My must-have baby buys!

I thought I'd do a list of the things that have made my life easier since becoming a mummy:

Let's start with the most useful - muslins.
Muslins are AMAZING! They are so underrated. There are about a million uses for them (well, not a million, but a lot)
Firstly there's the traditional use - for burping. Great for protecting your clothes/the surrounding area from dribbles and sick. They are also useful for mopping up drips when feeding from a bottle, particularly if your baby is a messy drinker (as KK was and still is!) While we're on the subject of eating, in the early days when it's all feed feed feed you can guarantee they'll want feeding just as you're eating, and the trouble with eating one-handed while breastfeeding is that you will invariably drop crumbs on your poor baby! However, putting a muslin over them (keeping their head clear so you can both still see what you're doing) is a great way of catching the crumbs. It works for snacks as well (chocolate stains do not look good on the clothes of a week old baby!)
Another thing I found very useful was using them for naps. Tiny babies are very bad at napping when out and about because they don't want to miss anything while they're asleep (well, everything in the world is brand new!) Unfortunately, they also get very grumpy when they're overtired (actually so do I!) I find that hanging a muslin over the pram - or over your shoulder if you're holding them - means that they can't see anything to distract them, and therefore go straight to sleep (unless they're just not tired!)
They're also great for playing peek-a-boo, hours of entertainment! KK can now pull the muslin off her head herself if you put it on her and ask where she is. If you are ever out and need a bib or a sunhat and have forgotten to bring them, muslins can be used as makeshift versions of both of these things (of course if you forget the muslins as well you're screwed!) You can lay them on a changing mat to stop the baby getting too cold and/or to soak up wee quickly in case of an accident (thus avoiding a complete change of clothes - of course if you have a boy you may need a change of clothes!)
If you are out and don't have any toys to hand (for example because the baby has thrown them all on the floor) and need to keep them occupied/quiet then the label from muslin work well. Or you can tie it in a knot and pretend it's a toy. I have also used them to put decongestional drops on when KK has had a cold (I tie the muslin to the cot then put the drops on the knotted bit so she can't lick it!) Muslins also make great teethers, great to suck or chew on - particularly with a bit of teething gel on.

Next most useful thing - linkys. Little plastic rings with a little gap so you can link them to each other and/or other toys. I remember seeing a packet when I was pregnant and thinking 'just links - what's the point there are no toys in there!' - oh how naive I was! These things are brilliant. They were a first toy for KK, When she was about two months old I used to link two together and put them in her hand, then another two in her other hand, and link four together for me, then shake them and say "shakey shakey!' to her and she'd copy me - cue one very proud mummy! They're great toys for little hands, especially if you link them together. You can also use them to attach toys to prams and carseats, or to 'bling up' a baby gym! One of their best uses however, is as teethers. They're brilliant for little ones to chew when teething, and if you put a bit of teething gel on there then they're even better! This is particularly useful at night or when out and about, as rather than just licking the teething gel off you finger, if it's on a bumpy linky it will have contact with their gums much longer - therefore increasing it's effectiveness.

A car seat that attaches to your pram base is very useful for the early days. If the baby has fallen asleep in the car seat and you don't want to wake them (tip - never wake a sleeping baby unless it's an absolute emergency) then it is very useful to be able to just keep them in there and still be able to get where you're going.

Johnson's bubble bath and body wash (the new one in the orange bottle) The advert says squillions of bubbles and they're not lying! Great fun now that KK finally likes her baths. She is fascinated by the bubbles, although she does sometimes try to eat them!

Magic mat - this is a mat that sticks their plate/bowl to the highchair tray, so they can't pick it up and throw it everywhere. You can only get the plate off by pulling a tab (which you face away from the baby). The pack says it works better if you wipe the surface with a damp cloth before use. What it means to say is that if you don't make the tray moist the magic mat won't work, rendering it useless. The same applies with the sucker for the plate. (We usually use a few drops of water from KK's beaker) It took us a while to figure this out but now that we have it's a product that makes mealtimes a lot easier.

Jingley toys. We have a few of these, they are essentially soft animals (a butterfly, a giraffe, and elephant etc) which dangle from a ribbon which has a jingley thing halfway up it and a type of linky at the top. This means you can attach them to things like prams and carseats, and as you travel along they make a soft jingling noise, as well as giving the baby something to look at and - when they're a bit older - play with.

Of course there are other essentials like nappies, a cot, clothes and blankets, but as well as being obvious they're not nearly as fun!