So my doctor recommended that if we were going to spend time reading books while pregnant that we should read what to do directly after pregnancy, when you're mostly on your own. Here's the book she recommended. I haven't finished it yet, but recently read the section about what to buy for baby.
Finishing this section was perfect timing since a good friend has offered to throw a shower/party for my husband and I when we come back to visit southern California for the Christmas holiday (we moved out of state three years ago). That means we need to get a registry put together. What I liked about this section of the book was the necessities vs. niceties as well as what was needed right away vs. later as the baby gets older, and time of year (clothing/weather purposes). For first time parents (who have also not grown up with a lot of kid experience), this was very important. We don't want to be people who hoard things or have too many excessive things we don't need, BUT we want to have enough.
First of all, can I just say that this was an overwhelming task! I am so glad I spent some of my Thanksgiving break doing the research. I was following the book buying amount and suggestions before adding the items to the registry, picking for style/price/brand afterwards. I also didn't want to get too many "boy" items since we may have more kids in the future. It started out okay until I got to things that required more research (cribs, strollers, car seats for example).
Questions
Anyway, some first time parent questions I had when creating baby registries/reading the baby book were:
What is a romper? stretchie?
Why do you need receiving blankets?
What kind of mattress do I need if I get a mini crib? I know they have to fit snugly.
Why don't most diaper pails use regular trash bags? Excuse to sell more?
How much of each diaper size will we need?
What is a fixed wheel in a jogging stroller? What's better?
What do all these sizes mean???
How much to babies poop in a day? Eat in a day?
What is a blow out?
Anyway, I think I got the gist of what needed to be registered. There were a few Google searches in addition to texting friends who have recently had babies.
And here's the diaper pail I registered for that can use regular kitchen trash bags: Ubbi Diaper Pail
Discoveries...Oh my!
Some things we learned that we're not particularly excited about are:
- What blow outs are... ewww!!! A friend told us to You Tube it. Hahahahaha!!! My husband's face was priceless. At least we are prepared?
- How often infants breastfeed - goodness that's a lot of time stuck to me that I will need to be prepared for.
- How long breastfeeding sessions can last! (20-30 minutes average with a possibility of around 45 minutes!)
- The ENTIRE breastfeeding chapter! It started off not too bad, but then talked about all the possible pain I could go through and why. This is going to require some mental preparation...
Well, I'm sure we will be discovering more after asking questions throughout the journey of pregnancy. Don't get me wrong. We are both excited and awaiting a baby boy's arrival, but sometimes we look at each other like, "What have we gotten ourselves into?"
On a more education/teacher note, I plan to keep track of how often I feed, change diapers, buy diapers, etc. These will be good math problems when I return to school in the 2014-2015 school year. Yes, already thinking ahead! Perhaps students can come up with an algebraic equation to figure out how much I will spend on diapers based on need/cost. Should be eye opening for me as well! So now that I just thought of this, I looked this app up and downloaded it. Let's see if it helps me keep track!
No comments:
Post a Comment