The Black Hole of Your Baby Registry

Setting up a baby registry is both exhilarating and absolutely torturous. 

Adam and I made a random stop to Babies 'R Us because we happened to be in the area and I really wanted to park in the "expectant mothers" parking spots. I was determined to do that as many times as I could throughout my pregnancy (pro tip: it rarely ever happens). We had no intention of setting up our registry that day, we just wanted to browse around and see what was out there. A nice sales associate approached us as we gazed at a wall of 1,500 different bed sets and asked if we needed help, or if we were setting up our registry. Do we need help? Yes, in the worst way, but also no thank you we are just looking. Are we setting up our registry? Nope, just looking. Then Adam suggested maybe we should just start it. Why not? Quickly, we entered the foreign world that is BABY SHOPPING. Bum bum BUMMMMMMMMM........ 

The nice sales associate took us to the registry desk and got us set up with a printed out list that broke things down by section, and by "must haves" and "nice to haves", plus the scanner. You would think that would make things easy. Here's a list of exactly what we need! Great! WRONG. Never seen a registry shopping list? Here, take a freakin' gander - http://www.toysrus.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=17082946

Our bed set is pretty freakin' cute. Good choice, us.

I thought I was a good shopper. Just start in a section and work your way through the list. Ask the nice people for help. Easy enough. Except for the fact that every single section had a million different options, and we have no clue what we were doing. We pride ourselves on being pretty self-sufficient, frugal, doing things with minimal "stuff", but I swear that scanner beeped every 6 seconds. In my panic, I basically had Adam scan just about everything because I had no idea what we really needed. There were "fun" things like the cute bedding set we picked out, then there were nightmares like the bottle/nipple aisle. Who knew there were 100 different "flows" of nipples, so many sized bottles, so many options? What about what that total stranger said - that you never know which one the baby will like so you shouldn't buy every kind right away? But what about the list... the list says we should 6-10 bottles in each size, with all different types of nipples to correspond? I think I'm going to pass out? Why are these so expensive? Please help me?

Of COURSE I need cute washcloths, WOMAN!

Things really came to a head in the "bathing" aisle. We had been trying to decipher what on the "must-have" list was really a must-have, and one of those questions was washcloths. I turned to Adam and asked, "do babies really need special washcloths?" It wasn't rhetorical, I truly didn't know, and it seemed like something I should know. I almost burst into tears in the middle of the aisle, feeling like a total failure as a mother because I didn't know if my baby would need washcloths with little elephants printed on them. Thankfully I held it together, but I'm sure it wouldn't be the first time a hormonal pregnant woman cried in Babies 'R Us.

At some point we looked at each other and agreed that we should have invited my mom, or potentially any other woman on earth that has had an actual baby. We needed the wisdom and guidance of someone with one iota of knowledge, and we needed them with us. I had talked to other moms about what was necessary and what wasn't, but it all fell out of my pregnancy brain. We didn't PREPARE for this trip, you can't expect me to remember anything important.

In the end, we survived, and I learned some lessons along the way. Our full registry is still online for anyone else that wants to look at it, but here are the major takeaways:

• Get anything and everything you can from other people.
• People want to buy your baby clothes. Put a few things on the registry, especially if you want to buy them at a discount later (I know you can at Babies 'R Us, not sure about other places). Don't bother buying a lot, because you'll get so many hand-me-downs you'll need another dresser to store it all.
• A dresser works as a "changing table". 
• A glider/rocker is 100% necessary.
• There are 400 billion car seats out there. Get two car seats if you have two cars. We got one "travel system" which has an infant car seat that clicks directly in to our stroller, and one "forever" car seat that goes from infant --> booster. 
• Don't go crazy on toys, baby will get these for every single birthday. A few infant toys are probably fine.
• Do your research about breast pumps/breastfeeding needs. Ask your friends/family. Ask your coworkers, especially if you plan on pumping at work. They're the ones who can give you the best advice on what to get if you want to pump at work. 
• START EARLY! I got my breast pump with a coupon way in advance - I didn't want such a personal purchase to be done by someone else. We also asked for baby-related things for other holidays and got some of the "big stuff" out of the way. 
• Get lots of different sized diapers. I don't know how our babe will be, but we got a variety of brands and sizes of diapers and wipes. 
• Don't forget "safety stuff" - first aid, gates for stairs, plugs for the electric sockets, cabinet stoppers, etc. Sure, they may not be crawling around yet, but why not have someone else buy that stuff for you now? 
• Gift cards are really the golden ticket.

People want to buy cute things for babies. This includes clothes (#1), anything with an adorable pattern or quote on it (bibs, receiving blankets, wash clothes, burp clothes, etc), books, toys, the list goes on. Get the bare essentials on your list and then add on anything you want a discount on later. Don't be surprised when the "bare essentials" are actually a lot of things. Somehow, a 7 pound human that cannot exist without your care does actually need quit a lot. I guarantee you people will buy you a plethora of colorful, cute baby stuff and it will all be great, but you'll also be really happy someone got you waterproof changing pad liners (less cute). People don't always go practical on baby gifts, but those are the ones I got most excited about. Breast pump accessory kit? HELL YEAH!

As I said, gift cards are the golden ticket. We had a lot, I mean A LOT, of gifts at our baby shower, but we still had a lot, again a LOT, to buy off the registry afterward. We "completed" our registry when I was about 36 weeks along, and I was more tired and stressed out than the first go-around. It was amazing to have all of these gifts and have so much of what we needed, but it felt like there was still a mountain of stuff to buy. The gift cards were a miracle, and we didn't spend a dime when buying the rest of what we needed. The receipt nearly gave Adam and a heart attack, but the 10% registry completion discount + 20% off coupon promotion + gift cards made it all okay. Everyone, breathe a sigh of relief with me.

.... Until you need to unpack and organize it all...