This weekend we went to Brussels, more specifically to the Mothercare* shop (the only one they have in all of continental Europe). I am in love with the variety of products they sell. I might be biased since my mom got everything there for me as a baby, during her pregnancy over there, and later, I remember studying the catalog as a 6 year old waiting for my little sister to arrive. She still talks about the high quality and great prices they had (some of the clothes lasted her for 3 kids and she says they are *still* in good condition), and when I compare to the prices over here, it still seems to be the case.
We do love a weekend day-trip, and believe it or not it was the first time I ever ate an authentic Belgian waffle, from a seller in the street. The chilly weather was ideal for it.
Anyhow, I was mostly hoping to see and feel and touch their assortment of cloth diapers (as we are looking into them, more on that coming later), but unfortunately they did not have anything from that range and they do not send those specific items internationally either. Sad face.
We got a bunch of random things: some muslins, a box of disposable breast pads, a couple of jersey-fitted sheets for the crib, some onesies and a bunch of cute sleepsuits. I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed... and ended up with tons of questions. What are the indispensable things that babies really need? How many onesies should we get (6?), and how fast do they outgrow them? I know I was born meausuring 52 cm. so I think the smaller, newborn sizes won't be of much use if we can expect our baby to be of a similar height to us (Mark measured 49 cm).
 |
| All of a sudden the bump popped out. Sometime between 20 and 24 weeks. |
Something in me is saying that as long as we have a bed, a bath, diapers and some clothes and toiletries we should be OK? At the same time I am not so certain emergency-running to the pharmacy or shop will be so easy to do on those first weeks, so what should we stock on? Lanolin? Gripe water? Rash cream? Baby Tylenol? I guess what I am doing here is asking all new-moms and more experienced ones... what were the basic things you absolutely needed to have on those first days?
(I know there are a million lists online, and we also got some from the midwives as well as from some baby shops, but I kind of do not trust them as people seem to be saying: go and buy all the things! Right now!)
*This post is not sponsored by Mothercare, though if they'd like to send me stuff I would be more than happy to review it. I am just writing based on my memories and opinions.
If you ever find out, will you let me know?! Every list has it's own quirks, I've just tried to wing it as best I can. You shouldn't give baby Tylenol before 8 weeks without medical advice, I've not bought any for that reason. I'll get some in for the first immunisations. Depends how organised you want to be!
ReplyDeleteI went with the basics- somewhere to sleep, somewhere to hang out whilst I shower, somewhere to wash, some bottles just in case. I only bought a handful of nappies- shall send husband out for more once I've tried a few brands. As for clothes? I have no idea if I have the right amount. I'll let you know in 2 weeks time!
We think alike: "somewhere to sleep, somewhere to hang out, somewhere to wash...". I look forward to hearing your experience and stories. So exciting, and so close right now!
DeleteI already have a headache from all the 'go and buy all the things right now!' sentiments that get thrown at you during pregnancy, and we haven't even hit the second trimester yet. When we went for our first appointment with the midwife last week, we were given a HUGE goody bag, mainly consisting of many attempts to get us to spend more in the name of baby. It makes me feel annoyed and exhausted to think how much the natural, innocent world of babies is turned into a consumer circus... Uhg.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, if there is anything you desperately desire from Mothercare, please do drop me a line :) We have one right near our house, and it would be a fun excuse to shop for someone else before I'm really ready or able to start doing that for this baby yet!
Yeah, there are so many things that they sell and that I don't even find that useful. Like, a thermometer for the water in the bath? I thought my elbow/ hand could do a very good job attesting if the water is too hot or too cold. I don't think they have those everywhere... and babies survive just fine. I don't know, maybe it is a "necessity" as that one came from the list of absolutes from the midwife.
DeleteThanks so much for the offer, I might take you up on that later. I mostly really like the clothes, and I wanted to try their Terry nappies for the very beginning (it's just old-school cloth diapers), but we'll see if we find something similar here (or use disposables for a few months... still don't know).
