The Excel-lent Baby Show – Advice, offers, bargains and lots and lots of shopping

This time four years ago, I was preparing to tell my family that the Wee Man was on the way. I’d arranged to take my Mum to the Ritz for afternoon tea on her birthday, along with my Grandma, sister, Mum’s Other Half and of course the Other Half himself, and we presented her with a wrapped book called ‘the Grandparents Guide’, complete with a picture of the 12 week scan inside. Happy tears were shed, tiny sandwiches, cakes and tea were consumed, and everyone started to get excited about our coming family addition.

Telling other people about our exciting secret made it all start to feel a bit more real to us too – and that’s when I started thinking about what this tiny baby growing inside me might need in the world outside the womb.

So I decided to go to the Baby Show, and look at all the different products on offer, compare and contrast, and pick up some great baby bargains.

Four years later, and I’m about to go to the Baby Show again (at ExCel between 22nd and 24th February) – except this time its with two little people in tow!

Thousands of products, hundreds of brands – all sitting under one roof. As the name of my blog suggests, I do like looking at all the new and innovative products that are out there aimed at making parents lives easier – and the Baby Show provides an ideal place do that, along with the opportunity to grab some bargains whilst I’m there. For instance, at the first baby show I went to I got 20 reusable nappies and all the associated paraphernalia (bucket, liners, dirty laundry bag, wet bag, reusable wipes and tea tree oil) for just £120. A massive bargain, considering the usual price and the amount that we would have spent on disposables, too. There are plenty of freebies on offer – MAM are giving away a free anti-colic bottle if you print out and bring along their voucher, Cuddledry are offering 20% off their apron and toddler towels (we love our Cuddleroar!), Bumpkins photography are offering a studio session for just £10, Love to Swaddle Up are giving a free Original Swaddle Up to the first 10 visitors to their stand each day who present this voucher, Manduca have special offer prices on their baby carriers, and MabyLand  will give a free zip lock pouch to keep wet items away from your dry stuff when you sign up at stand B40 as a MabyLand VIP. There are lots of great competitions as well, from great brands such as Fisher Price and Chicco – and Maxi Cosi, who are giving away a Mura Plus travel system to the best one tweet review they recieve each day.

And that’s not all you’re getting, as there are plenty of other things going on too…

The Baby Show stage will host a whole range of speakers including:

• Professor Robert Winston – child development expert
• Annabel Karmel – weaning and baby and toddler meal planning
• Jo Tantum – all about sleep
• Sarah Willingham – how to be a money saving mummy
• Jane Wake – fitness trainer, and
• Dr Emma Derbyshire – adapting your diet to the life of a busy mum

Some of those I’ve not seen before, so I’ll be very interested to hear what they’re saying.

The British Red Cross will also be there, sharing information through their First Aid Challenge – I took part last time I was at the Baby Show and learned how to deal with burns, cuts, choking and performing CPR on little ones – I hope I never have to use it but it’s useful knowledge to have, just in case.

The Wee Man is a big fan of the Fisher Price creche – filled, as the name suggests – with Fisher Price toys to play with; and of course whilst the kids are happy testing all the toys I can spend a bit of time doing ‘boring mummy shopping’ and checking out all the latest new products innovation from some of my favourite brands – Maxi Cosi, Mothercare, Funky Giraffe, the Gro Company, Me&I and Melobaby to name just a few.

The iVillage promises to be fun with a Village Green complete with bunting, face painting and somewhere to sit, and there is also a baby changing area with free nappies and wipes, feeding area for bottle and breast feeding parents, and Pregnacare juice bar and Joie Pit Stop Café for reviving yourself after a hard morning shopping.

You can even attend an antenatal class (courtesy of the Natal Company or Daddynatal), get a scan of your bump or find some answers to childcare dilemmas at the Childcare Clinic.

Once you’ve finished all your shopping (or if your arms are about to fall off halfway through, too!) there’s no need to lug it all around with you – theres a shop and drop and collect by car service  – we’ve used that several times and it’s brilliant.

There’s no denying there’s a lot to see and do, so we’ll be getting there early (it opens at 9.30), enjoying lunch at one of the ExCel food outlets, and staying until they kick us out (doors shut at 5.30) – no doubt nursing tired feet but laden down with lots of great bargains. We can’t wait!