Adventures in night weaning part 1

Before I had a baby, I had some fairly fixed ideas about parenting. Most of them came from my mum. After all, she did a bang-up job on us.

Then I had a baby, and I found that implementing those ideas wasn't working, so I started doing some research. This led to some new, fairly fixed ideas.

Then the baby kept growing and changing, and I found my final fixed idea... nothing is fixed in babyland! The road to sleep deprivation and insanity is paved with unrealistic expectatations, and sometimes you have to do something you said you never would in order to keep your head from exploding and the bailiffs from the door.

So... we are night weaning Bundle.

I know, I know, I said I was going to be completely baby-led and continue to give her whatever she needed until the time she didn't need it any more. But in this case, I've decided that I know better than her what she needs. And a 16-month-old toddler doesn't need to feed every 3 hours. On the other hand, I NEED SOME SLEEP!

What you really need for a newborn baby

I've had such exciting news this month - one after another, three of my friends have told me they're pregnant! Oh bugger there go the broody hormones again... But anyway, it reminded me of this exact time two years ago when I found out I was pregnant, and how I got quite worried about all the stuff I needed and where it was going to come from. Luckily, I had a lovely mate who was desperate to rid her house of baby paraphernalia so she could fill it with toddler paraphernalia, and who passed everything on to me completely free. People are nice.

And in the end, I was so glad I didn't pay for any of it. Because, you see, it turned out I didn't need half of it. Nor those things I bought on Amazon while breastfeeding in the middle of the night (damn that smartphone!). And now I have a house full of baby stuff that I really need to shift... ah cue the pregnant friends!

So what do you need to have a baby? What is the list of truly essential stuff?