New Born Essentials

We had a baby nest which we used downstairs for daytime naps (but you have to be supervising them) and when I had them on the floor looking at black and white cards and different toys and loved it. We had a vibrating chair that my sister passed down but honestly neither of mine were big fans but it definitely helped having somewhere to put them that they couldn’t get out of when I had to do things. Never had a proper swinging chair, their very hit and miss with babies and seemed too expensive to justify. We had a baby gym/mat thing that was good for tummy time once they were a bit bigger. Honestly have a look on Facebook marketplace or Vinted and people are normally getting rid of things like that dead cheap. Never had Ewan the sheep, used white noise on our phones when they were little and going up to bed at the same time and then our baby monitor played white noise. White noise is definitley helpful! You can get little white noise machines from Amazon that would do the same job x

This time I've got/am getting: - nest (only due to my toddler & got it for free) - floor mat (tummy time) - bouncy chair non electric (mine didn't like the vibration/got too hot in it) useful when they're on the move more/when you want to sit them up a bit But I'll be getting it all second hand because babies can be fussy and some of the things might not get usef for long I'm not getting it all before she is born just gradually from marketplace Going to get a white noise machine. Used my phone but it killed the battery life all the time or there were adverts on Spotify because I'm too cheap to pay for non ads 😅

@Chloe Hahaha the ads bit is too real!! It wasn’t until my little boy was nearly a year old that someone told me you can play white noise through iPhones on the accessibility options 🙃 So much time unnecessarily spent skipping ads/changing videos on YouTube and Spotify!

@Gemma that's fab! I don't have an iPhone unfortunately. Do you think it's worth getting a double pram? My little boy will be 20 months with new baby. He's very active

@Chloe Does your little boy enjoy walking? Do you still use the pram for him napping out and about? And does he run away a lot? My two have 15 months between them and we got a double pram but honestly we used it as a double for about 6 months. I was pretty rigid for being home for my daughters naps so wasn’t worried about her needing the buggy for that and she doesn’t wander off at all, she likes to walk next to the buggy so we were really lucky in that sense. Personally if your going to baby wear I would start off doing that and see how you get on with a single especially because we’ll hopefully have nice summer weather and not need them bundled in for lots of rain, the doubles are just so expensive if your not going to get the use out of them and they grow out of them so fast! If you see a really good deal on marketplace or elsewhere then it’s worth it but yeah I don’t massively rate ours at all. It’s just so bulky and heavy, I couldn’t even push it up curbs after my c section.

Thank you so much! I think I'll try with the baby wearing to begin with then go from there. Its easy to overthink everything, i dont want to waste money. My normal pram was a travel system one and it's just too heavy to get in and out of the car now. He prefers to be out & about. He runs everywhere holding/dragging my hand Thank you I'm glad I've not wasted any money then, ots just everyone keeps telling me I'll need one!

I’ve got them all and used them all with my first, but i think you could downsize to getting a little babybjorn bouncer and then use the pram as a place to put a sleeping baby as you could just push it around the house, i used to take my baby to the shower with me in his pram 😅 j used the baby nest a lot in the first 2 months but i think you could just get away with a pram instead

So to begin with a bouncer and a playmat (with hanging toys) as they are so handy to pop baby in / great for tummy time, never needed an electric one he used his legs and moved himself 🤣 We used the baby nest from 6 months for naps downstairs until he moved in to his cot for daytime naps, at this point he could roll and move himself around so I wasn’t as worried about it causing SIDS like the lullaby trust say, We brought a Ewan the sheep and never used it 🫠 I wasted £40 there 🤣 every baby’s different though our next little lady might love it 💁🏻‍♀️

I have all my bits left from my first which is a swing chair (our 1st needed constant movement due to colic) Moses basket, play mat with tummy time pillow and mirror/shape toy etc and a sleepy head/baby nest but not sure how much well use it this time round with our toddler round! X