Gifts Galore - by Theo

On a visit to meet Rosie's future-best-friend Emily, she was presented with "Rosie's Walk", a beautiful book, though it be a while before our DD - that's dear daughter in Mumsnet slang - will be appreciating the thought that went into its selection. It joins such classics as "Peepo", "Splosh Splosh" and "Crime & Punishment" on the shelf for her later enjoyment, along with several charming stuffed toys, including a safari skittle set from some Senegalese friends, which Daddy will probably have more fun playing with!

We - or rather Rosie - have been showered with gifts. It's overwhelming. We feel extremely grateful and not a little embarrassed, not least because our past record of generosity towards friends' newborns has been rather less abundant! But the packages and cards keep coming from England, Spain, France and even Ireland.

Several friends have raided their nieces' wardrobes to present us with bags overflowing with beautiful clothes. We probably aren't going to need to buy Rosie any clothes until she's 4, though for the moment only a very beautiful top from an American expat friend actually fits her (she's still on the small side), so she often looks lost inside floppy-legged baby grows.


We feel very fortunate to have such thoughtful and generous friends. Indeed it's wonderful how many people have been over to visit, helping prevent cabin fever from setting in. Rosie is one very lucky little girl.

improvising and investing - by Theo

When it's come to sorting out baby gear for our PFB (precious first born) we've been at two polarities - the no-cost improvisations and the expensive investments. What's weird is that areas where we'd thought we'd have to spend money, we haven't, and one key area which we weren't expecting to cost us anything has turned out to be the most expensive of all!

On the one hand bath-time and bed-time have been advertisements for ingenuity; both her bath and her bed are transparent storage boxes of different sizes which we'd purchased for about £3 back in the summer to help transport our stuff to Spain. Obviously we don't keep the lids on! Her bedding has largely been a combination of tea towels, pillow cases and shawls Kate doesn't use, while her changing mat is a towel over a bin liner - works just fine. Plus we've discovered that olive oil is the ultimate moisturizing lotion for fighting nappy rash, one less thing to buy! We're using washable nappies, so I'm doing lots of laundry but at least there's no landfill. And thanks to the generosity of so many family and friends, in England and Spain, we've yet to have to buy a single item of clothing for our darling daughter! Thanks everyone!
Total spend = about €6 on a couple of extra tea towels and some more olive oil.

However, when it comes to feeding it's been a totally different story. On instructions of the medical staff we purchased nipple guards, bottles and formula (in order to supplement Kate's breast milk). Naturally we then had to buy a microwave steriliser. These have all now been sidelined since Kate started seriously expressing breast milk for storage - the original hand pump we bought was in danger of giving Kate RSI, so I was then dispatched to buy an electric one. A breastfeeding cushion also turned out to be a decent investment and the bottles were superseded once Kate found out about lactation aids - a cunning device whereby the supplemental milk is siphoned directly into Rosie's mouth as she breastfeeds by a tiny tube from a bottle which hangs beneath Kate's chin, St Bernard-style. Kate's like a walking advert for Medela! Actually the whole contraption, with tubes taped down to Kate's nipples, is kind of kinky; I have photos, but I fear publishing them here (or anywhere!) would be grounds for divorce!
Total spend = €355! And we thought breastfeeding was the cheap option!!

Of course you can't put a price on love, and Rosie's worth this a thousand times over.

Kitting out by Kate

Just how many of these cute, pastel-coloured, curvy-shaped, cuddly character items are really necessary for a baby? Having just been on a (most enjoyable) shopping trip for our expected offspring, I've been quite staggered at the sheer amount of stuff being dangled enticingly under the willing and susceptible noses of potential parents and grandparents - stuff which I rather suspect is largely unnecessary for the health and well-being of the new infant. Of course, some items are essential and a few expenses unavoidable, but if people living in jungle tribes, two weeks from civilisation in all directions can successfully raise their new-born children without the benefits of ergonomically-designed breast-feeding cushions, baby baths and crib-bumpers, then I reckon we could probably manage it too.

Take nightlights, for example. Now, a low-wattage light to help you carry out the night-time feeds with minimal disturbance to your partner (and your retinas) seems like a decent practical idea. The little, plug-in lights you can get from the local electrical shop cost no more than a couple of quid/euros - and the job is done. In the baby shops, the nightlights made from soothingly-coloured, moulded characters with smiley mouse faces (for example) set you back by fourteen notes and yet they do exactly the same job as the two-quid widgets. And who's going to appreciate the extra twiddly bits on the fancy nightlight? The baby? Not on your nelly. Is it going to relieve your fatigue or boredom or enhance your enjoyment of the 3 a.m. nourishment session? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seriously doubt it.

Anyway, as I said, some baby equipment is essential. Clothes, for example - although we've been donated and promised such a wealth of babywear already, that I doubt we'll have to part with much more cash to complete our newborn's layette. Nappies are unavoidable and as we're keen to try and mostly use washable ones, that will be an initial outlay of a couple of hundred euros (but should work out cheaper than disposables in the long run, even with the washing costs factored in). And there's baby transportation. By law, if you want to transport your little one in a car, it has to be in a proper, government accredited car seat. You're advised against getting them second-hand and the new ones don't come cheap. That's why we figured we might as well try and get a multi-purpose seat that would clip into a frame on wheels and therefore double as a pram and/or buggy. In fact, we've realised that the seat, as well as having its uses in our vehicle and on its own set of wheels, can also be a baby seat for general use around the house - when our little one needs to be set down somewhere safe in our vicinity while we do other things, for example - and indeed as a cot. The height of the pram set-up is about the same as our bed, so conceivably (assuming she's willing) we could have our nipper kipping in it at nights (if indeed she does kip at nights, Inshallah...) and be within easy paranoid new-mother checking distance and conveniently grabbable for breast-feeding in the wee hours. That's the theory, anyway. I guess we'll find out soon enough if our baby finds that solution as practical as we do.

For general child transportation, I'm very taken with idea of tying her to our bodies (one at a time, obviously) with a strong and stretchy length of cloth. Baby-wearing, in fact. The idea seems simple and flexible and assuming we can get it right and she takes to it okay, it seems like a good way of having your babe-in-arms snug against your body but not actually in your arms.

Still, I'm aware that babies are nothing if not adept at knocking all the best pre-parenting ideas into a cocked hat and I can only hope that our one will share at least some of our views on the best ways to make her (and us) comfortable. Unfortunately, if she takes after her parents she's bound to have some definite ideas of her own about the way she would like things done and will no doubt be unafraid to express them. Yikes.