Somehow the baby feels more real - we went to the shops today.
First we visited the astonishingly intimidating Babies R Us (for the Brits in the audience it's basically a warehouse-sized Mothercare), ostensibly to get ideas and to start thinking about registering. Instead we just wandered around in a terrified daze... who knew there were so many different kinds of pram? Or that you can buy vibrating baby loungers? Or why?
There is the small matter of the bone-freezingly large cost of all this, too.
After we had wandered around the blankets and nappy bags, we found ourselves inamongst the cribs and changing tables, the wardrobes and glider chairs.
We liked the chairs. We felt comfortable because they are just furniture. They are baby-appropriate rather than baby-specific. There was a lot less floundering among the chairs: we felt informed rather than confused. All of them came with foot stools that glid (glided? glode? information, please!) too so you could retain the same posture while reclining and and gliding simultaneosly. So we bought one.
Then we visited another furniture store which we like to see if they had any suitable dressers which could be used as changing tables but which might conceivably have a long life as mere chests of drawers, and finally we went to a baby second hand store.
Somehow coming home with actual things you have bought specifically because you are expecting a small person to arrive soon makes it seem more real. The chair, when it is assembled, will be relatively innocuous but the baby buggy we got at the second hand store is sitting in the corner looking distinctly baby-specific. We have learnt how to collapse it and expand it one-handed.
I'll get over the sheer startlement soon I am sure, but not yet.
Posted by Dunx at January 23, 2005 09:08 PM
Unless you have unlimited funds (and given your state of shock, I'm suspecting you don't... ;) definitely go for the second-hand/used/consignment stuff where baby furniture is concerned. When my baby sister was born (lo these 14 years ago, when I was a mere 15...) my mom picked up matching cherry-wood bassinet, crib and changing table (which converted easily into a dresser in the baby's later years) for something like $300 total.
Where you want to spend the money is on the car seat - getting one that will grow w/ baby is a good thing to do, since they grow out of the infant seats really quickly.
And by the way, those glider rockers are awesome...
Unless you have unlimited funds (and given your state of shock, I'm suspecting you don't... ;) definitely go for the second-hand/used/consignment stuff where baby furniture is concerned. When my baby sister was born (lo these 14 years ago, when I was a mere 15...) my mom picked up matching cherry-wood bassinet, crib and changing table (which converted easily into a dresser in the baby's later years) for something like $300 total.
Where you want to spend the money is on the car seat - getting one that will grow w/ baby is a good thing to do, since they grow out of the infant seats really quickly.
And by the way, those glider rockers are awesome...
Definitely let us all know where you're registered, by the way... :)