The past month has been filled with studying. P and I both took another board exam 2 weeks ago (stressful!) and then headed to Orlando this past week for our national conference. The main point of the trip was job hunting and we ended up handing out quite a few CVs. I'm glad to be back home (even though I obviously miss the warm weather already)... now I need to tackle the mess that is our home.
In between all of the studying, we also made quite a bit of progress on the baby registry. We decided to register at Babies R Us (they are located everywhere, figured it would be easy for people to find) and Amazon (they ship the stuff right to us AND everything is cheaper than at the stores). We were both very overwhelmed when we started this whole task... that is, until P's friend sent us the MOST AMAZING BOOK EVER. It's called "Baby Bargains"and more than bargains, it has reviews on all baby products. I never imagined how many options there are when it comes to everything baby... bottles, bath tubs, cribs, gliders, mattresses, strollers... and how many accessories are available for each thing! For example: take bottles. There are the bottles, various flow nipples, microwave sterilizers, dishwasher holders, brushes for cleaning, totes for carrying... oh man, I'm starting to sweat again just thinking about it. The book also gives helpful hints about what is needed and what is not. They even get into recs on how many diapers to buy before baby arrives... can you believe they go through about 600 diapers in the first 6 weeks? Yikes!
I also enlisted the help of some mom (or soon to be mom) friends to get there opinions on what is needed and what isn't. A good friend of mine who's due in a few weeks did the same thing and mailed me copies of the recs she received. I also found it helpful to look at my friends' registries.
What I'm realizing though with all this research is that EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT OPINION!!! Some people say wipe warmers are a total waste of money... others say they are a must. I guess it comes down to the fact that .... EVERY BABY IS DIFFERENT.
There are a few common themes though....
- Sophie the giraffe - EVERYONE LOVES SOPHIE!!! She's a teether/toy I guess?
- Raspberry teether - looks kind of like a pacifier. Apparently another must.
- Boppy pillow (Or brest friend... we went with the boppy)
- For winter weather people really seem to love the JJ Cole Bundle Me. When I registered I also found a cute matching hat.
- Bouncy seat - everyone really seems to like the Fisher Price brand. We're borrowing this from my adorable nephew (Thanks, C! You're cousin will really appreciate it!)
- Ergo carrier. We saw these when we were in Hawaii and really liked them. Since that time, I've heard great things about them. P is really looking forward to using this thing! We also registered for a Moby wrap for when the little guy is small. I've heard mixed reviews on the Moby, but overall positive I would say.
There's obviously so much more... but I can't type it all down! I'll post after the baby comes with my recs for must haves/don't needs just in case anyone cares. Any moms out there with any more advice?
Finally, here's some recent pics....
The baby and I climbed the Willis (formerly Sears) tower to raise money for RIC a couple weeks ago.
And here's a baby bump pic at 25 weeks... getting bigger!!
