UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Lifestyle Parenting, Household Affairs and Cuisine corner
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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Radiant, tell you what you can do , buy the formal wear from Primark coz they arent gonna be worn as much as the sleep suits and body suits ..
I experienced first hand that Primark baby clothes are terrible , they actually tear apart in two washes ! some only in one wash .. So I concluded that instead of throwing money on them better go to Asda George , they give 100 day return option. If a cloth tears off or gets damaged you can throw it back into their faces … ( I never needed to do it though coz their clothes were good and almost same price as Primark )

I bought some socks as well from Primark they lost their elasticity :frowning:

However the formal clothes are worn lesser , so you might as well buy those from Primark if you like any .. they are slightly more expensive at Primark. But the bestest bet is that you keep an eye out on sales at all major retailers .. My husband found these awesome dungaree pair at boots that cost only £3 in sale and they were really cute ! normally they are priced at £12 .. so yeah you keep buying clothes from the minute the baby is born ..

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Lusi’s made a very valid point , this is what happened to me :

Everyone here said we need loads of clothes , so we bought about 4 sets of body suits ( 7 in each pack ) 4 sets of sleep suits ( 3 in each pack ) all in the First size !! when baby arrived he just about fit into those clothes, thankfully I only opened two of each and returned the rest back to the shops .. because he literally couldnt fit into those clothes two weeks later ! we went and bought new stuff and he outgrew them again within days since he is tall Ma Shaa Allah .. so then we changed strategy.

When he was 4 months old , we started buying clothes a size above his current so we bought him 6-9 clothes .. majority fit fine at the shoulders and the upper body , they just look slightly bigger at the feet and sleeves .. but thats fine coz he comfortably wears those clothes for at least 4 months ! now he’s shortly turning 9 months In Shaa Allah we are getting him 12-18 stuff ! I feel this is a better way of managing clothes .

The first year the baby is mostly in sleep suits and dungaree’s so get more of those in all sizes. I have about 6 sleep suits + 7 half sleeve body suits + 3 full sleeve sleep suits in total at any given time . and I have to do the laundry one or twice a week .

Dont spend too much on socks and bibs .. I got giffted so many bibs , and then i went and bought some more and guess what? my son hates bibs .. he just kept tugging at it every now and then I ended up not using them … he wasnt that messy anyway. you wont need socks either due to their sleep suit feet .. you might need a pair or two from when baby turns 6 months and wants to learn crawling and standing up .

One more thing, keep the UK weather in mind along with the baby’s age while buying clothes. For example , some one gifted us a fabulous jacket 6-9 months .. it never got used coz it was so hot outside those days when he was in that age group !!! my husband bought some awesome looking T Shirts for him in size 9-12months and now son wont be able to wear them either coz its gonna be outright cold in those months ! so plan carefully ..

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Queen and Radiant , its true you will need something to protect the bedding .. But I couldnt locate the pads that easily in the market , I think i saw some at Mothercare but they were hell expensive .. so I looked at Pound Stretcher , they have a something called Terry cloth mattress protect , its £8 for a single size .. I bought that and put it under the cot sheet and when occasionally baby leaked onto it , I would wipe dry it using detol or wash it lightly .. it was awesome ..

Very good point that Lusi made , this is an absolutely must have product to secure your own or baby’s mattress .. I had cut the terry cloth into two parts one lays under baby’s cot sheet , one under our bedsheet for when he wants to sleep in with us ..

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Ok the hygiene never struck me. Like how it was or is unhygienic. But you have different issues in the UK compared to Pakland. here the water temp is just right, always cos I don’t use heating and when the water isn’t ok, I use a bucket with pre filled water at the right temperature.

we don’t have the capsule issue here cos again, temperature differences of climate between your place and mine.

you can choose to prop the foam up against the sink wall slightly, which is what I do, so he never is fully reclined. and when they start sitting it isn’t an issue anyway.

My kid is a total water baby and as long as I let him play with a running faucet, he will be as still as I want him to be under threat of being taken out!! hehehehe

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Chill out girls :slight_smile: I m not a primark’s spokesperson. I know, most primark items are of low quality but sometimes you can get some good stuff from there as well. Naah to the store for baby clothes.

