I’ve been wanting to put together this post for a while as a few people have said they would be interested in seeing what big baby buys we decided to go with. I also found these kinds of posts super useful we we were deciding what to buy. The way we decided on the big baby purchases was a mixture of recommendations from friends, lots and lots of research and trying things out in shops and looking at the Which? recommended list. You need to subscribe to this but we just did the month free trial and then cancelled our membership once we had everything we needed. We also went for a VIP shopping experience with Mothercare, which was kindly offered to us by the PR but anyone can book it. They basically have pushchair, car seat etc experts that show you how everything works.
1 So I’ll start with the biggest item, the pram. I can’t tell you how much research we did into prams, looking at the in stores, looking up reviews and comparisons and talking to friends. It honestly feels like you’re buying a car because of all the different features each one has and how they all fold up etc. In the end, we decided to go for the Bugaboo Fox, which was kindly gifted to us from Mothercare.
The reason we went for the Bugaboo Fox pushchair over others was how incredibly easy it is to push around and collapse. These were two of my main priorities for when I’m on my own with bubba and don’t have time to faff around. I also love that you can basically customise every part of it and from everyone I know with the Bugaboo Fox they all love it. We’re still in the market for a slightly lighter pushchair for if I need to go into central London but for now we felt that the Bugaboo Fox was the best option and it looks beautiful too!
2 The other product I did copious research on was the car seat. For this we used Which? as the site goes into so much detail on all the different safety aspects and rates each car seat again different factors like safety etc. In the end we went for the Cybex Atom M i Size with the Isofix base (gifted) as this came out as one of the best on the safety charts with 5 stars and also works with our Bugaboo Fox, we just need to buy the car seat adapters to go with it.
3 The Snuzpod (gifted) was one of the items we knew we wanted from the start as so many friends had recommended it and when we looked at it in John Lewis we absolutely loved it. The Snuzpod is perfect because the sides zip down so the cot fits super snugly next to your bed meaning that you don’t have to move very much for night time feeds or midnight wake ups, which I imagine will be a life saver in the early days. The Snuzpod can attach to your bed to make it super secure. It also has a reflux tilt function if she gets reflux, and having had one of my best friends babies suffer really badly with this I know how hard it can be.
4 Another highly recommended product was the Sleepyhead Duluxe + Pod (gifted), which all my friends swear by. It’s like a little cocoon for the baby which makes them feel safe and calm as I guess it makes them feel like they’re still in the womb. The Sleepyhead is made from super soft fabric which is non-toxic and great for air permeability. We have the Pristine White shade but they also come in a bunch of different colours, and we also have a spare cover in the Natural Buffalo when when undoubtably the white cover gets covered in poo or sick. We plan on using this for day time naps when I’m close by to keep an eye on her.
5 For her cot when she moves out of our room I wanted something that was girlie but not over the top. After searching everywhere I found this lovely one from Wayfair, which is great when they’re tiny but also turns into a cot bed when she gets bigger.
6 For the mattress this is also an area that people do a crazy amount of research into, we again used Which? for this as they had a section on mattresses on their site. We went for the Ikea Krummelur mattressas it was the highest rated for our cot size of 60 cm x 120 cm.
7 For the nursery furniture we basically have everything from Ikea. We have the Ikea Hemnes Day Bed as I think these look lovely in nurseries when they’re covered in pillows and it will be handy for night time feeds too. We also have the chest of draws from this range as I love how they look and I have the organising squares to go inside which helps to separate all the clothes up.
8 Moving onto feeding, I’m planning to breast feed but this may or may not work out for us so I’ve prepared for both breast feeding and bottle feeding. The breast pump we decided to go for was the Elvie breast pump (gifted), a few friends have this and absolutely love how easy, compact and discrete it is as it can just fit in your bra. The other one I looked at was the Madela Swing Pump, but a few friends had said that this made them feel a little bit like a cow so it kind of put me off. I’m also going to buy the Hakka manual breast pump as it’s around £20 and so many people swear by it. It’s a manual breast pump that you literally attach to the boob that you’re not feeding the baby on and it sticks on with suction and then it sucks and collects milk whilst you feed.
