My Best Baby Buys

So I have been wanting to share with you all, the best baby purchases I have made for Jaxon so far, and there are quite a few!

As I said in my previous blog, entitled My Worst Baby Buys, it can be a complete minefield when it comes to choosing the right things for your baby, especially if the child is your first!

I actually made the mistake of buying anything and everything, as I didn’t have a clue, but the one positive that came out of that is that I ended up with some absolutely amazing purchases, some in which I wonder if we would have been able to cope without!

So here they are, my best baby buys!

1. Sleepy Head Deluxe (Purchased at The Baby & Toddler Show, Manchester – £90)

Jaxon was in this from the day we brought him home, right up until he was around six months old. I originally purchased this after reading a lot of reviews, mainly for the reason that they are portable and they allow your baby to sleep comfortably, anywhere. Jaxon was always very snug and secure in there, and the pod shape seemed to resemble the feel of a cuddle, one reason why I think he was always a brilliant sleeper.  It also stopped him from rolling in his sleep which was something I would have worried about, had we not had the Sleepy Head. The pod could be used anywhere, so I could use it in different rooms of the house, or take it with us when we travelled. It was really easy to clean and fit into his crib perfectly, even when it got to the point where we needed to extend the bottom of the pod open for extra leg space.

2. Ewan The Dream Sheep (Purchased at The Baby & Toddler Show, Manchester – £25)

We still use this now and not only does it help Jaxon to drift off, but it also helps me too! I have gotten so used to the white noise option, we both find it very relaxing!

There are four settings to choose from. White noise, heartbeat, lullaby, hoover. We have always gone for the white noise option, apart from in those very early days we used to use the lullaby. I remember in the first week, Jaxon had just drifted off after a night feed and Ewan was playing the lullaby. I was going through the Baby Blues stage and the combination of staring at how perfect my baby boy was and hearing the song just made me burst into tears! I had to leave the room as to not wake him up!

It also has a red glowing light option which is meant to resemble the womb and different duration and volume settings which I have found helpful.

When Jaxon wakes now in the night, being nine months old, most of the time all it take is a click of Ewan The Dream Sheep to settle him again. 3. Chicco Next 2 Me Crib (Purchased from Mothercare – £179)

This was used from day one, all the way up until he was seven months old. This was the crib I had always planned on having, given it offers the safe co sleeping option. So we always used this crib attached to our bed with the side down, so Jaxon was always close to me, but we weren’t running the risk of rolling on him or him being covered with our duvet. It was a god send for breast feeding during the night too, especially after having an emergency C section. I was able to just turn on the lamp, sit up in bed, lean to Jaxon and lift him up on to me.

When transferring little one from the crib to the big cot, the Chicco Next 2 Me crib has a mesh side which came in handy. So when it was time to de attach the crib from our bed, we could put the side of his crib back up, but with it being mesh he could still see me and still feel secure.

I have sold a lot of baby equipment and will continue to in the future, however I think this is I something I will keep in the loft, just in case I have more children in the future as it was such a brilliant buy.

4.  Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep Machine (Purchased from TESCO – £59.99)

Oh this machine is just MAGIC! I have always combi fed, and after those first few weeks of exclusively breast feeding and making that decision to introduce formula, I am so glad that Jaxons dad ran out and picked up one of these! The world of formula scared me anyway when I had, had other plans, so this machine eased me in, stress free!

The Perfect Prep makes your bottles quick time and you don’t need to worry about having a crying, hungry baby on your arm at the same time as boiling the kettle, using the right amount of boiling water to the right amount of fresh, cool, boiled water. To me, all of that is such a faff!

At the moment, I still breast feed Jaxon in the early hours of the morning, and when the time comes that this ends, I will be even more thankful for the Perfect Prep so I can make his bottle quickly in the dark!

5. Baby Einstein Activity Jumper (Purchased from SMYTHS – £89.99)

Such a great piece of equipment to keep your little one occupied and having fun whilst you get some bits done around the house! I started Jaxon in this when he was five months old. He loved it for a good three months, jumping around and screaming with delight!

The chair spins around and there are four different stations for him to play at, one including a little light show that plays music, Jaxons favourite!

Jaxon still enjoys this now, but not as much now he can crawl around. He would much prefer to be up to mischief, crawling around the house and pulling himself up on the furniture!

At the moment I can get away with popping him in it for five minutes at a time whilst I rush around cleaning like a mad woman!

6. Mamas and Papas Starlite Swing (Purchased at The Baby & Toddler Show, Manchester – £90)

This was used from birth up until Jaxon was around five months old. The swing plays lullaby’s, nursery rhymes and has a canopy with a star light show. It has different speed settings for the swing also, and was a great way to lull Jaxon to sleep for his naps. This is what I used when I had a bath or a shower in the day time. I simply transported it to the bathroom and let Jaxon be mesmerised by the lights or nap away.

7. Tommee Tippee Closer To Nature Electric Breast Pump – Purchased from Amazon – £45)

Now, as much as I hated pumping for hours on end every single day, so much so that I hated even seeing this pump in the same room, this has to be one of my best buys.

Once we made the decision to combi feed, I had to pump a hell of a lot in order to keep up my supply as well as wanting to stock up on breast milk for the freezer.

I spent about three to four hours a day pumping and I used to pump around 4-6oz of milk at a time. This was great as I was able to freeze a lot of milk and stock up. When I was happy with how much I had frozen, I started to pump a bit less and eventually my breasts adjusted to the combi feeding routine. It was also a god send when my boobs felt quite full as I could just pump some off for a few seconds if I every felt pain or full when Jaxon was asleep.

