Pregnancy Shopping

I am grateful that I have family--well, truthfully, family friends who are as good as family to me--who have loaned us a great deal of the big ticket items we'll need for Bean's arrival. (Thank you so much, Kuya Joma and Ate Kay, Kuya Dennis and Ate Pam!*) It has taken a lot of the stress out of the preparations, at least as far as those items are concerned, and I can turn my attention to more personal things.

In general, I have simply adapted my wardrobe to suit my current size by setting aside the clothes I can't wear for now and focusing more on caring for (to avoid too much wear and tear on the garments) and modifying how I use those that do still fit.

This is not to say I have done no shopping at all. I've already shown off these initial purchases

when I reviewed them for this entry. There are no photos of my M&S nursing bras but I'd gotten those as well, and all four have served me wonderfully so far in the past months as I transitioned slowly from alternating using them with adjusting my pre-pregnancy bras, up to this point where I'm using my nursing ones exclusively. As predicted by most readings I've done, I do need to go shopping for new ones again though I did decide to give it a wait until my final trimester so I'm closer to the size I'm likely to be at after giving birth.

I have several guides that I've looked at for newborn/new mum supplies. I'm not looking to purchase much until perhaps late November to early December--there's a little cultural thing where it is believed one ought not purchase items before the baby is born--with the rest of our necessities to follow after birth once I've gotten the hang of how things will work.

Right now I'm studying these lists: Pregnancy Shopping for the 2nd Trimester and Pregnancy Shopping for the 3rd Trimester. I love BabyCenter.com!

Can't go wrong with this book!

Of the lot, at the top of my list right now is to get a nice, sturdy wooden crib. It sounds so retro and expensive--the latter being quite true--but given the fact we have cats who enjoy snuggling against humans, I am immensely paranoid of the possibility of Bean being smothered by something soft, furry, and alive. A wood crib is our best bet because I can get a "lid" of sorts fashioned for it that will keep cats out but still allow us full view of our little gremlin. The list says we can do without a crib for a while but daddy rolls around the bed like crazy so crib it is.

I'll need a nice, maybe slightly cushy changing mattress for the dresser in the soon-to-be nursery. I've decided we can leave off on the changing table since the built-in dresser is a good height and has more than enough storage for all things nappy-change related.

I've been advised to prepare lots of bibs and wipes in preparation for feeding, and that three bottles will do. Plus several nipples, probably, and of course a decent bottle brush. The pump I'll deal with at a later point though I'm already looking into the different types.

Nappies are so expensive when it comes to cloth ones but I honestly think it's worth the splurge to get those BabyLeaf or Next9 diapers because they're just as easy to use and act almost like disposables, but I can toss them in the wash just as easily as every other clothing article. In a separate load, of course. ^_~ There are these diaper liners too but I think they defeat the purpose of carbon footprint reduction if used regularly. Perhaps for travelling. And these iPlay Swim Diapers are too cute. Not immediately necessary, but just really too cute. Won't be needing the latter two until probably the fourth month or so though.

These are some of the cutest socks I've ever seen...EVER.

With the exception of those four main categories, we're actually fully covered. Again I thank with all my heart my (pseudo)cousins for loaning us the diaper bag, play pen, high chair, carrier/car seat and stroller, tub, and rocker. Such a big deal to already have those with us, plus some baby clothes and loads of socks too! Can't get over how adorable they are.

I'm currently going over the list of things to prepare for the first six weeks. Again from BabyCenter.com, Baby Clothes for the First Six Weeks and Mom and Baby Gear for the First Six Weeks quite interesting and useful guides. And again, it stops a new parent from excessive purchasing since it gives the low-down on the basics.

I mentioned before that it can get confusing and quite daunting for a first timer like myself to see all these products and have to read through all the notes and how-to's. It takes a long time for everything to sink in but the more I read, the more I realise what I believe are and are not essential to me.

The truth of the matter, I think, is that it's grown to become such a big industry that people seem to come up with more and more things for new parents to go crazy over whether or not they're important or even practical.

Bedding, for one, drives me nuts. Tons of pillows? Comforters? Have you ever heard of SIDS?

The second thing that drives me nuts is probably this whole obsession with decorating a nursery. As my friend Darren once said, all they really care about is that they're fed, loved, and cared for. It's really all more for the parents, in my opinion, especially when welcoming the first born.

This is not to say that we don't have a nursery prepared. My old bedroom will serve that purpose but to date, it's still half livable, half storage. And those stuffed bears in the shelf? Probably going to scare the wits out of any toddler if I don't get a move on fixing them up and making them look less threatening. But that doesn't bother me at this point; I intend to have our baby sleeping in the same room with us for his first six months anyway, giving me plenty of time to prepare the room for him to move into when we're ready to chuck him out of ours.

I haven't taken photos of the bigger stuff yet--first I have to set them up where they'll photograph prettily!--but I'll likely share them here at some point too.

My parting words as a first timer to other first timers? Chill out. Seriously. Don't get sucked or suckered into getting "must-haves." Know what you want and think you need--projected as they might be. It makes being a parent-to-be so much more fun.









* "Kuya" (KOO-yah) and "ate" (AH-te) are Filipino words for older brothers and sisters respectively. I can't give the etymology for kuya off the top of my head but ate is the bastardized form of the Mandarin term for older sister "jiejie" (check out this link for the proper way to write it in Mandarin) or "ahjie" (not sure if I wrote the Romanized form correctly). It's possible that kuya has the same etymology since the Mandarin for term for older brother is "gege."