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I bought most of the major items for the baby today. I brought the pram, carseat, bassinet and stand home with me today and the cot, mattress and glider are on order.
I'm so excited that most of the 'big' money has been outlaid already. Now just for the OBs bill in another 10 weeks.
I also want to get a chest of drawers in white for a reasonable price. I honestly couldn't justify the prices of the furniture that matches the cot. What did everyone else do?
Hey Bek!
I am only a tiny bit PG, so have nothing yet, but wanted to tell you our plans anyhow. Basically no-one will be told, nothing will be bought until i have passed 12 weeks due to my prev. m/c's. In fact i doubt i will buy much until i am starting my third tri, just becasue we only have a small flat and i can't handle having to live with a pram etc in the house we aren't using.
I am planning to ask my father to make us a cot which is adjustable to make a bedside bassinet, you know which attaches to our bed with the side down so we are in the same "bed", but we can't roll on him/her etc. You can buy them in the US but my Dad is very handy and they are very costly, so i'm going to see if he can help. My friend had one which was basically a cot with the side off and the mattress 1" below hers (so bubs couldn't roll into her bed), and a sort of flap which bridged the gap between them, she would just scooch over and undo her bra in the night for feeds, she said she could actually sleep through feeds by the time bubba was 3 months. They put the side on the cot and moved it to his own room when he was 5 months and she went to him for the one remaining night feed.
There is a really good second hand baby market near us, with reconditioned second hand everything, from prams to baby-carriers to sterilisers. I will be buying everything except the car seat and the shoes (when s/he is big enough to need shoes) second hand. The stuff is lovely, stuff worn only for a few weeks and even quite a lot of unworn things, unwanted gifts etc.
I have a good amount of baby lace weight wool, and i am slowly starting a shawl, which was going to be for a friend but between my tiredness and my new inability to do the maths necessary to make the pattern work, it is now going to be for my baby. My friend has been desperate for me to have a kid so i'm hoping my pregnancy will soften the blow of the loss of the shawl (she already has one i knitted for her 1st baby). Once i have passed 12 weeks i will begin to knit clothes for the baby too.
Also, i plan to make my own baby sling from bright fabric which i will buy probably in the 3rd tri.
As i'm sure you can tell, i am already VERY excited about all this. \:D/
Sorry for my ramblings...
Hana
Hi Bek, Good work! Exciting isn't it? :)
I dont know what sort of experienced support people you have around you, that you are comfortable with, but I talked to a lot of people.... It was firmly in my mind that newborns really don't need that much in the way of 'extras' (cutsie clothing that I would buy for others wasn't something I could see myself putting on the baby that I wanted to be relaxed/comfortable) I did a big lay-by of all the huge items.... cot, pram, tall-boy, car-seat & porta-cot & paid that off. Meanwhile I wrote myself a 'from nothing to baby' list & just slowly got through it, picking up things from here & there. Target had a huge baby sale so I did a big lay-by of 2-3 blankets, 8 wraps, 2 sheet sets etc. Big W had a sale so I bought the Bonds grow suits etc (2 0000, 8 000, 3 00 & about 10 singlets) I just went where the bargains were & stuck to my list.
When the baby is born people will give you gifts of toys, outfits etc & babies grow SO FAST that it is silly to overload yourself.
My advice is to talk to people & ask them realistically what they actually used, write a list of what you think will be important to you & be methodical.
Hey Bek,
You might be interested in these couple of articles:
Mum's top 5 things for baby
Mum's top 3 things I didn't need for baby
I found that I tried to establish some kind of 'reasonable' list of things that I would need and tried to stick to a budget too. I only shopped for clothes and other baby essentials when sales were on......it's quite common for places like K-mart to have 25% off baby clothing sales fairly frequently and it makes a huge difference.
I have to agree with the clothing issue....you can't go past bonds wondersuits etc.....fancy clothing really doesn't get used too much, particularly when they are very little. To start with, I tried to allow for one set of clothing per day.....so I got 7 wondersuits in 000 and 7 singlets etc.....and I gradually built up supplies from there. With other baby things, like wipes etc, I actually started putting something in the shopping trolley each week and accumulated a nice supply of things....from wipes, lotions, dummies, socks to bodysuits! One thing though.....you don't need to buy a whole stack of lotions etc......a lot of them you simply won't use and people will give you these as gifts usually!
