Things I wish I hadn’t bought before the baby came

I have to admit it, we overspent and over purchased before our baby arrived. And why wouldn’t we? It was our first child and we had no idea what would come in useful. Yet we also knew that once she arrived, shopping time would become more of a luxury, so we wanted to be prepared. And that meant that, yes we made some mistakes. Here are the items we wish we hadn’t gotten in advance

The jogging stroller: Oh it seemed like such a good idea at the time. A sturdy, knobby wheeled stroller to use for getting around in a Colorado winter and going “off road” for our favorite activity — hiking. But it turned out to be an expensive mistake. While the stroller indicated it could be used with newborns, the seatback didn’t recline enough and the straps were way too big. And the knobby tires and smooth steering would have been great if we’d have gone, you know, jogging — but they were too small to be effective on dirt trails. Not to mention that for hiking with a newborn your best bet is just to carry them in a sling or pack. After all, they’re small and it’s easier to hike with a pack than pretty much any conveyance. For street manuvering, your basic baby stroller (the kind that you can pop your infant carseat into at first) is just fine. And once our daughter was old enough to ride in the giant stroller, she was walking and wanted to get out all the time anyway.

The dual electric brest pump: As a working mother, I knew that at some point I would want to try pumping breastmilk. It was important to me to give nursing a shot even after I returned to work. So I splurged on a very high quality electric breast pump with dual cups and a built-in cooler unit. Big mistake! The product was supurb — but it was way more than I needed. I ended up using an inexpensive handpump with cushoned cup. It cost around $20 and took me through a year and a half of successful pumping. Of course, every woman is different and some no doubt need the greater efficiency and drawing power of the electric, but you won’t know that until you get there. So before spending the big money (and you know, it’s not like I could resell the thing) buy a cheaper pump and see if it can meet your needs.

Shoes: This has nothing to do with baby, but everything to do with mom. Sometimes you can feel… well, less than gorgeous while preganant. “Radiant” comments aside, I know there were times when I felt bloated, blotchy, and generally out of sorts. Buying a nice pair of both comfy and attractive shoes was a real balm. What I didn’t know was that abdomin isn’t the only thing that can grow during gestation. And while I lost most of the weight I gained, my feet would never return to normal! I’m a full size larger now and sadly had to get rid of almost every single pair of shoes I owned. So wait to splurge until after the delivery — just in case.

The diaper bag: I suppose this doesn’t count, since our diaper bag was a gift and not a purchase, but I wish we hadn’t requested one beforehand. Why? Because we had no idea what we’d need to carry around and therefore no idea what the best bag would be like. In fact, in the months following our daughter’s birth, we discovered that we needed a lot less than we thought and that a small tote or sack — stocked with zipper bags — would serve us just fine.

The wipe warmer: What were we thinking? I suppose we imagined cold nights and freezing wet wipes, the baby screaming. How could we be such bad parents? How could we subject our darling to chilled wipes? She could get tushy-freeze. In truth, she didn’t seem to notice the difference between the warmed wipes at home and the regular ones that we carted around in her diaper bag through the winter. It’s not like we live in the arctic, in a yurt (if you do, you should know that the warmers do work, though if they dry out they can scorch the wipes). A simple box at home and zipper bag on the road were all we needed.

Clothes: We had a lot of clothing when our daughter was born but, alas, they were all the wrong size or the wrong season. Or they were fussy dressy clothes that just weren’t very practical. Or they were perfectly serviceable, but larger so that they needed to be packed away and then forgotten until they were too small! I swear, we must have had three or four pairs of warm booties that never got worn because they went from way too big to “oh no, we forgot about these!” But I suppose you know what the result of that error was.

Cool Baby Clothes? Hip Baby Clothes?

I had such a hard time shopping for baby clothes, let alone cool baby clothes or hip baby clothes after I gave birth. In fact, newborn clothing in particular was a real logistics nightmare in our household. That’s why this article from the Visalia Times-Delta just threw me for a loop. According to the article, “Karsyn Bass has more than 100 pair of shoes, 500 outfits and at least 80 hats. And she’s still in diapers.”

Wow! I appreciate that loving parents will dote on a new baby, but this is crazy! When did they have the time to buy all this stuff? There were many weeks when our daughter was little that it was all we could do to just, you know, get groceries and feed ourselves!

The article talks about borrowing things from other new parents… which I suppose would have worked if we’d have known any. But we were the first in our social circle to have a baby, so that didn’t help. I did get a ton of hand-me-downs from my mom, but frankly they were more trouble than they were worth. First of all, I was a summer baby while my daughter was born in February. The result? Nothing fit in the right season. The article says that, “If you decide to buy, keep in mind that most of the baby stuff you purchase your kid won’t use for more than a year. And that includes clothing.” That’s certainly true. All those cute sweaters of mine fit my daughter perfectly in August, but by the time November rolled around they were already too small. Second, just packing, sorting, and storing all those clothes took more time than I had. I can’t tell you the number of times I’d unpack a bag of clothes to find adorable items that I’d missed… and that were now too small! Newborn clothing was easier because it was packed separately, but many of the items were old-fashioned – certainly not what I’d call hip baby clothes!

Seriously, the issue of cool baby clothes aside, all I really wanted was to be able to dress my little one in soft and natural clothing that at least kind of matched and fit both her and the season. I was willing to pay for quality, but you know that didn’t mean I was spending $50 on designer baby sweaters either. Because yeah, babies grow like little weeds and they are also super hard on their clothes! You’d think that after wearing an item for only three months or so, I’d be able to donate it. But by then many items had stains or were stretched or worn. And that’s the other issue, if you only have a handful of items that fit, your baby is going to be wearing the heck out of them… but at the same time you’ll be doing a ton of laundry.

I wish now that I’d had access to a baby clothing service, like the kind at www.seasonalbaby.com. So instead of having to worry about wandering around in the show or heat with a new baby looking for quality affordable infant clothes, the newborn clothing comes to you. Now that’s what I call cool baby clothes!