I am by no means an expert at anything to do with pregnancy or being a Mum, but I have discovered a few things over the past 12 months. From trying to get pregnant to pregnancy, birth and eventually being a new Mum.
There is a few Mummy life hacks that I wanted to share. These are just basics, I plan on writing a blog for advice on each stage (conception, pregnancy and new mummy life) at a later stage.
Most of these are about what I did to save money on the costs involved with pregnancy and babies.
One: Pregnancy Vitamin Tablets
Firstly, I found that pregnancy vitamin tablets can be expensive (especially if you get unnecessarily drawn into brands). However, I found that Boots own brand pregnancy supplements did the job (it contains the important things like Folic Acid, Vitamin D and more), I had a healthy 8lb 15oz baby boy (and fingers crossed he will stay that way). I have two hints for the Boots vitamins (link to the ones I used here). The first one is that they have 2 options, a 90 tablet option at £9.84, or a 30 tablet option at £3.49. However, Boots always seem to have an offer on their vitamins, of 3 for the price of 2. So it is cheaper to buy 3 boxes of the 30 tablets, saving you £2.86 for 90 tablets!
In addition to this, I read that you can use pregnancy tablets after you give birth in place of expensive, branded breastfeeding vitamin tablets. I would always advise checking labels on tablets though and checking with your Doctor.
Two: Maternity Pads
Needing maternity pads after giving birth is inevitable and most women will need a decent supply of them! Mothercare do large packs of 30 which are usually £4.99, but they are currently on offer at £3.33 (link here).
Even at the regular price I felt they were inexpensive - but I found that they were also very handy for periods postpartum. Sorry to be going into detail but after pregnancy you may find that your periods are a lot heavier, and the heavy duty maternity pads were ideal for this (as well as being cheaper than many sanitary pads!).
Three: Baby Wipes
I know there probably isn't much sense in it, but I prefer the Pampers sensitive wipes over other wipes. They are just thicker, wetter and seem to be softer than many others. However, Pampers is generally one of the most expensive brands for nappies and wipes. So as a compromise I buy the Pampers sensitive wipes either in bulk or using a deal (Tesco currently have packs of 56 wipes for 2 for £2.00) and also buy cheaper supermarket own brand wipes (such as Tesco Everyday Value Fragrance Free Baby Wipes - 72 Wipes for 46p). I then use the cheap wipes for those really dirty nappies that seem to use 30 wipes to finally get your baby's bottom clean again, and only use the sensitive Pampers wipes to finish off and for nappies that are just wet. I find doing this keeps the cost down a little bit while also meaning I can use the wipes I prefer, most of the time.
Four: Breast Pads
I have two tips about breast pads, first of all I bought reusable ones and regret this. They were bulky in my bra and made my boobs look weird shapes and they would get lost in the wash (because they were so small). I would not advise buying them.
Secondly, you don’t need anywhere near as many disposable breast pads as you may think. I got given boxes and boxes of unused pads from female friends (recently given birth) who had bought loads of them and never used them. I barely used any of them myself!
Your milk (that leaks enough to need pads) comes in a few days after giving birth, and within a day or two I found that your milk is meeting the demands of your baby. So you stop leaking. This may be different for every woman but I believe it may be better to just buy 1 box of breast pads before giving birth, and then buying more in the unlikely event of needing more.
Five: Baby Bodycare
I have been given and bought so many baby moisturisers, soaps, shampoo and more. I just don't have enough bathroom space for it all and my baby barely uses any of them. We only use 3 items: sudocrem (for any nappy rashes), Johnson’s shampoo and Johnson’s baby soap with honey (you can buy a pack of 4 for £1.00 in many shops).
Basically my top tip here is not to go overboard on all the bodycare products for babies. Buy a couple of items to start with. Often soaps are bad for a newborn's skin as babies only have a thin layer of skin and soaps dry it out quickly. Some people even advise only using water to clean your baby for the first couple of months.
There is a few Mummy life hacks that I wanted to share. These are just basics, I plan on writing a blog for advice on each stage (conception, pregnancy and new mummy life) at a later stage.
Most of these are about what I did to save money on the costs involved with pregnancy and babies.
One: Pregnancy Vitamin Tablets
Firstly, I found that pregnancy vitamin tablets can be expensive (especially if you get unnecessarily drawn into brands). However, I found that Boots own brand pregnancy supplements did the job (it contains the important things like Folic Acid, Vitamin D and more), I had a healthy 8lb 15oz baby boy (and fingers crossed he will stay that way). I have two hints for the Boots vitamins (link to the ones I used here). The first one is that they have 2 options, a 90 tablet option at £9.84, or a 30 tablet option at £3.49. However, Boots always seem to have an offer on their vitamins, of 3 for the price of 2. So it is cheaper to buy 3 boxes of the 30 tablets, saving you £2.86 for 90 tablets!
In addition to this, I read that you can use pregnancy tablets after you give birth in place of expensive, branded breastfeeding vitamin tablets. I would always advise checking labels on tablets though and checking with your Doctor.
Two: Maternity Pads
Needing maternity pads after giving birth is inevitable and most women will need a decent supply of them! Mothercare do large packs of 30 which are usually £4.99, but they are currently on offer at £3.33 (link here).
Even at the regular price I felt they were inexpensive - but I found that they were also very handy for periods postpartum. Sorry to be going into detail but after pregnancy you may find that your periods are a lot heavier, and the heavy duty maternity pads were ideal for this (as well as being cheaper than many sanitary pads!).
Three: Baby Wipes
I know there probably isn't much sense in it, but I prefer the Pampers sensitive wipes over other wipes. They are just thicker, wetter and seem to be softer than many others. However, Pampers is generally one of the most expensive brands for nappies and wipes. So as a compromise I buy the Pampers sensitive wipes either in bulk or using a deal (Tesco currently have packs of 56 wipes for 2 for £2.00) and also buy cheaper supermarket own brand wipes (such as Tesco Everyday Value Fragrance Free Baby Wipes - 72 Wipes for 46p). I then use the cheap wipes for those really dirty nappies that seem to use 30 wipes to finally get your baby's bottom clean again, and only use the sensitive Pampers wipes to finish off and for nappies that are just wet. I find doing this keeps the cost down a little bit while also meaning I can use the wipes I prefer, most of the time.
Four: Breast Pads
I have two tips about breast pads, first of all I bought reusable ones and regret this. They were bulky in my bra and made my boobs look weird shapes and they would get lost in the wash (because they were so small). I would not advise buying them.
Secondly, you don’t need anywhere near as many disposable breast pads as you may think. I got given boxes and boxes of unused pads from female friends (recently given birth) who had bought loads of them and never used them. I barely used any of them myself!
Your milk (that leaks enough to need pads) comes in a few days after giving birth, and within a day or two I found that your milk is meeting the demands of your baby. So you stop leaking. This may be different for every woman but I believe it may be better to just buy 1 box of breast pads before giving birth, and then buying more in the unlikely event of needing more.
Five: Baby Bodycare
I have been given and bought so many baby moisturisers, soaps, shampoo and more. I just don't have enough bathroom space for it all and my baby barely uses any of them. We only use 3 items: sudocrem (for any nappy rashes), Johnson’s shampoo and Johnson’s baby soap with honey (you can buy a pack of 4 for £1.00 in many shops).
Basically my top tip here is not to go overboard on all the bodycare products for babies. Buy a couple of items to start with. Often soaps are bad for a newborn's skin as babies only have a thin layer of skin and soaps dry it out quickly. Some people even advise only using water to clean your baby for the first couple of months.
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