Let's face it, at first you're sleep deprived, exhausted from the chaos that you now call your life. Minutes turn into hours, hours turn into days and before you know it a week has passed and you have no idea what date it actually is. We've all been there, and if anyone ever says to you “Oh I found it quite easy really”, they're probably lying! The first few months of being a new parent can be such a shock to the system and if there's any good buys out there that help you get through those first few months and stumble out of the other end with a bit of sanity, they really are worth the investment. Here are my ten 'must-haves' that I couldn’t have done without.
Lansinoh Nipple Cream
I was adamant that I wanted to breast feed. I had this vision in my head that I'd 'get it' straight away and I'd be comfortable feeding my baby where ever I was, after all it's milk permanently on tap, why wouldn't I? – how wrong was I?!
Louie became lazy with his feeding. He literally had to look at my boobs and milk would just pour out and he didn’t even have to latch on correctly and suck, he could just loiter there with his mouth open, a bit like how you would expect a man to be if you left him behind a bar with a beer tap :) This caused my nipples serious damage as he was hanging off them at whatever angle he felt like. Even 2 visits from the breast feeding midwife didn’t help things. The only thing that made this whole experience bearable for the time I breast fed was Lansinoh Cream. The purple tube with magical contents sent from above to help all breast feeding mums! After applying this cream my nipples seemed to magically heal themselves ready for the next feed where Louie would do his best to make them pack up their bags and run off. The trick is to always apply it after a feed, I only realised this after things had got quite bad but the magical cream did it's best to help me on my way. Lansinoh....I salute you!
Good Discrete Feeding Tops
Keeping with the breast feeding topic, I think the next thing to mention would be the need for decent feeding tops. I consider myself a 'young mum' and I think generally speaking (and I may be wrong) that most young mums don’t feel 100% comfortable/confident to pop their boob out for baby to feed in public. I certainly found it much harder to do than I thought I would. Nobody wants to look like their a big floaty frump wearing a tent just so they can wriggle baby up there for its lunch without showing any bit of skin whatsoever.
Had I got the energy to look right at the beginning for some nice feeding tops I might have got into the swing of feeding out and about more easily. Instead I panicked about when Louie would need feeding, where I would feed him, would I sit in the car and feed him, would there be breast feeding facilities, and so on, and eventually I'd decided it was better to not venture too far so that I could go home and feed him. Enough was enough! I couldn't do this until I stopped breast feeding, this was silly, I could end up being a hermit until he was 1 at this rate. I searched the internet and found that Mamas and Papas had some lovely feeding tops with wrap around straps, hidden behind them were little slits that you could easily manoeuvre a nipple out of and attached baby without anyone even seeing a bit of your flesh...BRILLIANT! I bought the top in 4 different colours and instantly did a sigh of relief. Just so happens that these tops double up as Maternity tops too, cover your bump and are on 3 for 2. Well worth the investment! Feeding Pillow
Newborns really are tiny, some more than others, but even the bigger babies are teeny weeny to begin with. I was quite shocked at how small Louie was considering he was 8lb 4oz. What surprised me more was how difficult it was to balance him when he was feeding. All these experience mums make it look so easy when they are comfortable feeding their little ones, balanced in one arm, some of which reading at the same time! Now I only tried to feed him a couple of times in the hospital before I sent Steven out to the car for my feeding pillow to make my life easier.
When I was pregnant it had two parts, one bit that supported under the bump and one bit that supported my back when I lay on my side. After Louie had been born it wrapped itself around me providing a nice, squishy ledge for him to lie on whilst he fed. It worked in whatever position I wanted to feed him too, whether it was across me or in the 'rugby ball' position as they call it. It was an absolute godsend as it meant I didn’t have to balance this tiny person on my arm whilst trying to get him to latch on, without milk going everywhere, clutching a cloth in case he was sick. I think this pillow helped restore some sanity that I'd lost along the way! Another great buy if I don’t say so myself and this has been lent to a pregnant friend to help her on her pregnant way.