We didn't think we'd need newborn clothes, so didn't buy a lot... But now we have nothing that fits him! He was 7lbs6oz when born. Also, don't buy a ton of diapers until you know what you like. We use a lot of swaddles and sleep sacks. We go through like 4 onesies in a day sometimes. Buy the cheap 6 packs. Also, puppy pee pads for the changing table are great. And the best thing we own? The Mamaroo swing.
ReplyDeleteWe had the mamaroo too! It was great until our son was about 6/7 months and then he totally grew out of it. But he is giant. I totally recommend it! Will be using it for our next baby!
DeleteThanks for all those tips... sound useful. I was not sure about the swaddle blankets / muslins (they don't seem to be that popular over here, and the nurses only advise swaddling in specific cases), but I will get some since they seem to have tons of uses.
DeletePuppy pee pads, how creative!
2 votes for the mamaroo hmmm !
Ad yes, definitely those 5-6 packs look like good value since you will use them a lot anyway.
For clothes and onesies, buy-as-you-go will probably serve you just fine. Also, people love giving things to babies, so I wouldn't really buy that much if lots of your friends/co-workers are gifters (Aron was just in charge of buying a gift for a colleague's baby, and they bought like 4 outfits and some toys). The one baby thing that I would really recommend is some sort of playmat (speelkleed here), or some really thick blankets. It was really handy to have somewhere clean to lay baby (that wasn't on the dirty floor), and also to have baby lay on something that can be thrown in the wash after he inevitably vomited or pooped on it.
ReplyDeleteOh the playmat, that's a good one. I'll ask my mom... maybe she can make one for us. Thanks. And yes, we were thinking of getting the minimum clothes (some onesies + sleepsuits for the beginning) and then see what we need.
DeleteI have been wondering what baby needs too!! I hope you post a final list once you have it narrowed down. I definitely don't want to go overboard buying stuff...
ReplyDeletep.s. cute bump!!!
Yeah... maybe by the end when we consider ourselves ready I will post a list of what we decided to get, and then even later ponder what was useful and what was not so much. We have some things here and there, some were presents, some we got ourselves... but mostly we are still researching.
DeleteThanks!
Oh and thanks! It really struck how much the bump grew in the last 2 weeks, I remember an afternoon, looking at it, and both Mark and me were like wow, this belly is not hide-able anymore.
DeleteHere is what I know: Get more onesies. They are cheap and you will go through sometimes 3 in a day. Babies pee on themselves or poop through their diapers. NB size and then 1-3 months are a great place to start. Stock up! There is no harm. What else? We used NB diapers because they have a cut out for the belly button while it heals. Gabe was in those for a few weeks, but we did have some left overs. Swaddling blankets are great, useful for everything. And get something you can put the baby down in. Something that swings or moves or rocks or vibrates, whatever you want, just something so that you can get a break (brush your teeth, pee, eat a sandwich, etc) every once in awhile. It will come in very handy. I used the stroller a lot when I was on maternity leave. Going for walks helped Gabe nap and was great for my body. But I also used the front carrier as well. It was nice to have both. And when he was very very fussy, the front carrier was a godsend.
ReplyDeleteOther than that I think the baby will tell you what it needs when it needs it. :)
And when you have questions about what mom needs for recovery - let me know. I have some good tips on what worked for me, what was useful, etc. :)
YAY AMANDA IS HAVING A BABY!!!
Oh this is so useful! Thanks so so much. Also thanks for the advice on the swaddling blankets, I was thinking of getting some anyway and we found a good deal at a shop that's in clearance.
DeleteWe got a stroller with huge wheels (second hand, but looks like new! and everything is washable, and you can get brand new wheels for 10 EUR and it was a super good deal). I definitely want to take lots of walks... and the baby carrier kangaroo thing is also something I have been dreaming of using, it seems babies like ti so much.
I will for sure ask you about recovery.