You can also check H & M, BHS, M & S and Gap for the baby stuff …been to Next yesterday and I really like baby clothes there as well. They have got loads of choices for girls and boys. I always have bought kids towels from Mothercare as the quality is very good and you can use them for years to come.

George and Matalan are good as well.

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

When I was born my dad got pretty much everything from Mothercare (because he used to travel back and forth for work)…woh din aaj ka din, my parents (and even me!) are still big spokespersons for Mothercare…awesome stuff:D Wish they had it in Canada!

I was also wanting to begin a similar thread for canadians (and frequent US shoppers) as MashAllah, by the grace of Allah I am due in April and have absolutely NO clue about babies or babystuff…getting tips from queens thread and then will begin one of mine hehe…SGC i need helpppp :slight_smile:

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Aw. I am glad, a lot of you are finding this thread helpful :blush:

Demense, I literally skipped your location. Lol, yeah, thats why I named the thread UK ladies because I know when we are at different locations, we tend to buy the items, differently & accordingly. But your tips really mean to me :slight_smile: Keep them coming. I am a learning mother-to-be :slight_smile:

CB, I simply have no words to say, you define mash Allah everything so clearly and leave no point to question about. I am glad you are here. You don’t know how much help I am getting from you.

Ayeshaz…congrat :hugz: Can’t suggest you as I am in the same boat as you. We are the learners :hehe:

I was in TK Maxx Yesterday and I went through a really great stuff… we didn’t go there for the baby shopping but as soon as I reached that floor, they caught my eye… lol… My hubby kept walking and when he turned back, I wasn’t there but in the newborn aisle..:hehe: LOL… he later on grabbed my arm and dragged me from there :cb: He said, abhi waqt hy :blush: Poor he, can’t understand a mother’s emotion :frowning:

He specifically took me there to have some suggestion with his shopping and I totally ignored it :cb:

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Baby gap is expensive even though i love it. Do you guys have something like carters in the UK?
I have heard from everyone to not buy too many clothes in the beginning and just buy onesies.
Ps I liked primark for myself hahaha. It’s because I get bored of clothes easily. :stuck_out_tongue:

Lol queen! I would do the same if I was able to go out shopping. So did you end up getting anything? I’m still waiting to find out the gender.

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

No dear. I didn’t. Because I myself want to wait for sale time. The shopping won’t be about a few items. It will be too much to handle a newborn. I just don’t want to spend £££s initially and then when the time comes and realize about buying some more necessary stuff, I am left with the really low budget. I want to keep the balance. So I will take out a whole week probably to buy everything… :slight_smile: This will help me in maintaining the budget and spending on things equally. I don’t want to buy the real quality stuff in the beginning and then the aiwaeeen stuff due to less amount remain, in the last :frowning:

Having £££ in the hand at the moment means, spending on leisure :cb: you understand?

How come are you waiting for the gender scan? In what week are you? When was you last ultrasound. Here in UK, I just had two main ultrasounds. Two more happened really initially in week 5 and 7 because of my previous ectopic pregnancy.

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

I’m going to be 20 weeks tomorrow inshallah and my scan is tomorrow as well iA. We have more growth scans here in the US plus I get more for cervical measurements.
Maybe I should tell my mom and sister to go out shopping on Black Friday to get good deals. It must be overwhelming to do all of it by yourself queen. I was making a registry and trying to think what to put on it. My friends are insisting on throwing me a baby shower iA.
Random but I want coke again. :yummy:

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Aw thats lovely. I hope everything turns out to be good at your end and you find a perfect healthy baby in the scan :slight_smile:

A tip, because I have been to my scan recently, if your baby isn’t in the right position to have his gender revealed, don’t completely rely on the Sonographer, suggest her to re-scan it either after you take a walk or you stand up, move a little and then lay down to recheck.

