There are so many baby items available these days and when you are excited about becoming a mum for the first time it can be tempting to go mad and buy everything in preparation but you might end up seriously out of pocket and with a lot of items you never even use.
Some things you don’t realise until after the baby has arrived too, we bought a Moses basket because we just assumed that was where babies slept but neither of ours spent a single night in it!! We ended up co-sleeping instead so one of those side attachments for beds would have been a much more useful purchase.
We found the same thing with a pram, in fact Tiger hated pushchairs so much that I didn’t even need to use one for the first eight months by which point you can buy a fairly cheap stroller. Luckily we hadn’t been out and paid hundreds of pounds on a pushchair before he was born!
I ended up baby wearing instead, I didn’t know about it first time round but it was one of the most amazing experiences, until Tiger was about one I used to have him in a carrier. You can find sling libraries where you can go and try on different types, this is a great idea as there are so many ranging from buckled ones to wraps. It’s not for everyone but if you like the idea then you might not need a pushchair at all!
For this reason I think buying certain things second hand is a good idea, there are items like Bumbo seats which have a pretty short usage time, some people do love them but mine was only used for about a week. Luckily I bought it second hand and could sell it on again afterwards but if I had spent a lot then it would have been a waste.
Clothing is another area where you might end up wasting money, you can buy all sorts of outfits for tiny babies but in reality when you have to change their nappy multiple times a day, you just want something easy to take off and put back on. Not to mention the fact they are prone to giant poos (or pukes) that leak through everything they are wearing, so they might look quite cute in a tiny dress but that dress won’t be on them for long!
Mine lived in sleepsuits for the first few months then I switched to leggings. You can get such lovely ones these days and buying organic sleepsuits for babies is an option, it means you don’t have to worry about chemicals being on their skin.
Another big thing I would say not to bother with is baby shoes for before they can walk! I bought some before Cherry was born but they are fiddly to get on and babies just pull them straight back off!!
Generally everyone finds different things useful and what is essential to one person was useless to another, especially as all babies are different too. If you have a baby who sleeps well then you won’t really make much use of toys that play womb noises or swaddle wraps, if on the other hand you are being kept awake all night then all of sudden buying anything that might help them sleep will be worth it!
