When did you start buying essentials for baby?

[deliwoman1]

Hi! I'm 18 weeks on Sunday with a 20 week scan booked for Valentine's Day. We're hoping to spread the cost of some items over a few pay packets so hopefully we won't notice it so much or need to dip into savings etc! But, we also don't know when is too soon to start buying things. When did you all start?

I'm too wondering this - I'm 14 weeks but thinking I'll start after my 20 week scan x

(18 weeks here)

We’ve bought the pram as I wanted to take advantage of the Xmas sales and I’ve saved webpages of everything else I like (cots / bouncers etc) but we’ll wait till after the 20 week scan for those

After 20 week scan seems like a good time to ramp things up a bit.

My partner got a set of sleep suits (in the sale!) at 16 weeks to celebrate finding out we were having a girl, and I nabbed a Close Caboo carrier for dirt cheap off eBay around then, but I've been nervous about getting ahead of myself.

Do we think there will be major sales on at Easter??!

I was a little nervous about buying stuff too soon but with Black Friday coming up a few weeks after my 20 week scan it just made sense to start buying then to get some good deals, so we’d bought pretty much everything by week 25.
I’d probably start buying smaller things here and there when you see items you like after the 20 week scan and then there might be some Easter sales to wait and buy the bigger items then?

I'm 14 weeks and we're at the planning stage at the moment. We've got a shared spreadsheet on the go - lists of everything we're going to need, order of priority, links to the things we like, links to "best buy" articles, and so on.

Once we've had chance to sit down together and pick out our favourites, we'll be signing up to email lists and waiting for the sales. I think we'll delay buying the "big ticket" items (travel system etc) until after 20 weeks, but for anything else if we see a bargain we'll probably just go for it.

We're also signed up to our local Facebook freecycle page just in case anything pops up that we can grab second-hand: we picked up a free cot-bed (and shoved it in the loft) before I was even pregnant!

I’m 32 weeks and just starting to think about buying things. We got the pram a while ago, as there were good deals on the Bugaboo Fox 2 when the 3 came out. I felt a bit superstitious about buying anything too early

I'm due now in a few days and we started buying after our 12 week scan so we could pay up for the big items like prams etc.

I'm 18 weeks too and we're doing research and looking into the big ticket items at the moment like travel systems and car seats so we have time to work out which ones we like (DH likes to take his time on decisions!) but will buy after the 20 week scan.

I've bought some clothes already though on Vinted, they were so adorable I couldn't resist! And we got a tripp trapp high chair off ebay as we knew that was an expensive thing we wanted so have been looking since the 12 week scan for one in good condition.

I'm not even thinking about the nursery until post scan though. Not because the sex of the baby will change any of our colour decisions etc but more because I know if something was to show up then I'd always associate that colour with this baby. Whereas the tripp trapp is something we know we want for our family anyway if that makes sense. And the clothes were second hand and not expensive so I could donate if I wanted to.

I'm not sure when I'm going to start yet as I'm only 12 weeks, however I've got my scan next week and assuming it all goes well I'm going to work out a rough budget for each item and then each pay we'll set the money aside ready even if we don't physically buy the item. Eg after the scan I might pick a pram and we'll just put the money aside where we can't touch it even though I won't be physically buying it yet. That way it's still spread out over multiple pays.

We did towards the end of second trimester. Once we were safely past the 20 week scan. I also found that by 30 or so weeks I was too uncomfy to spend long standing or walking around shops so doing it around the 27 or 28 week mark worked well for us.

I’m almost 14 weeks and have bought absolutely nothing bar some maternity bras and a couple of pregnancy and birth books. I need the bras as my boobs are huge and tender!

We were planning on starting to buy stuff after our 20 week scan. Meanwhile we’re saving money.
My parents are kindly going to pay for a travel system when we’ve worked out which one we want so that’s the most expensive thing covered.
We are a bit nervous so are not feeling ready to buy lots at this point. I am researching in the background to identify what we need though.

I, perhaps naively (first baby), don’t think we’ll need much more very expensive stuff as we’re planning on having the baby in a next to me type crib in our room for the first six months, and not fully creating a nursery in the spare room until we move the baby into there.

My mum started buying at about 10 weeks haha. Whereas I only bought my first item after 20 weeks.

I waited until after my 20 week scan

With my DD I waited until after 12 weeks to start buying. This time however I'm 7+6 and I've just bought a car seat base for the infant seat I want as it was in clearance on Smyths website. I didn't save my infant seat and base last time round as I sold that travel system at 7 months as it was too bulky. I only have a couple of options of seats that work with the Mamas & Papas Ocarro adaptors, so went for the Maxi Cosi Cabriofix and the isofix base was on sale at Smyths for £50, cheapest I've sent it elsewhere is £100, so had to jump and buy it. Don't think I'll buy anything else before 12 weeks though

I’m 38 weeks on Tuesday and I’ve only just finished buying what I need. I started really late as wanted to get Christmas & New year out the way. My baby could literally come at anytime now and I am not ready at all! I still have to wash all the baby stuff and set things up like the crib. I’m using my DD1s pram & car seat so they need cleaning. As things aren’t washed yet I haven’t packed ours hospital bags. Currently trying to finish some last minute house things off like painting & some new flooring in the house. I can’t even begin to tell you how stressed I am. There’s so much to do and it’s so overwhelming. So don’t put things off like I have! I finished work last week and should be relaxing now and be ready for baby coming but instead I have a massive to do list and a lot of stress!

