Join me as I ramble about things I don't know.
My wife has been ON IT with creating baby registries. Before I knew it, she ninja'd up registries on Amazon and at Walmart and was going to make one for Target as well. I know she went through as many reviews as possible and put thought into what was added. She even threw some things on there that prove just how nerdy our daughter will be, and I figured I should do something to help with this process. I went ahead and started our Target registry, and immediately panicked.
There are so many things we need! And yet, so many things we don't need.
"How many sets of what do we get? That outfit is adorable, do I get it in 'newborn' or bigger so I can parade them in it when they can crawl? How many are too many spoons?"
I set out to make this registry around 12:30 a.m., so I couldn't wake my wife up to ask for opinions and I was too tired for searching. I copied as much as I could from the other registries, but there were so many other things I could put on there. At what point was I being ridiculous? Can you be ridiculous when making a registry?
I mean, no one has to buy the crazier things on there, but do I look like a jerk for even putting the
very nice crib on there?
Fortunately for me, there weren't as many distracting nerdy options to make things even worse. Just as I was about to start all the googling I found a registry checklist and put my fate in the hands of the Target Gods.
Some things were simple, diapers, wipes, creams, bottles. Then I started hitting the "what do I do here?" wall. This could all be easily taken care of with a search, but I am a stubborn man, and I felt I should be able to make the adult decision of how many disposable breastfeeding pads I should....wait...yeah...that's when I realized there are some things that I couldn't just figure out using my deductive reasoning (no matter how Sherlock-y I consider myself.)
Did I mention that it was also late at night and I was tired?
Ok, so I did the best I could at 1 a.m. and added what I felt made sense. Diapering stuff, creams we might need, adorable hats. But when it came to clothes I wasn't sure what people do for sizes. I can't tell you how many times I've seen friends and family show me all the clothes they either bought themselves or got on registries and never used. Do I get the stuff I like, but in bigger sizes so they can wear them later? Should I get way more of the smaller stuff in case we constantly have to change what she's wearing? (and from what I have gathered, they poop, a lot apparently.) In my fatigue-induced fever-state, I just clicked randomly. Newborn here, 0-3m there, 9-12m yonder. Cuter things I got bigger so I could watch her roll around and eventually crawl in them, but I have no idea when that's supposed to happen (...man, I should really prepare for being a dad.)
I'm also a sucker for gadgets. I'm a nerd that loves having something specifically for everything. However, my wife and I are currently in a one-bedroom apartment, so asking for random lamps, shampoo cups, and other "unnecessary" stuff should wait until we upgrade our living situation. We have lamps, we can use our hands or regular cups, and do we need an adorable owl-shaped noise machine? (I really want that one though). Space is already an issue with the amount of random crap I own, and we're adding another human that is going to need more important stuff than my extensive collection of dice.
Personally, I think our registries look solid, but there's probably a lot of things we're forgetting or not putting enough emphasis on (I say "we" in an attempt to drag my wife into my unprepareness). I'm waiting for her to check the registry out for herself and either thank me or yell at me. She might not have the energy to yell since she's using it all up making a human being, but she could still probably end up really annoyed. I'm both excited and scared to see what she has to say about this.
I'm going to leave the comments on for this post so everyone can tell me all the things I missed, or how many damn disposable breastfeeding pads we should have. 1,000?
I'm positive no one will tell me how unprepared I am...
Comments