Newborn Essentials - What exactly is needed?

KRRBRO

Hi, just wondering if anyone could recommend what they found to be essential to have for when their newborn was born. For example, do I buy more 0-3 months instead of newborn clothing / how many of each do I need? What could you not have done without? Myself and my partner have most in all ready (Im due in less than 4 weeks :eek: ) but want to know if we are leaving anything out. There is a few threads on here already but they're old threads. Any advise will do, thanks

lazygal

Somewhere to sleep, clothes, method of feeding and transport (buggy/car seat). Clothes are up to you, every brand is a slightly different size and shape so we didn't buy much until we figured out which one suited best. I have stuff that baby never even wore last time so don't buy loads of any one thing. Wrap over vests from Mothercare are much handier than over the head ones and only get babygros that button up and don't go over the head. A warm body suit for leaving hospital and walks is handier than blankets.


I found a playmat great for the early days for baby to lie on. Water and cotton pads for cleaning. Didn't use any creams/lotions/wipes apart from e45 for some dry skin but olive oil is good too. I was glad we'd bought bottles and a sterilizer, I breastfed but it was handy having them ready to go when we needed to use formula. The Angelcare monitor was great, it was very reassuring. We used grobags rather than blankets from an early stage, I found them much handier.

badgerhowlin

I know this is not new born suggestion but its will help YOU and take some of the pressure off you, and give you more time with baby.

If you can. Make some dinners now for you and your partner now, when you have time and freeze them. So when baby comes all you will have to do is go to the freezer and take out your dinners the night before and heat them up the next day.

Mary28

I put my boys in baby grows the entire time for the first few mths. I rarely put outfits on them. If your baby is a puker you'll need heaps of clothes, if he/she's not you can get by on surprisingly little.

Changing table at proper height. Those wooden ones hurt my back cos they are too low.

Baby bath support is handy when bathing baby. Gives you one hand free to grab towel etc

Growbags are brilliant, all I ever used on my 3.

Don't buy too many nappies of any size in advance.
Nothing wrong with lidl nappies btw and they are literally half the price of pampers. Only discovered this myself a few months ago.

Magic mum and rollercoaster are great sites for advice and have buy& sell sections where women trade baby items.

Enjoy your little one and best of luck.

xzanti

I wouldn't bother with bottles and bottles of baby bathing solutions.. Emollients such as Silcox Base or Aqueous cream are a brilliant soap alternative and costs only about €4 for a large tub in any chemist.. So much better for your baby's skin imo, no chemicals so the chances of irritation or eczema are reduced.

I wish someone had told me this before my Son arrived.. I spent the first few weeks using a well known commercial branded baby bubble bath and his skin was all dry and itchy..

That's just my experience though..

Also, +1 on Lidl/Aldi nappies.. they're so good!!

Congratulations and good luck

staticdoor71

for me the most valuable thing I had, and still have, was my "V" shaped pillow. I had it while pregnant (in my pillow fort bed), i had it in hospital while having her (small but needed home comfort), and then when (bottle) feeding at home. (and catching the odd snooze on the couch). i had alot of back pain for a few days after, and it was great support. I actually only spent 6 euro on it in Guineys and the pillow cases were 50cent each.
16 months later, my daughter uses it when reading her books or playing with her dollys, or you know shes wrecked when she crawls over to it and burys her head in it.
I must admit i still grab the odd nap with it

Best of luck

icescreamqueen

Some things are definitely essential and some things are definitely a waste of money so it's good to research now what you need.

When I had my 6 month check up and I knew everything was going fine, I started to stock up on nappies, wipes(they recommend water wipes for newborn skin), cotton wool balls, sudocrem, nappy bags, muslin clothes etc. I'm lucky because I live close to an Asda, where everything baby related is much much cheaper compared to down south. A jumbo box of newborn nappies is 10pound in Asda and €17 here! It would be worth a trip there to stock up if you can. I bought one box of the newborn nappies and now have her in the size 2.

I second what someone said about having the baby in babygros the first few months. My baby is one month old and apart from two days when she was wearing a proper outfit, she has been in a babygro. I'd stock up on first month babygros. I found the M&S are the best ones even though they're a bit pricey but they're soft and comfy and well fitted. I could go through about 2 per day. She also wears either white long or short sleeve vests under the babygros. It's such a sin, all the clothes she's been given because she'll never get to wear a lot of them.

My sister bought me a Angel monitor which I find amazing.