Breast pumps are AMAZING, however, as I say, I HATED pumping at the time. I felt very moody when the pump came out for the day, and I also felt like an actual cow. I used to be amazed at how far my nipple would draw out into the pump. So yeah… breast pumping turned me into a moody cow!

So there you have it! My top baby buys!

I hope you found this helpful, and please feel free to leave me any of your best baby buys in the comments!

xoxo

 

My Worst Baby Buys

I am sure that some of you can relate that when you are a first time Mum, it is easy to go a little overboard when it comes to buying baby things!

Sleep equipment and bedding, feeding equipment, different sized clothes, comforters, toys, baby carriers, nappies, wipes, travel systems, and lots more! It was all a total minefield to me, and extremely overwhelming. So much so, that I literally just bought the lot. And regrettably so. A lot of the things were a waste of money as we didn’t have a need for them, or they just didn’t work for us.

I was told time and time again throughout my pregnancy that I was buying too much, and that the baby market makes new mums feel as though they need EVERYTHING. And they weren’t wrong. I realise that now!

So here is a list of some of my worst baby buys! (Disclaimer: What didn’t work for us, may work for others. This is a list of buys that either we didn’t end up needing or didn’t work for us personally.)

1.Dummies

These are something we purchased after Jaxon was born. I had always planned on exclusively breast feeding for at least six months, however, that didn’t go to plan. That is  a whole other blog post entirely! So with breast feeding being the plan, and dummies possibly causing nipple confusion etc, we didn’t intend on using one. However, with me combi feeding, a dummy became an option. Jaxon took to them for around a month and then refused one very suddenly and hasn’t taken one since! I suppose you could call this a blessing, however there have been times in the early hours, or in the day time when he doesn’t want to nap, that I think back to the times where the dummy would be a god send and a real comfort to Jaxon. I purchased a silly amount, there are a lot more where these came from!

2. Blankets

There is just no need for the amount of blankets I own. Jaxon slept in a Sleepyhead Deluxe until he was 6 months old, with a blanket. I only used two or three at most. Once he outgrew his Sleepyhead, he was then in a sleeping bag. Now in his big cot, he is still in his sleeping bag. The only time he has a blanket is when he is in the car in his car seat, or out in the stroller. I mainly use two gorgeous crocheted blankets that were made for us, a lovely Aldi blanket which is beautifully soft or a fleece Laura Ashely blanket which we also received as a gift. All in all, I must have at least twenty blankets folded in a box under the bed… Oh, and some in the airing cupboard too for good measure! I am sure they will come in handy though over the years.

3. MAM Easy Starter Bottle Set

At one week old, Jaxon was diagnosed with reflux. When he was around one month old, we opted for the Anti Colic MAM bottles which apparently also work well for reflux. We got the Easy Start Set that came with:

• 4x 260ml anti-colic bottles.
• 4x 160ml anti-colic bottles.
• 1x 0-2 months soother.
• 1x soft spout.
• 1x bottle handle.
• 4x sealing discs.
• 4x slow flow teats.

For £35, I think that this was really good value for money and we did make good use of the smaller bottles, however we did find that compared to the Dr Browns bottles, they didn’t help Jaxon with his reflux symptoms. I have heard amazing things about these bottles though, and they have helped reflux babies I know, however for us, they didn’t benefit.

4. AngelCare Nappy Disposal Bin

I could fit in 8-10 nappy bags at most, and with it being advertised that it eliminates odours, I was disappointed to find that it actually didn’t. We used this for about a week and just started using our bin in the kitchen! This actually did eliminate smells better with using fragranced bin powders and with obviously taking the bin out every evening.

5. AngelCare Heart Monitor

This is such a brilliant idea for a product and I was adamant that we would need one. I really do love the thought of being alerted if baby has stopped breathing in the night. It is great for giving a new mum that peace of mind that she needs. However, I purchased this on one of my crazy baby shopping sprees, without thinking about the fact that we were using a Sleepyhead Deluxe AND a Next2Me Crib!

For those of you that don’t know, The AngelCare Heart Monitor is a sensor pad that goes underneath the mattress and detects when there hasn’t been any movements from baby in a certain amount of time. It is very sensitive so it picks up the baby breathing etc. This wouldn’t work with using a Sleepyhead though as that is essentially two mattresses when used in a crib, and the Next2Me Crib being attached to our bed meant that it would pick up our movements too, so would not be accurate and would falsely alert us all throughout the night. I was actually confident after the first couple of nights that with sleeping so close to Jaxon, with how lightly I slept in those early days and with good old motherly instinct, that I would know if something was wrong. So this was never used and is sat in a bag in the wardrobe!

6.  Wireless Video Baby Monitor – Amazon

This has to be the worst buy so far. I could charge this over night and the battery would still run out after half an hour. I could deal with that though. The main reason why I recently sent this back is because it would constantly beep very loudly for the whole time it was on, saying that the temperature is too hot. The temperature in the bedroom is always 18 or 19 degrees, which I feel is not too hot for baby, and is the suggested temperature on the SIDS guidelines. Unlike other monitors, there is no way to turn the temperature notification off, nor is there as option to set up your own temperature setting on the monitor.

 

So there you have it, a list of my worst baby buys! I hope that you found this useful. If you are currently expecting ladies, please don’t feel that you have to buy EVERYTHING! The baby market, I feel, makes you feel that way.

Have you any baby purchases that you regret buying?

Thanks for reading fellow Mamas

xoxox