Sleep-Deprived Mum Buys: Newborn Essentials I Recommend (and Some I Regret)

In December 2024 I became a mum (it still feels crazy to say this).

The absolute shock of becoming a new parent is hard to describe. You are on duty at all times and your formerly adult home is now full of baby gear. Babies need so much stuff. It's a lot.

New parent life includes daily 3am Amazon shops for anything that promises to help. One of the most helpful things my doula did for me was share tried and true product recommendations to make my life easier and make my baby sleep longer. Now I am passing them on to you, dear reader.

This article contains affiliate links. I’ll be matching and donating all the proceeds from any sale on this article to GMRC, a charity close to my heart.

My top 5 baby essentials (and quick answers)

If you only take five things from this article:

• Your Baby Week By Week — the bible for newborn care

• Swaddle suits — stops the startle reflex waking them up

• The Rockit Rocker — the single most effective sleep purchase we made

• Bright Starts rattle and ball — Robin's first favourite toy

• Tommee Tippee UV steriliser — quick, no mess, works even if you breastfeed

Want the full breakdown? Jump straight to what you need: Sleep Aids · Feeding & Breast Pain · Toys & Play · Books · What Not to Buy

What baby products should I avoid?

• Formula prep machines, also known as Perfect Prep machines. They are unsafe for newborns, because the temperature of the water shot is inconsistent, so you cannot guarantee that the bacteria inside the powder formula has been killed.

• Anything by Frida Baby. It's super low quality and the brand has a bad reputation for a reason.

• A nest bed. They're not even legally allowed to advertised them as beds.

What do new parents actually need?

• Something to help with newborn sleep. I recommend the Rockit Rocker and a some swaddle suits. Serious game-changers.

• A UV steriliser. This will be useful even if you breastfeed.

• A book that offers some guidance. I recommend Your Baby Week By Week.

What are the baby sleep aids worth investing in?

• An automatic pram rocker. In the newborn stage, babies can have most of their naps in the basinet attatchent of your pram, and the rocking motion seriously helps them fall and stay asleep. The Rockit Rocker is cheap, powerful and cute.

• A swaddle suit. Newborn babies wake themselves up all the time due to the startle reflex. A swaddle suit helps them contain it and feel like they're still in the womb.

• A sound machine. Newborn babies are used to the shushing sound of their mothers blood pumping through their bodies. A machine that makes sushing sounds can recreate this.

Newborn sleep aids

I bought every single piece of nonsense that promised to put my baby to sleep. I made some really questionably expensive purchases that did not pay off. This is what worked for me.

• The Rockit Rocker - Someone bought it for me and it was one of the most helpful newborn products I owned. We used to put our baby to sleep in the pram’s bassinet with this thing on to rock him and this was SO EFFECTIVE. Just buy it, seriously. I wouldn’t have listened to this recommendation and I would have been very wrong. 

• Swaddle suits - A swaddle suit will keep the baby swaddled up and stop them from waking themselves up with the startle reflex. They’re safe, since they follow the Lullaby’s Trust Safe Swaddling Guidelines, but you need to take them off when they show signs of being ready to roll.

• Ewan the Sheep - We’ve removed the sound machine from the sheep and we use it separately. The shushing function still makes a huge difference for our baby today. The red light promotes melatonin production and recreates the womb environment. Don’t bother with the plushie, just pull the machine out. 

• The Zed - By the same brand as the Rockit, it vibrates to soothe your baby (just like a car ride does). It's not a miracle cure, but it helps our little man stay asleep longer.

• A low stimulation toy - Having something in their cot that offers high contrast visuals with some texture will help your baby learn to self soothe when they wake up at night. I use this triangle one. My child is now 19 months old and he still falls asleep every night with this toy. I own two, because I fear that if we ever lost one, he’d never sleep again.

Feeding & breast pain essentials for newborns

• Hot&Cold Breast Therapy Gel Pads  - You might not choose to breastfeed (or you might not be ableto), but your boobs don’t know that. Boobs hurt. Back hurts. Use this for cold/hot therapy to relieve pain and encourage milk letdown. 

• Milk catchers - Leaking milk all over the place in between feeds and pumping sessions made me feel awful. It felt wasteful, I felt dirty, I hated it. I didn’t try these milk catchers, because I learnt too late about their existence, but I wish I had used them. No waste, no awful wet PJs.

• A good pump - Even if you plan to breastfeed you'll need a pump too. There’s many types, but I can strongly recommend a round pump that goes in your bra, so you can get on with life as much as you can while you pump. Don’t get a big hospital one. Don’t get one of those that pop out of your shirt. This is the pump I used. The app is super reliable, the shape is really comfy. There are wireless options but you need to start each boob separately and they're bigger. 

