Today I want to share with you the products we have relied on to get us through our earliest days with Bea, our beautiful baby rainbow.

Birthing Ball
I actually had two of these, a bright pink ball from Mama Baby Bliss and a lilac ball from Birth Ease. These will now be passed to Esther and William to play with in the garden. Pink and purple in memory of Matilda Mae.

I used a ball throughout the last weeks of pregnancy for a comfortable place to sit, to alleviate pressure and pain in my lower body, to help get baby into the best position for birth, to bring on labour and to help with pain management during labour. A pregnancy ball can also be used for pre and postnatal fitness exercises and there are even ways of using the ball with baby to develop their core muscles ready for crawling, sitting and walking. I would not be without a ball, just one, in the third and fourth trimesters.

Theraline Original Pregnancy Pillow
I have slept with this pillow every night since turning 20 weeks pregnant. It supported my bump and took pressure from my hips as I lay on my left side each night wrapped around it. I also used it to elevate my feet in bed when suffering with severe oedema. I took the Theraline pillow into hospital with me when I went in to be induced. Along with my ball it was the thing that I used most during our stay and the thing that brought me most comfort during labour. When I was having contractions bounced on my ball, holding and leaning on to this cushion for support. It also helped to keep me upright when on the bed for monitoring and supported me in hospital beds for Baby Bea’s first cuddles and feeds. I would really not be without it.

Snuzpod
When Esther and William came home from NICU they slept beside our bed in a twin cosleeper. It was wonderful having them so close by in the night for feeding, changing and settling. There were still many nights when they ended up in bed with us, sleeping on our chests but also nights they snuggled in their crib. Within arms reach. I wanted the same for Baby Bea and after looking at all the options we decided on a Snuzpod from The Little Green Sheep Company. I am going to write a full review of this bedside crib in a few weeks. At the moment we use it more as a handy storage area than a c ib but in a few weeks we will start to make the transition from sleeping on mummy to sleeping in a safe space of her own and snoozing in her Pod. We have complemented our Snuzpod with Little Green Sheep Crib Bedding which is lovely, comfortable, organic and great quality. Little Green Sheep is a company I trust to help me ensure my baby sleeps soundly and safely. They also support The Lullaby Trust, one of the many reasons that I like to support them.

Grolight, Gro Egg and Grobags
The Gro Company are another company that support The Lullaby Trust. We use so many of their products and have done with all of our children. We have always had a Gro Egg in our room when a baby has been resident. It is great to be able to see at a glance the temperature of the room and be able to dress your baby accordingly. The Gro Company provide room thermometer cards with all their sleep products that advise you how to dress baby for sleep in different room temperatures.

The weather has been so warm in the last two weeks that there has only been one night that Bea has tested out a 1 tog sleeping bag. She loved it and we will definitely continue to use Gro Bags all the while she is sleeping in a cot. Esther and William had sleeping bags until they moved into their big beds when they were three and a half years old.

The product that is helping me most though with our Rainbow Baby is the Grolight. I sleep with this night light on every night. The Grolight fits easily to a bayonet bulb fitting, above your usual bulb. There is a dial for setting the desired brightness of your bulb when used in night light mode. Press your light switch once and the night light comes on, switch a second time to turn the night light off, switch a third time to put your light on in normal mode. The Grolight is so simple to use. The blue light shines gently around the room meaning that you can see your little one to feed them and change them through the night, you can easily check that they are breathing and you can also sleep well, without a bright light shining in your eyes. I think that this has made a huge difference to our first two weeks with Baby Bea.

Newborn Pouch
This is another fabulous product from Little Green Sheep. It is perfect for enabling newborn babies and those too small for sleeping bags to sleep safely but snuggly. The top of the pouch is gently elasticated to keep it safely in place while baby sleeps. There are two pouches a flannelette for warmer sleeps and a plush for colder nights and naps. I think this is a wonderful product for newborns and would make a lovely new baby gift.

