nimbec -- a good rule of thumb is to choose a bottle with nipples closest to your own. Yes, really!
And sloooowwwwwww flow nipples if you're going to be introducing a bottle in the first few weeks (like first 6 or so) unless you already know you have super fast letdown. The slowest you can find (some bottle brands have preemie nipples and I've been hearing from lower/slower supply moms those work out alright for them). I have a friend on another thread who just gave birth, introduced a bottle right away and didn't follow that slowest-possible-flow nipple advice and now her baby won't nurse at all.
That is exactly what happened to me wtih Maisie and not only is exclusively pumping such a humongous pain in the ass, having a baby reject your boobs when you're deep into baby blues can be really emotionally taxing (silly thinking back on it now how much I let it get to me but it was really really upsetting at the time!). That experience is going to vary baby to baby but I feel like it's better safe than sorry. If you need to supplement for some reason, I recommend a supplemental nursing system over a bottle in the very early days.
I don't think that's something you need to worry about before baby gets here, though (unless someone had a history of supply problems like I do)!
A bottle warmer was absolutely not necessary for us. Microwaving is generally not recommended (esp because you shouldn't
shake breast milk), so we just warmed chilled breast milk under warm water and gave room-temp formula (made it on the spot since we combo fed and never knew how much formula we'd need in a day. That stuff is way too expensive to waste!). Even completely defrosting a bag of frozen breast milk doesn't take much time under warm water. But, I'll mention that I had a friend with a very picky baby and I don't know if she could have survived (so she claims, at least!) without a bottle warmer.
I'm personally choosing to go without again this time and if we end up with a crazy-picky baby, then stores will still be selling them in April.
We didn't need a monitor at all for the first 2-3 months. We never really left baby's side (she didn't really get the "you're supposed to sleep" memo
). BIL gave us a video monitor which we considered returning for the first few months but that thing turned out to be priceless from about 4-5 months! I LOVE it! Still use it daily during naps. The camera is infrared, so you can see her really well at night in the dark, too (not that she's been sleeping in her crib lately...
). Lots of peace of mind for me so I highly recommend them.
Bouncers -- Dd spent pretty much any time she wasn't being held in one of them for the first 4 months of her life. After she could roll over, it was useless. We had a nicer one (gifted, 2nd hand) and a cheaper one (also gifted 2nd hand) and we actually preferred the cheaper one (like $20 new) because it bounced more! She didn't give a flying crap about music or vibration (probably also varies from kid to kid) and we never used those features (though I'm pretty sure the cheaper one had both anyway). She wasn't super interested in the dangling toys until she was 3-4 months old, if I remember correctly. And since she started rolling right before she turned 4 months old, the use of the toy bar was really short-lived. Very unnecessary, IMO. We didn't even have it attached most of the time since it was easier to get her in/out without it. Once she started rolling, I felt like putting her in the bouncy seat was really unsafe. She almost flipped it over a few times before I put it away. That was one advantage of the more expensive one -- it had a wider base so was safer for her those last few times we used a bouncy seat.
Ugh, I've crashed from my sugar high. I'm so sleepy.
Still have 2.5 more hours of work today.
I keep freaking about how we have to buy another crib (pretty sure toddler bed isn't happening in time). We're better off waiting for our tax return to buy it so it'll be a couple months, still. I'm a bit of a planner so the waiting makes me anxious! It's not a huge deal, really. It's not like we couldn't use the pack n play if needed. And, based on my previous experience, it's not like I can expect the baby to actually sleep for the first couple of months anyway.
I do think nesting is starting to kick in for me, though. I pulled out all the newborn clothes a few days ago and put them in a box to wash and hang at some point over the next couple of months. They're so itty bitty!
. I guess I'm a bit of a schedule and plan freak and hate leaving things to chance 
but got some goodies a mobile from babies r us reduced from £50 to £24.99 and some other small bits inc a thermometer and gripe juice! ok so to tos eof you not on your first.....
