The ugliness of baby gear

Like most soon-to-be moms, I'm pretty excited to get everything ready for the arrival of our new baby (due date is now less than four months away - eek!). As I've mentioned before (here and here), we have a couple of registries for baby things, but those are as much for my own organization as they are a place for others to select baby gifts.

The trouble is that SO much of the baby stuff is just plain ugly. There are awful patterns and terrible colors. And so much brown. My husband hates brown, and I'm starting to get sick of it too.

Example #1: Nursing covers. I plan to nurse this little one, including possibly in public. They make nursing covers, but so many of them are hideous. Like this one:



That pattern is awful, and others are worse. All I really want is a plain one in some sort of non-brown color. You can get pretty colors with ugly patterns, or you can get plain ones in brown or black. Why not a plain red or blue one? Yes, I could just use a shawl, but the nursing covers have some nice functionality (the neck strap and special shape of them is nice).

Example #2: Car seats. I get that people try to be gender-neutral, but this one is awful. We picked out a car seat (obviously), but even the best-looking ones still aren't that great looking. Why do they all have to have dopey patterns?



Example #3: Laundry hampers. I'd hoped to get a bright-colored laundry hamper (red, for example) to bring more color into our baby room. I've basically given up - they don't exist. The only things that are available are ones like the picture below. While it isn't necessarily ugly, it's more pale colors. Why is it that there are NO bright colors? I've obviously looked in the grown-up sections for bright-colored hampers, too, but I just don't think they exist.



It's a bit of a frustrating process, to say the least. Maybe my standards are too high, but I don't think so. I don't think it's too much to ask for a little variety.

Is it?

I can't believe it

I just registered for a wipe warmer. I always made fun of those things. I thought they were kind of silly. I mean, does your kid really need a warm wipe on his heinie?

Then, I started hearing stories of parents who love them. Some kids scream during diaper changes, and the wipe warmers are supposed to help. Plus, for baby boys, there are stories of the warm wipes helping prevent "spraying" (if you get my drift).

I already have a bottle warmer on my registry, too, and there was a time when I made fun of those. But, since I'm going to (hopefully) be pumping when I go back to work, my husband is going to need an easy way to warm up the bottles. While I don't think the kid will need warm milk necessarily, it'll be nice to have that option.

I feel like we'll only really end up using 50% of the baby gear that we get. That's the trouble with baby stuff - you just never know what you're kid is going to like. Maybe he'll like a swing but not a bouncy seat. Or vice versa. You just never know. And, unfortunately, all you can do is throw money at the problem and hope to find a solution.

Nesting already?

First, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We sure did. We got a lot of things for the new baby, which is very exciting. And I got a Snoogle body pillow! I'm very excited about it.

Since I've been back in town after the holidays, I've been running around like a crazy person getting ready for baby. I've taken this entire week off (it's pretty slow at work, and I needed some downtime), and I've already spent the first two days getting ready for baby. I've been all over town several times looking for all sorts of things (storage, curtains, etc.), and I've even been to the nearby Big Town every day this week. That town is about 25 minutes away and has many more stores than Pleasantville. Some people live in Big Town and make that commute to Pleasantville every day, but, prior to this week, I only averaged one trip a month out there or so. I've been there three times since Christmas.

The good news is that things are starting to get crossed off the list. SLOWLY. I bought curtains and curtain rods over the last few days. And storage bins for all over the house (I've suddenly decided that we aren't going to have enough room for all of the baby things).

Just before Christmas, we also decided on a fabric for the window valence and crib skirt. This decision was the biggest decorating one we've made, because all of the accessories and things are going to be based on this color scheme. We decided on this fabric:



Lots of fun colors in that fabric, so I got green curtains, red storage bins, and we'll be getting yellow sheets. We aren't allowed to paint the walls because we're renting, but we'll have lots of color in other aspects of the room.

I'm definitely a little freaked out by all of the things that we still need to buy and do, but we're getting there. In real life, I'm a big list-maker. Mix that with the nesting hormones from pregnancy, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Registry hassles

Like most people expecting their first child, we have a baby registry. Two, actually - one at Target at one at Babies R Us. The reason for the two registries is because of the lack of shopping selections here in Pleasantville. The nearest Babies R Us is about a half hour away, so I wanted to have a small Target registry here in town, too. The trouble with Target, though, is that the return policies at that store are awful. I remember hearing horror stories when I was planning my wedding (people weren't allwoed to return things or received multiple duplicates of items, for example), and the stories have continued regarding baby registries. I didn't have much of a choice, though - Target is the best in-town option.

The registry process is overwhelming, although it's completely different than it was for our wedding. A wedding registry generally contains a lot more items than a baby registry, so it can be overwhelming from that perspective.

