New baby essentials

definitely agree about the digital thermometer we got one that you just place on the forehead and it gives you the temp. Saves a lot of worrying of has he or has he not got a temperature.
I wouldn't go too mad buying loads of clothes the amount of presents you get is unreal.
As for the pram make sure it's one that folds easily and will do well into they are a toddler I went through 3 buggies:eek:

Kash wrote: »

So, new mums, tell me... if you were to start it all from scratch again, what wouldn't you do without? What was nice to have, but not essential? And what was a complete waste of time and space?

From a very new dad and mom, and mostly aimed at the ward and the first few days:

• Pump-action spray bottle filled with filtered water. Used on mom during the birth if she got too hot, and on her calves which were constantly itchy because of the hormones, and on dad's face and mom's face in the delivery ward after the birth because the hospital air is so dry, and when filled with warm water, on baby's backside for changing time. Nice multitasker. Bought mine in the cooking section of hsw.ie of all places, but they sell them in lots of places and on ebay, and they should be quite cheap. Get a smallish one though, no point bringing a litre sized thing when you only want about 200ml at most.
• Cellular blankets. We only got two and we're getting more asap - they're just the business as blankets, as ad hoc sleep positioners, as ad hoc sunscreens, and so on.
• Neurofen/Panadol/Hedex/whatever for dad. You're not the patient, so the hospital can't give you any form of pain meds, and mommy shouldn't take your neurofen because they need to know what she's on, but on the day after the birth you're likely to have a monster headache because of the stress, and because you probably didn't eat and drink properly the day before And since all you want to do is focus on baby's face a few inches from yours, the headache's a bummer and chemicals are your friend...
• Slippers for both mom and dad. Everyone tells mom to bring slippers for the ward because the floor is cold - that's not why you really bring them though. You really bring slippers because it's a hospital and they're careful, but there's still a risk of sharps on the floor. And since dad shouldn't walk in off the street and put boots on the bed while sitting in the chair holding baby (because what if you put him on the bed afterwards to change him or check the nappy or whatever - you've no idea what you've walked through...), having slippers for wearing just in the ward is useful.
• Hand sanitiser. Yeah, maybe I'm being paranoid, but for the first month I'm allowed, so every guest gets a squirt of hand sanitizer into their hands before picking up baby. I've no idea what they've had on their hands that day!
• A small bag inside your ward bag (we bought a mothercare set of baby lotions that came in its own zippered case with a handle; we left the lotions in the bathroom and used the case). It's handy to keep the little things like lip balm and such together in the delivery room bag too, but it really shines after the birth when you put all the nappy-changing stuff into it, and when you have to change baby, you just grab that and take him down the hall to the changing room, instead of trying to juggle him, nappy bags, nappies, vaseline, spray bottle and so on.
• Smartphones. Camera, phone, MP3 player, radio, all in one device. Also:
  • Facebook app. Gets photos up and family off your back quickly and lets you deal with hospital stuff faster than calling the few people you have time to call and then having the "Why did you call X and not me???" conversations.
  • Contraction timer apps. Utterly useless to us in the end, I'm afraid.
  • BabyESP (EatSleepPoop) app. Used it to track feeding times and nappy changes in the hospital, using it still. Lets you sync a single baby's data over multiple devices which is handy. Android only though it seems. But there are many apps like this on every platform. It sounds like overkill, but we're finding it makes things a lot easier. And you can show hard data to the PHN if you're worried about something.
  • Podcasts. At a few points on the ward, mommy was sleeping and baby was sleeping on my chest and we'd be there for two or three hours at a stretch. Sometimes you'd blink and the time was over; other times, especially when I was tired, I stuck an earbud in one ear, left the other free to keep watch on the two of them and listened to the friday night comedy podcast, to material world, to IT conversations, to Science in Action, and so on.
• Takeaway menus. Seriously, by the end of the day we came home, we were so tired we couldn't even face the effort of microwaving something to eat, so we just ordered pizza. I seriously wouldn't recommend it as a habit though
• Robinsons barley water. Mommy has to keep hydrated, and that stuff makes it a lot easier to chug pints of water.
• The hoover. We brought baby home on the first day and he went nuts. Wouldn't settle, wouldn't stop crying any time we stopped talking to him. We finally figured out (we were a bit slow on the uptake with this one) that he'd had nine months in the womb where it's really noisy, then birth which is very noisy, then three days on the delivery ward which goes from really loud and noisy to kindof relaxed but still with background noises, to the car ride home which was noisy, to the living room and silence. Poor thing must have though he'd suddenly gone deaf. Turned on the hoover and just left it run, it calmed him right down. After an hour of that, we managed to wean him onto the radio, and over the last few days, he's gotten more and more used to the quiet. But the hoover earned its wages that first day
• Along with the towels for mommy to shower with and so forth, bring another dark towel to change baby on. Holles St. has a changing room with changing units in it, but they don't have mats on them (it's a hard wooden surface) and they ask you to use your own towel rather than the blue towels they use for the cots and swaddling. You might also want to have your own bag of cotton wool balls, because they keep them in the changing room but occasionally they run out and inevitably you're there with everything laid out and prepped when you realise you've nothing to clean his bum with. And they're kept in a cupboard down the hall, not in one in the changing room so you have to go find a nurse to get more if you don't have your own stash.
• Men's Pyjamas for mommy in dark colours, because they're easy to doff for examinations or feeding, they're more comfy than nightdresses and they have a pocket for things (btw, what idiot designs womens clothing so that mom's clothing has no pockets when she needs to carry fifty things all the time?)
• Shirts for daddy, in soft cotton or flannel, with some sort of alternating high-contrast pattern (plaid. Yay.) which open with buttons in front like normal. Babys calm fast when they hear a heartbeat, so open your shirt, lose the 1970s medallion, put his ear over your heart and trade dignity for peace and quiet

