To be told my newborn essentials list is a waste of money? What do you think?

[Mummatobe98]

I made a list with my partner of the items we need to get together before baby is born, my MIL has seen it and told me it is not needed. We will be given items such as the pram, however I feel that the items I have written down to get before I give birth are essential. Im 20 weeks now

Here it is:

Bedtime

Moses basket - someones given us this
3-4 cellular blankets
2 tog baby sleeping bag
Fitted sheets for moses basket matress
Nightlight/room thermometer
Dummy

Feeding

Burp cloths/muslin squares pack
Feeding cushion
Breast pump (optional)
Milk storage bags
Formula just incase
4-6 bottles
Bottle warmer
Steralising equipment/milton
Bottle brush

Changing

A changing mat
Nappies
Wipes
Barrier cream/sudocrem
Nappy bags

Clothing
Baby grows x 8
Baby Vests x 8
Cardigans x 3
Socks x 10
A warm hat x 1
1-2 special outfits (optonal)

Bath
Baby bath
Cotton wool
3-4 soft towels
3-4 wash clothes
Baby wash

Outside
A car seat
Push chair/pram
Changing bag
Baby sling (optional)

Health
First-aid kit
Nasal aspirator
Soft hair brush
Nail scizzors

I wouldn’t bother with the bottle feeding stuff if you plan on bf.
I did use the baby bath.
My youngest is 3 but baby sleeping bags weren’t suitable from birth can’t remember why.
you will also need fewer towels and many more muslins

My girl is 17 now but we bought loads of stupid stuff like a top & tail bath and a special nappy bin. Her dad went for the unnecessary gadgets! So I think your list is extremely sensible.

I think we got some of those after the birth - more as we went along.

We did get taken along to buy travel system by relatives and cot by some others but that was suggested by them before 20 weeks so we knew that was on the cards.

We did get ourselves room thermometer and some clothes and blankets, first aid kit - intended to bf so didn't get ff items as shops and on-line delivery were options where we were. Also got reusable nappies - which frankly were never that great.

Also got slings and many different pushchairs as they aged/as we worked out what was needed.

I don't think it's an outrageous list as it seems fairly sensible.

People can be odd about buying items pre-birth it could just be that.

Hi @Mummatobe98
Your list is really good, exactly what i would have got too! x

I had a baby bath as I could put it on a stand. My bad back wouldn't let me lean over the big bath
Change bag I cannot imagine being without! It was always packed ready with all nappy change stuff, spare clothes etc

DC3 was exclusively breast fed. I had the bottles etc from DC1 and 2 but they were never used. Neither was the steriliser. I never pumped with him either. You could wait and see what you need with the feeding items.

Only thing I don’t think you need is a room thermometer. You’ll feel if the room is too hot/cold, surely? I never used one with 3dc.

And yes, for a winter baby you will need a sleeping bag and cellular blankets. Although I didn’t use a sleeping bag until they were bigger - I swaddled to start with as newborns seem to love it.

I think it's a good list, just multiply the muslins by 100 at least 😂

Your list is good.

Add sudocrem!

The one thing I didn't ever use with my winter baby was socks! They are nearly always in sleepsuits or pram suits if out and about, which mostly have feet, so maybe just have a couple of pairs for with outfits. I did actually use them more with my summer baby who tended to live in vests or a nappy AND socks!

Personally I wouldn't but lots of bottles up front as in our experience the ones we bought turned out to be ones he didn't like.
Bought fancy tommee tippee ones and it turned out after many wasted different types bottles & lots of trial and error that the only ones DS1 would drink from was the cheapest ones from boots
Ended up giving away a whole set of untouched TT ones bought before he was born.
Again wouldn't buy much formula - just get a couple of pre-made bottles - they can be fickle as to what they will take and it can be expensive to buy tubs and realise they won't take them.
Both my kids were mix fed (breast, pumped and formula)
Only special towel we bought was a hooded one as it was easier to wrap them to dry
Have never bothered with a room thermometer and only used a nightlight when they were older (toddlers) just used a side light we already had for night feeds
Baby nail scissors are shit and not helpful
Nasal aspirator - never used
First aid kit ?
2 of your optionals were essential for me
Sling and breast pump
Never used breast milk bags just stored in bottles - mine got used relatively quickly so was easy enough to store in fridge in sterilised bottles.

