Pregnancy Chronicles - Week 26

What an insanely busy week. I feel like I’ve been cramming for a test. We’ve been reading pregnancy books, absorbing every ounce of information we can. What to Expect While You’re Expecting. The baby care book : a complete guide from birth to 12 months old. Baby matters : what your doctor may not tell you about caring for your baby. Baby Bargains: Secrets to Saving 20% to 50% on Baby Furniture, Equipment, Clothes, Toys, Maternity Wear and Much, Much More!

It’s not quite panic-mode but we’re getting there. Yes, we bought paint for the nursery, but there’s still daycares to tour, classes to schedule, a hospital tour to arrange, pediatricians to interview, kegels to exercise, and actually painting the nursery.

The books were supposed to help in this challenge, but have actually made things worse. For example, Baby Bargains. I bought this book to help save us money and learn what’s really necessary in terms of baby equipment. Wow did I get schooled. The crib we registered for rated poor in quality. The glider will break after a year or two. The high chair doesn’t clean easily. The diaper pail doesn’t trap odors. Crib bumpers will kill the baby.

Yikes. It wasn’t so much a bargain-finder book, but a consumer reports of all the brands and equipment and where to buy. So I ended up changing the registry to more expensive, higher quality items. And we ran out and ordered a crib immediately because we apparently were supposed to do that weeks ago.

Apparently these suckers take 10-14 weeks to arrive. Do the math. 26 weeks now....it’ll arrive when I’m 36-40 weeks pregnant. (A typical human pregnancy lasts for 40 weeks. I learned that in my books.) Then we have to pick it up and put it together. Why does it take so long to arrive? Hubby asked that question to the sales lady and got a snarky response, “because it has to be made.” Yeah well, most furniture stores can deliver in a few days. It’s called inventory.

We picked out the Pali Salerno crib and dresser in mocacchino finish. Baby Bargains said this was a good brand and the crib would last for several babies. It better because the set was over a $1000 and we have to wait weeks to get it, pick it up, and assemble it ourselves. This is what the book said to expect though.

I spent hours this week pouring over the registry, double checking every item I registered for. Sometimes I nailed it, sometimes I was way off. Finally, the registry is done and it’s bloody brilliant. I registered for the stuff that got the highest Amazon reviews, the best reviews from Baby Bargains, and even though we’ve no clue what we’re doing, at least we’ll have the best gear available.

So in Week 26, I have conquered the registry! I also took my glucose test, bought paint, worked with the dog on not stealing, read books, bought a crib and dresser, got the furnace inspected, and researched gliders.