If you're planning on breastfeeding, I'm get a few things to make it comfier for you. I have a rocking chair which is a godsend. Another thing that was recommended to me was a My Brestfriend Nursing pillow. It's amazing for taking the pressure off your shoulders and back. My best buy I think.

Obviously there are the other things like a pram, car seat, either Moses basket/crib, baby bath that you really can't do without.

It's a minefield so good luck

livinsane

I am also due in four weeks and what we have is as follows:


Travel system of pram/buggy/car seat - borrowed [from trust worthy sister, I know its recommended not to get second hand car seat]

Cot - borrowed [was my boyfriend's as a child - awwww]

Basket - borrowed

Sling - splashed out on a divine ergo baby cos we were getting everything else for free. I forsee this being used a lot more than the pram

Changing table - wasn't going to bother with one of these but we have nowhere downstairs for storing baby related paraphernalia and the table has lots of handy drawers. It also has a bath under the top and is on wheels so easy to move out of the way. Im glad we got it now. It was about €80 in Smyths.

One pack newborn nappies [Naty brand]. I've also ordered a newborn trial pack of cloth nappies from http://www.clothnappylibrary.ie/try-nappies.html, which is 20 reusable nappies for 4 weeks for €30. They give you different brands to try. If they work out, I hope to invest in about 20 cloth nappies to mix with disposables.

Bought a few packs of vests and baby gros, some newborn, some 0-3 months. I didn't spent much on these, Penny's, Dunnes and Tesco have lovely stuff. Got some hats, mittens and socks and bibs. Have a few cardigans and two slightly warmer suits for coming home.

Got two cellular blankets, two baby towels and a bunch of muslin cloths for very cheap in Guineys.

Two cot sheets

Small stuff: cotton balls, vaseline, room thermometer, bath thermometer, sponge and little suction thing for cleaning nose and baby nail scissor. Blind for car window.

Breastfeeding pillow and related pads/nipple shields. I was going to get some bottles just incase and was baffled by all the different types, but my mother advised me to hold off because the type of nipple will depend on how windy the baby is etc so no point worrying about that now.

Omitting the post-labour things I've got for myself, I think that's everything. We got a big bag of random newborn clothes and some blankets of my sister so not too worried about clothes to begin with. I think someone is giving us the lend of an angel care monitor.

Oh and as someone above suggested, I have spent the last month adding to the freezer so lots of food at hand for the first few weeks!

Phew!

nikpmup

livinsane wrote: »

I am also due in four weeks and what we have is as follows:


Travel system of pram/buggy/car seat - borrowed [from trust worthy sister, I know its recommended not to get second hand car seat]

Cot - borrowed [was my boyfriend's as a child - awwww]

Basket - borrowed

Sling - splashed out on a divine ergo baby cos we were getting everything else for free. I forsee this being used a lot more than the pram

Changing table - wasn't going to bother with one of these but we have nowhere downstairs for storing baby related paraphernalia and the table has lots of handy drawers. It also has a bath under the top and is on wheels so easy to move out of the way. Im glad we got it now. It was about €80 in Smyths.

One pack newborn nappies [Naty brand]. I've also ordered a newborn trial pack of cloth nappies from http://www.clothnappylibrary.ie/try-nappies.html, which is 20 reusable nappies for 4 weeks for €30. They give you different brands to try. If they work out, I hope to invest in about 20 cloth nappies to mix with disposables.

Bought a few packs of vests and baby gros, some newborn, some 0-3 months. I didn't spent much on these, Penny's, Dunnes and Tesco have lovely stuff. Got some hats, mittens and socks and bibs. Have a few cardigans and two slightly warmer suits for coming home.

Got two cellular blankets, two baby towels and a bunch of muslin cloths for very cheap in Guineys.

Two cot sheets

Small stuff: cotton balls, vaseline, room thermometer, bath thermometer, sponge and little suction thing for cleaning nose and baby nail scissor. Blind for car window.

Breastfeeding pillow and related pads/nipple shields. I was going to get some bottles just incase and was baffled by all the different types, but my mother advised me to hold off because the type of nipple will depend on how windy the baby is etc so no point worrying about that now.

Omitting the post-labour things I've got for myself, I think that's everything. We got a big bag of random newborn clothes and some blankets of my sister so not too worried about clothes to begin with. I think someone is giving us the lend of an angel care monitor.

Oh and as someone above suggested, I have spent the last month adding to the freezer so lots of food at hand for the first few weeks!

Phew!

Good list !!

KRRBRO

Thanks so much everyone, I ended up having her the following week, your lists helped me so much, thank you all

Moonbeam

congrats:)