Congratulations!
I gather she will probably have a baby shower? You will get tons of clothes, burp cloths, changing pads and blankets at those.
My wife and I had very good experiences with the Baby Sense range - in particular the baby sling (most babies I know love to be carried and this way you free your hands while they feel pretty secure in a "womb-like" environment), the wrapping blankets (they are stretchy, so they secure your baby better) and the soothing-blanket (square shape cloth, very soft with little tags on the side for them to feel).
A baby carrier is also great - most of them allow you to fit the baby both ways - towards you when they're small, and towards the world when they are bigger and have developed good head/neck support.
My advice for pram shopping: the travel systems are great because you can put them in the car seat and then when you get somehwere, take the whole seat out and put it in the pram without waking them. I bough a Peg Pereggo in the US, but they are not that common around here anymore. Insist on folding the pram and pushing it around the shop yourself - and I would also suggest asking if you can put it in your boot to see if it fits. The infant chairs that comes with a base are nice - you mount the base securely in your car and clip the seat in and out of it.
In terms of the clothes - let her ask friends for second hand clothes. We got tons of semi new clothes for free from friends who had babies - you can save a fortune. And even though our son is a little smaller, they do grow out of the clothes pretty quick.
Don't take your most expensive nappies to the hospital - you will need them later on! WE got a pack of Pampers Premium as a gift (R2.50 or so a nappy) and used it in the hospital, which was a waste. Much better later when their poo turns runny...
For the nursery - get a nice mobile, get a mosquito net for over the cot (you don't want to see a baby with mosquito bites!) - it fills the room quite nicely in any case and many of them allow you to hang a mobile inside. We went for the wall-art idea - see
http://www.ladala.co.za/ . It looks really great and everybody thinks we painted the wall. Best of all you can keep the base paint job if it is nice and neutral. Also, if your wife is planning on breast-feeding, get a comfy chair! We ended up getting a "Kevin" occasional chair from Coricraft for R2k, works well and looks nice.
https://www.coricraft.co.za/CoriOnl...px?SC=Kevin+Arm+Chair&PC=occasional+furniture
Also, a dimmer or a lamp is a must for a nursery - you don't want to blind the kid at night (or worse, wake them up fully). I bought a lamp in the same colour-scheme as the room and fitted it with an Ellies rechargeable LED light. It points upwards towards the ceiling (so it doesn't shine into our son's cot directly), is not too bright (good for night feedings), comes with a remote (so you don't have to hunt for the switch on the floor) and is good for 5, 6 hours of use when the power goes out. Cost me R80 from Builder's Warehouse.
We have had good results playing white noise - once again Baby Sense has a good product. It is a CD with white noise and "womb-sounds" - heart beats, water gurgles etc. For that reason, a CD-player (or in my case, an Airport Express connected to an old mini-Hifi allows me to play songs from my or my wife's phone) is also a good idea.
I'll think of more!
) Even if you know of current "specials" for baby stuff, that would also be welcome.
