Recommendations Please!

We’ve been really, really lucky.

I mean, when it comes to this baby, I think we’ve been incredibly lucky just to conceive and have a healthy pregnancy so far and to build our family. We’re lucky to be surrounded by family and have such great friends.

Friends who’ve emptied out their attics of their baby things.

Between my awesome neighbours (who have a girl and a boy themselves), and our brilliant friend we have the following things:

  • cot
  • new cot mattress
  • pushchairs (that’s right two pushchairs)
  • highchairs (two highchairs)
  • a baby bouncer seat thing…
  • a moses basket
  • clothes, clothes, clothes (so many tiny clothes!)
  • bedding
  • a giant rabbit
  • disposable nappies

We’ve bought a new mattress for the moses basket, some baby gros and other clothes.

So what we actually need is not nearly a big a list as expected, nor is it as overwhelming as it could.

We need

  • a new stick blender (ours…melted)
  • baby monitor
  • baby bottles (for later on)
  • cloth nappies
  • breast pump
  • a baby book/memory book.

I think that’s everything, the thing is, I don’t really know, we’ve never done this before. We have books and those little catalogues that you get when you’re expecting a baby and everyone wants to sell you stuff, but that doesn’t mean we need any of that stuff, or at least any of that specific stuff.

So, my parents and parents to be, I want your recommendations. We plan to pretty much buy the same stick blender that we melted, but when it comes to breast pumps and baby monitors, I have no idea. And the cloth nappies seem a little overwhelming. So in the comments give me your best buys and brands. Nothing stupidly expensive please, and anything we’ve missed just let us know!

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29 Replies to “Recommendations Please!

  1. I absolutely loved Little Lambs cloth nappies. I cannot sing their praises enough. Amazing absorbency (way better than disposable nappies), gorgeous to look at and the ones with poppers grow with your child so you don’t have to buy millions of them. They also dry super fast. The bamboo inserts are excellent.

    Breast pump I never used but I had the Avent electric single one because it fit the bottles I was given as a gift.

    And monitor- we had the BT one with camera and 3 years on it is still going strong (plus have added another camera in since having baby number 2) so can spy on them both at the same time!

    Good luck! #justanotherlinky

  2. There are so many baby monitors around so it depends what you are looking for. You can get video monitors, monitors with sensors that go underneath the mattress of plain old monitors. I have the plain old monitor which is a Tomy and was my little sisters (She’s now 12) I couldn’t live without it and still use it even though my youngest is 2!

    For bottles I highly recommend Tommee Tippee closer to Nature. They are fab bottles and you can get them in different colours.

    One thing you haven’t got on your list is Muslin Cloths! Some babies like to be sick… a lot and these are absolutely fab to mop it up/prevent it from going over them and you.

    Laura x x x

  3. Ahh we found as first time parents there were a few things we didn’t end up using! We loved the tommee tippee bottles and steriliser. Don’t buy too many packs of nappies as we had lots of newborn packs and only used a couple before she was in size 1! Also, buy a tub of formula just incase breastfeeding is an issue, we were so thankful to have one in when I struggled to breastfeed on the 5th day! Other than that, congratulations and good luck! πŸ™‚

    #KCACOLS

    1. Definitely will buy a tub of formula just in case. We’ve been give a load of nappies – size one – so I don’t think I’ll need to buy too many.

  4. I had good intentions about cloth nappies, but the reality was too much for me… I just got a basic monitor off Amazon but we only used it a couple of times – Marianna was in with us for the first 3 months then went into her own room. All our walls are paper thin though, so we can still hear her.

    With the bottles, I would say just get a cheap one and some formula for just in case, and then you can choose bottles when you move on from breastfeeding. That way you’ll have a better idea what kind of teat they’ll take to. We bought Tommee Tippee, then had to shell out for Nuk on the recommendation of the special care unit. (And then she preferred the cheap bottle from poundland. *sigh*)

    My best buy was actually the tommee tippee baby bath – it has a tilted back with rubbery stuff on it, so the baby is propped up. Of all the things we got, it was the most used and most beloved!

    Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next Sunday x

  5. Mine did most of her sleeping in am electric swing for the first 6 months. Refused to sleep anywhere else. I don’t think they are terribly expensive, but something to consider #CKACOLS

    1. I love that, at least she did sleep. I have an electric bouncy thing and I’ll look into a swing. Thanks.

  6. We have a motorola monitor. It’s not video or anything like that and was only about Β£30 but we’ve used it for the passed 21mo and it’s been great! #KCACOLS

  7. How on earth do you melt a stuck blender? Hahaha.

    I never used a monitor with any of my 3, my house isn’t big enough to need one! My mum told me when I had my first, if the baby needs you you will hear it.

    I found my rocking stand for the Moses basket invaluable as little L likes motion.

