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May 07, 2005
Preperations
While we no longer have any classes to attend, we still spend a lot of time dealing with all the impending baby stuff. Of course.
We already have pretty much all our pool supplies. The pool, hoses (though we need one more hose segment, as 2 are designated for the pump, and having to take the hose-pump construction apart to use one of the two pieces of hose to fill the pool is not the easiest thing to do, and just getting another 15 foot hose is much easier), a drill pump to empty the pool with, a new drill for the drill pump (as our cordless drill doesn't have the RPMs or battery power to pump out all the water from the pool), faucet adapters and a pool thermometer. The only other thing I might consider is some plastic sheeting for the floor, but we'll see. By and large that's all good to go.
I bought a bunch more towels so that we'll have ample supply for the birth and all the pool stuff. I also got a waterproof mattrass cover, because in that last month or so I think I'll just feel better knowing that if my water breaks while I'm asleep, I won't run the risk of ruining our mattrass or needing to spend lots of time cleaning it. The existing (washable) mattrass pad we have will cover the plastic, so that we won't actually feel like we've regressed to little 4-year-old bedwetters.
A free clothdiapering workshop at our birth ed. center made me reconsider a bunch of the diapering stuff we had. The reasons were twofold: PreZ realised that prefolds aren't that hard to fold and put on properly (and Snappis negate the need for pins, and subsequent "I might stick my kid like a voodoo doll!" angst), and the fact that the site we had a diapering package listed from jacked up their prices a fair bit, so an option that was already not super cheap became more expensive. Prefolds are the cheapest option you can go with, and especially for that first newborn period it will do. This will also circumvent the worry I was having about having certain fitted/shaped type diapers and no baby to try them on... a prefold is easy to manipulate, and not knowing whether we'll have a tall/short baby, or a fat/skinny baby, or a heavy/light wetter isn't an issue. So we'll start with prefolds and then see what we want from the fitted realm, and I'll probaby get one or two of various kinds just to see what works better or what I prefer, before plonking down a chunk of money on any significant number of a particular style and brand of diaper. Now I'm giving myself headaches over which kind of cloth wipes to get, so trudging through review sites, and asking on various CD boards and communities for preferences and experiences etc. At least it's nothing too major in comparison to the diapers.
Another reconsidered item, the carseat, which was recently pledged on our registry has been ordered and received. It kept going out of stock as soon as it came in stock, so as soon as it came back in stock again (after having missed the oppertunity twice or so at this point), PreZ ordered it. Ordering from that particular site was a savings of about $30-40 I believe, so it really did make a difference to get it from there than anywhere else. The seat in question was chosen based on the Consumer Reports review of infant/toddler carseats which appeared in the new April or May edition, it came as their top choice in that category. Initially we'd had a travelling system (carseat/carrier/stroller) on our registry, which PreZ later changed to a different brand's travelling system, and now it's down to a convertible infant/toddler carseat. We're still debating the necessity initially of a stroller, especially considering we're not huge travellers at the moment anyway, and we're getting a sling as well which will allow us to carry the baby around. Most of the travel systems also had infant-only carseats, which would mean that after not too long we'd need an additional carseat anyway. Plus once the baby's a few months old you can select different types of strollers that don't need to do specific things, and will last up to an older age as well. So it basically became a case of weighing what we would really need initially versus stuff that was likely only to become an issue several months or more down the track.
With another monetary pledge that we received, and which we were allowed to allocate at will, I'll probably put an order in for a Mei Tai baby carrier. I found a site that uses a gorgeous lilac dragonfly chinese brocade, and as fabric availibility on any WAHM site for various related baby products varies a lot over the months, better to order it now than to wait and be disappointed. I've already spent a month or two waiting for another WAHM baby carrier site to get the fabric I liked that she had had at one point back in stock, which so far hasn't happened, so now's the time to get that done.
With some of the above stuff, I end up sounding like a flake who can't decide on things. And I haven't even documented the volume of hours we've both spent looking online at sites trying to get information about stuff, deciding on what system to go with, checking review/safety sites, sites that have the best deal etc. It really is a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees sometimes, and it can be headache inducing and extremely frustrating. You really have no idea until you need to go looking for it. Plus for every person that loves something, there's other people countering that opinion, so it's hard to weigh the options well. And then there's the fact that you need to keep yourself in check as well, and occasionally stop to reconsider what you really need, as opposed to what various stores and advertising make you believe you need. Newborns generally don't need that much... hell, the first year they generally just don't need that much in the way of stuff, but it's so easy to get carried away or go "yes, that looks handy", and then you end up with a load of junk that cost a lot and got minimal usage.
On the slightly more frivolous side, PreZ got a digital video camera. This is a purchase that he's been considering for quite some time, and it was financed by our tax return. Kit calls it a blackmail tool... though I doubt it'll be quite that bad. But we'll see what the kidlet says some years/decades down the track. I think this is definitely something that'll be nice with all the various grandparents-to-be and other relatives and friends living on different continents than us. While both of PreZ's parents and my dad are coming over this summer (all at seperate times, and I'm not entirely sure if PreZ's dad will be here before the baby is born as his is primarily supposed to be a honeymoon trip) and as such they'll have a chance to see the kidlet in the flesh, but obviously nothing as frequent as would be the case if we lived closer. So being able to document things and store it on digital media, which can then be sent in the mail or over the internet is pretty cool. It's one of the ways in which technology really makes living far apart seem a lot less far.
At the moment we're not sure if we'll be taping the actual birth, but we haven't discussed that in depth yet, so we'll see. With PreZ being my main support person I don't know how much time he'd have to stand around filming, though a tripod might help with that. For that matter, I have no idea how many people would really want to see something like this. It's hardly a public consumption kind of moment, and I'm not sure I'd want to be taped during the birth, or how much the baby might really want to see its own birth years down the track. I really don't know, but we have a couple of months to decide.
Posted on 04:31 AM to: Pregnancy