9 In case breast feeding doesn’t work out or if we want to introduce a bottle here and there, which I know a lot of people do we have the Tommee Tippee Closer To Nature Perfect Prep Day & Night Machine (gifted). It’s great because it does everything in one, sterilises, makes up the formula to the perfect temperature and is silent for night time feeds.
10 For our sling we went for the Baby Bjorn Carrier One Air(gifted), we tried on quite a few but found the buckles on the Baby Bjorn baby carrier the easiest. We went for the air version as our baby will be born in the summer so we thought it would be good to make sure she doesn’t get too hot. I love the idea of a sling for days where we just pop out to the shops and don’t need to take the pram or for the weekend possibly as we think my husband will use a sling to carry her around in.
11 We also opted for the Baby Bjorn bouncer as again this came highly recommended from friends. We have the Baby Bjorn Bouncer Bliss 3D Jersey in supersoft with the new Soft Toy Bar (gifted). I love these bouncers because they’re super soft and gently rock as baby kicks their legs. The reason we wanted a bouncer was for when she’s awake but we’re around the house and need somewhere for her to sit, and this is perfect because it will support her back, neck & head. It’s also great because it can fold down flat when we’re done using it, which I loved because some baby bouncers are really bulky.
12 As well as the baby bouncer I also wanted something she could sleep in when we’re in the lounge and love how pretty moses baskets looked so went for one of these. We have the Little Green Sheep Moses Basket(gifted), which has a stunning knitted liner, mattress included and creates a natural sleeping environment.
13 We still don’t have a baby monitor at first as we plan on having her in our room in the Snuz Pod for the first few months so didn’t think it was needed. However, we opted for the Owlet Smart Sock (gifted) which notifies you if your baby’s heart rate and oxygen levels fall outside of the preset zones. I know some people may think this is over the top but I think it will really put our minds at rest to know that she’s okay so that I won’t have to check on her all the time (I’m sure I will anyway!).
14 We have a GroEgg (gifted) as we live in quite a hot flat I thought we needed something to give us a quite indication of the room temperature and this does this by turning a certain colour. This was also another highly recommended product from friends.
15 For bath time we have the Shnuggle Bath (gifted), which is perfect for when they’re tiny as it’s like a mini bath tub for them and means you don’t have to lean over the main bath tub, which when they’re tiny would be difficult. I then got this newborn bath sponge, which was recommended to me from a friend as it means the baby isn’t slipping all over the place whilst you’re trying to bathe them.
16 For toys, we haven’t really started buying anything as newborns don’t really need to be stimulated at the start. We have bought a few black and white fabric books though as newborns are meant to love these. I just picked some random ones from amazon. Then we’ve bought and been given some teddies, like the adorable bunnies from Jelly Cat.
17 For clothes the majority of stuff I have is for newborn and then 0-3 months and then I’ll buy bigger sizes later on. My favourite places to buy baby clothes from so far are JoJo Maman Bebe for adorable super soft baby grows, Matalan for really affordable and adorable little baby grows and dresses, Nextagain for affordable lovely clothes, Mothercare for cute outfits and baby grows, Boden for soft and amazing quality clothes, TK Max is also great, Petite Bateau for special items and then John Lewis for some basics.
18 Finally for sleeping bags, swaddles and muslin cloths. For muslins we’ve been told that you need a million and you can never have enough so we have literally bought these from everywhere. Aden & Anais do such cool designs and we’ve got a couple of muslins and swaddles from here (gifted), I also got a bunch from Next, JoJo Maman, Primark, H&M, pretty much everywhere. For sleeping bags we’ve got some from the Gro Company, we have their Gro Bag and the GroSnug(gifted) which just have zips down the sides so are super easy to use and can be zipped from the bottom so that if you need to change baby then you don’t have to completely take them out of the bag.
So far, that’s everything we have although I’m sure when she arrives we will realise we’ve missed something!
