Week 36: preparations

If one has not been around babies much (which is to say, if one has not been in a caretaking role), one really has no idea just what exactly a baby needs. I don't mean that in the way of "Holy crap, this baby needs so much stuff!" so much as I mean "Holy crap, this baby needs stuff and I don't know where to start." Fortunately, plenty of people are willing to offer up handy-dandy lists of the absolute essentials, though upon reading these lists, one might well start exclaiming about the amount of stuff required. Which will lead one onward to lists that insist don't really need all that much and frugality is possible. And these lists will bring about the realization that this is starting to get out of control.

In short, the past couple weeks have been seeing a lot of Geordie's hard-earned money go towards baby things. Of course, the bigger items were bigger purchases - the crib, the changing table, and the mattress/bedding set - and we managed to get them for fair prices. The only thing I felt was really over-priced was the mattress/bedding set, mostly because it includes a pillow, comforter, and coverlet, none of which we'll need for several months. We will use them eventually, so it all evens out in the end. Plus, I actually liked the design on this set.

A nice, simple, brightly colored (but not too garish) geometric pattern. Just what I wanted! I tend to shy away from cutesy animal patterns, no matter what the color scheme is. I don't even much like inanimate objects (like planes and trains for boys, or bows and hearts for girls). Simple geometrics attract my eye, so that's what we've been buying. When Lucky's old enough to pick out her own bedding, she can have what she wants. Until then, I'm buying stuff I can stand to look at. Same thing goes for the color scheme.

The finished product! It wasn't my first choice, but it looks nice enough, and I like the storage space underneath. None of the furniture matches, unfortunately, but it's not like we can decorate properly anyway. The walls are concrete, so we can't hang anything, and we used cream-colored curtains that I'd had in the Moriya apartment. But it's a room, and it's comfy, and that's what's important!

We ended up getting the crib from Babies R' Us, but the changing table is from IKEA. I read a lot of pros and cons about having a changing table, and I decided that this was one of our essentials. Also, from what I read, a lot of people chose to forgo changing tables because it was more convenient to change diapers in whatever room of the house they were in, either on a couch, a bed, or the floor. Well, we don't have a couch, there's no way I'm changing poopy diapers on my bed, and I'll skip the floor because I like being able to use my back. Also, it takes about 10 seconds to get from one end of the apartment to another, so it's not like I'm going out of my way to get to it. Also, it doubles as a dresser. The closets are stuffed full of non-baby items, so we'd have no place to put baby clothes if not for this.

Speaking of baby clothes, I doubt there's a set of parents in the world that can resist doing a little bit of browsing and buying, even when other people are all to eager to purchase things for baby. In particular, a certain expecting grandmother who finds something irresistble whenever she pops into a store's baby department! Because of that, Geordie and I have been pretty discriminating in our choice of baby clothes and accessories. And given the kind of stuff we buy, the cashiers at Babies R' Us probably think we're having a boy.

For example, the socks we picked out:

Geordie liked the dinosaur motif. Me, I like the middle pair in the bottom row. Stripes are awesome. Geordie also spotted this onesie and refused to consider not buying it:

Really, who could resist? This t-shirt too:

And cute goes way beyond color scheme, you know. I love this little hat and mittens combo:

I admit, I can't help but mentally giggle at the sight of those little ears. The hooded bath towels were fun to go through too, and we decided on two of them. The first was easy; we knew we were going to get it as soon as we saw it. The second one was a toss-up - it or the strawberry. A close one, but the strawberry lost out.

I seriously cannot wait to put these to use! And probably take far more photos than are required.

We also bought a few more onesies, a couple blue and a few yellow-patterned ones as well. The pinks were just too . . . pink. But, we did end up buying one pink thing, and it's one of my favorites of what we got. It is pink and has hearts and it makes me think of neapolitan ice cream:

I just hope it fits her for winter! I'm worried it might be too big - in which case, I hope it fits her for next winter!

And that's pretty much all the shopping we've done now, as far as clothes are concerned. We'll wait to see what size she is before buying more - and also to see the haul Gramma Joyce brings with her when she arrives! We've also gotten all of the other essential baby items we'll probably need - diaper bag and other various diapering supplies for the changing table, a bassinet for nights in our room for the first couple months, washclothes, and various other boring things like that.

I can hardly believe it myself, but we may be ready for Lucky's arrival! Supply-wise, that is. Mentally, it's still a bit of a free-for-all. Especially since a week has passed since I first started writing this post and we're now at WEEK 37 and Lucky could make an appearance at any time. Any day now.

I need to go organize some baby things . . .