You won't need loads of blankets especially if using sleeping bags so I'd say 2 - often find you get them as gifts anyway

If you're planning on breastfeeding I wouldn't bother with any bottle/formula stuff. You can get it easily if you need it. I also don't think a dummy is essential straight off, again, easy enough to get if the baby needs one (unless you know for sure you want to use them). I never owned a nasal aspirator or special towels/washcloths (though we were gifted two towels but used out normal ones too). But nothing on there is unreasonable!

Oh and as someone else said - more muslins - probably the most useful baby thing ever and I still use mine (my kids are 7 & 15😂)

All looks good to me, and the optional items all are needed IMO.

I used all of that too ! I didn't bother with bottle warming but then I used half boiled hot water and half chilled pre boiled hot water and it was fine temp wise (I didn't store milk formula pre made)
I'd add dummies too as some kids are just sucky IME
We had a
Stash of pre- purchased nappies too in a wardrobe - loads of different sizes
I wanted a baby holder for our bath but never got one, I hated bathing a tiny baby - so slippery!!

This is exactly what I was going to say. And I'd def get a v-shaped pillow (Ikea do a good one) great for breastfeeding and also comfy for you for sleeping when you're close to the birth :)

I'd also prioritise a sling - do you a sling library near you or get second hand? They really are a lifesaver in the early days if you want your hands free to eat toast :)

• it is very hard to make toast one handed while holding a baby 😁

Also is MIL saying it's not needed or she wants to buy you something? Where I'm from (and appreciate this may be regional!) its tradition for the mum's mum to buy the pram (and store it until baby is born!) and then in our case MIL wanted to buy/give the crib

Looks all right to me; a few things on there I wouldn’t bother getting yet (hairbrush – even the hairiest of babies won’t need one) but it actually looks quite sensible compared to the online lists designed to sell you loads of pointless shite.

You can always buy more of the things you use once you meet your baby: with DD I listened to all the “buy all the muslins in the universe!” chat and really invested. She turned out to not even posset and I think the only time I used a muslin was so I could eat a sausage roll over her head while breastfeeding.

I’d add nursing bras, stretchy vests (so you can yank them down and a jumper up, no need for fancy zipped clothing), Lansinoh for sore nipples, and an allowance for 3,000 cakes a day. And a sports water bottle. Breastfeeding is hungry, thirsty work.

There are so few items which are truly universal essentials - the issue with everything else is that it is so polarised. Some people say YES absolutely loved this, would recommend, don't do without it, whereas others (for the exact same item) say NO, everyone told me to get this and it was the most useless thing ever, I used it once/never took it out of the box.

It's just so individual.

I found breaking it down by need, as you have, worked really well. And ultimately it doesn't matter whether your list matches someone else's, as long as it works for you.

Something else which I found really helpful to do was make a kind of spreadsheet or "wish list" and rate items as "essential" "important" "nice to have" etc, as well as "need from day 1" (e.g. nappies) vs "can't use from birth" (e.g. sleeping bags) vs "can wait and see" (e.g. dummies) and "need in advance" (e.g. thermometer - probably won't need, but wouldn't want to wait for).

That helped me to only buy the stuff that was really urgent AND necessary, and wait and see for the rest. Amazon Prime is a decent investment so that you can get next day delivery, and supermarkets or those big out of town Boots or John Lewis or Mamas and Papas are useful for emergency bits, if you have a car.

I think you’ll need more than 8 vests and babygros though.

Your MIL is weird, thats a really good list. My only comment would be if your baby is larger or long they grow out of the moses basket really quickly, so have the cot ready to put in your bedroom before you are ready to move them into their own room.

I didn’t bother with multiple bottles, just got the one on the basis I’d use it later for pumping if still bf (ditto breast pump). To be honest the most valuable thing for us was an Amazon Prime subscription so if we needed something one night (dummies etc) I could order it at 3am while crying and knew I wouldn’t be without it the next night!

Also we were gifted tonnes of Muslins and I think it really depends on the baby - DD I got through hundreds of the blighters, DS hardly posseted at all.

Baby nail scissors are shit and not helpful
Ooh, hard disagree! They’re one of the few must-have gadgets we got and made use of, I wouldn’t be without ours. They’re still useful for the nearly five year old, who acts like you’ve whipped out a scythe if you approach her with normal-sized ones.

This is a fantastic a free lesson on ‘keeping things to yourself’
You are so lucky to find out this key information so early on, before the baby arrives.

Don’t tell your MIL anything. Don’t show her or anyone else any lists.

Especially NAMES.