After having two beautiful littles, I find myself banging on and on and on to pregnant friends (or strangers….sorry) about what they totally NEED to buy or couldn’t possibly live without for the first few months of life.
I’m sure any new Mumma would agree with me that anything that gives even 5 minutes peace to do things like shower (i’m not even going to tell you how often I wash my hair)/unload the dishwasher/eat/drink/do literally anything at all without a screaming baby on your hip is 100% worth it.
1. The Fisherprice Jumperoo – this ugly monstrosity of a contraption is without a doubt my number 1 baby buy. These things should be handed out when you leave the maternity ward. Yes, they are absolutely huge & unsightly but I haven’t come across a baby who hasn’t fallen head over heels in love with it. Elsa used to spend every waking moment in hers, happily bouncing away & Rory is slowly becoming the same. They are £89.99 online however I have bought mine second hand off Gumtree for £30 & just used a bottle of dettol to disinfect it then will be able to sell it on for the same price once outgrown.
2. The boba wrap – now this pile of fabric literally saved my life during the first 8 weeks of Rory’s life. I didn’t have one with Elsa but oh my gosh, if only I could turn back time. Baby wearing is all a bit ‘hippy’ to me but i’m beginning to embrace it without the need to lug a huge pram around. I first ordered the wrap due to Rory being a worlds biggest cuddle monster (he was pretty much attached to me 24/7 for the first 8 weeks & couldn’t be put down due to reflux so we even resorted to Joe sleeping on a mattress on the floor so I could co-sleep safely, something I said i’d never do although it doesn’t seem to have affected him or made him clingy now thankfully!). It seemed quite daunting at first as it’s literally a really long bit of stretchy material, but with a few youtube tutorials I became a pro. I honestly couldn’t recommend it enough as it let me live a normal life with a newborn (& 2 hands free which comes in useful with a just turned 2 year old!). We’ve now moved on to a grey chevron zig-zag Tula which is brilliant.
Also comes in handy when your chubby pig-dog gets too tired to walk so you have to put him in the Oyster Maxx double ha!
3. The Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep machine – I didn’t have one of these coffee-machine lookalike formula makers with Elsa (as they didn’t exist back then being a fairly new contraption) but after Rory kept getting recurrent thrush in his mouth & our health visitor told us that the way we were making bottles (put boiled water into bottles then keep in fridge until needed then pop in the microwave for 20 seconds) was not killing off the bacteria we decided to invest. This machine comes most places with us including up to bed at night for the night feeds (although thankfully he sleeps through now but I like having it up there for the morning feed in bed) & if we visit family or friends for a few hours. Simply press a button & it shoots out a shot of boiling water to sterilise the bottle & kill off any horrible bacteria lurking around, then add the powder, press the button again & it makes up the bottle to perfect temperature.
4. Baby swing or bouncer chair – both of my two have been very much ‘bored after 10 minutes’ in these, but 10 minutes is totally enough time to do about 50 things at extreme pace including the above showering aspect we all struggle to find time for. I tend to switch between the swing, then the Jumperoo, then the bouncer to calm him down a bit, then normally bottle & a nap as he’s tired himself out from all the thrilling activities.
5. Angel Care baby monitor & movement monitor – we actually have 2 of these although don’t use the movement monitor with Elsa now. Nothing beats the reassurance that your baby is safely sleeping & with the all too real risk of cot death we decided when pregnant with Elsa that one of these monitors would be a good idea. A normal baby monitor so you can hear if they stir however it also has a pad which sits underneath the mattress to monitor movement. If for any reason your baby stops breathing an alarm sounds. It also has a room thermometer which is really handy. Rory went into his own room at 7 weeks (he also only sleeps on his front which isn’t recommended) & Elsa at 11 weeks as we found they both slept better with their own space but the monitor helped us from sitting worrying constantly.
6. Muslins – Elsa never ever needed winding, she was a completely abnormal baby who didn’t experience wind & was never sick. Unfortunately Rory hasn’t carried on in his sister footsteps & was the most sicky baby ever so we went through about 15 muslins a day. After being diagnosed with severe reflux (he’s now on Gaviscon 6x a day in his bottles & 1.2ml of ranitidine 3x a day) & lactose intolerance (now on Aptimil Pepti 1) he is now a lot less sicky. Muslins were an absolute lifesaver for mopping up the projectile vomit we were covered in for the first 10 weeks.
7. Sleepyhead pod – see my review on this on another blogpost. The reason this isn’t further up on my list is that Rory outgrew it by 13 weeks old unfortunately, but he is a huge baby. I really don’t rate moses baskets as in my experience most babies aren’t massively keen on them, plus they are outgrown quickly so I would recommend the Sleepyhead as an alternative. The Sleepyhead is brilliant if you are co-sleeping and also for transitioning baby into his/her own room, without a doubt it eased Rory into his own room & we also used it until recently around the house & when visiting family/friends as a bed.
8. Sleepsuits – literally, the amount of money wasted on beautiful little outfits for tiny babies is crazy. All I seemed to dress my two in for the first few months was sleepsuits as they were easy to change the 30 nappies a day you go through. Also when one of those awful poonami’s occur it’s less heartbreaking to chuck away a sleepsuit than a ridiculously cute outfit. Of course a couple of nice bits are needed for special occasions but otherwise just buy 438228267 sleepsuits. I’m a lazy mum & sometimes we don’t get dressed all day. Once they start walking it’s PJ’s all the way (nobody likes dirty feet!) though.
9. Baby sleeping bags – blankets just get kicked off so we have always been big fans of sleeping bags. With Elsa we used about 5 in rotation with different tog sizes depending on the temperature (another reason why the Angelcare monitor is brilliant!) of the room however with Rory we have discovered the Babasac from @mamadesigns which uses interchangeable tog liners which change the tog rather than buying different bags – available here or also from John Lewis/Boots/Amazon/Mamas&Papas.
10. A comfy chair – if you’ve got the room in your babies bedroom i’d say a comfy armchair is an absolute MUST for night feeds. Rory is 19 weeks now & has been sleeping through (6.30pm – 8.30am) for a few weeks but the chair is brilliant. We have a grey Ikea Strandmon wingback chair (£195) which is stylish as well as super comfortable, just what you need at 3am when you wander in half asleep. We always put our littles to sleep in a dark room with no stimulation what so ever (no eye contact, talking etc), if they wake in the night we continue this to make them realise it’s bedtime which I think is why they go down so easily.
What was your no1 baby buy?