I'm 18 weeks and have taken advantage of the January sale and bought a few clothes (mainly sleep suits and bibs) and a few blankets. I haven't bought anything big like a cot bed or buggy as don't want huge boxes laying around the house yet. I have bookmarked a travel system that I like from smyths and I check on it once a week to see if it has gone on sale.

With our first baby, I bought a few outfits when we found out the sex (around 11 weeks with the NIPT test) but didn't buy major items (car seat, pram, etc) until after 20 weeks. I waited for things like bottles, breast pump, bouncy seat until the end of my third trimester which I regret as I was exhausted and uncomfortable by that stage and really didn't want to set things up. I am currently 13 weeks with our second and I have bought a few clothing items in the winter sales and will probably start buying other items after 20 weeks.

I spread the monthly cost by putting a dedicated amount aside each month into account. I then didn't buy anything until c week 30. If I had bought earlier it would have wasted money as I ended up being given so much free stuff I only needed to buy the car seat, cot mattress, part of the travel system and maternity bag disposables (nappies, creams, first aid kit etc- you can get in a simple supermarket shop).

Honestly, don’t rush to buy stuff. You need so little when they are born - something to sleep in, pram/sling, muslins and babygros (and bottles etc if formula feeding, car seat if you drive). You definitely don’t need a high chair before they are even born! Fair enough keeping an eye out for good deals or secondhand items, but you might discover some/many items don’t suit your baby (the world is dotted with Moses baskets that babies refused to sleep in).

With my first, we picked up a secondhand pram and next to me around 28 or 30 weeks I think. We didn’t buy much in the way of clothes before the baby was born, as didn’t want to buy first size/newborn if they didn’t need it. In the end they worn 0-1 month rather than newborn. And we picked up a couple of extra bsbygros in that size when I left the hospital. We also got so much clothes as gifts so keep that in mind.

You’ll also probably have many hours in the first few weeks/months to search the internet during night feeds for other potential items you might like or need!

I agree to a certain extent, that you don’t need too much. But I disagree about the high chair. It’s important for us to have meal times together as a family, and the Stokke high chair with the newborn set is vital to have before birth - there would be no point buying it later

One thing to add re when to buy stuff is it's worth looking at lead in times if there's something you really want e.g. a certain travel system in a certain colour way as supply chain issues are slowing delivery times on some things. We went to look at prams at the weekend at a specialist shop and they said some colours for certain brands have a 6 month lead time!! We're not bothered about colours but know some people are so thought I would flag

@Derbee

I agree to a certain extent, that you don’t need too much. But I disagree about the high chair. It’s important for us to have meal times together as a family, and the Stokke high chair with the newborn set is vital to have before birth - there would be no point buying it later

That’s a fair point. But you also might get a baby who can’t be put down so won’t tolerate the newborn insert - they might insist you hold them through meals or scream if you don’t (which won’t make for a pleasant dinner!). I’ve had one baby who happily sat on a small bouncer placed on the table during meal times with us (we always eat together too) so the newborn insert would have been great. And another who basically could not be put down for three months, so there was a lot of one handed eating while holding the baby in the other arm.

I was really nervous to buy things so put it off for so long.

We would buy small items that were on sale like Milton, a job lot of baby clothes around 12 weeks, then big items at 20 weeks. I was still convinced something would go wrong so didn't buy anything else until almost 30 weeks and then started to panic as I couldn't afford everything I wanted (not needed, wanted 😂)

Got the car seat at 34 weeks.

Baby is arriving on Friday by planned csection at 37 week 3 days and I still feel really unprepared. I probably have everything but I feel like I've forgotten to buy something important.

Generally wish I'd started buying sooner, and allowed family to buy bits too. My parents bought us stuff but I asked everyone else not to as I kept thinking about 'what if' which is stupid and I really regret.

In my next pregnancy I'll be buying everything much sooner, and accepting help from friends and family.

I was very anxious when pregnant and bizarrely the only thing that calmed me down was researching and buying stuff for the baby. Because of this, I started buying small things like clothes immediately after the 12 week scan. I had researched and chosen all of the big purchases (travel system, cot etc) so we knew how much they would cost. We set aside money each pay day and put it into a special account to pay for those items, then immediately after the 20 week scan I ordered the lot. We had a lot of old furniture to re-purpose for the Baby's room so I also spent a considerable amount of time upcycling things in the back garden (thankfully it was sunny!) - if I hadn't have been doing that goodness only knows what else I would have bought!!
I have a very good friend who's due date was within a week of mine - we found out we were pregnant at the same time and supported each other really well. She did not buy anything until she was around 32 weeks. Not because she was scared to (if this was the case, she hid it well) but because she is incredibly laid back. Both of our babies had everything they needed, so I don't really think there is a right or wrong way.