HawthorneVillager.com

No... just use room temp water (pre-boiled/sterilised) with the formula. Makes it easy when you go out somewhere for a meal, whether a restaurant or a friends house. Microwave ovens vary so asking a restaurant to heat a bottle for 30 seconds (while perfect at home) could be hot enough to burn.

We used disposable diapers, so a Diaper Genie or similar diaper pail system would be nice. We actually had 2 of these for the first year, one upstairs one downstairs because we ended up doing a lot of changes in the living room.

You can buy bottle systems used from some of the second hand stores, but I would be sure to buy new nipples for them.

We had an UppaBaby Vista stroller that served us well. I've been seeing these used on Kijiji lately for about 50% off retail at the moment. Only been checking the prices because we had been trying to sell ours for a while.
Couple of suggestions for the stroller:

* Make sure to get something with 6" or larger tires if you plan on using it year round ie. snow/slush and possibly parks etc. in the grass. Smaller tires will get stuck easier.
* Make sure the tires are solid rubber/foam/whatever and not air filled where a pump may be required to inflate a flat. Seriously. I saw someone pumping up a flat stroller tire and it didn't look fun.
* Single handlebar and not a bicycle style. This may not be a huge deal but if you need a hand free for something (coffee) it's harder to push a stroller one handed when you're pushing on one side. With a full bar you can still push/steer from the middle.

I would definitely look at the second hand stores for 90% of your clothes to start with. This is something we didn't discover right away and after finding onesies and other clothes for $1 and $2 it kinda hurt the pocket book to realize that we spent much more than that in most cases. Great place to look for fancy dress shoes on the cheap for your photo shoots too. Walmart also has cheap clothes. Fortunately, they don't have to last long with how quick the kids grow.

If you're going to get a swing look for one that also has an AC adapter for it. Daughter loved her swing a lot, and I think we would've spent about $1,000 on batteries with how much it was used. We had the Fisher Price Zoo themed swing. Also, a swing where the seat or swing direction can be changed so that the kid can either swing front to back or side to side is good.

There is no such thing as too many nursing blankets.

Buy everything used except for crib mattress. If our family didn't spoil us so much and buy everything brand new (swing, high chair, pack n play) I would have bought used. We bought the nursery set brand new from Walmart, 3 pieces Canadian made for under $800. All Clothes and toys second hand for sure. Variety of bottles, started out with brand new but quickly realized second hand is just fine. Don't bother with a bottle warmer, we just used room temp water to mix the formula. Second hand breast pump is also ok, just make sure it is a closed system where the milk doesn't get into the pump and you are good to go.

We loved our Uppa Baby Vista stroller and if I didn't buy used that came with the bassinet I would skip that feature for sure. Only used the one we got twice. When the baby is tiny you don't want to struggle to get them in and out of the car seat, just buy the adapter and use the car seat. When your baby is older they want to be sitting up looking around at everything.

Join the different facebook buy and sell groups for Milton. Look at the consignment stores on Main St. And Kijiji is great for large items.

Congrats!!

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/330352097036909/

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/132773263480136/

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/404400516292970/

Fantastic local groups!

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Some people are like slinkies. They're really good for nothing but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs.

God, the proprietary sippy cup headache. Ever one has their own annoying system and size. Standardize EVERYTHING!

too bad Tony Lambert is gone, else I'm sure he'd write / contact someone!

If you do go with a used car seat just be sure to check the expiration date. The materials can wear compromising safey features of the seat. Perhaps not a concern to some but my wife and I didn't want to take a chance on our daughter's safety.

One thing we absolutely loved was the microwaveable steam bag. That thing is a huge time saver. Just place bottles, nipples, pacifiers, etc in the bag, add a little water, microvave for 3 minutes and presto! Sterilized! Beats having to boil everything everyday. Sorry, it hasn't been that long but I forget the brand name. It has a yellow logo on it.

Our daughter is 8 weeks now and she is using the swing and bouncer a lot. The swing turned out to be one of the best investment for us.

Start shopping early. My wife started early enough and created a gift registry for our own use. As soon as something would go on sale, she would purchase. Babies r Us was generally expensive, but their sale prices were usually very reasonable when compared to other baby stores. We got our glider, crib, video monitor and most of the other $50+ things on sale from babies r us.

