My New Baby Essentials

lifeatthezoo | November 27, 2012 | Baby | No Comments

As a mum of two, I often get asked by expecting friends “what are my baby essentials”? I remember being pregnant and getting ready for the arrival of The Boy and being totally stumped by all the “different lists out there”. I didn’t know the difference between a body, a vest and a baby grow (body and vest are usually the same by the way).

So I thought a New Baby Essentials list may be handy!!! It is surprising how little you actually do need and how you can get away with less rather than more.

Moses basket – I would say borrow one if you can, you will only need it for three months, but in those three months it is a invaluable item
Muslin Squares – you can never have to many. Once my kids got older, they became bibs, and now we use them as our “painting rags”. They are still very handy!
A set of nappies – we had new born size for the hospital and cloth nappies for home. Once you get used to them, they are easy and worth every penny, especially if you have more than one child.
Cotton wool, a small dish, a bottle (these don’t have to be special, just an ordinary dish and bottle will do) to store boiled water for cleaning your baby with
Baby nappy rash creme – personally I am a fan of sudocream. But different people will say different things. Do NOT bother with baby lotion or baby talculm powder (unless you GP tells you to use it), I bought some 5 years ago and we still have them
2 Cellular blankets
Baby sleeping bag – we loved these, no kicking off of blankets during the night
7 Babygrows (those are the all in ones, that come in lovely patterns)
7 vests (those go underneath and you can get short or long sleeved ones, we found short sleeves fine)

And the biggies:

Pram
Car seat

Some Prams come with Car Seats, which is very handy, but it is totally up to you and what style of pram you get. I could write a whole post just about that. Again, there is FAR too much choice out there. I would keep it simple and go for what you like the look of. Modern day prams are all good and they all have a “set back of sorts”.

Good luck and have fun!