They can’t all be hand me downs – starting to register – 20 weeks

A friend of mine had told me about the process of registering when she and her husband went the first time. She said they decided to start with bottles as they thought that would be easy and then they were brought to a WALL of bottles. She started to feel light headed and he had to push her around in the wheelchair for the rest of the registering process. (For those who have never done this, they really do have a wheelchair in the store. I think it’s generally meant for the 39 week pregnant woman who in a sudden crazed fit of nesting realizes she NEEDS another onesie / pacifier / wipes warmer / etc. before the baby arrives – because horrible things might happen to the baby and its whole life would be ruined if she didn’t have this.)

I thought she was exaggerating or being dramatic (though, truth be told, I did believe she’d gone for the wheelchair. My husband believed it too – and summarily told me that this would NOT be happening in our case, so bring my walking shoes). Then I got there. Now I’ve been to baby stores before. I’ve bought gifts for friends or gone along. I’d gotten lists from friends of what I “really” needed and had the lists the stores provide (because you actually do NEED 10 of the expensive ones) and yet – whoa is there a lot of stuff! There are so many choices to be made…

We started out with bottles / feeding stuff and tried to move through the store, but through every category we stopped to say – hmm, well, let’s ask a friend. Let’s check with the guys who teach the car seat class at the fire department. Let’s hold off on that one. My husband finally pulled me aside and said – look, we actually have to make SOME decisions and choose some stuff. I eventually acquiesced (knowing I could just delete it online later…).

And that was just the small stuff… We managed to hold off on making a decision about a carseat / stroller because My husband was going to check with the carseat experts he worked with, but we were going to have to move forward on a crib. The one saving grace I had in the crib search was the book Baby Bargains. It’s the first book I’d send any pregnant friend from now on. I’d tried reading it before going to the store and it was completely overwhelming and just too much info. But using it as a reference while I worked through the selection of cribs really helped. For instance, we found a great one we really liked at Target that was a good price. We were all set to buy it, but decided to check the book and saw that it had an “F” rating due to safety concerns as several babies were seriously injured and died before it was recalled. OK, not that one then. I think it was at that moment that the book became my Bible. I mean, clearly, without it, I would have KILLED my newborn child! The book had literally SAVED HER LIFE! I should strap it to me and never leave home without it. Yes, so if you haven’t figured it out, I became a somewhat obnoxious (hmm, others may argue my “somewhat” status) disciple of the book – a used crib or car seat? Are you kidding me?! It might not meet current safety standards! It might be missing a part! It might be made by the devil himself!

It took a little bit for me to come back from that edge (I’ll go ahead and blame the pregnancy hormones rather than any potential OCD nature on my part. Yes, the hormones. That is it…). However, luckily, I’m somewhat lazy and eventually didn’t want to have to cross reference pacifiers and brands of bedding for every decision made, so I was able to step back.

That said, registering was still a multi-trip affair. And I did have to talk My husband back from buying the most expensive version of everything (I know – we were clearly meant to be rich and there’s been some mistake. But until that’s corrected…).