Grobags and Gro-eggs - overwhelmed with all the choices - HELP!

[BellaMitri]

Hi there everyone, this is my first post so please excuse me if I don't follow all the right protocols for posting

So I am pregnant (my first) and am massively nesting and in my preparation for our little girl I have come across a multitude of different products and I'm not sure if I need them or not...any advice is appreciated.

Gro-eggs: We're having the baby in a Chicco next2me crib for the first 6 months in our bedroom - do we need a room thermometer? And what's the benefit of a gro-egg over say buying a regular thermometer that costs less?

Gro-bags: These seem increasingly popular and are an alternative to sheets and blankets for the bed yes? Are they suitable from birth and any recommendations on how many you need to buy eg: 2 in each thickness.

Breast pumps: I am (planning) on breastfeeding as the main source of babies food is it worth me investing in a breast-pump in case there are occasions when I am not around to feed...are babies happy to have bottles with breast milk and direct from the source?

I am so sorry I must sound like a complete novice - I have the classic Rachel from Friends where I know a ton about pregnancy and labour but am panicking that I don't know enough about babies.

Thanks for your advice in advance.

Gro-eggs - didnt have one as the baby monitor we had told you the temperature.

Gro-bags - have a minimum weight guidance so may not be able to be used from birth if you have a smaller baby. I used a swaddle blanket first before using grobags. I had some cheaper makes plus some of the more expensive proper grobags. The grobags tended to be bigger and lasted longer.

Breast pumps - dont know as I didnt really succeed with bf either of mine

We didn't need a Gro-egg as our monitor tells us the temperature.

I am a huge fan of Gro-bags. My son is a wriggler and blankets would have been a right pain. He went into them at about 1 month but he was a big baby. We had 2 2.5tog in the smallest size (up to 6 months I think) for the winter. He wasn't a sicky baby and we have a tumble dryer and airing cupboard to dry them quite quickly. If you have a puker, more might be a good idea. For the summer we bought one 1tog and 1 2.5tog in the second size (6-18m) which was enough. He is now in the third size and we have 2 of each (but they last until he is 3 so well worth the money!)

Slumbersacs are equally good and a bit cheaper I think.

Both come with little paper thermometers and charts telling you how many layers they should wear for given room temperatures and togs. For example, whether to put them in short/long sleeves, trousers/bare legs, vest under a babygro etc They are really helpful when you are either away from home or just unsure.

Couldn't tell you too much on breast pumps as I didn't get on with expressing. I'm glad I didn't buy an expensive one in advance though.

Gro bags, not the only sleeping bag on the market, I also used Sainsburys and slumber sac. They are SO much better than swaddling as DD hated being swaddled. How many of each tog you should buy will depend on when you're due. DD was born in October so I had 2 2.5 tog ones & it never got warm enough to need a lighter one in the first six months. I have now got 2 2.5, 2 1.5 & 1 0.5 tog for the 6-18 months size because of the summer. Possibly this is over kill but I wanted to have spares whilst the other was in the wash. I'd start off with 1 & see how your DC gets on with it.

Room thermometer we didn't bother with. Our baby monitor has an inbuilt one & in addition i got a bath thermometer so as cute as the gro eggs are I didn't need one. If you do buy a gro bag then they send you a little thermometer with it as well as a chart showing you what your DC should be wearing & which tog rating you should be using. Very helpful.

I forgot breast pumps!

I had a manual one though have heard good things about automatic ones. It helped my milk come in during the early days and increased my supply. I expressed a bottles-worth most days so that my husband could do the 10pm feed so that I could get a good block of sleep (DS used to feed every 2 hours so getting a break made a world of difference).
You can buy freezer bags (I used Lansinoh ones) so that you can store milk. This was handy for odd days that I didn't express, or needed to give him more than one bottle (and on chrismas day I got to drink champagne!)

I'm not sure how well occasional bottles would work. It probably depends on the baby but once we stopped giving him a bottle regularly (at about 4.5 months old) he started refusing it altogether. I wish we'd kept it up a bit longer as it meant I was then the sole feeder until I stopped breastfeeding at 10 months (though of course it got a lot easier from 6 months when we weaned).

Gro bags are fab for our little girl as she is a wriggler. I did also buy the gro sleepsuits as they have quilted arms which I think will be good for winter. The 'gro' stuff also guides you about how many layers baby needs at night depending on temperature of room.
I do also have a gro egg which is useful although we have temp on the monitors. We hardly use the monitor at the mo as we're in a Bungalow, she sleeps in with us and doesn't sleep in the day!!
If you buy a gro bag it comes with a cardboard room thermometer too.

I realise I sound like I'm on commission for gro company but I did buy a lot of it as a first time nesting like you!

