Mamas Best Baby Buys (The Honest Edit)

There’s so much information out there about what to buy for your new baby, it can be really overwhelming. It seems everyone wants your cash and when you’re pregnant and hormonal and it’s all too easy to get caught up splurging on super cute stuff, but things you’ll never actually use…! Here’s a sneak of a few of my thoughts on Mamas best baby buys…

Bassinet or not?

It seems to me that everywhere you turn there are bassinets. Beautiful, frilly, expensive bassinets… and the price is before you’ve even bought the sheets or the stand! I knew I was having a boy and several of my friends had warned me against being sucked into the pretty world of bassinets since their boys had grown so fast they’d barely slept in them before they’d outgrown them. Armed with this advice, we swerved the bassinet section entirely and went straight for a cot. Baby has slept soundly and comfortably in his cot from day one, so my advice is do the same and save yourself some cash.

Changing rules

I found most changing tables ugly and wondered what on earth I would do with it once we’d finished with it. And why did I need one anyway? Surely any surface of a comfortable height would work with a changing mat on top?! Yes, I realise babies wriggle and roll about, but I don’t plan on leaving him up there all alone so I can’t see why I’d need purpose built high sides! And so far so good – baby wriggles and writhes but nappies have been changed in exactly the same way as they would been have on a purpose built table and in my opinion, the furniture in his room looks much nicer without this addition.

A tale of a million muslins

You will need muslin cloths and you’ll never know how much or how many until baby actually arrives. You can use them for anything. You can use them for everything. Wiping spills off your own clothes, mopping drool, dribble and puke from the baby, for putting under the baby’s bottom in anticipation of poonami spills and more. So buy them, buy heaps of them, stockpile them in fact. You’ll still never have enough clean ones. My favourite ones are from JoJoMamanBebe through Mumzworld.com which are just so incredibly soft and lovely.

The ‘anti-nappy bag’

I searched for nappy bags high and low, but perhaps I’m fussy. All the ones I saw were either too big, too plasticky, too nasty or just plain too expensive. So I decided on the ‘anti-nappy bag’. I bought a nappy bag organiser insert piece for pennies online to keep all my bits arranged neatly and water (or poo!) resistant, and then – I just chose a bag of my liking big enough to hold everything. I found mine from a local startup in Dubai called LokaLoka that sells gorgeous, brightly coloured, big, roomy bags that I not only liked, but were perfect for the job and much better value than any traditional nappy bags out there.

The lifesaver

I don’t know what I’d have done without the baby carrier. When I was pregnant I’d read tales of woe in online forums about women whose babies had never taken to the baby carrier and I worried it might just be a waste of money – but for us, it couldn’t have been better. I find it’s just amazing for keeping baby comforted, happy and even sleeping, and for me being hands free often means the difference between being able to eat lunch and, well, not being able to! We bought a Baby Bjorn Miracle Mesh as it’s breathable for the hot weather, and I love it, but there are loads of different brands out there.