn't get on with them as they made her wind/reflux worse so ended up switching to Dr Browns. I wish we had just bought 2 or 3 of them to start.
4. groegg - it gave me terrible anxiety during the heatwave because there was really nothing I could do about the temperature. I find I barely look at the temperature now and just use it as an overpriced nightlight.
5. Moses basket - DD only used hers when the bedroom was too warm and I slept downstairs for 2 nights. In the day she tends to only nap on me or for short periods in her bouncer.

Best items -

Ergobaby 360 carrier - my son lived in his for weeks (very refluxy)
Schnuggle baby bath
Cheeky wipes
Mirror for back headrest of car so you can see the baby while they’re RF

Worst -
White noise machine - I think I spent £30 on it, no effect whatsoever
Changing bag - wish I’d got something more practical, potentially a big backpack - you can’t do it up or undo it with one hand and it still drives me mad. Also loads of wasted space on bottle holders which you don’t need if they’re breastfed or no longer have bottles.
Top and tail bowl - really wasn’t necessary!
A pure white play gym from White Company that was hand wash only. It was a present, not something I bought, but honestly such a useless item.

This is SO helpful as a FTM, thank you!! X

Best

1. Cybex Lie flat car seat - DS hated his pram carry cot, so this was a life saver.
2. Snuzz Pod - the top lifts off the stand, so meant we could take it downstairs during the early days so he slept in the same place for all naps/night time. DS was a large baby so would have lasted 2 minutes in a traditional moses basket.
3. Nanit baby monitor - great for rewinding footage to figure out when he fell asleep/woke up to figure out wake periods/nap times.

Worst

1. More than one pack of Newborn clothes - DS was on the big side, 0- 1 month was probably the best size to bridge the gap.
2. Grow-swaddles. Don't think they make them now, we got them second hand, but DS kept busting out of them, I'd have just put him in the swaddle bags that zip their arms in instead. Also wouldn't have bothered with large cellular blankets as swaddles, and just gone straight for the bag.
3. special baby dressing gown - he never needed it, no matter how cute he looked in it.

Sure my list would have been longer - but as a lockdown baby we bought minimal stuff as everything was sold out online for weeks and weeks. No impulse purchasing in shops either.

@YouMeandtheSpew 100% agree on the changing bag! I hate mine but it cost too much to just throw to one side. My DD has a lovely backpack for school and I wish I’d just bought a normal one like that.

This is super useful - thank you!

My bests and worsts have varied so much between DC1 and DC2, I’m not sure you can really learn from these kinds of lists before baby arrives!

DC1 hated any form of sling, DC2 rarely out of babybjorn. DC1 we loved the bedside crib, DC2’s cot is on other side of the room. John Lewis muslins and a shnuggle bath are almost the only things that have worked for both!

Best

• prep machine - saves your life in the night
• 1753763 muslins - you don’t realise how much you need then everywhere
• cybex cloud z car seat - lie flat and spin feature are brill
• cybex priam - great size, manoeuvrability is just amazing
• MAM glow in the dark dummies - speak for themselves
• Ollie the owl - our baby loves a bit of background noise

Worst

• too many neutral newborn clothes - I didn’t know what I was having so when my baby girl arrived all I wanted was to dress her in girly clothes (obviously personal choice)
• scratch mittens - most newborn onesies have integrated ones
• baby toiletries- people will just buy you tonnes anyway
• wind up mobile for the cot - only turns for like a minute so pointless
• tiny formal looking outfits - baby lived in onesies for the first few weeks and had nowhere to go to wear posh dresses

Good post!

Luckily a lot of these were gifts.

Best:
Perfect prep
Mam bottles and glow in the dark dummies
Moses basket - lived in a 1 bed flat so used for day naps and night time sleep. Used it for ages, easily movable
Bogey sucker and water nose spray
Sleepyhead
Container to keep nappies wipes etc in one place and bigger plastic boxes to keep all pump/dummies/instruction guides in and things

Worst:
Mobile for cot
Hats and scratch mittens
Teddies and snugglers
Baby monitor - should have purchased at a later date

This is so useful as I am preparing to become a FTM! Thank you.

Interesting post. We decided not to buy anything except the basics until we needed it so I don’t really have any “worst” because I didn’t purchase anything I didn’t think I’d use. However, my absolute loves are:
Cybex Cloud Z - 3 door car so swivel perfect for us
Bambino Mio grab & go change wallet - has everything we need so can whack in a backpack or just use standalone
Muslinz reusable terry wipes - slightly random and we only use for at home nappy changes at the moment but very soft and also great as flannels in the bath
Bath seat - this was a hand-me-down and I was skeptical but we don’t have a baby bath and I bathe with DS so I really like this.

A Best Buy, fabulous value for money, Chicco baby carrier at £21.99 from Argos. We have an Ergobaby Aura as well but DH loves the Chicco. We’d planned to get an Omni 360 but don’t see the need. I don’t doubt that there are better carriers but we saved a fortune.

This is good!

We were really lucky that we were gifted a lot of things but

Best

• agree with perfect prep
• mam glow in the dark dummies (even if its in her mouth, I find it reassuring to see overnight that she hasn't covered her face now she's rolling!)
• mam bottles (self sterilising is great!)
• travel system, so car seat can go straight on base when needed
• next2me is again very reassuring

Worst

• electric steriliser, they're bulky and I prefer self sterilising the mam bottles
• tummy time pillow. Tried to use it but was a total waste of money
• bulk buying bottles before she was born. I've wasted far too many tommee tippee ones as her colic was reduced with mam ones!

Agree on the toiletries and we also bought a big tommee tippee feeding set with an electric steriliser. Never used any of the bottles and the steriliser was good but you needed to descale it nearly every other day.

Best: snufflebabe for when they had a cold

Worst: nothing really, sling didn't get used much.