    Wipes- I don’t like Huggies wipes much as they rip so easily! Making your own wipes is pretty easy though, cut up towels, keep them in a tub with a little bit of water in, you can add a little bit of baby type soapyness or some essential oils (check whats safe) if you’d like then they just get chucked in the machine with the cloth nappy inserts.

    Look on Facebook/Google in general if there’s any cloth nappy support groups near you, some give out samples but they will be a real support for cloth diapering.

    My stretchy wrap/sling has also been invaluable! I bought a cheap one from eBay, but it’s alloud me to continue with my normal day to day activities whilst having little L strapped to me, he’s also my most content & smiley baby and a pretty good sleeper too whether it’s because of the wrap I couldn’t say for sure but that’s the only real difference between his babydom & the girls.

    Bottle sterilser- I have a tommee tippee one that you put in the microwave, before I had a Milton one. The Milton cold water steriliser is so so easy, they are pretty cheap too.

    Bath seat, I’ve used the summer infant bath seats for mine, they are good, I never used a baby bath as its just as simple to put the baby on a bath seat in the big bath, however it could be a waste of water, but I often bath him then add more hot water for the girls which you could also do for yourselves after bathing baby. You do need to stay really close though as I do find they slide down the summer infant seats pretty fast, and hooded baby towels are best as it stays on easier.

    Car seat! Some hospitals you have to put baby in a car seat before leaving, some they check its fitted correctly too.. Second hand car seats arnt great as you don’t know if they’ve been bumped/dropped and weakened as a result, mine is a cheap one from Argos as we don’t drive so it very rarely gets used. For some though the car seat is one item they’ll go all out on, but I couldn’t justify spending Β£100+ on something I’ve used twice in 3 months.

    Keep an eye on supermarket nursery ranges, we just got little l’s cot bed for Β£79 from asda which is pretty cheap.
    EBay is fab too, I get all the kids clothes on eBay, especially baby stuff, they grow out of it so fast! (Little L is 3 months and starting to wear 6-9 month clothes)
    Kiddicare often have sales on.
    Toysrus& babiesrus have an option where you can choose items and pay in installments.

    Oh and make sure you’ve got a real range of baby clothes sizes, my middle baby Midge was just 7lbs when born and wearing tiny baby clothes, little L the youngest was 9lb 6 born and even some newborn clothes wouldn’t fit! There’s so much more but I’ve rambled enough for now πŸ™‚

    1. This is amazing, thank you for all the tips, it’s great. I have a good range of clothes, so far, people have been pretty generous. I’m definitely going to have cloth wipes too.

  8. Oh, I would definitely recommend cloth diapers.
    It’s going to save you so much money in the long run, but not only that, I’ve NEVER had a blowout with our diapers. You know those poops you hear parents talking about where it’s all over their clothes, down their legs, etc? It doesn’t happen often, if at all, with cloth!
    When my kiddo was a newborn, he wanted to be held CONSTANTLY. He loved movement. I would definitely recommend looking into a wrap so you could try baby wearing, it was the only way I ever had a hand free. Tying into that, if he wasn’t being held, he loved sleeping in a swing. Newborns love movement-remember, every time you walk, you’re rocking them to sleep! Good luck <3 #KCACOLS

    1. We definitely want to a get a wrap that we can both use. We do so much stuff around the house that it’ll be great to be able to carry around Snappy while we do so. Thanks.

  9. Definitely look on ebay for a breast pump. I got my medela swing second hand and replaced the tube and filter part and it was fab. Also see if you can hire some cloth nappies from your local nappy library before paying out for any to see which ones you get on with best. Good luck and thanks for linking to #PickNMix

  10. I bought a second hand nursing chair for Β£100 off eBay, which is a lot but I used it every single day for nearly three years, for feeding and nightime routines and I loved it. #KCACOLS

  11. I like Medela breastpumps, and I like our angelcare monitor. There is just so much choice for everything!
    Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next Sunday.

  12. We also used Medela for all breastfeeding equipment. I don’t know anything about clothes nappies as we didn’t do that. It was too much of an effort so just used normal nappies (Pampers). For me a must was to have a white noise for naps and nighttime sleeps. It is amazing and really helps. I also love putting my daughter in sleeping bags at night (Grobags) they are perfect but they need to be 3 months. They have some swaddled ones that are perfect for newborns. For the second time around I bought most of the baby things from Ebay or Gumtree. It was all pretty good and much cheaper!! πŸ˜‰ There is so much you need that is so overwhelming, isn’ it? Thanks so much for sharing this at #KCACOLS. I would love to see you again tomorrow! πŸ™‚ xx

    1. Thanks for the tips. Definitely need a grobag – there’s just so much choice for everything it’s hard to know what brand is best!

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