A baby regsistry is much different. With a wedding registry, you have to make SO many decisions that it can feel like too much at times. If you make a wrong decision, though, it isn't dangerous for anyone. That isn't necessarily true for a baby registry, though. Safety is a concern with baby items in a way that just doesn't come into play with a wedding registry. There aren't nearly as many items on a baby registry, but each one feels like a major decision. I bought this book to help with the process, and it has become my Bible for picking items. Every decision feels like it matters so much. With a baby, you end up wasting a lot of money on things the kid doesn't even like, so I want to spend as much time up front as possible in an attempt to avoid that situation.

I should be clear here, too: I haven't set up these registries expecting our friends and family to fund our family expansion project. While we certainly are grateful for any gifts, the registry is as much about organization as anything else. I've used the registries as a way to keep track of all of the things we need to get for this kid, so we're probably going to end up buying everything on them that we don't receive as gifts. Plus, with a registry, you get at 10% completion coupon to use to buy everything that remains on your registry as you approach the baby's due date. That coupon alone is enough to make it worth it.

Countdown to V-Day

Among the internet message boards, the milestone of 24 weeks of pregnancy is refered to as "V-Day," or "Viability Day." It is generally assumed that 24 weeks of gestation is the absolute earliest you could expect your child to be born and have any sort of chance of survival (although the odds are still probably less than 50/50, and a baby born that early is almost certain to have serious complications). I'm a little over 2 weeks away from that date, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

I have a friend whose daughter was born just shy of 24 weeks of gestation - I belive it was 23 weeks and 5 days or so (at that point, every single day is hugely important). After struggling for 8 days, she passed away. Her short life is always on my mind, and never more so than right now as I approach that milestone.

I think a lot of women find the first trimester to be the scariest, but I didn't. While I absolutely believe that a miscarriage is devastating, it also is (unfortunately) relatively common. It happens to a pretty large number of women. I think many women hit the end of the 1st trimester and assume smooth sailing from that point on, but I know better. Not all pregnancies that make it that far result in take-home babies.

While I would have been sad if I miscarried early on, I wasn't as attached to the baby then as I am now. Now, I'm feeling movement, and I know this baby is a boy. If something were to go wrong now, I would give birth to a BABY. The baby would probably even be alive for a very short amount of time. These next few weeks will be much scarier than the first trimester was.

Only two more weeks to V-day. That isn't enough of a milestone, though. Every day counts. I have another friend whose baby was born at 29 weeks or so, and, while he was in the NICU for quite awhile, he's fine now. Maybe that should be the next milestone for me.

The new normal

I've made many comments on this blog about how the movements of the baby feel strange. All of the little pokes and kicks definitely have taken awhile to get used to, but it's happened. Now, it's become just a normal thing to me to feel strange little movements in my belly.

A lot of women talk about how the LOVE the baby movements. They use words like "magical" and "amazing." I'm still not there yet. If I think about it, the movements could still best be described as "weird." It's just that, now, I don't think about them very much.

The movements have changed some, too. I still get flutters and kicks, but I'm also getting rolling and pressure. It's almost as if the baby wants to stick his head out through my belly button. He's still sitting pretty low (perhaps because of my low-lying placenta), so I rarely get many movements above my belly button. I'm grateful for that, though. I have a short torso, so I suspect I'll be getting plenty of kicks in the ribs later on. I'm glad that this kid is delaying the inevitable a bit.

I'm back!!! (With a picture)

Sorry it's been awhile since my last blog post. Work has been insane, and things with the holidays have been crazy. I didn't even take a picture at my halfway point of the pregnancy! I hit 20 weeks a week ago. I did take the picture below this morning, though. I'm at 21 weeks and 2 days.



I'm really starting to show a lot now, obviously. I've gained 15 pounds - crazy! I feel like it's all baby, though. My face isn't fat, and I haven't really gained anything in my arms yet. I may still gain weight there soon, but it hasn't happened yet.

I'm still feeling good. My back hurts occasionally, mostly in the morning. My legs also get sore if I walk too much. I never understood why pregnant women always want to get their feet rubbed, but now I get it. My weight is higher than it's ever been in my life, and it makes my legs tired to carry around the extra weight. I went Christmas shopping this weekend, and my feet definitely hurt by the end of the day. I'm still wearing high heels at work, though, and I'm hoping to wear them as long as I can.

Kick counts

For many years (way before we ever considered having a baby), I've been reading all sorts of articles related to pregnancy and babies. Now, I have several books on the subject that I've been reading to learn more about what's going on and what I should expect.

One of the books that I've been reading recently had a section on kick counts. I'd heard of these before, but it wasn't until I read this book that I learned how they were actually done. Essentially, kick counts are a way to try to understand if your baby is in distress. In the 3rd trimester (usually around 28 weeks or something like that), you start performing these kick counts. What you do is time how long it takes for your baby to make 10 separate movements.

In the example in the book I read, there were several examples of a hypothetical woman's kick counts. The examples ranged something like 30-60 minutes for a complete kick count (that is, it took that amount of time for the woman to notice 10 movements from her baby).

