Babies and Crap

There are a lot of people out there making a lot of things for babies that should be classified as nothing but crap. I walk into Babies R Us, and the amount of crap in there almost makes me sick.

When I was pregnant with Daphne, we were trying to conserve money as much as possible. We were going to pay for her birth in cash in full before she was born (which we managed to do), and we were determined to pay off as much debt as we possibly could as well. We were living in a condo that was cramped and tight because we had two home offices and a nursery in a 2 bedroom condo.

I was determined not to spend much if any money on the baby. I held a conviction that you could have a baby fir a very inexpensive amount of money. It is first my thrift that led me to attachment parenting and other green parenting solutions. Now that I am in the place I am at, it is not my thrift that guides me but my personal convictions that I am doing the right thing.

I borrowed almost everything from my sister. We had a crib and a bouncy chair and a billion clothes and a baby backpack and many of the various other things that people get when they have a baby. I must say, that I was very happy to get the help I needed from my sister. I appreciate not having to buy the things that I did get and it was nice to see where they fit into my life. Needless to say, my sister is having a baby in June, and I took everything back to her that she lent me so that she can use it for her next baby.

When I took all that stuff back, I felt free as a mom. We no longer had all the baby paraphernalia that I thought I had to have when I was pregnant. It is nice to not have things in my house that I am only going to use for a short time.

I digress…I try to buy quality things for Daphne if I am going to buy them. I am very specific about the toys that get bought for her because I want them to be able to last beyond her. I want her siblings to play with them. My grandmother preserved the toys that we played with when we were kids, and they are not getting a second use with my nephew. I think that it is really nice to have quality toys that can be passed down in a family. I am even starting to feel like we might be getting too many toys, and we have very few really.

Back to my point. I keep going to baby showers for my friends, and I just keep thinking about all of the crap that they get. I guess the best example I have is the plastic bathtubs that you get to bathe your baby in for the first month or so. I think that the idea is ridiculous, and the take up a massive amount of space. They are just not worth it. I just co-bathed with Daphne when she needed a bath until she was a year old, and now she takes a bath by herself. I think I would go crazy if I were to have to store a plastic bathtub now that she is bigger.

I never used the crib either. It worked kind of nice as a place to change her sometimes, but despite my efforts to use it in many various ways, I never used it, I never needed it. I would never consider getting a crib again because it just was not worth the space that it took up and the expense it would have cost to buy it new. Daphne sleeps with me, and now that she is old enough to get off the bed safely, we are working on having her sleep in her own queen size mattress, no crib and no toddler bed needed.

I *do* have a playpen that I use to let her play in when there is something unsafe going on in the house or when I need to do something that she can’t be near me for (like taking food out of the oven). It must be said that my playpen is solid wood and has been around for at least 50 years. It is much different than the normal, modern playpen.

I cringe when I go to baby showers, not because I don’t think that my friends wont use all that stuff, which they may because if someone were to give me all that stuff, I think that I would cry, literally.

When I have another baby, this is what I would buy:

The infant insert for the Ergo Baby Carrier ($30)
2 glass baby bottles with silicone nipples ($10)
The fabric necessary to make 30 of my own diapers ($200)
Another Britax Boulevard Car seat ($300)
Fabric to make baby clothes ($40)

That is IT. I would like to have a baby shower, but I know that I would get way more stuff than I could possibly want or need, and it is difficult to control what people would buy, so I just don’t know what I would do. My baby shower with Daphne was very small, and I am grateful for that.

If I were to be having my first baby and I know what I knew what I know now, this would be my shopping list.

1 Moby Wrap (you could make one for under $7) ($35)
The Ergo Baby Carrier ($95)
The infant insert for the Ergo Baby Carrier ($30)
2 glass baby bottles with silicone nipples ($10)
An electric breast pump ($250)
The fabric necessary to make 30 of my own diapers ($200)
The fabric necessary to make my own baby wipes ($10)
You could buy a set of diapers and wipes from me instead of the above ($350)
A Britax Boulevard Car seat ($300)
Fabric to make baby clothes ($40)
A Diaper bag ($20)
A high-chair that clips to the table ($45)

That is ALL. I would buy anything else that I need as it came up that I needed it. The dollar amount may seem high, but it is really low considering that people spend tens of thousands of dollars sometimes on baby things.

Go simple, go frugal you may thank me one day.