Fear of the Baby Registry

It may seem silly but one of my biggest fears during this pregnancy has been tackling the elusive baby registry.   Clearly, this comes after the fears of Baby B being healthy etc., but otherwise my first fear was not originally about breastfeeding well or baby sleeping techniques (those came later), the first big fear was the Baby Registry.  It just seemed overwhelming!  What does a baby need?  How do I know what to get?  What do I need absolutely as soon as the baby is born and what are the "extras?"  I know, I know, people kept telling me that babies do not need that much and that it is not that big of a deal, but honestly, if you know me and my Type A personality those statements were never ever going to fly or calm me down.

Luckily, back in June, a good friend of mine recommended I go out and buy the Baby Bargains book and it saved my life and a lot of stress for me and for my very supportive husband. 

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At first, this book also seemed pretty big and overwhelming, but taking it one step at a time, one category at a time made it much more manageable and much much more fun.  Essentially, the book consists of several chapters each focusing on different products (e.g., one chapter on car seats another chapter on bedding another on clothing etc.).  Within the chapters, the book gives some general advise on what to look for in the general product (e.g., what to look for in a car seat) and then lays out all the different manufacturers and their options.  If you don't want to read through each option, you can also just look at their recommendations which range from the "O.K." to the "Great" choices.

So every few weeks, I took up a new topic whether it was car seats or strollers, read up on it, and then Aaron and I hit the stores.  I know a lot of people swear by Babies R' Us but are favorite place is Buy Buy Baby, I have literally spent more days at this store in the past few months than anywhere else.    Imagine Bed Bath and Beyond but for babies and you've got Buy Buy Baby (in fact even better they send us 20% coupons just like Bed and Bath as well as take Bed and Bath coupons as long as they are not expired).  The place has it all including really knowledgeable staff (which I am embarrassed to say probably know us by name by now).  Regardless, by breaking down the registry this way, the trips to Buy Buy have been really enjoyable!  We registered, but only tried to tackle one or two areas at a time.  This way we were not overwhelmed and it was not too much.  And in the end, it worked out really well.  Plus it always allowed us to relax afterwards and hit up our new favorite pizza place!

One other thing that was key, I enlisted a very dear running/mommy friend's help for one visit to Buy Buy.  She was so well informed that the staff literally followed us around to hear her views.  She gave us the details that the book did not - what to use for a diaper rash?  what kind of shampoo to buy? what clothes were really useful etc.?  This really helped me complete the registry.

 Running buddies know all - especially how to dress for Holiday 10ks

In the end, did we get everything on there that I think we need?  No, probably not.  Do I still continually update it?  Yup.  But have I moved on to being neurotic and worrying about other things?  You bet!

How did you tackle the elusive baby registry?