Buying for Baby

Hi everyone,

I know there was a post on this a little while back but I can't for the life of me find it!

We are going to start TTC in about 6 months, and want to start buying a few 'basics' now in sales, in order to help the finantial strain when we do get pregnant.

Soooo, I've been thinking bodysuits and all-in-ones, as well as bibs and maybe cloth nappies? Possibly bottles or dummies?

How many clothes do babies tend to need - how many bodysuits etc? Anything in particular to look for in baby clothes? Anywhere you recommend or warn against buying from?

Our baby will probably be the first grandchild and great grandchild on my sides of the family so I'm guessing we'll get given a fair bit of stuff too, but really want to have the basics sorted.

Thanks!

Body suits are great! I found when Tom was newborn that the kimono style ones from JK were best. These ones "wrap" across the front and dome up rather than needing to go over the heads. Much less tears!!! I would say 4-5 should be good.

As for where to buy? As I said those kimono ones form JKS were good. I was also given some great ones from the warehouse (12.99 for 3) and they were whippo range. Farmers ones are quite large (for fat babies not skinny ones like mine) and I didnt think they held their shape as well.

I reckon you only need 2-3 all in ones. When they are really little they dont tend to dirty them much. its when they start doin the mega poos and spilling that you go through them. We are going through heaps more clothes now (3 months) than we did at newborn. Mind you I am too lazy to put bibs on.

WRT bibs I found the warehouse ones that slip over the head were easy even though they go over the head. It is hard to do something up behind the neck of a screaming wobbly baby. Far faster to go "pop" over the head. They are the ones that say "I throw food" or "Got milk" etc.

Flat cloth nappies are worth their weight in gold....used for everything but putting on bottoms (although I played around with that concept last night....for nostaligic reasons...looks cute). I bought mine off a guy on trade me and they are great quality and were cheap. linky

Trademe is a great source of things. I bought our cot, bassinett (which isnt essential), breast pump, steriliser, some clothes, some nappies etc off trade me.

of course the other thing is there are ALWAYS sales on so if you miss out now there will be another. Generally the main places have them every public holiday weekend and few in between.

Good luck TTC

edited due to triple post!!

Edited by nzpiper

I have found with bibs that the plastic backed ones are best. With the material ones any milk spillage or sick just soaks through and then you have to change clothes also.

All the best for TTC

I think there will be an article on this site soon WRT top 100 things to buy for baby. I also agree with the baby bank account idea, and keeping a close eye on trade me. Also with clothes it depends on the season that bubs is due, so best to wait until you are actually preggers!

My best buys (or gifts) were large muslin wraps, sound and movement monitor, breast pump and steriliser, capsule and carseat and of course cot/bassinette. Also MCNs - though I think what is good depends on you and the size of your baby.

All the best

I agree that setting up a baby account rather than buying things is the best bet for now. For one thing, you'll find that there are several large sales on between now and when you hopefully fall pregnant. Also, new models of things like car seats and prams are quite often released and you'll find that the older models drop a lot in price - frustrating if you've splashed out and bought one and then a new model comes out and yours drops in price! And I changed my mind all the time about what buggies/car seats/cots etc I wanted - if I'd bought one a long way in advance I probably would have been disappointed after a month or two

Cloth nappies are a good idea to buy as people are unlikely to buy them for you. All the rest of the stuff I was given apart from the bottles and I really didn't need to buy much at all.

If you have a baby shower you'll probably get a lot of the small ticket stuff. You might want to start thinking about the more expensive stuff now though.