This is probably too simple to note, but I'd have liked to have seen this beforehand and didn't, so - our changing station:



The whole thing is on the cot bed, which has the mattress up at the highest level (and which is still too low - but by the time he moves from moses basket to cot bed in a few weeks, we'll have had time to sort something out and the changes won't be as frequent. Maybe ). The cot bed looks fancy btw, but it was a sale in mothercare and was probably overpriced still. It's meant to last him till he's around four, but I think it might not be up to it...

Anyway, left to right, we have the fresh nappies on the 'clean' side of the changing wedge (which has washable covers). There's also a muslin on the wedge, just to catch the worst of it if he goes mid-change, which has happened once or twice. There's a nappy pail on the floor with water and dettol in it - the muslin and cover go in there if soiled, until we get them into a wash.

On the 'dirty' side of the wedge, you have:

• Cotton cleaning pads (which are so much easier than the cotton balls to use when cleaning up the normal nappy-related mess, but we keep the balls around for things like cleaning the cord and naval and so on). Some left out in a small stack before the change, the rest in the bag.
• Jumbo sized tub of vaseline to use as a barrier cream once he's cleaned
• Cotton buds and liquid talc in case he had a particularly wet nappy, but we usually don't use it. Incidentally, both the vaseline and liquid talc are on the wrong side - I wanted there to be a 'clean' and a 'dirty' side to the changing wedge, with one side ('dirty') used only for the cleaning up of the poop, and the other side ('clean') used after that for putting on stuff that would stay on till the next change.
• Hand sanitizer. Use once before beginning the change and once after having cleaned him up and before putting on the stuff that'll be on him until the next change, like vaseline or liquid talc.
• The mothercare case that was our nappy bag on the ward. Right now it just holds the small plastic bags we use to bundle up all the debris from a change.
• Tommee Tippee nappy bin, which has an antibacterial nappy bag setup internally, which is really nifty and keeps bad smells locked away. Even with all the sun of late, there's no odour in the nursery. We don't quite fill this in a week, at least so far. Handy little thing.

Not in shot is a small plastic container with a wide base which we fill with warm water before the change to dip the cotton pads into. No double-dipping!

There's a tallboy out of frame to the right, over the changer's shoulder and within arm's reach and there are more bags of nappies, pads and cotton balls on the top of it and more supplies in the top drawer, all within arms reach.

The toys occasionally help distract during the change, but mostly, it's just somewhere to store them until he's old enough to find them interesting. The white webcam is our baby monitor, mounted to the cot itself.

Like I said, it's pretty basic stuff and probably not news to anyone, but what the heck. Anyone see anything useful that's missing?

surime wrote: »

That's because I never heard of it before -sorry!

When you have a baby covered in poo up to his neck you'll find yourself hosing him down in the shower or putting him under a running tap.

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

Sparks that's so organised! Our one looks like yours, after a nuclear bomb went off!

We're at 8 days old so far Hannibal, don't congratulate us till we're at least two months in

lazygal wrote: »

Some of the 'must have' lists on other parenting site and from the midwives are so long you'd have the house full of stuff!

...and they also presume that people aren't going to buy you anything. For the first year of my wee man's life, all I had to buy were newborn baby vests and suits and sleepsuits later. The amount of clothes people give you is unbelievable, I have clothes stored away that he never wore and had to return plenty of things for bigger sizes! For the big-ticket items, let your family etc know what you want.