My Sonographer did the worst to me. She kept on looking for other things (I know that those are really important), & when I asked for the gender, she asked me to wait. I would have not asked her twice if I had not noticed the baby’s right position, I just didn’t want the baby to change the position so I had to ask her twice and both times she said, wait. Not only that, she was at the very back on a seat and actually a new trainee was scanning me. I was like an experiment to them :frowning:

Later on when she said, ok now lets see the gender and Oh! the baby has changed the position, I could do nothing and stupid of me that I said ok, and came out from the room. When reading online, a lot of to-be-moms wrote their stories and shared how they gave the suggestions. After reading that, I regretted, at least I could have made ONE effort to convince her. I didn’t say anything :frowning:

I eagerly wanted to know the gender (because my hubby wanted to know), and God knows how long had I been waiting for this day to know my baby gender. I just thought, I wish I had read the stories before going to the ultrasound so that I could take any step.

If YOU are really interested to know the gender, don’t be chipko but at least for once, you can demand for it. I don’t know if you will have other scans after that or not, but I was more sad because I knew, it was my last scan!!!

My hubby has given me the option for private scans but I don’t want to spend a lot on that. As, the minimum cost I came across is no less than £75!!!

p.s., I have also come across that a few sips of coke (or any fizzy drink) before ultrasound makes the baby keep moving :cb:

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Oh Baby Shower. I really want to have one for me. I just don’t have a LOT of people around to have it celebrated. Especially you know, its more exciting when Elders are around… I hope you get what I mean :blush:

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

I love reading this thread JazakAllah queen :hugz: … i am sure its helping alot of moms to be :blush:

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

ok all you preggo ladies in the UK, one more thing you need to buy before the baby arrives:

A baby nail cutter and a nail filer.

I bought one from ASDA and hated it .. then one day husband was shopping around and we came across to Body Care ( its got branches around UK and are online as well ) .. they had the Chicco nail cutter set that included a nail filer and baby scissors. I think it was only for a quid ! but was an awesome buy ..

Basically a newborn will need their nails cut every week but their nails are so delicate that you cant use a nail cutter on them for fear of cutting their skin or cutting the nail too deep. Therefore you can use a nail filer instead. one or two swipes and the nail is done ! and then when the baby turns about two months old thats when you can start using the nail cutter.

Absolutely must buy this before the baby arrives , you will need this stuff within days of the baby’s birth.

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Queen, here’s the thing with the Brits .. since you asked enthisiastically about the gender reveal a few times , they must have come under pressure not the tell it even more coz alot of indian families here in the UK go about asking for gender and then they arent very happy if its a girl.. it was even in the news the other day that asian families in particular react badly at gender reveal. Hence the hospitals started a policy on not to reveal it. Since you asked a few times , they stuck to their policy. What you should have done was waited for the scan to progress to the end and then asked casually stating you want to shop for the baby etc .. that way they would have been more relaxed at revealing it ..

Challo khair , no worries .. let it go now .. you might know the gender towards the last month or so ..
Its easier to shop though once you know the gender ..

Also if you see any good sales stuff at any retailers do buy it .. for example : body suits , sleep suits , a fleece outerwear romper etc .. or at least start keeping an eye on things so that you know exactly what you are looking for when they go on sale. you can buy a fleece blanket or two ..

Have you started search on car seat and baby pram? its where your buying should start ! coz the day the baby is born In Shaa Allah you wont be able to bring them home unless you have a car seat ! so start research on what type you want. totally depends on your budget.

I went through every store to see what was available and in what budget. My budget was around £400 and I wanted a travel system ( which has a car seat option + newborn carriage + pram option ) so you can use any of these three on the same structure. I loved Graco Symbio and am really enjoying it alot .. we got it cheap from Babies R us where its marked at £250 on sale , we bought it on a further reduction day when they had a 20% off .. so we bought the symbio set along with the car seat in nearly £200 .. and we had the pram ready about 4 months before the baby arrived !

Our second buy was the cot .. also from Babies R us since we found a really good deal and a good sized cotbed .. cotbeds are better , they can later be used as a bed for the kids ..

and then we bought the basic clothing and bedding ..