Cosy Play Mat
We have a gorgeous Cosy Play Mat. This is a large mat that we use as a safe and clean space for Baby to play and bond with Esther and William. The mat is plastic on one side and soft on the other. It is perfect for tummy time and for physical play. Great for some nappy free time too. We have also been using the Cosy Mat to put Bea’s Toddlepod on to keep that clean, it also means Esther and William can lie or sit beside Bea but she is still safely cocooned in her Pod. As Bea grows bigger and stronger we will start putting toys and sensory materials on the mat for her to enjoy. I am going to be blogging our Cosy Mat story so I hope that you will come and follow our journey where I will be sharing ideas for physical and sensory baby play.

Toddlepod
When Tilda was about 4 months old we reviewed a PoddlePod. We liked it well enough but had no idea of how useful a product it would be with a newborn. The Toddlepod is the larger version of the PoddlePod for babies over 6 months old. We have had one of these since Bea was born and when she is not asleep on a person she can be found snuggled in her nest, her Pod with a beautiful, breathable woollen blanket from Green Sheep Baby. This is without doubt, apart from in mine or Daddy’s arms, Bea’s favourite place to be. And no wonder! It looks so snug, so warm and so comfy. People who have seen photos on Instagram have asked if they can be made for adults!

Snuza Hero Monitor
The hospital very kindly loaned us an apnoea monitor for Bea. We used it in the hospital and for the first few nights at home. Soon the wires became a hindrance though and the tape used to hold the monitor in place was marking baby’s skin. We decided to buy a Snuza Hero monitor that clips onto Bea’s nappy. It gently monitors her breathing. It flashes a small light with each movement which is very reassuring especially while she is sleeping. We use the monitor day and night but we also never leave her alone. I am certain she has the most watched diaphragm of any newborn baby.

Water Wipes
For the first two days of meconium poo we cleaned Bea with warm water and cotton wool but then we moved on to wipes. We have been using Water Wipes. These wipes use purified water and fruit extract to gently and naturally cleanse baby’s skin. We only use them for nappy changes and for the rest of the body and face we do wash with warm water.

Weleda Mallow Baby Products
Baby Bea is beautiful and she is a chunk of a baby, weighing almost 10lbs on Day 14. Her skin is delicate and baby soft. It is also very dry and flaky. I know that there are reasons not to use olive oil on baby’s skin as we did with Esther and William in NICU. I wanted something natural and unscented, something gentle to massage into Bea’s skin to ease the flakiness but not to damage the natural goodness of her fragile skin. Weleda make a wonderful range of natural skincare products for all the family. I loved using the Calendula range with Tilda and with Bea I have been testing the new Derma Baby Mallow Range. So far we have only used the body lotion on Bea. Just a tiny bit after her bath eases her very dry skin. I have also used the body lotion on myself during pregnancy and loved the way that it made my skin feel, soft and smooth and not at all greasy. We will continue to use this range I think on all the family until Bea is a little older and then we will use the Calendula products as we did with Matilda Mae.

Shnuggle Bath
At the moment the upstairs of our house is an ongoing renovation project , we started with Esther and William’s room and are still working on ours and Bea’s. The bathroom is next to be started. Because of this we have decided that we will bath Bea in our bedroom or in the lounge. In these rooms it is warmer and cleaner. To enable us to bath Bea in different places and to facilitate Esther and William being able to be little helpers we have a beautiful rose coloured baby bath from Shnuggle. The bath is small, light and ergonomically designed so that baby can sit in the bath from the first with support. The bath is designed to retain the warmth of the water. It is the perfect first bath for a little one and Bea adores hers.

Cosatto Ooba Kimono
I have been a huge fan of Cosatto for a long long time. When David and I got married Esther and William arrived at the church in an Owl and the Pussy Cat twin buggy from the brand. It fitted perfectly with the theme of our wedding, children’s literature. When I saw the Cosatto Ooba at The Baby Show in February, I knew that it was the pram I wanted for our rainbow baby. I loved the Duck Egg Blue design that was before I was introduced to the Kimono. The perfect pink carriage for our rainbow baby girl. We brought Bea home in the Cosatto Hold Car Seat that can be used as part of the Ooba travel system. We have been really pleased with the car seat and pram so far and I am looking forward to getting out more with Bea once Esther and William start school in a couple of weeks.

