Everything you need to raise a baby.

We planned. We read and researched. We really thought we were prepared. But NOTHING can prepare you for what’s coming. No, I’m not talking about having a baby. I’m talking about REGISTERING for a baby. First of all, let me say that Chris and I really did take a lot of time to look at what was needed, what was not and what ranked highest in safety and customer satisfaction. Baby registries are a bit different than wedding registries. When you are getting married, you know if you need cookware or silverware or towels. When you are having a baby, especially being first-time parents, you think you need everything because you don’t really know what you need! All it takes is one person to say they couldn’t live without their wipe warmer to decide your child not make it through infancy if you don’t have one, but Chris and I tried to be practical. (Okay, let's be honest - Chris was practical and he calmed me down.) Jackson could live without a wipe warmer or a diaper stacker or hundreds of other “must haves” and he’ll probably turn out okay.

So, we made our list. We checked it more times than Santa does and off we went to Babies R Us. I knew we were in trouble when our consultant handed us Babies R Us list of registry “must haves”. The list Chris and I made was about 35-40 items long and fit neatly in a normal font in one line. This list was a full page, bulleted, in small font. Oh yes, we were screwed. Surely, you can’t raise a baby on the small little list we made. What are we going to do?

But then, I started to look over the list and a lot of it was actually filler. We had decided not to put any clothes on registry (which the exception of a few basics), but like 20 items were clothing. Then, the stroller section listed every type of stroller imaginable (oh yes, there are multiple types of strollers). The whole section on breastfeeding just freaked me out because I seriously do not want anyone buying my breast pump for me. I have the tendency to think of a who gave me something when I use it and honestly, I don’t want to think of my Aunt Susie’s face every time I pump (and I don’t have an Aunt Susie, but you get the idea). Okay, there’s another section down. The nursery furniture section was another to cross off. We aren’t registering for a crib or anything like that, since we’ve already ordered it. We marked off the bedding and room décor sections, too. A lot of people do register for that, but we went ahead and bought ours since it’s not sold in stores. This list was getting a lot shorter! There was a whole section of “Earth friendly” items, but really they are just repeats of other things, so that section got a big red X, too. We had also decided that we weren’t going to register for parenting books or keepsakes, since those are things we can get ourselves. BAM – another one bites the dust!

When it all came down to it, there really wasn’t a lot we had to add to the list. Actually, I’m thankful they gave us their “must have” list because it did remind me of a couple things I didn’t have on there (like a changing mat for the diaper bag for public diaper changes and feeding sets for when the baby starts solid foods), but overall, I’m pretty impressed in the list Chris and I put together (with a little help from our friends!). Maybe we’ll get the hang of this parenting thing after all!