With the arrival of baby number 2 imminent I finally feel like we’re prepared – well in a practical sense at least; I still don’t think I’m mentally prepared to have a newborn in the house again! We haven’t had as much to buy this time round with having a lot of the things we need from when Toby was born. We haven’t had to decorate a nursery, or buy lots of new clothes but there are a few things that we’ve needed this time round that either we didn’t have with Toby or we have since sold on so I thought I’d share with you a few of the things we’ve done to prepare for baby number 2.

Wearing

When Toby grew out of his baby clothes I passed them all on to my friend Claire who has twin boys three months younger than Toby. After a mammoth sorting session a couple of months ago I now have most of them back again (plus lots of extra) and the rest are packed up ready to be sold at some point. I have bought a few new things for this baby partly because I think it’s only fair he gets at least some things that aren’t hand me downs, but mostly because tiny baby clothes are just irresistible to a hormonal pregnant lady!

The main thing that I have bought new for this baby to wear that Toby didn’t have is newborn cloth nappies. I knew I wanted to use cloth nappies with Toby but didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself in the early days so he didn’t start wearing cloth until he was about 7 weeks old and he went straight into birth to potty nappies. With this baby I know I want to use cloth as soon as possible and as I’m already used to them and in a routine with washing it won’t be too much extra work to use them from the early days. I’ve got a selection of newborn nappies to try; some Tots Bots Teenyfits and Bamboozle size 1, Bambooty Easy Dry newborn, Close Pop-in newborn and finally Bambino Mio miosoft prefolds and covers. They’re all pre-washed ready to go and I can’t wait to try them! I have bought a couple of packs of eco-disposables for the first couple of days but hopefully once the dreaded newborn treacle meconium has gone we’ll be ready to start with cloth. I’m hoping the newborn nappies will last 3 or 4 months and then I can sell them on, and who knows, by then Toby might have started potty training! And if not, well then I’ll just have to add a few more nappies to our birth to potty collection!

 

Sleeping

When Toby was born he slept in a crib which we were kindly lent by my godmother. It was lovely but the stand was quite high (and our bed is very low) meaning I had to get out of bed entirely just to check on Toby in the night. He also grew out of the crib quite quickly and was soon waking himself up hitting the sides. On top of that, because of his reflux, Toby was a very noisy sleeper. He used to grunt and snuffle all night  and even though he was asleep I would be kept awake with his noises. All this meant we moved him into his own room when he was about 6 weeks old. We put the crib basket in his cot for a week or two and then he has been in his cot ever since.

This baby is going to have to stay in our room for much longer. The boys will have to share a room eventually but as Toby has only just started consistently sleeping all night at the age of two I don’t want to do anything to disturb that for as long as I can! Knowing this I wanted somewhere for the baby to sleep that would fit it our bedroom but also last longer than a Moses basket. I was also keen on the idea of a co-sleeper crib so I will be able to feed or even just see the baby without having to get out of bed. Due to the style of our bed frame, which sticks out quite a long way from the mattress, we were a bit limited in our options so after some research we decided to go for the Chicco Next2Me Crib. This crib can be used either as a co-sleeper or as a stand alone crib. It has a mesh side which can be zipped down for easy access. I also liked that it can be tilted to help babies with reflux, we had to use books and towels and all sorts to tilt Toby’s crib! The Next2Me is also significantly bigger than a Moses basket or some of the other cribs on the market so I’m hoping it will last until the baby is at least 6 months old.

Another thing I’ve bought for this baby which will hopefully help his sleeping is a Gro-Snug from the Gro Company. We used grobags with Toby but they aren’t suitable until the baby is a bit bigger. The Gro-Snug looks fab – it can be used as a swaddle but also converts to a sleeping bag for those first few months. I can’t wait to give it a try!

Travelling

The big investment for this baby was a new pushchair. Although Toby walks really well now he still can’t walk that far without getting tired and there are also plenty of times when having him contained in a pushchair makes life easier for everyone! Some people suggested we might manage with just a single pushchair and a buggy board, or for Toby to go in the pushchair and carry the baby in a sling. At the moment I don’t think we could trust Toby to stay on a buggy board, when he gets it in his head he wants to go somewhere it is pretty hard to stop him! I’m sure a sling will work and we will use that option sometimes too but I really wanted a pushchair that I could use for both boys (and when it came down to it I just wanted a new pushchair!). After a lot of research we decided to go with the new 2015 UPPAbaby Vista. I really liked that it came with the carry cot included so the only thing we need to buy extra was the adaptors to convert it from a single to a tandem, and they were only £40. There was the added bonus that the car seat we already have from when Toby was little will fit on the chassis too. Most importantly the Vista is just as good as a single as it is as a tandem. We’ve been using with Toby for a good few months now and it’s great. We’ll have to see if Toby still needs to use the pushchair once the new baby grows out of the carry cot. If he does we’ll need to buy an additional seat unit but I liked that we don’t have to make that decision until we need to.

As I mentioned, the infant carrier we used in the car with Toby fits on the new pushchair so that was one expense we didn’t have this time round. I just put it back in the car yesterday and now whenever Toby gets in he points at it and says ‘baby’ – too cute!

Playing

We sold the baby gym and bouncer chair that we had with Toby. They were both OK but the baby gym took up loads of room and the chair was a bit basic. I’m not planning on replacing the baby gym for the moment. We have another play mat that the baby can use and I’m sure with Toby around there’ll be plenty to entertain him. I have just ordered a new baby bouncer though. This one from Babymoov is more padded than the old one we had – when Toby first started using the old chair we had to prop him up and support him with towels so hopefully this one will avoid that problem. The other feature I liked was the adjustable back rest. I’m hoping this will mean we will get a bit more use out of the chair – Toby grew out of the old one fairly quickly as he wanted to be more upright as he got older so this new seat should help with that too.

I haven’t bought any new toys for this baby either (apart from an soft elephant with a bell inside which will be Toby’s present to his little brother). We’ve still got all Toby’s toys and he has so many that they are all still in great condition. I’m sure we’ll get a few more gifts this time round too!

Feeding

I didn’t have a very successful breastfeeding experience with Toby but I am determined to give it another try this time. One thing I am getting this time is an electric breast pump from Ardo (which I will be reviewing on the blog in a month or two). I had a manual pump last time but it was rubbish and I hardly used it. We ended up combination feeding with Toby from very early on and I’m hoping that if we have to do the same again this time I can top up with expressed milk rather than use formula. Having said that we still have all the bottles and sterilising equipment we used with Toby so if we do need to go down that road I just need to buy some new teats for the bottles.

I’ve also bought lots of new muslins! I got a set of Rainbow muslins from Faye & Lou before Toby was born and he still uses them as his comforters now so I wanted to get some new ones, and I’ve gone for patterned ones this time, so I can use them for all the usual things with the newborn without Toby thinking I’m taking his comforters away!

 

I think that’s most things covered! Although we could probably have got away with buying even less this time round I knew there were some things that we didn’t have before that will (hopefully) make life easier this time round…and some things that I just wanted because I think this baby boy deserves at least some new things of his own! What do you think – is there anything I’ve forgotten? Did you end up buying lots more for your second (or third, or fourth…) babies or did you make do with what you already had?

**I have not been compensated in any way by the brands mentioned in this post, however there are affiliate links which may earn me a small income but will not cost you any more to use. As always, all opinions are my own.