A Baby Swing/Bouncer
We deliberated between a bouncer or a battery powered swing for a while. I've heard many a parent swear by swings but I was concerned that my baby might get too used to rocking to sleep in there and I'd be stuck being a human swing at night time. Swings are generally more expensive too – what if my baby didn’t like it and I've wasted all that money? In the end we went for a regular bouncer and I was happy we did, despite the fact we later bought a swing at the Mamas and Papas discount store 50% off – my thoughts were confirmed, Louie didn’t really like the swing that much anyway.
We went for the Mamas and Papas Once Upon A Time Wave Rocker, a neutral colour theme as we didn’t know the sex and it was such a cute design. This would be the place where Louie spent most of his early life chilling out, taking in the world going by. It was great for him to snooze in, he was strapped in safely and he could see everything going on, meaning that mummy could pop him in there and make herself that well deserved cuppa she'd been meaning to have ALL morning, or get some of that mountain of washing that has accumulated over the last 24 hours washed.
The other great thing about this rocker was that it collapsed easily so that it could be popped into the car to be taken anywhere. We used to take it to the Grandparents if we were going there for the day so our little man could snooze wherever we were without getting prams out and stuff. It also had 3 different heights that the back reclined to so Louie could be upright, halfway up or lying flat, useful for snoozing.
Nappy Disposal System
Now you may see these as a 'luxury' item but believe me, if you can get one they really are worth the money. Yes, the refills are quite costly, but they can last up to 3 months per refill and I'll say it again...really worth the money.
I picked up our nappy bin at an Asda Baby Event, it is a Tommee Tippee Sangenic, reasonably priced and doesn’t look too offensive. In the beginning it sat in the corner of our our room and was used for all nappies that were changed upstairs at any time of the day. The clever little thing individually wraps each nappy you put into it stopping any smells escaping and tidily collects them inside. When our little chap was evicted out of our room and into his own his bin went with him and slotted into the corner of the room quite happily. I now only use it for wet nappies around bedtime but am still very happy with my investment and don’t begrudge parting with my pennies for it. Another little tip is to buy the refills and nappies on www.amazon.co.uk as they are much cheaper on here than anywhere else!
Baby Bath Seat
The midwife made it look so easy in the hospital! Wrap the baby up in a towel, hold him head down towards the bowl/bath of water, wash his head whilst out of the water, then hold him gently in the water and give him a quick sloosh. Literally took her a couple of minutes if that...wish my first experience of bathing a baby was that easy. My mum had volunteered to assist me in doing this. We filled the bath with water, I worried about the temperature as I balanced my Whinnie the Pooh bath thermometer purchase at Poundland in the water. To be fair I deserve everything I get if I can't be bothered to splash out more than a quid on a bath thermometer! In the end I decided that the reading was ok, despite it only feeling lukewarm and insisting to my mum that I had been informed that babies skin is very sensitive so it would feel warmer to him...ha!! I bent over the edge of the bath and lowered Louie into it, trying to hold him so he didn’t slip out, ensuring that he was actually in the water whilst hoping that I didn’t get cramp in my leg from the ridiculous angle I was balanced at. He cried a lot...probably because it was so bloody cold – stupid Poundland thermometer! This wasn’t going to work I thought.
Baby Sleeping Bags
I never really figured out the whole swaddling thing. Either I was really rubbish at it or Louie was really wriggly. Either way I gave up quite quickly. We went against all the rules but decided that we would put Louie in his sleeping bag at night in his Moses basket. I couldn’t really figure out why this was a bad thing to be honest but it seemed to be written in various places not to do so. I was always fretting whether he would be warm enough at night with blankets. He wriggled sometimes and they'd come off a bit. In fact if I wasn’t worrying about him being too cold I was worrying about him being too hot – this has continued on until this day to be honest. The poor little bugger doesn’t get a break from me reaching inside his top and feeling how warm he is whether he's awake or asleep!
Muslin Cloths
My god you need these by the dozen! A friend recommended I got these when I was expecting. I dubiously looked at miserable looking bit of cloth she had in her had whilst feeding her baby and thought that it didn’t look very inspiring. I decided I was better off listening to my mummy friends for advice, after all, they knew what they were talking about, and on a shopping trip to Mothercare I found a big bag of muslin cloths. Straight in the basket they went, all clean, pristine and white (that didn’t last!). These cloths work in a multitude of ways: burping cloths, wiping up dribble and sick, protecting your clothes from sick, cleaning up spillages, wiping snotty noses and drying your hands on!
