September 28th saw us make our way down to our local exhibition centre at Event City in Manchester for the Baby and Toddler Show, I’d been waiting for weeks in anticipation of this particular weekend as we planned to buy many of the items on our list there. Unfortunately I failed to take any pictures while at the show as I was in full on mum-to-be mode taking in everything around me and not blogger mode!
Upon arrival we received a token for a our free gift bag, every mum and mum to be who bought a ticket to the show receives one of these. The pack is actually the Emmas Diary Mum to be pack and contains a selection of items such as Johnson’s wipes & lotions and breast pads. Another of the many things I’ve been staring at in shops and avoiding buying just yet, haha.
Their were also free anti colic bottles on the MAM stand for those who signed up online prior to the event and downloaded a voucher, this was limited to the first 300 people on each day and surprisingly we managed to get one! It’s very cute and has little bunnies on it. These bottles are from MAMs range of very clever self sterilising bottles, you can fill them with water and pop them into the microwave to sterilise without being contained within a sterilising unit. The MAM stand was one of the more professional looking at the show and appeared to be very popular.
When we arrived at the show it didn’t take long for me to spot the large ‘mamas & papas’ signs gracing the back of the room where Baby Planet were exhibiting – this is where I intended to buy many of the items I needed and managed to do so with 20% off the RRP – Super!
We have chosen the kit out Baby C’s nursery in the Timbuktales range from m&p after we spent a day trailing all of the baby shops in Manchester to compare quality and design on the current ranges available, typical of me this had to be the most expensive range I came across but the quality and design far outweighed that when compared to others we had seen. So waiting for that extra 20% off was a brilliant idea.
We purchased the cot bumper (although I know their is a lot of controversy around these, we have one!) the nappy stacker and the snuggle blanket.
We also purchased the Timbuktales sheets, cot mobile, changing mat and curtains, I can’t wait to open them all and set up the nursery.
Also from the m&p stand we purchased the Donna Wilson Fox Leaf print changing, this came with 25% off and retails at £99. We’ve chosen the Donna Wilson edition Urbo 2 as Baby C’s pram so we couldn’t leave without the bag 😉
Another item on my list that I couldn’t wait to get my hands on is the Poddle Pod, I’ve heard so much about these and everyone is singing their praises! We chose the Poddle Pod bundle with a star print cover and fleece green bottom, it looks very snug. After last nights lack of sleep can we get a preggo pod?!
Overall the show was smaller than I had expected and was missing a few brand favourites that I had hoped to come across. Their wasn’t any Gro Bag or Little Green Sheep, I also failed to find Sophie the Giraffe and Ewan the Dream Sheep who were on our list. I’d also hoped to see Medela and learn more about their pumps. I think many of these brands can be seen at The Baby Show in London which is a completely different event all together but a little too far.
We did however manage to meet many other fab brands. Cosatto were there with a huge range of their products which really stood out from the crowd, Lollipop 4D Baby Scans were also there, we had already booked a scan via them prior to the show but their stand looked great. Pampers Pull-Ups had a bus inside the conference centre which looked brilliant and their were also fantastic baby first-aid courses taking place which we stopped by to watch for a little while.
The m&p stand had to be my favourite in terms of practicality as the majority of what I needed was there, the staff were brilliant and even carried our purchases over to the pay point for us. Our choice of pram for baby C also comes from m&p and we were given a great demonstration along with the chance for Phillip to race around the room turning doughnuts with it to pass the dad-to-be test!
I think the show is definitely worth going to if you intend to buy a lot of the larger items, these are where the best savings can be had. Not so much on smaller items or clothing.
We paid £12 for two tickets by using a discount code sent out a few days before the event, for this price and the savings we made it was more than worth it and made a really enjoyable morning out for us parents-to-be.