• A steriliser - I use the Tommee Tippee UV steriliser. It's perfect. Quick, no mess, small, kind of stylish. 10/10. I’ve tried sterilising tablets, but you have to dry stuff manually. UV sterilisation is quick, safe, effective, super easy to manage, takes up less space, and can be used on heat-sensitive stuff. 

• Nuby RapidCool - A midwife recommended this one. You shouldn't make bottles in advance (it's unsafe) and you need to let the milk cool for like 40 minutes. I use the RapidCool for the hot shot method: 30mls boiling water, mix the powder, top up with cooled boiled water. Or you can just cool down any bottle on the RapidCool.

• Formula dispenser - At 3 am, in full sleep deprivation, you won't remember how many scoops of formula you've added into the bottle. Plus, the scoop gets super sticky from the steam, throwing off the quantities, which are meant to be precise. Pre-portion your milk in these for peace of mind. The one I have is a little column of 4 dispensers all screwed on top of each other. We call it “the cow”. 

Newborn toys & play

Babies learn by playing, so toys are SUPER important for their healthy development. Buying baby toys is the best, but do keep it slow at the beginning so you don’t waste your money on stuff they won’t use.

0-2 months

Newborns don’t need much, since they are essentially a very high stakes Tamagochi. You’ll be fine with some contrast cards or a contrast book.

I strongly recommend getting a Lovevery subscription before your baby is born. The newborn kit comes with a ceiling mobile that makes nappy changes much easier, a contrast book and cards, and contrast mittens that help them discover their hands.

2-6 months

At 2 months, you should get them a baby gym so that they can start exploring the world and grabbing things. After that, it’s toyfest. Especially when they learn to sit (around 6 months) and they can play with more complex stuff.

• A baby gym with a piano - I really love the Baby Einstein one, because you can change the piano position. Robin has used it in the kicking position, tummy time position and sitting position. It actually really helped him learn to sit up and he loved the lights. He still plays with this as a toddler and I think it ignited his love for playing on my grown-up piano.

• Bright Starts rattle and ball - This is the first toy Robin really liked. The bright colours and the easy grip really helped him discover his hands too and it was so awesome seeing him practice reaching for things and grabbing effectively. He loves this set. Other mums I’ve recommended this to say the same. And it’s so inexpensive. Stellar purchase. 

• Captain Calamari -  This is so loved by all babies that doctors recognise this instantly when you go into their office. My baby used to be obsessed. I own two, just in case they ever discontinue it. 

Books for new parents

Weird category to start with, but stay with me. There is A TON to learn and reading is one of the few comfortable activities when you’re super pregnant.

• Your Baby Week By Week - This is the bible for newborn care. I cannot overstate how much this helped me. Seriously get this right now. Get the paper version, because you’ll be reading and rereading one chapter at a time. I have followed their method of teaching my baby to sleep and he sleeps all night. Get this. 

• Cribsheet - It’s a research-driven book about parenting. This book collates research in a way that makes me feel like a good mum and empowers me to make decisions. I listened to the audiobook after my baby was born, but expecting mums can pick it up before having the baby to feel more prepared. 

Don’t buy

• A Haakaa. It’s a silicone manual pump. It has genuinely done nothing for me. I found it quite impractical and would be replaced by the milk catchers I mentioned above. 

• A Perfect Prep machine. They’re  are against the NHS guidelines. A lot of people don’t quite get why and buy them anyway, so here’s the TL;DR: there is bacteria in the milk powder. It needs sterilising. The hot shot of milk has been shown to come out at different temperatures and not actually sterilise your baby’s milk. They’re unsafe and honestly, not worth the effort. Use hot shot method using the Nuby RapidCool or some cooled boiled water (this is what they use in hospitals).

• A nest bed. They are advertised to be used “under supervision at all times”. The truth is they’re just not safe and pose serious suffocation risks. They are supposed to make your newborn feel “cuddled” and contained, but a swaddle suit does the same thing. Pass.

• The Windi Gas Passer. If you ask me if I’ve ever used it, I’ll deny it. Early motherhood is a desperate time.

• Anything by Frida Baby. I’ve had the medicine pacifier, the snot sucker, the anti cradle cap kit, the baby cleaning 3-in-1 thing and heaven knows what else. Cheap cheap cheap plastic. Ineffective. They literally do nothing. I feel actually scammed by the quality of this.

• The Owlet sock. Parents are divided over this one, but here’s my take. The Owlet sock needs to be taken off every once in a while. Newborns, the ones most at risk of SIDS, sleep with unpredictable patterns so either you have it on all the time (not healthy) or just for their night sleep (defeats the point). I bought mine and returned it unused. If you do choose to buy it, don’t spend £300, wait until they go on sale for either Prime Day or Black Friday to get £100 off. 

Last updated: 8th of July 2026

I’ll keep updating this as Robin keeps outgrowing half the stuff I swore we needed. Stay tuned for my future regret purchases!