i enjoy picturing anthropologists, hundreds of years from now, digging through our remains. it should be pretty easy for them to figure out what we were doing, since we documented every meaningless detail on facebook, instagram, twitter, and blogger. i'm sure by then, humanity will have it all figured out, and be completely appalled at us and all our waste making.
speaking of funny things our culture does, have you ever been to a baby equipment store? like babies "r" us or buy buy baby? as i was never all that interested in baby things, more like, oh there's the baby section at walmart, quick look away or your uterus might get ideas!, going to stores that are all about babies was a very new thing for me.
back in october one night, travis tried to cheer me up and remind me of why i was feeling so sick, by taking me to the store buy buy baby, which, by the by, is a strange name for a baby store in my opinion. before i knew how it was spelled, i heard "bye bye, baby" and was pretty confused.
anyway, we went to buy buy baby and were completely overwhelmed. baby equipment for sale from the floor to the ceiling! a thousand different car seats and strollers, no wait, car seat stroller combos, to choose from! nipple shields! pacifiers! organic carrying slings! baby monitors!
oh, and my personal favorite, the "play yard." no really, {look here}
wait, play yard? don't you mean "baby cage?"
and they cost how many hundreds of dollars?
then there's my other personal favorite, the breast pump.
(you may remember how much using my breasts for breastfeeding freaks me out.)
the covers on the breastfeeding pumps all have pictures like this one:
oh look at how much fun i'm having with these
milking devices suction cupped to my ultra sensitive nipples!
nothing about this is painful or uncomfortable at all,
in fact, i'm able to talk on the phone, finish paperwork,
and collect milk that my body made into these BPA-free bottles!
motherhood is just such a blast!
yep, that was our experience walking around buy buy baby for the first time.
there are 20,000 things you just have to have or your baby will grow up deprived and they all cost $300 bucks.
the overload of baby gear plus how ridiculously sick i was, left us with the stamina for one lap around the store, travis basically holding me up on his shoulder. we then purchased a baby onesie with the word, "ipood" on the front and got the h out of there. solid parenting, people.
fast forward a few months and we start realizing that, hey, pretty soon here we are going to actually need things like a crib, a car seat, and you know, the other essentials. which i obviously haven't figured out yet. so we headed to babies "r" us to make a baby registry, aka, a well composed, easy to access list of things we are hoping other people will buy for us.
there were dozens of other pregos milling about the store. i still forget i'm one of them. i look at them and feel immediate dread and fear, and then realize, oh boy.
fear of pregnancy. according to wikipedia, it's a thing. {tokophobia}
we only registered for a couple things, because it really is overwhelming trying to figure out what you will need for a tiny human you have no idea what do to with. (feel free to give your two cents here, baby raisers.)
we did both agree that it was fun to do a "normal" pregnancy activity, not involving ERs or infusion centers.
oh and enjoy a few pictures from earlier in the day.
being that it was the only day i groomed myself during week 26, it had to be documented with picture evidence.
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| WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!? |
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| as always, my mom is amazing. |
and on an unrelated note, this is what happens almost every time i ask travis to take a picture of me.
babe, you are supposed to wait until i'm smiling, posing, and adorable. instead we end up arguing about how i make him take a thousand pictures of me until i find one i like. (love you travis.)
having a baby is the weirdest thing ever. on the pregnant gal, the baby daddy, and their relationship.
pretty great moment though, when he kicks and travis's face lights up with excitement.
"was that him??"
and our society and its commercialism preying on inexperienced, naive, first time parents.
gotta love it.
but seriously, give me your tips and tricks for buying ridiculously expensive baby gear.
and breast pumps are freakin' creepy.
love.
xo
hahahahha. Yay cribs! bye bye, baby! totally creepy name for a store. You'll be so productive when you have a breast pump! (pun totes intended).