Who would have thought something so simple would be such a useful thing. I never leave the house without at least two of these and they are scattered around my house all the time. In fact I think at one point they were the only 'accessory' you saw around my neck, better than any necklace! Sadly unless you have the time to soak them in whitening solutions on a regular basis the do begin to look a bit grey and miserable but that’s a small price to pay for something that will rescue you in your hour of need time and time again. To put it simply.....every mum needs these by the bucket load!
Who would have thought something so simple would be such a useful thing. I never leave the house without at least two of these and they are scattered around my house all the time. In fact I think at one point they were the only 'accessory' you saw around my neck, better than any necklace! Sadly unless you have the time to soak them in whitening solutions on a regular basis the do begin to look a bit grey and miserable but that’s a small price to pay for something that will rescue you in your hour of need time and time again. To put it simply.....every mum needs these by the bucket load!Baby Sleepsuits with Folding Mits
I know I probably shouldn’t favour one particular brand but I absolutely ADORE Next sleepsuits. The quality is great, their sizing is about spot on and the designs they come up with are brilliant. The thing that swings it for me with their sleepsuits is they have built in, fold over scratch mits A-MAZ-ING! For all of you out there that are already mums you will all know how difficult it is to keep scratch mits on a baby. I recall trying to make Louie wear them as he kept scratching his face, they didn’t last long, a couple of flaps of his hands and they'd flown off.
Next were ahead of the game, they saw this coming and created sleepsuits with foldy mits already on. That was it, Louie was trapped inside his sleepsuit, hands covered, toasty warm and unable to scratch his face to pieces. Finally he wouldn’t look like the cat had given him a good run for his money! Yes, they're about £14 for 3, but if you work out how often your bambino will wear then, especially in the first few weeks when they live in sleepsuits, they really are good value for money. The quality is that good that I've vacuum packed the ones Louie has grown out of for our next baby (ambitious I know, but I'm thinking ahead!). There’s no sign of them wearing thin anywhere or any fading...top quality purchase!
If you're lucky enough to get hold of these in the Next Sale then buy double – you can never have enough sleepsuits! Especially if it's 'one of those nights' and you have 3 outfit changes!
Decent Changing Bag
The world of changing bags is a very daunting place. There are so many brands ranging in so many different prices, I really didn’t know where to begin! I made a list of all the desirable that my dream changing bag would have but because we didn’t know the sex of baby bump I had to be quite sensible about what colours I was going for. That made that decision up quite quickly, no pinks or blues, something neutral yet stylish. Next on the list....size, and in the case of changing bags – size DOES matter! If you think about all the things you have to take around with you in the first few months: nappies, wipes, nappy bags, change of clothes, bibs, cloths and the list goes on..... I needed something that was a good size! Last on my list was a good strap. I wanted a strap that would fit over the handle of the pram so I didn’t have to carry it myself. Right, that was my list compiled, now for a Google search. What would we do without Google eh?!
I came across a website with a review of a changing bag made by 'Pacapod'. “Hmmm...a name like sounds interesting straight away, what do these Pacapods look like”. Off I went to www.pacapod.com to see what all the fuss was about. Well deserved fuss might I add! These nifty changing bags had been designed with not only my complete list of requirements, but more! Not only do you get a strap that fits over the handles but there are pram clips too – WOW!!! Pacapods have been designed with hidden 'pods' in the front zipper compartment where you will also find a changing mat. There is a feeding pod, insulated to keep food cool, and a changing pod with built in mini compartments for each of your changing items – these pods also come out and have Velcro straps so that you can attach just a pod to your pram if you are just popping out for a quick stroll. “This is brilliant!” I thought. There is a main compartment to the bag for changing of clothes, your purse and any other bits you fancy taking with you and a zipper compartment on the back of the bag ideal for your phone, diary or other small bits you may want. I quickly emailed the link to my wonderful mum...and the rest is history!
Well...if only you could get paid for these glowing adverts...or maybe you could. See if you can think of a way how! This is excellent and needs a wider audience...maybe you could send it to Gurgle as an example of how talented you are xxxxx
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