Gift Registry Blitz

Oh my goodness. I have NEVER spent so much time in a store and not actually buy much. Today was my indoctrination into the world of hands on baby registering. At first, I thought my head was going to explode, but then I just breathed in and in zen style got on with the task. Then I really started enjoying it. Surprisingly, so did Bill who absolutely hates to shop.

First the blankets, then the bottles, then the safety stuff, then the clothes, then the diaper bags, then the furniture, then the diapers. And we hadn't even gotten to the toys. After hours at BabiesRUs and then Target, we have lots of stuff added to the list. I just kept adding stuff with the assumption that I'll be deleting stuff online later on.

All this is just in time for all our family, friends and co-workers who keep insisting that we register so that they know what we still need. They want to throw baby showers for us so at this point, I think we have 4 baby showers lined up. One at my work, one virtual one with Bill's co-workers (he works from home and his coworkers are all over the country, most of them he has never met in person), one in L.A. with my family, and one here around home that MK is co-hosting with a couple of our friends. I think all this in context with the fact that neither one of our families have had babies around for a very long time, so everyone is very excited about D. And our friends have been there during our fertility disappointments and know how much this means to us.

So anyway, back to the shopping. At first, I was telling everyone that it was easy to figure out what to buy for us. We have nothing but a crib and a hand-me-down baby car seat from my friend Isabel, so everything should be ok to buy. But now that I actually got to the shopping and the choosing, I remembered that I am picky. I have very distinct taste so why would I think that this wouldn't apply to baby stuff?? Duh.

Once we got started, it was very easy to get carried away. It was easy to get lost in the hype of all the marketing. It seems that we need each and every little thing. Who knew you needed to have a special pillow for feeding the baby, and special diaper pails that keep odors in, and special bags for diaper disposal? First of all, I never remembered my mom having any of these special things and we came out ok. Did we really need all of these? And the one thing that I think keeps coming back to me are wipe warmers. Are cold wipes really that unpleasant?

What I enjoyed the most was looking at everything and imagining how D would look in them or how he would like or dislike each item. The truth is that I couldn't bring myself to commit to the baby things prior to meeting D. I didn't want to "count the chickens before the eggs hatched", given the IVF circumstances earlier in the year where my eggs actually didn't "hatch". I just couldn't face more sadness and loss so I armed myself with denial. I was so afraid to be disappointed if we lost the referral. I guess I really needed him to be real first and now that I have held him and saw him for myself, and have fallen in love, none of that old stuff matters. Right now, D has captured my heart and I am ready to be his mommy forever, even if that means shopping till I drop. Oh the sacrifices mothers make :-)