Ok, so I figured that registering for our baby gear would be slightly overwhelming, but I had NO IDEA what I was in for! I've been inside a Babies R Us less than a handful of times in my life, and of course, it was never to look at anything for me. So when I set foot in there last week all excited to register, I was hit with this paralyzing overwhelmed feeling that left me wandering aimlessly around until my friend (who already has 2 children) showed up to help me. I mean, I had no idea how much stuff you need for a baby! And the options seem endless! A whole aisle of different types of bottles? How do you know which is the best??
My friend prefaced the whole trip by telling me that there is no right or wrong when it comes to all of the baby gear. It's really all about personal preference. Well, that's all well and good, but how am I supposed to know what my personal preference is when I haven't had a baby yet?? Therefore, I essentially took her personal preference and ran with it. She was a huge help and gave me lots of good tips. So, for anyone registering for a baby shower for the first time, I'd definitely recommend bringing along a friend who's been there to help you.
I decided that I was going to register at Babies R Us and JCPenney. Well, my first mistake was not researching that well enough, because JCPenney doesn't have baby gear in the stores (at least not the ones near me). It's all online, and I am not a huge fan of shopping online. I like to physically see what I'm picking. But the invites are printed, so Babies R Us and JCPenny it is.
We started off the day at 9:45 AM at Babies R Us, and finished up there around 12:45. Yes, 3 hours! And I'm not even close to being done! I saved all of the bigger items for when Mike can come with me. I was about over it by that point anyway (and so was my friend's 2 year old daughter), so I profusely thanked my friend and we said our goodbyes.
I took a nice little lunch break with another friend at Firebirds and then decided to hit up Target to grab a gift card for someone real quick..... yeah. Soooo, that turned into me deciding it would be a good idea to register at Target too, since they have a fair amount of stuff in the store. I thought it would be a good idea to list Babies R Us and Target on the invites for my work baby shower and Babies R Us and JCPenney on my invites for my PA baby shower. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but in hindsight, not so much. I should've stuck with one place. Maybe two. But not three. Now I have no idea how to split up what I'm registering for where. If there is something that I really want should I register for it at multiple places to increase the chance that I'll get it? Or is that weird? I don't know the answer. Then I forget what I registered for where, so I need to go through and make some sort of system so that I can see and delete some items that I probably over registered for.
Some friends told me not to register for too much cutesy stuff, just the practical things that I really need. I tried to do that, but I think I failed, so now I am fearing that I'm gonna get too much stuff that I want, and not enough stuff that I need. So my goal over the next few days is to go over my 3 registries and condense down to things I really need.
Then Mike and I are heading to Babies R Us on Wednesday to tackle the big things like stroller, car seat, swing, play pen, etc. I'll let you know how that goes. Mike is not known for being the most patient shopper on the planet, so I could see it leading to some tension. But maybe not. Wish me luck!
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