Starting a list looks like a good idea. I wanted to drag DH around Babyco yesterday coz they had a sale on. Not to buy.. but just to see what we'll be up for. We didn't go. But we did have a quick squiz in Target - not much range in there tho - but yikes... it's all gonna add up isn't it?! $200 here.. $300 there... *sigh* Need that $3000 bonus now! haha. I'm gonna wait and see if grandparents offer to buy anything :)
bek - i was just like you. i bought all the big stuff first, i had the cot, pram, drawers all by 15 weeks. like you said it is good to get the expensive stuff out of the way, that way you can enjoy shopping for the 'fun' stuff bit by bit and it seems a lot less costly.
as for the drawers, we bought a white cot, then bought a basic white laminated chest of drawers for only about $130. i have bought a change mat to put on top, then when bub is older, it will simply be removed and the chest of drawers will remain. much cheaper and realistic than a specialised change table, i think.
hana - sounds like you have it all figured out - good on you! the bedside bassinet thing sounds like such a good idea!
Linda
Hubby and I went crazy b4 the 12wk mark and got EVERYTHING!!! heheh
Its just impossible to contain the excitement thats for sure. We were fortunate to be passed down the cot, cradle and high chair from my sister in law so that saved mega bucks.
Got the car seat and pram on ebay for bargain prices too!
I have no idea when we are going to buy the things that we need. Possibly get a cot or bassinet or both during the 2nd tri, but a double pram can wait until afterwards, as can another high chair. I have not really thought that far ahead yet!
But a dilemma for us is, what an earth are we going to do with the 4 prams that we already have??? (1 babyco balmoral jane thing, 1 Bertini, 1 winnie the pooh stroller and 1 childcare stroller)
Is there such a place where we can trade them in, in Melb?? Apart from the childcare stroller, the other three are practiculy brand new.
Maybe you could sell them on ebay or through the trading post. You'll get a better price selling them privately.
I have a side board kind of thing in Felix's room, it has a open hutch and cupboards and drawers and a shelf I put teddy bears and photos on..it was $50 at the tender centre, not if they ahve them where you are but I got my change table from there, it was wooden trolley and we took the wheels off and painted it blue..lookes great..I love the change table, many people don't like them but I love mine, maybe because I use cloth nappies and it holds them all wonderfully!
Would you believe that I'm only now starting to get stuff for bubs now. I don't know...., I don't have much to choose from where I live (a country town). I decided to look on websites and e-bay for some big stuff. Anyway in the next few weeks we'll be buying all the big stuff.
I've bid for a second-hand cot on e-bay as it's so nice, but if I don't win it I will be buying a brand new one. I couldn't believe the price of new change tables ($300) it's seems way too much for such a small piece of furniture. We'll be buying a brand new pram, bath etc etc. I've started buying bodysuit singlets, socks and bonds wondersuits. But I really must shop more LOL.
We were lucky and got given alot of the big stuff by my sister.She gave us her bassinett and cot.We got our change table from ebay and mum and dad bought us a portable cot, 3 wheel stroller and a high chair.All we had to do was paint the cot, bassinett and change table to match.I have found ebay wonderful though as we live in a country town with not many shops and I can get just about anything I want on ebay for a discount price.
Lee-Ann - we found at the smaller independant baby stores; the furniture was MUCH cheaper than at normal 'bigger' name stores. We got a change table (you know with wheels - like a trolley style I guess) in matching dark wood to the cot and it was only $170.
The only furniture we need now is a chest-of-drawers for the baby clothes.
We've bought all the furniture and portable stuff (ie. car seat, pram etc) but can you believe I have not as yet bought ANY clothes for our pub. We should find out Monday whether it's a boy or girl so I guess I've been sort of holding out for that.
I kinda would like hand-me-downs from my brother to save money, but at the same time, I don't really. hehe. I wanna go shopping for all that stuff, and have it all nice and new, and more modern. I'm worried they'll offer us their pram and stuff, but they used a traditional-style pram.. you know... rounded hood on it, big wheels. I don't really want that. How can I politely refuse if they offer all their stuff?