(Nope, not her baby, some cousin of her husband's or something.) Sarah is due May 20, 2010 - exactly one week before I am. May's gonna be a busy month! She's planning on finding out the gender of the baby, and lemme tell you, if it's a boy, there's going to be a ton of pressure on me to produce a girl! :)
Actually, I'm feeling more pressure about the cost of having a baby. *gulp!* I went to Amazon.com to see what kind of baby stuff is out there, and it was just so overwhelming. I promptly chickened out and went to Costco.com and found it a lot less cluttered.
They've got this car seat that's good from birth to 65 pounds. $200. And this would also mean having one dedicated car for the baby, instead of using two bases and just snapping in the seat in whichever vehicle we were taking. I can live with that, especially since we wouldn't have to buy 2 or 3 carseats over the child's lifetime.
I'm planning to skip out on a crib completely and go with a portable option. I just need to find out if I can collapse it, as it's 29.3" wide, and our doorway to the bedroom is 27.5". It'd be nice to be able to port it from the bedroom to living room or sewing room as needed.
It's $90 at Costco and apparently Sears and Target carry it too (for $100), so I'll swing by one of those places and figure out if I can collapse it. If not... the hunt begins again.
Lastly... I'd love to do cloth diapers. Tell me I'm insane. I don't have a washer, I do my laundry once a week at my in-law's house. I'm sure my mother-in-law wouldn't mind seeing me twice a week, so long as the baby is in tow. :)
And cloth diapering isn't exactly a cheap start up. The 6-pack All-In-One's from Costco are $90. Or $15 a diaper, which is reasonable for AIOs. I'm not so insane though, I only want medium and large cloth diapers. The first few months will be crazy, and I'm just going to take the pressure off of me and go with disposables until the baby can fit into medium cloth ones. Maybe I can get my sister to make me diapers, as she'll have access to my mom's sewing machine and serger.
I'm not really showing yet. Just getting a thicker waist. I've already had to ditch out a pair of jeans. They made a big gap in the back, but was pinching in the tummy.
I stand at 13 pounds lost and 3 inches gained on my waist. Most of my morning sickness is gone and I'm able to eat breakfast when I wake up.
I can't wait until I'm in the second trimester with more energy! I'm itching to get back to quilting, and it's crossed my mind to fund some of the baby stuff with the sale of quilts. Cuz you know, my luck at winning the lottery is really small... apparently you need to buy tickets? :P
Leah
13 comments:
When the Deputy and I had our first baby, I shopped A LOT at garage sales. I ended up getting a barely used crib for next to nothing. A grandma bought it brand new for when her grandbabies spent the night. Turned out, the kids didn't spend the night much until they were older. I ended up getting a fabulous deal! We also had a portable crib similar to the one you showed. Honestly, I didn't care for it much. I was a little nervous because I was afraid the baby would roll and get an arm or leg stuck between the matress and mesh. Or worse! If you are considering it, take a good look up close!
These coming months are wonderful planning for a new baby. I miss that time. Make sure you enjoy it!!!
I don't know how choosy you are Leah but yard sales is where I got 90% of my big money items. Also if you have a craigslist or a freecycle program near you, join now, as soon as you know gender start haunting the thrift stores! Its a shame our babies will be so polar opposite on the seasons or I'd send you some of my infant's stuff. Congrats on your SIL's baby also that will make it so fun for you both to share the experience! yay keep the updates coming I love reading them! xoxo melzie
Congrats on the new baby!! That is so exciting. I just thought I would tell you that you should really check out bargain finders and yard sales for baby things. THIER AWESOME!! Plus, just food for thought, Playpens are nice to have for the baby, but I found that they really do grow out of them sooo much faster then a crib. So you might want to concider finding a second hand crib and playpen.
I agree with the yard sales/thrift stores and such etc etc, I am expecting my third child and most of my stuff for each one of the kids has been handed down or yard sale finds. The only thing we bought new was a crib and pack-n-play I gave the pack-n-play away 4yrs ago when I thought we were done having kids but the crib I have kept and just bought a new mattress for each baby.
If your interested in making your own diapers for the baby check out this site, she makes her own diapers and they are super cute!!
http://blog.yorkteachingstudio.com/
Hope this helps!!!
Dana
Have you thought about using Freecycle? That's how I got a stroller and a crib for my grandson - for free!
I just bought a car seat at Target for $45 that can be used until a child weighs 40 lbs.
Did you know you can buy diaper cloth at Joann's? That may be cheaper than buying a start-up kit.
One thing I learned from working at the women's shelter is that babies do not need a lot of the stuff that the baby stores tell you that you need. I think we found that a baby swing was a must. The other accessories like the bouncy seat and those little chair thingys never got used. You look adorable :)
Cloth diapering doesn't need to be expensive. I just started cloth diapering my babies with flats and/or prefolds, and a nice cover. They don't ever leak (we use mostly bummis covers and green mountain diaper flats and prefolds), and they are way easier to clean and maintain than the AIO diapers or the pocket diapers.
And, speaking from experience, you're probably going to want an infant car seat with a detachable base for at least a few months--it's very convenient. We buy the bare bones infant seat (around $50 here), and then spend real money on a car seat that will rear face them as long as possible and then forward face to 65 pounds.
I am pregnant with my 3rd and plan to move towards cloth diapers. We did all disposables, but even though they don't have a large up-front cost, over time they sure add up!
Leah, congratulations! I am glad you are feeling better. Enjoy yourself and take lots of pictures!
Leah, congratulations! I am glad you are feeling better. Enjoy yourself and take lots of pictures!
We are BIG on hand-me-downs, yard-sales, rummage-sales, goodwill, used shops in my family. The kids out-grow everything super fast it is mind-boggling. Do try to get an infant seat that you can take out of the car - that way if the baby is sleeping you don't have to wake the darling up just to run in the store to buy a few necessities. If you really want a pack-and-play you should be able to get a good one used... a 2 year old will climb out of that in a minute though - a crib will contain a youngster who has NO intention of sleeping what-so-ever for a longer period of time. Congrats, by the way! The 2 other things I really liked when my son was a baby was a small infant seat that I could strap him into, stroller and his swing. Everything else was "fluff".
We used a port a crib for our last 5 kids. We co slept but used it for when I took a shower or was sewing. And yes if you collapse the sides it will go through a doorway :)
And I can still use a port a crib for my special needs 3 1/2 year old if need be. He can still fit it in. And is a normal size 3 1.2 year old LOL
Cloth diapers are SUPER easy to make and there a lot of free patterns on the web.
Congrats on your new blessing!
I did the portable playpen with my last baby and it was great for us. You have some time before the baby comes, so check out used options. Yard sales, baby/kid specific resale shops, craigslist. I found mine at a yard sale for $12, lightly used. It looked brand new except for a little scuffing on the plastic.
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