What (not) to buy to prepare for a new baby
When I was pregnant, I got a little over excited and went a bit mad buying for the baby. I bought all the things I thought a new baby would need - a cot (baby has to sleep somewhere!), an expensive pram with an equally expensive bassinet (got to take the baby out in something while we are meeting mum friends), an array of different types of bottles (who knows what the baby might like), cute dresses/rompers/blouses (to dress up for the aforementioned meet ups) and so on. In hindsight, I wish I’d waited until the baby was here to figure out what we needed.
Lots of my friends told me to wait, but I just wanted to be fully prepared. Despite thinking I was fully prepared, when Sienna was born we ordered something on Amazon or Vinted pretty much everyday. Often something would be the answer to our problems for a day or two, then we’d swiftly move onto the next thing that swore it would help our baby sleep/aid breastfeeding/make our lives easier.
The next-to-me Snuzpod became a bedside table for my breastfeeding basket. The bassinet potentially got about 10 outings before she grew out of it, because newborn babies like to be carried (and she didn’t like lying on her back). I dropped the Pippeta pump on her head one day and realised pumping every morning was just stressing me out (some days I’d express tons of milk, other days just a drop which would make me feel inadequate). And all the cute outfits we bought or got gifted never really got worn because the easiest thing to put her in was zip up sleepsuits.
What do I wish I’d bought in advance instead? Time with a postnatal doula.
Instead of spending our money on things we didn’t use, hours with a postnatal doula would have been invaluable.
All the anxieties I was feeling could have been talked through. The sleep deprivation could have been eased with a chance to rest. Instead of processed quick dinners, I could have had some nourishing home-cooked meals. I would have had some help setting boundaries when visitors came, rather than crying on the sofa when people knocked. Rather than 3am Googling sessions, my postnatal doula would have empowered me to trust my own motherly intuition.
I truly believe that booking in with a postnatal doula is the best investment you could make for you and your baby.
(And for those who are looking for the Amazon/Vinted purchases that worked for us:
A Mokee cot (that can be made into a sidecar cot when they are bigger)
A sheepskin liner for the pushchair
Koala silver cups (for nipple pain)
Coconut oil and a shnuggle brush (for cradle cap)
Totter & Tumble play mat (but measure your space first as ours is way too big)
But, and a very big but, every baby is different!)