And yeah, this is happening :) We are so happy and feel so so blessed. It's so surreal to feel her move and kick like crazy these days.
que lindaaa tu barriguita!!!!!! t felicito muuucho , y la verdad no necesita mucho, somos los papas los que pensamos que ellos necesitan muchas cosas cuando somos nosotros a quererlas!!
ReplyDeleteGracias!!!!
DeleteY sí tienes razón muchas cosas son para simplificar la vida a los papás o para decorar, pero quiero creer que los bebés necesitan más bien pocas cosas. Ya veremos...
Our baby was born a month early, so she was in newborn clothes for 6 weeks before she outgrew them. Onesies and footed pajamas were the best. We probably had 8 or 10 onesies and 6 or 8 footed pajamas. We did baby laundry every day. She was also in newborn diapers for a while, we are still using disposables because she is too small for the all-in-one one size cloth diapers, which are the only cloth diapers we are considering.
ReplyDeleteWe used a LOT of vaseline to prevent diaper rash (and then we went through half a dozen diaper rash creams to find one that worked for her).
Swaddling blankets were a must for about 8 weeks for us, we had four of them. Lots of receiving blankets, which double as burp clothes (we go through a ton of those).
I didn't buy a bouncer until she was 2 months old (she hated them before then), but I do wish I had a rock-n-play or something similar to put her in in the beginning when I was going completely insane. Other than that, you are on the right track. Crib (or bassinet actually, because she hated the crib at first), crib sheets, changing pad (optionally, with changing pad cover, which is way softer than the plastic changing pad, but needs to be washed frequently), diaper bag, stroller (we also got a carrier later), diaper pail for disposables or wet bag for cloth diapers. That's about all we needed in the beginning.
Oh thanks for all this advice. We are also considering newborn disposable diapers, and then all-in-one clothe diapers (the rest look like too much of a hassle and I prefer to wash the whole thing). We actually have an appointment at the end of this week to meet with a sales-counselor that will show us all the models + her experience and hopefully we will be able to make a decision. I look forward to reading your experience on that.
DeleteI will get a few swaddling blankets, and will have to stack on rash cream. We have a tiny rocking baby chair kind of thing that was handed down to us, I hope she'll like it. It's nice to know how many onesies and pijamas you had... to have an idea!
Te cuento que usamos nosotros: 9 pijamas por talle, 9 onesies, 9 pares de medias (esto nos nada tiempo de lavar), gorrito de algodon si es invierno (algunos bebes tienen alergia a la lana), muchas mantitas con las que cubrirlos al salir, cuando se duermen en los sillones, en el coche, etc (nosotros teniamos 3 por bebe). Un stroller que sea facil de desarmar (nosotros teniamos un mac laren), y tambien usabamos un baby carrier (tipo mochilita para ponerlos contra el pecho) (o una swing, lo que te guste mas). Para vos, lancinoh cream para las grietas de los pechos al amamantar, breast pads, crema para la colita (nosotros usabamos una Serbia y bepanthol a veces). Y habla con quien vaya a ser tu pediatra para que te recomiende un botiquin de primeros auxilios, asi evitas salir corriendo a la farmacia. Nosotros teniamos paracetamol, ibuprofeno, gripe water, solucion salina para la nariz, y la verdad ya no recuerdo que mas :) Y si, una linda colcha para tirar al suelo como te dijeron...y para cuando sea mas grande, los pisos de goma son geniales!
ReplyDeleteHola ! Mil gracias por todos los consejos ! Ya tenemos el cangurito (baby carrier), es una de las cosas que más ilusión me hacía, y ya también consegui la crema de lanolina (como lansinoh), que mi mamá me recomienda usar desde los 7-8 meses, toda una epopeya conseguirla por aqui. Bueno saber el número mágico 9 :) Espero que al inicio la talla 0-3 meses no sea demasiado pequeña... ya veremos. Todo lo demás lo anoto :)
Delete