Newborn Essential Non Essentials
I have had such pleasure clearing out our loft of all the pregnancy and baby paraphernalia and sending the boxes off to my sister for Baby B.
There is an overwhelming amount of baby related products on the market for first time parents and it's easy to either get carried away before your newborn arrives, thinking the wardrobe in the nursery has to be full of "helpful" gadgets or stock up on every website or catalogues list of so called essentials.
Well here are my top essential non essentials, which I have passed on to my sister!
- Nappy Caddy - you may think you don't need this but you do. It is a wonderful storage basket especially designed for all the nappy changing equipment, lotions and potions. There are different sections for all the changing equipment and I found it a lifesaver to have this handy caddy downstairs with me, instead of having to keep going up to the nursery changing table each time. Newborns need changing a lot! Of course a regular basket works too but a caddy would make a lovely present for someone, if you want to buy something useful and different. Here are some ideas.
- Travel Steriliser - I think I used the great huge steriliser once before I spied a travel version. I followed the recommended advice not to make up bottles in advance (although I can totally see why you would do it) and so a single bottle steriliser was perfect. It didn't take up half the kitchen work surface and was done in 3 minutes!
- Breast Pad Carrier - ever opened your handbag and something embarrassing has come flying out? Well breast pads are right up there on the embarrassing scale as far as I'm concerned even though it's the most natural thing in the world to feed your own baby. A breast pad on the other hand is designed to keep you from leaking, enough said. A carrier or pouch is handy enough for your changing bag or handbag and holds enough for a good days supply. As mine is a few years old it's tricky to find but here is a lovely more glamorous version!
- Baby Notebook - I wrote down all sorts in this handy book. I used it for making scribbled notes of feeding times through the night, websites I loved which I researched during a night feed (these were the days before I discovered Pinterest) and notes of presents and thank you's to write. I love looking back at mine now as it's sort of a journal of those first few weeks. It was really useful when I had lost track of which boob he had fed from too as I simply wrote in a column fashion, L or R and the time we started and stopped. It has tripled in price since I bought it so here is an alternative.
- Bottle Tree - we seemed to have hundreds of bottles on the go at any one time and this was a great idea to keep the clean bottles off the sink drainer and mine had handy smaller hooks for dummies and teats. You can find the one above here.
- Femé Pads. These are an absolute must for any one who has experienced the joy of a natural labour! You place the pads in the freezer like a bump aid and then when frozen, insert them into sterile gauze strips and then you can guess where... feel the relief! These were my saviour after a forceps delivery and helped with swelling like you could not believe!
Any Mummies have any other essentials they would add to my list? Baby B could arrive at any time now but there is still time for me to pick up something handy for my sister before she goes into labour!