I do have a gro egg as my little girl has the Chicco bedside crib so despite my baby monitor having a thermometer I'm not actually using it at the moment as she is in with us. Once she gets bigger and is in her own room then I guess I won't need it, but I find it helpful in knowing how to dress her for bed.

I also use sleeping bags (have various brands), I'm using 1.5 tog at the moment (but our house is very warm) and have a sicky baby so I have a few I can rotate while washing.

Same with everyone else re:gro eggs, our monitor does the job.

Grobags are great, ours couldn't be used from birth but I used blankets first and then moved to grobags after a few weeks.

Breast pump wise, I have a medela swing pump. They advise against giving bottles until bf is established, which is about 6 wks (to avoid confusion) so it's unlikely you'll need to express straight away. I waited until I wanted to try with bottles before ordering one. Pump was great, but my dd refused bottles from about 10 wks of age, but it was an absolute lifesaver for dh to give her a bottle of ebm a night for a month so I could get some well needed sleep.

I've also used the pump since then for when dd misses feeds and I've needed to express off a bit for comfort (I add the milk to her food as she won't take it any way except direct from source...). Couldn't fault the Medela.

Baby monitor for temperature

sleeping bag - yes yes yes yes yes
not necessarily a gro one, but i liked the Vertbaudet ones as well

My DD is 2y9m and is still in one even though she is in a bed now, she prefers it to covers... she can walk and run to our room wearing it as well

I got about 3 regular ones (one wearing, one in the wash and one spare... and only 1 summer one - we don't get that many hot days... and on the worst days she could sleep without anything

We had a grow egg but it wasn't needed as the monitor told us the temp so if you are having a monitor, ditch the egg!
Tip - use whatever room thermometer you might have in the weeks leading up to the birth to get used to sleeping with your room at the right temperature if baby will be in with you... We found the room needed to be much cooler than we liked it and adjusted by dropping the thermostat by 1 degree a week until we got to a good temperature!

Gro bags - we had them but with a sweaty baby we ditched them and went to sleepsuits and a blanket... He also needed a bumchange in his sleep most nights because he'd get rash if we didn't change him and doing it with the gro bag meant he woke up so blankets were easier... See how you get on!

Breast pump - had a baby that wouldn't latch, a week long stay in hospital and only 2 pumps for the whole ward so mine was great because I could express the colostrum and bottle feed it to my baby.

Hth

No advantage to gro-egg over (much) cheaper thermometer. Agree most monitors have a thermometer.

I do rate gro bags above other brands though. They are much better designed ime. They wash really well so second hand is fine or they often have them in tkmaxx.

I'd research breast pumps but wouldn't buy one in advance. A manual one should be fine if it's just the odd bottle or an electric one if everyday. However, I had oversupply and pumping made it much worse so my pump was virtually unused despite bfing two dc past 1. I don't think you can stop bottle refusing btw I know lots of babies who had a bottle every day from very early and then started refusing it so I think it's just one of those things.

One advantage to the gro-egg is that you can see at a glance what the temperature is without being in the room (useful in our old house with creaky floors). I can sit in my bed with my door and DS's door open, and see that it is orange, and in the right temp range. It's also a nice night-light as DS gets older.

Thermometer - we got a normal one on ebay for about £2 or £3 - found it useful as I'm not a good judge of temperature. Helped me gauge if she needed extra layers for her sleep

Grobags - yes but when a bit older. Early months used muslins and cellular blankets as swaddles. If warm (summer or winter when heating was on all time) then didn't use anything - just in vest and sleepsuit.

Breast pump - waited until I needed it. Found I needed it pretty quick as DD was underweight and was recommended to try to express more to top her up. MIL was sent to get a basic hand pump for £20/£25, which worked fine and I never needed anything else. So easy to pick up in a large supermarket that I would wait and see if you feel its necessary. Certainly don't recommend forking out for a fancy electric one in advance but probably no harm in having a cheap hand pump.

We have a gro-egg, agree re being able to see at-a-glance if it's the right temperature, but it's a nice to have rather than a necessity.
You can use gro bags pretty much from birth unless you have a tiny or early baby, the small sizes have extra poppers under the arms so they can't slip down. Two in the 0-6m size is plenty to start with. My DD liked to be swaddled, my boys hated it.
I would suggest leaving a pump until you see if/how you need to use one. Ideally you establish BF for a few weeks before introducing a bottle, and if it's for the odd feed a manual pump is fine, I have the Avent one. Larger supermarkets or Mothercare/Argos stock them. Should you need to exclusively express (my DD was slightly prem/tiny and had to be tube fed then topped up every feed with bottles of expressed milk for a few weeks) then you need an electric double pump - I used one in hospital then you can hire one and get it couriered within 24 hrs.