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

Just to make things clear , this is the order of how and what I bought :

1- Graco Symbio Car seat + Travel system

2- Cotbed and mattress from Babies R us

3- Bath seat for baby , from Babies R us

4- Fleece blanket , Fleece cotbed sheet

5- basic baby clothing

6- Nail cutting set

7- A feeding bottle set , Avent is a darn good bottle .. and if you keep an eye on it , argos had a set of two bottles priced at £5 , its usually £12 in the market . you might not need to use it initially since you will be BF’ing but its handy to have the bottles as well , like I was expressing milk as well and needed the bottles . Dont forget to buy the sterilizing tablets , they cost £1 at ASDA and TESCO , and a bottle cleaning brush set that costs a quid as well if bought from Home Bargain.

8- baby toiletries like Baby oil, baby shampoo and baby bath. I bought powder and lotion as well but never got around to using them .. also buy a vaseline as well and to add one more thing its really important , a nappy rash cream , I bought Sudocrem. .

9- Baby towels ( hooded ) I got from ASDA they were really soft .. but Boots has some good deals on them too sometimes .. I bought two

10- A pacifier for baby to use , I got the disney one from pound world.. they are so freaking good, I hated the ones I bought from ASDA .. Pound world had awesome quality . I bought a single pack that had three in it.

12- newborn size nappies one pack as well as first size pack ( if you dont open the pack , you can later go get it exchanged for the size you want .Like when theres an offer husband buys a good few packs and then if the size is not needed he goes and get it exchanged for a different size .

13- a lamp for night time .

14- a little flask , or use the one if you have it already at home. even though i was Breast feeding, but i had to start formula along side too and going downstars every time wasnt the option. boiling the water everytime was also terrible coz it took ages for the water to cool down. so i would boil and bring it to room temp then pour it in the flask and keep it with me at night time.

15- a digital thermometer . I needed it to keep a check on him

16- For bathing, a pot or a plastic container that you will use to fill with water and give baby a bath , i bought one from poundland for two quid. baby sponge , bought it from wilkinson for £1.50 it had two in a pack.

Thats about everything i got for the baby. hope this helps

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

^awesome info

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

I could have done that CB but a notice was there on a notice board (just outside the ultrasound room), that if you are interested to know the baby gender, make sure that both of the husband and wife are willing to know it. Also for knowing the gender and having any pictures, please inform the Sonographer before the scanning starts.

That’s what I did. When I lay there. I told her initially that I would like to know the gender too as well as a picture of my baby.
It’s just one time in the middle that I pointed her out if she can tell the gender because of the position the baby had. I could have tried to guess it at my own but her focus was on the head and heart area so the light couldn’t go to the bottom of my baby :frowning:

Yes, budget seems around your budget. Cot bed, pram, car seat, bouncer… all such things… yeah I am kind of ready to spend around £500 for all these items, especially I have come across that when they are sold in a package, they cost you more less. So hoping to buy all of it in one go to save some amount on discount or offer OR package deals!!

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

It certainly would :smiley: thanks :slight_smile:

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Re: UK ladies, help in shopping!!

OMG CB, thank you so so so much for listing down all the things! Honestly, Im gonna copy paste your list and use it as reference…wish you could move to Canada and help me with the shopping too hhaha :slight_smile:

Currently Im in Pakistan but in Canada they just have 2-3 scans (maybe more if its high risk). Ill be getting a scan done between week 20-22 but Im still double minded about finding out the gender. Initially hubby and I were totally for it, so we could plan better and do up the nursery and shop accordingly…and now Im backing out since a part of me wants it to be a surprise..I mean, its a surprise either way whether one finds out in the 5th month or at delivery, but I keep coming up with excuses to convince myself that the first few weeks/months I can dress up the baby in gender neutral clothes and then keep buying pink or blue stuff on the way :wink:

One question: how many newborn sized clothes vs 0-3 month size clothes would be an appropriate amount to begin with? I know you’ve listed the stuff you bought, but did u have to go shopping in the first or second month after your son was born? Had the same question for pampers but you just answered that one in the previous post :slight_smile: What about swaddle me? Did you get one? How many do we need?

And toys? At what age can we actually give a lovie/security blanket/stuffed toy to a baby?