It was a fun day out and I remember pushing out my 'food baby' to look pregnant so I wouldn't feel to guilty about getting pushchair/stroller demonstrations.
I decided the next time I'd go to the Baby Show would be when I was actually pregnant.
I didn't feel confident enough yet to go to the show last October, but I wasn't going to miss the show in February 2014 when I would be 29 weeks pregnant.
I asked my girlfriend to come along as I thought it would be a nice 'bonding' experience, she and I are still in a long distance relationship, so she has to rely on me telling her about our baby.
My antenatal appointments are usually on Fridays, meaning other than two ultrasounds, she hasn't been to any of the check ups with me and has had to miss out on a lot of pregnancy related stuff.
Recently my work schedule changed and I am now off on Fridays, which was perfect for attending the Baby Show on the quietest day.
We arrived at lunchtime after about an hour travel time and were glad to see it not too busy.
Our goal was to test drive a couple of pushchairs, I had done lots of research, so I knew which ones to go and try out.
My flat/apartment has a very narrow entrance as well as limited storage space, so the smaller the pushchair, the better, so the Buggaboo Bee and the iCandy Raspberry were high on my list.
We also tried a few others, but in the end my girlfriend agreed that both of those would be the most suitable for us, even though we also liked the Mamas&Papas Sola and I later saw the UppaBaby Cruz, but both of these need to be taken apart into two pieces when folding down, unlike the Buggaboo Bee and the iCandy Raspberry, which easily fold in one piece.
Sadly the release date of the Raspberry has been pushed back to 'summer', after the baby arrives, so the decision has been made for us.
Other than looking at pushchairs, we did a bit of window shopping at the many, many other stalls.
You could get changing bags, safety items, high chairs, toys, bottles, clothes, nursery furniture and many many more things.
Luckily we managed to not spend too much money and only parted with £24 for a night light/room thermometer, a night light cover, some bibs and a door stopper, which I bought for work.
Plus I got quite a few freebies, a breast pump I had won on facebook(to be collected at the show), a full size bottle of bio-oil, which I won on a scratch card at the show, some dishwasher tabs, which were just handed out at the entrance and breast pads, free for signing up for the Avent newsletter.
And lastly we bought a goodie bag for £2/$3, which included 2 Baby Magazines and a whole lot of goodies. I will be giving some of these away to the little girl I nanny for as they're not yet needed four baby and I don't want it just sitting around at home, but for £2, we couldn't resist.
All in all we had a fun couple of hours and I hope to be back one day with our daughter. It's probably more useful for people who are looking at doing a lot of shopping to make it worth the price of the ticket on top. A lot of the retailers were offering 10 or even 20% off, but we don't need any furniture to begin with other than a small bedside bassinet, which we are just going to buy at the local baby shop.
