What You REALLY Need For a Newborn

When you fall pregnant for the first time, you’re immediately drowned in tonnes of information and advice, most of which you won’t want but it’s the ‘being pregnant ritual’ so get used to it. You will get told over and over again what you will really need and what you can live without for your new baby. But honestly every parent is different and so is every new baby, so some useful things for me may not benefit you at all. When I fell pregnant with Theodore we ended up just buying things (mostly clothes) we didn’t really need. We for sure didn’t think of the season he’d be born into and accommodate his clothing choices around that, we just bought whatever we thought was cute.

So many people told me to not bother buying newborn clothes because their baby never even fit in them. I’m glad I didn’t listen because even some newborn bits were too big for our Theodore at first. Although he was a heavy lad (8.2lbs), he was so so compact! My Nana even knitted him a premature cardigan. So try not to take everything people say so literally.

Today I’ve decided to let you know everything I most certainly needed and other things I wish I never spent my money on. Remember every baby is different and these are the things I found SAVED my humanity, especially in the early days.

Bibs and Muslins

I honestly thought I wouldn’t need too many of these. I remember my mum always saying “you can never have enough bibs” boy was she right. We must have over 40 bibs, and we get through all of them every week. With Theodore having bad reflux he vomits a lot of his milk back up, resulting in a huge mess. Again with muslins, we need them to cover his clothes whilst we burp him because he mostly projectiles across the place. We use larger circular bibs whilst feeding, then we change to the more stylish bandana bibs for the rest of the day to catch any random spouts of sickness.

Sleep Aid (Ollie The Owl)

I didn’t even think of purchasing one of these before having Theodore. Honestly I thought they were a gimmick. But before Theodore’s arrival The Grow Company kindly sent us one to review and it’s the best thing we have ever been sent. It goes on every single night (only at night) and it helps Theodore drift into a wonderful sleepy state. It also turns itself back on when it hears a babies cry or moan (yes it actually does!), which means we don’t have to get up to settle him. The reason we only put it on at night is because it has helped us create a night time routine for Theodore, so when he hears it he knows its bed time.

Changing Mat

I promise you now, whether you have a baby girl or boy they will pee (or poop) mid nappy change, and you will not want this on your floor, bed, kitchen table or your lovely new rug. Obviously changing mats are wipeable and super easy to clean and replace. I got mine from Venosure because they create beautifully designed ones. I always found other changing mats from local supermarkets to be so ugly and something pulled right out the 90’s. Whereas Venosure have a huge range of designs which will match your nursery! (It’s the little things in life.)

Car Seat Adaptors

Getting out and about with your baby is time consuming AND difficult. But if your car seat can easily click onto your pram base your on to a winner. When you literally want to have a quick 20 minute wizz around Sainsbury’s to stock up on chocolate and more nappies, there is nothing easier. Moving your sleeping baby from the car seat into the carry cot and back again is a tricky (and annoying) procedure, especially if you’re only doing something so quick. Usually you will get car seat adaptors that come with your car seat, especially if you’ve purchased a travel system. So they should be in your box.

Prep Machine

If you’re formula feeding you will kiss the feet of anyone to give you one of these beauties. We have the Tommee Tippee one, which was lovingly given to us by Bradley’s aunt. This bad boy has bottles ready in minutes, perfect temperature and ready to go to quieten your screaming hungry baby. The nights of waiting for the bottle to warm up or cool down will never be the same, and you’ll be back into bed in no time with a satisfied full baby.

Cot Bumpers

As well as being very dangerous, bumpers don’t actually do much apart from look pretty. Your baby won’t be dancing in his crib he’s honestly not going to be hurting himself in there. As long as you’ve tucked the blankets tight your baby shouldn’t move around too much. Even when they become a little more active they’ll only be waving their arms around not their actual heads.

Newborn Socks

HAHA! Most likely your baby will be in baby grows for the first month at least. So please don’t waste your money on newborn socks which won’t fit when they come to wear them. If you want to buy socks buy them in 0-3 so they can get some good use out of them.

Tops and Bottoms in Sizes less than 3 Months

This is just a personal preference too me. But we never ‘dressed’ Theodore until he was over 2 months old. He was in baby grows up until that point. So little newborn tops and leggings were useless, and a complete waste. Please also think about the season your baby is being born into. Theodore is now 3 months and is wearing ‘clothes’ but obviously it’s still cold out so he’s wearing long sleeves. He won’t be in short sleeve until he’s around 6 months.

Thousands of Toys

Your baby won’t even be able to hold stuff until they’re around three months old, and by that point they won’t actually care about what they’re holding. Theodore has only just started taking an interest in toys, but he has his few favourites. So perhaps 4-6 little toys all which are different in terms of shapes/colour/texture/noises would be just enough to start off with their little development. We got given a load of toys so I don’t feel too annoyed because I didn’t spend a shed load of money on them.  So for now I’ve stored them all in a toy box for when he becomes a little more intrested.

What would you say is a must with a new baby? Or what did you find was a waste of money?