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Top 10 Newborn Baby Essentials
1) A baby monitor
When you first have your baby, you will often find yourselves standing over them watching their every breath. “Are they still breathing?” You don’t even want to pee because you’re afraid they’ll wake with either the noise of A) you creeping off to the toilet, or when you do actually make it to the toilet, you’ll want to B) make sure you can hear their every whim (or not in some cases – ignorance is bliss afterall!)
Baby monitors can range from the very basic to the technical all singing/all dancing models. It’s important you do your own research, but our favourite is the Angelcare AC327 Baby Movement Monitor with Video & Sound which tracks the baby’s movements and alerts the parents if there’s no movement detected after 20 seconds. Super helpful for anxious parents.
2) Moses basket/portable sleep bed
Having a light portable place for your baby to sleep is (in our opinion) essential. It helps you to be able to keep an eye on them more easily whilst moving around (if you can actually move properly after giving birth that is!)
BUMPKO recommends (what was known as the Sleepyhead, but has now been rebranded to DockATot) – it’s portable, comfortable and helps the baby to feel “cocooned”. It was a game changer for our babies.
BUMPKO also recommends the Clair de Lune Moses Basket with rocking stand. The rocking motion helps the baby to sleep and this is a more sturdy option than the portable DockATot.
3) Snoozeshade
A portable lightweight pram/pushchair shade helping babies sleep more easily on the move. It also blocks out UVA/UVB rays.
We used (and still use) 3 babies later, ours every.single.day. It’s 100% essential.
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4) Bath seat/bath towel
Newborns are slippery delicate little things and it’s much easier to bath them with a bath support/bath aid.
BUMPKO recommends the Angelcare Soft Touch Bath Support it has a super helpful water level indicator, and is so easy to use. Not to mention it’s also super comfortable for babies (well I’m sure that’s what they would tell us if they could talk!)
For a handsfree bath towel, it has to be the original Cuddledry ‘Hands-free’ baby towel – these are literally so helpful and so soft too. Shop via BUMPKO for your exclusive discount code.
5) Changing bag
You never realise how many things you need to cart around until you have a newborn. We’ve seen some fabulous change bags over the years, but our ‘on-trend’ fave of the moment has to be the Wings of Wild WOW bag – where practicality meets style. This bag is so luxurious, stylish and versatile, we absolutely love it.
6) Carrier/Sling
Once you have a newborn, you’ll realise how often A) they need to be carried and B) how much you actually need and use your hands.
Investing in a baby sling/carrier enables you to go about your tasks hands-free. Babies love being snuggled in tightly in a carrier/sling. BUMPKO recommends the BabyBjorn Baby Carrier Mini – it’s flexible, adjustable and it comes in a range of colours to suit your style.
7) Breast Pump/Bottles
The decision on how you feed your baby is totally up to you. If you do go down the breastfeeding route, then it’s like you’ll need a breast pump and bottles.
We love the original Tommee Tippee stuff. BUMPKO recommends the Made for Me Single Electric Breast Pump – it’s portable, quiet (some of them are so loud!) lightweight and discreet. It’s also super easy to use.
For bottles, you can’t go wrong with the classic Tommee Tippee closer to nature bottles – they also do a range for colic.
8) Perfect Prep Machine
If you decide to bottle feed, then the Tommee Tippee perfect prep machine takes all the hassle out of bottle prep. It’s so easy to set up and gives the perfect temperature bottles in seconds.
I confess to having bought two of these! One for upstairs and one for downstairs – the height of laziness!
9) Car Seat
Most hospitals advise you to carry your baby home in a car seat, so it’s well worth finding one that’s going to work for you and testing it out beforehand. We bought ours and didn’t figure out how it worked until our daughter was coming out of hospital – not advised!! Ours was part of our 3-in-1 travel system (more on that next).
There’s heaps of fixed car seats on the market, but BUMPKO highly recommends the Joie Baby Spin 360 which is suitable from birth and lasts them until they’re around 4 years old. I actually have 4 of them! It’s so easy to get them in and out of as it spins 360 (hence the name!). It has 5 recline positions and loads of other fabulous features. It installs easily using ISOFIX. If you’re looking for something comfortable and easy to use for the longer-term, then this is it.
10) Travel system (car seat and pushchair/pram)
When you need to get around, you’ll have to choose a travel system. Before choosing, think what sort of one would best suit your needs – compact? Lightweight? Sturdy? Where you live also plays a part. Do you pound pavements? or do you need a more off-road system? Whatever you choose, a pram is essential and it’s often more cost effective to go for a complete travel system which includes a car seat.
BUMPKO’s favourite is the Joie Versatrax with i-snug car seat and carrycot. It’s versatile, stylish and comes with an easy one-handed fold – again it all comes down to ease of use and you needing those hands!!
We hope you’ve found this round-up super helpful. Do let us know if there’s anything else you’d like us to cover.
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