I’m feeling totally exhausted from work (and it’s only Tuesday!!) and generally pretty “meh” today. I’ve been at home alone tonight as my husband is working late and Maia is sleeping, and I really needed to do something to cheer myself up… So after finishing my secret stash of chocolates, I decided to write about the few purchases I’ve made for my bump baby. Daydreaming about the exciting future helps to get through the gloomier days! 🙂
Since I still had a baby literally last year and I saved everything, I think should have all baby essentials already plus a better understanding of what we’ll actually need! So I haven’t rushed into buying lots of new things for Maia’s little brother. If I remember correctly, I used a lot of quite gender neutral colours on Maia when she was a baby and also had lots of baby clothes from the Finnish Baby Box which have nice patterns and bright colours which are gender neutral in my view. I was also quite practical – I remember buying all of her vests in white because they were the easiest to clean (just wash in hot temperature) from poo and milk stains and also easy to wear underneath onesies and sleepsuits. But of course she did have her share of pink and frilly “girly” clothes too, so my plan is to do a proper inventory and wash and sort everything by size when I start my leave in December. Sensible, right?!
But then I started feeling a bit bad for the little brother who in fairness isn’t getting much thought these days… Maia takes centre stage in our lives and I’m very busy with work so my tiny bump baby isn’t getting as much attention as Maia did when I was expecting her. I know it’s a silly thing to feel guilty about since he isn’t even here yet, but the mum guilt is not rational at all! 🙈 Anyhow, I decided to buy our baby boy a few outfits just for him. It was quite fun to buy clothes for a boy for the very first time ever! I absolutely loved the little teddy and dinosaur hoodies!! I tried to pick practical but cute clothes, such as footed onesies with easy fastening (zips or poppers), because I know from experience they won’t get used otherwise. And of course we need the clothes to be warm and cosy for our January baby!
I bought sizes “Newborn” and “0-3 months” because although Maia was born tiny (2.55kg and wore “tiny baby” or “micro baby” clothes), I have no idea what size little brother will be when he arrives. And I can always roll up sleeves as I did with Maia (and still do, poor mini!). Daddy bought him little Nike trainers but since buying shoes for a baby is a complete waste of money, they are toddler size.
Pictures below! What do you think? Cute?
I got everything from John Lewis, online.
We will need to get a new baby monitor because the one we’ve got, as great as it’s been, has been dropped and banged around too many times and I think it’s at the end of its life… I’m also thinking to buy a lightweight bouncer chair from Baby Björn. I have a Mamaroo rocker chair (electric one that you plug in) which was great for Maia but that’s when we lived in a flat with large open plan living space, instead of the three-story Victorian terraced house we live in now. I’ll need to be able to move him around the house.
Two things I couldn’t live without when Maia was a baby were the myHummy white noise soft toy – she’s got a pink “Snoozy” which she absolute loves – and the Gro Snug newborn baby swaddle/sleepbag. The Snoozy was great because it has a non-stop 12h white noise function which really helped with Maia’s sleep. When she grew out of the white noise, I just took out the machine from the zip pocket. But she loves Snoozy so much I couldn’t take it off her now so I decided to buy a new one for baby brother – see picture below of “Simon”.
When Maia was a newborn she would be attached to me all the time, also at night. It took about a month, if I remember rightly, to get her used to sleeping in the Moses basket. What really helped was a special newborn sleepbag from the Gro Company called GroSnug which is also a gentle swaddle when the arms are tucked in (plenty of space for hips and legs so I didn’t worry). I still of course have it and definitely intend to use it, but as I was showing it to my mum-to-be friend in the website, I saw that they now sell a thicker version of the GroSnug as well. Since we now live in an old house with drafty windows, I thought it’d be a good idea to get baby brother one of these new bags. And the owl pattern was so cute!
I have just ordered a sleepsuit with a matching hat in “tiny baby” size with a blue elephant pattern – this could be something for the hospital? For some reason I don’t believe I’ll have a big baby this time around either nor that I’d go overdue… You can laugh at me when I get induced at 40-something weeks but for now I still believe he will arrive early and little.
Otherwise, the baby prep is just a matter of getting a few complementary bits and pieces like a second changing mat for downstairs and some new towels and muslins. Our Joolz pram can be converted into a double but I don’t think I’ll buy the second carrycot/seat because Maia doesn’t use the pram very much nowadays. I’ll buy her one of those standing boards instead and will see how we get on. As a newborn I used the sling a lot with Maia so I might do that with little brother as well and have Maia sit in the buggy instead. There is no rush to spend hundreds of pounds. I’ll just wait and see what we’ll need. After all, I don’t really know what life with two kids will be like.☺️
I bought loads of baby stuff for Maia but in fairness, during the first year I did use 90% of it without regrets! What we didn’t use were the kazillion bottles and dummies (and the bottle warmer and steriliser lol) I had bought, but maybe this baby would sometimes swap between boob and bottle…? We also never needed any dribble bibs. I thought all babies need them so I bought a pile, haha! Oh well, live and learn!
What else do I need for him?!
xoxoxo,
Sini
Edit: I had to come back and add this final photo because I forgot to tell you about the baby blanket I’m making for my baby boy! You might remember I knitted one (or actually two, big and small) for Maia – she loves it and calls it her “cape” ❤️
