REVIEW – The Baby Show @ Olympia

A few days ago, Amy and I went to our very first Baby Show! I had always looked at them with interest, but hadn’t wanted to delve into the madness until there was actually a pregnancy or a baby. I had worried a little about going to the show at 31 weeks pregnant, but as I’m feeling pretty great at the moment we decided to go, bringing father in law and step mum in law along for the ride. .

We weren’t too bothered about getting there early, so arrived about two hours after the show opened after stopping for coffee in Victoria Station – coffee is very important.

I had a few things in mind that we “needed” to get, so we did have a rough plan of action. What I didn’t anticipate, however, was the sheer SIZE of the place. We went to The Fertility Show at Olympia last year and this was in one of their other halls. They don’t call it the “grand hall” for no reason. This place was massive. Just huge.

Through the course of the day we found pretty much everything we had been looking for (including the lovely ladies from LesBeMums and their little man – *waves*!) and lots of stuff that we didn’t need. The freebies were aplenty and there was plenty to do and see. I was quite sad that all of the Red Cross First Aid courses were already booked up by the time we got to their stand, but it did remind me that I need to look into a baby first aid refresher.

We got all kinds of things from the show and took advantage of some fantastic show offers. Here’s the round up!

Purchases

Tommee Tippee essentials starter set – this is normal price £150, was down to £75, then was down to £64. Then they had a show offer of an extra 20% off so we paid just over £50 for it! Steriliser, bottle warmer, 2 x bottle bag, 4 x 150ml feeding bottles, 4 x 260ml bottles, 1x bottle and teat brush, 6 x milk powder dispensers, 2x medium flow teats, 1 x soother, 1 x tongs…
Dog onesie with magnetic fastenings – £19.99…
Bibs – 15 x funky giraffe bibs – their show offer was 15 bibs for £20!
Landmark Moments – baby milestone cards. 38 cards (first words, first sitting up, age etc etc). Normally £12, show offer £8
Sugarlump and the Unicorn – I just love this book and it has glitter on EVERY PAGE. £4
Rapunzel dress with matching headband and nappy cover from BabiesCostumes.co.uk – £24.99 (an essential obviously!)
Poddle Pod – 1x poddle pod with cover. Normally £39.99 Show offer £32. It’s a snuggle baby nest. Been wanting one of these for ages.
Feeding spoons – £1 raffle prize at the Count the Kicks stall
Aviator hat – normally £14.99. Show offer £12

Freebies
4xMAM self sterilising bottles
3xLatch bottles
Bennetts Baby Bum Cream
Pack of Huggies wipes
1x£5 goodie bag (wipes, creams, baby wash, ginger lozenges, 3xmagazines, bepanthen, pampers wipes, snacky bits, NUK bottle) 3xPrima Baby magazine

(Ewan the Dream Sheep and the mesh bumpers were bought from John Lewis post show)

As you can see, we (And Grandma and Grandad) bought a fair bit, but we saved a fair bit of money as well. The Tommee Tippee set I thought was particularly impressive, especially when it was £20 more expensive at the Tommee Tippee Stand. We bought it from Babies R Us, who also gave us two of the MAM bottles for free!

I thought the Baby Show was fantastic. We had a great few hours mooching around the show, looking at things we needed, things we wanted and things we neither wanted nor needed… Some things, like the Rapunzel Dress, were total essentials. Who doesn’t need a tiny Rapunzel dress for their tiny baby princess?

All in all, a great day out. I will say that it really could have done with more seating as it was near impossible to find anywhere to sit for a break. The facilities for those with kids looked great and I liked that there were places to leave things you had bought whilst you carried on with your shopping, to save you having to lug everything around with you.

From a lesbian couple point of view, we didn’t encounter any judgement at all from any of the stall holders. There were no awkward questions about “who mum is” or “where is dad” or anything like that, which was wonderful. We did get a massive glare from the person manning the Church of England stand, but we weren’t going to speak to them anyway so that’s no skin off my nose! I didn’t find anything at all that mentioned two mums or two dads, but that wasn’t what we were looking for. Maybe that’s something brands should consider for future shows.

We’ll definitely be headed to the Baby Show again. The next London show is in February at the Excel Centre. We’ll be looking forward to taking Eden along and looking for things for her as she grows up. I would recommend the show for anyone pregnant or with a baby as there really is such a plethora of things and some fantastic show offers. I’m glad we waited until there was a baby on the way, though, as I feel we might have felt out of place without a baby to buy for.