A couple of nights ago, I decided to try to do a kick count. I don't need to do it yet (many people aren't feeling movement at this point at all, and, if they are, it's often inconsistent). While lying in bed before I went to sleep, I counted 10 separate movements.

I didn't actually use a stopwatch or anything, but it took less than 5 minutes for me to feel 10 movements. At most. It was probably more like 2 minutes. It was unbelievable. Given how early I am, that's pretty crazy.

We're in trouble - this is going to be an active kid. I'm looking forward to it. :-)

Expectant mother parking

Earlier this week, I traveled to Minneapolis on business, and I traveled with a colleague. Before our return flight, we had quite a bit of time to kill, so we went to the Mall of America. It's right near the airport, and it gave us something fun to do rather than hanging out at the airport all evening.

As you'd imagine, the parking lot was quite full, but then my colleague pointed out that we should look for expectant mother's parking. In case you aren't familiar with these spots, it's become a recent trend for stores to designate a few spots near the front for expectant mothers and mothers with young children.

My colleague was right. There were several open spots available right at the front of the lot. My colleague was absolutely thrilled - I think I made her week.

That may have been one of the cooler side benefits of being pregnant. Close parking.

Nursery pictures (in progress)

Last weekend, we put together the nursery furniture that we bought. So far, we already have a glider, a crib, and a changing table. Here's a picture of the work in progress:



We need to get a dresser, as I've mentioned before. I think I like this one:



It's from Target and got pretty good reviews. And, since it's from Target, we'll be able to use our credit card points to buy it.

I also think I want to get a wall decal for the room. Since we can't paint, we need to figure out another way to decorate. They make these wall decals that you can put on your walls temporarily, and I really like them. Here's an example of one that I really like:



My mom has generously offered to make a bedskirt and a window valence, but there's still all kinds of stuff to get. Curtains, a new frame for a poster that we already have (the old frame was really junky), little bins, at least one lamp... It's crazy! I'm not exactly stressed about it, but I'm glad we're starting early. It'll give plenty of time to find the things that are exactly what we cant, and, hopefully, we'll be able to get them for cheap.

Christmas cards and baby names

Before we ever got pregnant, we used to talk a bit about baby names. It was through these discussions that we decided on a name for a son. It just feels right, and we decided on it ages ago.

Some people like to keep their baby names a secret until the baby is born, but we're not for several reason: 1) We're settled on it, so we aren't asking for opinions. We're just informing. 2) If something went wrong at this point (and I'm not naive enough to think that's impossible), this kid would have a name. At some point, the loss of a baby represents the loss of a viable or semi-viable being. We've reached that point, I think. 3) We don't really care what anyone else thinks about the name. Neither of us is the type to really care if people have a negative opinion.

I actually just sent out our Christmas cards few days ago, and my husband and I spent quite a bit of time discussing how we would sign the cards. We decided against using the baby's actual name, mostly because we felt it would make other people uncomfortable. Instead, we signed the cards "Merry Christmas from our growing family! Love, (Our names), and Baby Boy X (estimated arrival 4-30-2011)." We decided that was a good way to acknowledge the situation without weirding everyone else out.

Or, maybe we're the weird ones for even acknowledging the baby on the card. Who knows...

19 weeks

I'm almost halfway! Yesterday, I hit 19 weeks of pregnancy. I can't believe how fast it's going! Here's the picture:



You hear a lot about how pregnant women "pop" all of a sudden. That is, they go to bed one night looking un-pregnant, and then wake up the next day with a belly. I'm not sure that's happened for me, although I'm starting to really show, I think. I just think my change has been pretty gradual.

I actually had a milestone related to that at work last week: A semi-stranger asked me when I'm due. Granted, he sits across the hall from me, so he was clearly noticing that I was getting bigger and had switched to maternity clothes. It was still pretty cool, though. I was getting big enough that he felt comfortable asking. Or, maybe he was just obtuse.

Our new Friday night routine

I think we're having a baby at the right time. This below video is about the extent of the excitement in our house on a Friday night. It's our cats playing with my husband's toy helicopter.



We got our new video camera a few days ago, and the video above was a way for us to test it out. It was a Black Friday deal on a Flip video camera. I really like it so far, although it doesn't zoom in and out that much. That's totally fine, though. It's tiny, and we'll be able to use it quite a bit.

Now, at 9:30pm on a Friday night, I'm off to bed.

Clothing issues

Ever seen this video from American Idol?



That's what I feel like most days.

None of my clothes really fit right now. In some ways, I know I shouldn't complain. Being too small for clothes is kind of a high class problem. On the other hand, it's really frustrating to keep having to pull my pants up all the time. All day. I think I drove my family absolutely nuts over Thanksgiving complaining about how my jeans kept falling down.

At this point, my belly isn't really big enough to hold up my pants, but I'm too big to fit into most regular pants (other than pajamas and sweatpants). I know that will all be changing soon enough, though, and, by the end of the pregnancy, there's a good chance nothing is going to fit at all.

Blah.