For some things, I kept an eye on Amazon.com to see if there were any deals. I ended up saving $ 200 on the stroller (compared to the cheapest price I found in the GTA) and $ 150 on the breast pump by buying from amazon.com. This will only be worthwhile if you know someone in the US and you are making a trip. In our case, we had someone visiting the US, so we just got the items shipped to their hotel.

Yes, definitely! Most seats will have a date of manufacture and/or the expiration date on a sticker. Be wary if there is no sticker. If it doesn't have an expiration date, only the manufacture date, the government standard is 6 years. The seat I'm selling still has 3 years before it expires, and I posted a picture of the label with the date of manufacture and expiration date.

If your wife plans to breastfeed, don't invest in bottles and associated equipment before the baby is born. They may just end up gathering dust. If you do need bottles, buy one at a time as you may find you have to try a few different nipple styles to find one that works best for baby. If you can avoid it, do - bottles are a royal pain.

What we used (first 6 weeks so far):

- Bassinet beside bed (make sure to buy a ton of sheets as we changed them 2-3 times each day and then again each night)
- Another bassinet or play yard for downstairs (and again, more sheets)
- Motorized swing
- TONS of undershirts - Get the snap up type, not the over the head type - baby hates those and snap up are easier. Expect to go through a ton each day
- TONS of sleepers - We learned the best ones are the zip up ones as you can quickly get it on/off when the baby is fussing
- Lots of Wipes, Diapers, Diaper Cremes, etc. - DON'T buy too many newborn diapers. Our "little one" popped out over 9lb and within less than a month hes almost 12lb. We had to donate a lot of newborn stuff as it wouldn't fit - this goes for clothing too!
- Few soothers (get different brands/styles as they can be picky)
- A few bottles (if you plan on pumping or formula), like everyone said, only get one of each for say 3 types. We had an extremely fussy baby who really only took to one specific brand/nipple. The rest he couldn't feed from - choking, gagging, pushing away, etc.
- Car seat (given as you need it installed to come from the hospital)
- Microwave sterilizer
- Lots of coffee for parents


What we didn't use:

- Designer newborn clothing, jeans, sweaters, jogging pants, dress shirts, shoes, socks, etc. Basically, the baby has an umbilical cord that needs to heal and it's hard enough just getting a quick snap up/zip up sleeper on. They don't sit still to put on big kid clothing yet. Besides, it will be soaked in pee, poop, or spit up within 20 minutes. All those clothing were wasted for us as now he won't fit into it.
- Entire nursery/crib/baby monitor, etc. - The first few months they recommend the baby sleeps beside you day/night to prevent SIDS. Regardless, it's a lot easier to have them right beside you as they maybe waking up every 1-2 hours for the first bit. We didn't even really set foot in the nursery so now I see that if needed, I could have waited to finish it/furnish it. If you are limited on funds, don't worry about the cribs or baby monitors yet as you still have a few months before it will be needed.
- Stroller (winter time)
- Diaper Genie (we found a shopping bag works better)

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Do not use the onesies that pull over the head. You want the ones that do up at the front. All it takes is one blowout from the diaper and all up the back and you won't want to try and pull that over the baby's head to get it off.

Try to resist buying clothing that does up at the back no matter how cute it looks.

With sleepers, find what works for you. I had bad luck with zipper sleepers - the zippers didn't last. I also hated trying to fish one leg out of the sleeper, then back in again at an awkward angle because they only zip down one leg. It meant you had to squeeze the other leg in and out of the sleeper. The domed legs were a bit fussy to get everything properly done back up again until you got used to it but I liked that you could completely open the sleeper down both legs. Made diaper changing easier. Don't stock up on a huge number of one or the other until you find out what works for you. Another reason second-hand is good for clothing.

Another tip I got - use standard sized cotton pre-fold diapers for burp cloths. The receiving blankets are thin, useless for swaddling the baby in, and if you throw them over your shoulder and burp the baby the spit-up soaks through them practically instantaneously. They make good rags. Prefolds are thick and absorbent and do nicely for spit-up (as long as it's not projectile, but then not much will save you).

You might want to consider cloth diapers as well. They reduce what goes to landfill and stinky bags that sit in your garage. Depending on the diaper type they can be quite a bit less expensive, and no running out in the middle of the night when you realize you've run out of disposables. I used cloth for both kids, and really felt the savings for the second child because I had a good stash all ready to go. Tons of options to choose from to cater to the dozens of reasons people choose to cloth diaper but if it's something that you might be interested in I'd certainly be happy to share my experience, what brands I liked and didn't like and accessories.