Babies - they're expensive?

People have told me that having a baby is a very expensive thing indeed – that the costs soon pile up. So, I thought it would be worthwhile looking at the costs that I anticipate facing:

Baby Sling - £25

Baby clothes – Hand me downs

Pushchair – don’t need one but have been given one

Baby seat for car – My mother is buying one

Baby bath – not sure I need one – surely I will just take the baby in the bath with me? However, someone has given me one.

Cot – Don’t need one as co-sleeping but a friend has offered us a Moses basket.

Nappies – okay, these are going to cost – and we could even go down the whole changing mat route, going for eco friendly nappies.

Food – My long suffering wife will serve as a drink dispenser.

That’s it…I really can’t think of anything else I need...Am I missing something? Is there a huge shopping list of baby related products that I should be panicking about getting before baby arrives?

A note on breast feeding here – IT’S INCREDIBLE! I mean, wow, that stuff is clever! I know you will already know this stuff, but it came as news to me. Apparently when a mum kisses her baby she picks up their germs, her body then creates the antibodies to deal with them, and dispenses these anti-bodies when she breast feeds! Breast milk is designer baby medicine.
Some comment needs to be made here about breasts, however. Currently the people who see my wife’s breasts are my wife, and me. That’s it. The idea of my wife getting her breasts out in public does trouble me rather. Don’t get me wrong here, I know, breastfeeding is natural, it’s great, I’m all for it, it’s wonderful. But, and here is the big but, that for me is on the stipulation that other people are not looking at her breasts.

Women out there may now be saying to themselves, “people don’t look when you are breast feeding, you can be discrete” etc. Believe me – people are looking. Me. I am sorry, I know it’s natural and all the rest of it, but generally speaking, my experience of breasts has been objects of sexual desire. However grown up I want to be about it, I can’t help thinking to myself: “BOOBS”. This is particularly difficult if, while talking to someone, they start breastfeeding - so I know, I know people are looking. And I don’t want them to. But I do want my wife to breastfeed, I believe in it. Just be warned. If I catch you staring in anything but a medically curious or the “wonders of nature” kind of way, we will be having words!