Manduca Baby Carrier
I love babywearing. I love holding my baby close but also having arms free to do other stuff. It makes getting out and about with Esther and William much easier if I am able to hold their hands safely for crossing roads. The Manduca is a carrier I have wanted since seeing it at The Baby Show on the Cheeky Rascals stand. They have very kindly sent me one to review, the same striking purple with rainbow zip that I fell in love with at The Show. It is super comfortable to wear, easy to put on, easy to get Baby into and Bea seems to love it. Her legs are curled up inside the carrier at the moment like a little frog. I will be blogging about our Manduca Missions over the coming weeks, months and I hope years.

The Essential One Nursing Nightwear and Baby Clothes
I cannot begin to tell you how much I love The Essential One. Their clothing for mummies to be, nursing mummies and babies is amazing. Super soft and beautifully made. I lived in their clothes throughout my pregnancy and continue to do so now. After giving birth to Bea I put on one of their nursing nightdresses and Bea’s first outfit and coming home outfit were both from there. In the days and weeks since Bea arrived I have continued to spend most of my time in The Essential One breastfeeding range while Bea snuggles up in their beautiful baby wear. It is lovely to see Bea safely wrapped up in Essential One clothes, just like Baby Tilda before her.

Bravado, Carriwell and BOOB Nursing Bras
If you are going to breastfeed successfully you need to feel comfortable doing it. You need nursing bras that are supportive, easy to wear, provide fuss free access for feeding and also that make you feel good about yourself. I like bras that are bright, pretty, feminine and fun. I love knowing that under my plain black nursing tshirt I have a bright pink nursing bra from BOOB. I love coordinating different coloured Bravado bras with my chosen outfits. I love that the low back and delicate straps of Carriwell nursing bras make them perfect for wearing with summer dresses.

Tommee Tippee Breast Pads and Sangenic Nappy Bin
Bea seems to have found herself a little pattern early on in life. Throughout her second week she has started to feed every two to three hours and after every feed she poos. In the evening she cluster feeds and some times in the very early morning she will feed lots, have a play and then fill her nappy before falling back to sleep. With Esther and William and even with Tilda I used to get upset if they seemed to feed all the time but now I know that blocks of constant feeding mean something like a growth spurt or that they are making more milk in anticipation of growing. I am much more relaxed this time around about lengthy feeds and night feeds. I think it comes with Bea being our fourth baby, our fourth breastfed baby.

Two things that make Baby Bea’s routine bearable are breast pads and a nappy bin for our bedroom both from Tommee Tippee.
Disposable breast pads are a sanity saver for me as I go through lots of them as I seem to have a lot of milk and a forceful let down. I have used this brand of pads with all my babies and highly recommend them. I have never leaked milk while out and about using these adhesive pads.

The nappy disposal system David thinks is a bit over engineered for a baby nappy bin but it does it’s job perfectly. Stores dirty nappies in a hygienic way, each nappy is individually wrapped to stop smells and the bin is sealed. When full you can remove the sealed nappy sacks and dispose. Baby Bea can have around 6 – 8 nappy changes some nights and so this bin lives in our bedroom for those night time changes. It means that we do not wake in the morning to a room smelling of porridgey baby poo.

These products are ones that we have been using regularly over the first two weeks of Bea’s life. I am going to try and write a weekly update of what we are using and why from now on. I will also be reviewing some of these products in full as I know that knowing which products work with babies is invaluable for new and busy mums, and dads, and grandparents too.
Next week we are going away on holiday and after that we will start to think about making the move toward reusable nappies and wipes. I hope that you will come back to see what products have been our best ones as Bea continues to grow and we all settle into our new family life.

Have I missed a product that you found invaluable during the first two weeks of your little one’s life?

Many of these products have been sent to be reviewed or as gifts, but not all, all opinions are honest and my own.