The Other Stuff

Since I posted about 'the essentials' I'm assuming you are all on the edge of your seats wondering what in the hell to do with the other stuff.  I will leave you in suspense no more--this is my two cents:

1.  the swing--I have heard that many babies love the swing and will take hour long naps in it...but not my baby.  Zoey doesn't seem to care at all about the swing and so, it just sits in the corner of our den taking up space.  Maybe our next child will love it but for now it just annoys me.  

2.  the mobile--Z has the cutest mobile in her crib with an octopus and other sea animals.  Although she loves to look at it, the dumb thing only stays on for 23 seconds.  You wind it up and it's off practically the minute you walk out the door.  I don't understand the concept--the instant the baby realizes it's a source of entertainment it shuts off.  Whatever.

3.  any type of toy--We got a lot of toys, stuffed animals and all of that other stuff at our showers.  News flash: babies don't play with toys.  They just take up space.  I'm sure they will come in handy one day but that is definitely a purchase that could have waited.

4.  tons of clothes--For starters, I am not a fashion guru.  I have enough trouble picking out my own outfit so the fact that I'm in charge of two people's clothing for the day is a lot of pressure.  When Zoey was born we were flooded with pink this and purple that...which was really great at first.  But seriously, she wore most of her outfits once.  It pained me to put them all away in a bin for storage.  Babies grow so fast (or at least mine did) that it's silly to get them a large amount of clothing.  There are so many things that she never wore just sitting in her closet--too small to even attempt to put on--or it's the wrong season.  So cool it on stocking up their closet--as long as you have a few zip up sleepers you are golden.

5.  bottles--Okay this one is tricky.  Before Zoey was born I stocked up on tons of Medela bottles.  That was the brand of pump that I got so I figured I would get the bottles, too.  But just like the pacifier, you don't know what kind of bottle your kid is going to like until they actually try it out.  For Z, the Medela bottles are too quick and the milk ends up going all down the sides of her mouth.  I learned later that the ones that worked best for her were the Dr. Brown's bottles.  But  here I am at 3+ months with 12 Medela bottles that will never be used (and cannot be returned because I sterilized them) and only three Dr. Brown's bottles.  That's about 80 dollars down the drain.  

My point is that you really never know what you will REALLY need until you are in it.  It's normal to go overboard and buy literally everything on the 'lists'...but some of it is just jumping the gun.  Get the essentials and wait on the rest.  Your baby will tell you what it needs!