Thrusters at 24 weeks, during a WOD. I adore the For Two Fitness shirt I'm wearing, courtesy of a friend!
With a few weeks left in the second trimester, baby registries and baby gear are my current focus (if nothing else, to stop me from thinking about the whole labor process). With registering, I find myself completely overwhelmed by the different products that exist for babies, and I find myself hearing mixed messages. Do you get the Bjorn or the Moby? Do you need the $300 video monitor? Am I supposed to have baby gates ready to secure my stairs? How many burp clothes and receiving blankets should I have on hand? How do I know which swaddling blankets to try? How many versions of the Jumperoo can possibly exist? And what do I do about toys? I already have nightmares of giant, Fischer-Price plastic toys taking over my house. (It's similar to the scene in Ghostbusters where the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man walks down the crowded street). Am I supposed to have the swing that simulates the motion of a car, and do I need music/white noise playing in the nursery? What baby books am I supposed to read to prepare for motherhood? Do babies really need a lot of stuff? As all these questions and more swirl through my brain, I try to keep in mind my desire to lead a minimalist life and to not get caught up in feeling like I need a bunch of unnecessary, miscellaneous stuff. I like to keep things simple. I want to be as natural as possible.
So, what is the baby gear you thought you needed to have, and then realized you could definitely live without? Any baby purchases that you're grateful that you made?
This reminds me that I have a baby shower in just over a month and have registered for nothing practical other than a couple of books!! I get a little anxious thinking of all the things we need to buy, but at the same time I really just want to buy the absolute bare minimum of things we need to have a baby in our little Brooklyn apartment.
ReplyDeleteI'm planning on referencing this blog post a bit when I do finally get started on the registry... http://joannagoddard.blogspot.com/2011/08/motherhood-mondays-what-to-register-for.html
So overwhelming, Linds! Obviously I'm not much help in this area, but just remember that our parents raised us without the help of expensive video monitors and other newfangled gadgets, and we turned out great. :)
ReplyDeleteI recommend the book Baby Bargains. They tell you about EVERYTHING with grades on each. And if you flip through to the last page, there's a list of the basics, which is what I tried to stick to. Similar to you I did not want baby things creeping into every room of my house! If possible, wait to buy things until the little one comes along. Maybe your baby will hate the way the $300 bouncy chair feels. It's hard to wait, but I think worth it. Don't register for any blankets... I think I was gifted 20 blankets without any being on my registry! Some had to go straight into the give-away pile because I didn't need them. And you won't need toys, bouncers, etc for a while, so hold off on those. Use old fashioned cloth diapers for burp cloths, the store bought ones don't really hold up. Oh, and I LOVE my video monitor.
ReplyDeleteFor swaddling we used a woombie, it was awesome, that plus about 2 other swaddlers was plenty. We got a set of larger sized cloth diapers for burp cloths (seriously, the best burp cloths money can buy).
ReplyDeleteYou certainly dont need baby gates for a while. We taught Blueberry how to go down starts, get off couches and get off beds safely once she became mobile, and it has paid off ten fold. Not only do we not need many of the safety mechanisms (we plugged up the outlets, but that is it...literally...) but she has been able to apply her safety to many other things, like playing at the park and going down slides. Overall, the time it took to teach paid off in way less stress!