Those first few weeks at home with your new bundle of joy… does anyone really remember them?! For us at least, it was all a bit of a blur. Katie kept herself pretty bundled up at home for the first 4 weeks after an early C-section, whilst Georgie spent the first week in hospital realising she didn’t know how to change a nappy, let alone look after a tiny bundle 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The start of this new phase in a family’s life can be quite daunting, so we thought we would put together a new series of posts to help out all the new parents and soon-to-be parents out there (and any friends and family who are looking for some helpful gift ideas). Welcome to first in the minis Series | Newborn Essentials.
We have put together a few items which we think could be essential (and save a lot of time and panic) to have at home for when the baby arrives. It’s not a non-exhaustive list of baby grows, vests and nappies etc, but more a few key items we found to be pretty essential to have at the ready. Let’s face it, no-one wants to deal with a mad dash to the nearest 24-hour supermarket at 3 in the morning to buy cabbage now do they! (read to the end of the post for this to make sense).
Highchairs with newborn attachments…
Neither of us had particularly cuddly babies, so the option to have the babies sat high up on highchairs in the kitchen whilst we were cooking and sitting at the table suited us better. Harriet had the Stokke Tripp Trapp Newborn Set (£75.00) with the Tripp Trapp Highchair (£159.00) and Harry and Teddy, the Bloom Universal Snug (£30.00) with the Fresco Highchair (£370.00). Both options are available from newborn and lift the baby up to your height at the table.
Slings and Pouches…
If you have a newborn that likes to be close to you at all times, then you will find a pouch or sling a god-send. We have had so many friends who found them indispensable when trying to make tea/do the washing/cook dinner, that we couldn’t omit them from the list. A great friend of minis AND MORE… used our favourite Rockin’ Baby pouch (£59.00) with her recent new addition and loved it in the first few weeks of newborn life at home and now beyond. Read more about the great work that Rockin’ Baby do here and here on our site.
Muslins…
You can never have enough muslins. You won’t believe it until you start to use them. The can be used as swaddles, blankets in the summer, sun shades, picnic blankets, dribble bibs, general mess wipers for milk and sick. The possibilities are endless. Our favourites are from aden + anais – Katie had the Super Star Classic set (£44.95 for four) and Georgie had the cute Jungle Jam Classic animal set (£44.95 for four).
Bottles and Formula…
Whether you are planning on breastfeeding or not. Some of us struggle more with feeding than others and you don’t want to be caught short in the middle of the night with no other option. On the nights when your baby simply wants to cluster feed during a growth spurt, you may just want the option of an additional top up to give your body a rest. Our favourite bottles to start with are the Dr Brown Natural Flow ones (£19.99 for the Natural Flow Starter Kit). These are designed to create ‘no vacuum’ and reduce air bubbles in formula and breast milk. Harriet suffered with terrible wind and the Dr Brown bottles did make a noticeable difference. After trying every other one that was on the market at the time (and we are not kidding when we say EVERY one) we finally found Dr Brown. Harry suffered from colic and also struggled with numerous bottle teats until Georgie finally found the MAM Anti Colic bottles (£32.00 for the Starter Kit). These are self sterilisation bottles and take only 3 minutes in the microwave with no need for a separate steriliser.
Dummies…
Again a very personal preference, so we can only advise you on our own experiences. Before we had our first babies, neither of us understood the need for dummies and didn’t like the idea or look of them… After a few weeks in, we both very happily ate our hats and bought a dummy. Wow, what a life saver. Anything to give you a few extra winks. We both favoured the MAM Start dummies (£5.15 for a set of two). The newborn Start style are extra small and light with big air holes and a small symmetrically shaped silk teat. When your little ones get a bot older the glow-in-the-dark MAM dummies are fabulous and save lots of searching time in the dark in the middle of the night.
Night lights…
After sleeping for the first few weeks with the en-suite bathroom light on and the door slightly ajar, it finally dawned on Katie that a nightlight could be useful for nighttime feeds without it being too bright for the baby and without waking up your partner beside you- sometimes you just don’t think of the obvious things. I had assumed that you only got a night light when your child was older and became afraid of the dark. I found this fabulous one from Babytec such a great buy and one we have subsequently used for years. It is a simple light with the options to turn it on/off, dim the light from extremely bright to very dim and autofade over 15 minutes. An alternative to the Babytec Autofade, and one which Georgie used was the Gro-egg Room Thermometer. Bright enough to allow you to see what you are doing in the middle of the night without having to turn the lights on. And it has the added bonus of also being a room thermometer.
White noise…
There are numerous options out there, be it an Iphone app, a fan blowing in the distance or as many of us parents know – the hoover! If you end up needing one, make sure you choose a product that can travel with you. You’ll discover that once you find something that works you won’t want to risk going anywhere without it. With Harriet we tried the Prince Lionheart Slumber Bear which was useless for us and ended up in the bin. We also tried a few apps, which didn’t work either, so eventually gave up. Since then however, we have heard great things about the (£29.99) from numerous parents.
Bedside cots…
We both hear more and more often from new parents about how much their newborn didn’t like sleeping in a moses basket. None of our minis did either, so we thought we would show you a great alternative that’s currently on the market. The Chicco Next 2 Me Bedside Crib (£149.99) is much bigger than a moses basket and so would enable your baby to sleep in your room for a much longer period of time as some newborns get too big for their moses baskets after only a few weeks. It is designed to allow you to sleep next to your baby without sharing the same bed and the big bonus of the design, in our opinion, is that it can also be used as a travel cot. It is the lightest travel cot on the market at just 8 kgs and folds up into a practical travel bag. The height of the cot can be adjusted up to 6 different heights and it can also be inclined to help with a baby’s congestion and reflux. Georgie had something very similar when her boys were newborn, but it wasn’t anywhere near as practical as it was wooden. Because this isn’t a product that either of us have actually used, we had a good look at one in the flesh over the weekend and were really impressed. It is well a worth considering.
And a few little extra newborn essentials…
A box (or two!) of for those middle of the day or night all up the back accidents, (which are made from 99.9% purified water) for when you’re simply too tired to get a bowl of luke warm water and cotton wool and lastly, stock the fridge with some cabbage! This may be a little TMI, but cabbage leaves saved Katie. If for example you suffer from a baby who struggles to latch on, you are producing too much milk or you are about to drop some breast feeds to supplement with formula then you may end up suffering from engorged breasts. Green or white cabbage leaves placed inside your bra can help to draw out excess fluid and soothe and cool the pain. Just make sure to clean them before you use them and replace them once they feel wet. Keep the leaves in the fridge before you use them for added relief.
Don’t miss the next in the minis Series | New Parents and Parents-To-Be coming later this week – items to make new mums’ lives just that little bit easier in the beginning.
