Nursery Essentials

Up until she reached the six month point, Lily slept safe and sound in her swinging crib next to us in our bedroom. But with a lovely big nursery all primed and ready for her to claim as her bedroom, it came time to move her into her own space.Read more

As I have mentioned in other reviews we were blessed with a very wriggly baby. I suppose we should have expected it from the amount she wriggled, rather than kicked, inside me!Read more

My Mum had told me plenty of times that when it came to putting me down to sleep nothing soothed me more than my cot mobile. The gentle lullaby would send me off into blissful sleep without fail. Obviously, then, getting one for my bundle of joy was an absolute must.Read more

When we first brought Lily home she was swamped in her Moses Basket - she looked so tiny in it - and so it seemed like it would be ages until the swinging crib my parents had purchased for her would come into play.

Certainly to begin with this lovely crib (purchased at a bargain price as it was an end of the line product) served as a somewhat expensive moses basket stand! It was only when Lily reached a few months old that we felt confident about moving her into the crib and even then, because she was such a wriggly little so-and-so, a sleep positioner was a must.Read more

It is perhaps an old fashioned term but sleepsuits, certainly when I was little, were known as babygrows or bodygrows. Hardly anyone calls them that any more but to my mind calling them sleepsuits is inaccurate. Lily practically lived in them day and night for the first few months and so bodygrows, as I prefer to call them, have been an essential part of her wardrobe. Read more

If your baby, like our Lily, wriggles a lot then using traditional blankets and sheets at bedtime isn't the best idea in the world. I had visions of Lily kicking the blankets off of her, therefore making her cold at night or – and a scarier thought still- moving around so much that the blankets ended up over her face. Friends of mine had mentioned using sleeping bags with their babies and they seemed an ideal solution to my dilemma and certainly a safer option for a little wriggler!Read more

Why have a variety of toys attached to your baby's crib or cot when you can have one that pretty much does all you would need? That was my thinking when I purchased the Mumma Lullaby Night Light. I saw it described on one website as a feature packed cot panel and that seems a pretty apt description because this product delivers a lot in one unit.Read more

When our little girl first arrived we were living in a one-bedroomed flat and so with space at a premium it was important that anything we bought for baby was both space saving and functional. I always had it in my mind that I wanted a changing table. It seemed an ideal way to store bibs, nappies, muslin cloths, all the bathroom paraphernalia and I could also put the changing mat on top for nappy changing time! 

I was initially quite keen on buying a changing table with a built in bath but upon further investigation decided against this as such designs tend to be made of plastic (for obvious reasons!) and so in my mind don't look as aesthetically pleasing. Which is a posh way of saying that I personally think they look a little bit cheap and tacky!! I wanted to get a piece of furniture that wouldn't look too ridiculous in the living room as this was where we were going to position the changing table.  Plus emptying the integrated bath seemed to be a real kerfuffle so we decided to by a separate bath in the end (see my review on our space saving foldaway bath).Read more

Our little Lily has always been a wriggler - was in the womb and has continued to be in the outside world! As adorable as her wriggling is, it's less so when it comes to putting her down to sleep. The moses basket was pretty good as keeping her pretty much cocooned and less able to roll but when it came to moving her into the crib which was that much bigger we soon became aware that we were going to have a problem.Read more

Baby monitors are an essential addition to any nursery but with so many options out there it can be hard to know what one is best. For me the choice was made easier thanks to a friend who recommended the monitor we use in our home. It doesn't only pick up sound (as with all baby monitors) to alert you to a crying baby but also monitors movement when your little un is in the crib (or indeed moses basket as it worked just as well in there for us).Read more