ReplyDeleteIt is overwhelming! I walked in and straight out the first one I went in there. There's so much stuff you need. I guess one tip I have for you is to get a Jogger Travel System. I wish I would have done that, but I didn't know about it until after I bought my Gravo travel system, and now I have a jogger and a regular stroller which is just silly. A jogging stroller can be used anywhere, and I you want to work out with your baby it's the way to go. Good luck :)
ReplyDeletePumps are way less painful then breast feeding. I would use the nipple shield for the first week or two to ease yourself into it. You don't have to go expensive for things. One thing I love is our swing. We got it on craigslist for $40 and it's practically brand new. They only used it for 2 months. But if your baby doesn't like it then it's a bust. And crib we got on walmart.com when it was on sale for $100 off and it's just as nice as the ones in the baby stores. Walmart and target has almost everything the baby stores have for a lot less.
ReplyDeleteWo, wo, wo, back it up girl. How are you not even wearing maternity pants?!?! Um, jealous. Not only does my belly not fit in my regular pants anymore but neither do my butt, thighs, or ankles. Advice on buying... you honestly will not need/use 90% of that stuff until he is a few months old (including a crib unless it's set up in your own bedroom). We have something like this that we keep in our bedroom for the first little bit. They're pretty sweet and all that top stuff comes off when the baby gets older and you just need a place to stick him while you go to the bathroom for a second. It's a good "grows with the kid" set up. In fact, I still use the pack and play part every week when I'm tending other kids and they need a place to take a nap. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4389470&CAWELAID=784546681&pla=plab&cagpspn=pla
ReplyDeleteBut really the basics for right at the first I'd say are: some kind of a changer table or a place to change diapers that has lots of storage and you don't have to bend over far to reach it. If you're nursing a Boppy pillow sure comes in handy and if you'd ever like to have a break from nursing and let Travis or your mom or whoever share in that fun I would recommend a breast pump and supplies (check with your insurance, you might be able to get one for free). Yes, they're totally freaky- you just wait until you hook one up to you, believe me I have jokes galore about breast pumps. But having a stash of pumped milk and somebody to pass the baby off to can be a life saver when you're sleep deprived. You obviously need a carseat and I'd definitely recommend a stroller that the carseat can snap into because you will not want to take him in and out of the carseat to the stroller a million times when he's asleep and you're out running errands with him. A Moby wrap or some kind of sling can be quite glorious. Lots of burp clothes (I totally recommend just the plain white cloth baby diaper old school kind over the cute ones made out of flannel because they soak up puke 100% better.) Some clothes (of coarse, but not loads of newborn size if you can help it because he'll grow out of them super fast). Light weight receiving blankets. A pair of those little mittens for their hands are nice because they tend to scratch the heck out of their faces. Oh, and one other thing that is super nice at the beginning is a place to put him down that moves/vibrates/plays music like a swing. But honestly all the glitz and glamor of an elaborate nursery with the works they try to shove on you is totally just for mom (and mayyybbbee dad if he's into that) I'd recommend just keeping it really simple until you get a feel for him and his personality and likes and such.
Just as a back note Collete!! To get a pump, have your doc write a prescription and take it to a place like Apria.. Then you only spend like $35 for a $365 pump!!!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, I just tried to post my comment, but it was too long!! Haha! That's a first. What's your email? Can I send it to you that way? Mine's kelly.jean.brown@gmail.com if you just want to email it to me ;)
ReplyDeleteOH DIP GET THIS: http://www.target.com/p/babybjorn-original-baby-carrier/-/A-14370352?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=Google_PLA_df&LNM=%7C10118021&CPNG=Baby&kpid=10118021&LID=PA&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=10118021
ReplyDeletefrom my days as a nanny, i SWORE by that thing. it's kinda tricky the first time or two, but after that you're just like, kicking yourself, why did you not have this kid strapped there before, because (for the recently pregnant) that's where you're used to him being anyway and (for everyone) you can use your hands however you need to. soooooooooo easy.
Hahahaha
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the breast pump picture. Every time Dan and I went to look at baby stuff we would die laughing at those pictures.