Friday, April 2, 2010

35 Weeks and shopping

35 Weeks and 35 days to go! Five weeks to due date. Two weeks to full term.

Nothing much to report. I'm well. Sunflower is well. All is ho-hum (i.e. perfect). So what does a non-freaked out K do? Apparently, she shops. Physical and on-line shopping. And on-line shopping- tis a devious thing since it doesn't feel like you parted with copious sums of money when you're simply hitting buttons. [and its so fun to get packages!] Plus, Amazon wisely saves my credit card info so I don't even have to pull out my card before buying.

I've kept a tab on my spending and so far I'm at $1,000 [BOY am I missing that baby shower] What are the necessities? According to me: crib, mattress [Colgate Classica I foam mattress], sheets, bouncer [thanks Mae!], rocking chair, receiving blankets, clothes, mittens, hats, baby tub, changing pad, boppy, stroller frame, car seat, pacifiers, lotion, soap, baby bjorn, Moby wrap, wash cloths, hooded towel, and Curious George board books [not a necessity per se but for a bookworm like me, very important] My cousin is buying me a diaper bag. [Because of PCOS I'm holding off on bottles and pump until I see what's up with breastfeeding] Am I missing a necessity?

I'm blown away by how much itty bitty babies cost. I know, duh, but for so long since I was so focused on just keeping baby alive that now all this stuff surprises me. My parents generously covered half our expenses and I'm grateful for that. Plus according to Baby Bargains, we're well below the average spending parents do. Not that I mind spending $ on bebe but considering I want to be a SAHM for a while, we need to be careful how we spend.

A question about clothes. How many does a baby need? In 0-3 he has three cute 'for the guests' outfits. 9 onesies. 8 footed PJs and gowns, 2 mittens and 2 hats. Is this enough? Does he need socks? He's not walking. . . ? I have 8 receiving blankets- is that enough? And- how do you organize them?

It's blowing my mind that I will be full term in just 14 days. Mind blowing- awesome- fantastic. I'm so giddy with anticipation and yet- all you can really do is wait. And shop.

13 comments:

  1. (a) curious george books ARE a necessity. Dont let anyone tell you otherwise.

    (b) as for clothes it really depends on your baby. Some puke and poop on everything 10 times a day and need to be changed constantly, others dont need to be changed at all through the day! I think what you have seems right though...bascially if you need more, you can go out and buy more!

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  2. You are about where I was at 35 weeks - I started buying clothes, clothes, and more clothes. I think that with twins I didn't want one to have more than the other lol! I now have 20-30 sleepers, probably around 20 blankets, 10 sleepsacks, and - get this - over 100 onesies! Everything ranges from nb/preemie to 6 months with a few 9 month pieces thrown in. This also doesn't include things like stretchy pants, cute tees, dresses, and other "going out" outfits.

    This is overkill. You don't need this much! I went a little nuts on eBay lol! And I won't have to do laundry every single day lol! But I probably will anyway :)

    Yay for almost being full term! I am 37 weeks as of last Tuesday. It's a great feeling being out of preterm labor danger!

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  3. i would say 8-10 footed pj's with the cuffs that fold over the hands, you will want them trust me, they scratch the shit out of their faces and cutting their nails is terrifying. you don't need anymore receiving blankets, we have two that are our favorites which we use all the time and hardly ever use the rest. i told you a bunch of other stuff in previous posts that you wrote but am currently too tired to remember what it all was, it is all necessary though! did you end up registering? i've been holding off on a gift in case you do :)

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  4. Hurrah for shopping (and, especially hurrah for nearing full-term!)

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  5. Baby buying is SO OVERWHELMING!!!
    2 WEEKS??? I would be flipping out!

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  6. It sounds like enough clothes. Don't forget that people coming to see you and baby might bring....clothes. So, I would stop there and focus on the other things that people don't like to buy like bottles, nipple cream, nursing pads (those things can wait too until after you figure out what is best for you and baby) diapers, wipes, all the grooming necessities, first aid stuff, Tylenol...stuff like that!

    Gratz on 35 weeks!

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  7. I would say to get socks to keep his toes warm. I'm in GA and even here I plan to put the socks on baby girl (I'm 35 weeks as well) because once summer hits, I want my ac on!

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  8. I was just saying to my husband the other day how "if only I had known...." For the first couple of weeks, he was pretty much in a long sleeved onesie or those gerber baby shirts with the side snaps with the mitten cuffs (mitten cuffs were a must for us). And that's it because he was always swaddled. Made it easier to change those hundred diapers a day. After that he was pretty much in sleepers until two months. The ones with zippers are easy for changing diapers. I think he wore a "cute" outfit like once or twice. I just started putting him in outfits in the last few weeks.

    If your baby likes being swaddled, the SwaddleMe by Kiddopotamus is THE BEST. So easy.

    If you plan to breastfeed, have some Lansinoh handy. That was the best advice I got about being prepared for breastfeeding.

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  9. I'd vote yes on the socks too. I've only got 3 pairs that actually stay on right now, because her feet and ankles are just so skinny. Our house tends to be pretty cold, so we have them on her under her sleepers.
    One thing I didn't have enough of was newborn size clothes. As a long yet very skinny 7lb baby, she's floating in the 0-3mo stuff. You can probably wait till you see how big sunflower is at birth and buy some on the way home. Or get some but don't wash them all so that you can exchange for bigger sizes if necessary.
    I'm loving the Moby wrap so far. She wasn't a fan of the cradle style position, but likes the newborn hug hold (upright, nestled on my chest). It has worked great for getting to/from doctors appointments via the subway, and I either have my diaper bag strap over one shoulder or can even sling it around my neck and shoulder as usual, without it getting in her way. I can imagine it might get a little warm in the summer time though. Yesterday I had all the diaper bag stuff (minus changing pad) plus my Med.ela frees.tyle breast pump in there for our doctors visit, and it was still totally fine to lug around.

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  10. So exciting to be at 35 weeks! You are so close, I can't even believe it!

    No advice on clothes because I don't remember much from that long ago. I tend to overdue it, and like someone else said, I have no desire to do laundry every day. I do recall that SS was a projectile vomiter the first 2 months and she had to be changed at least a half dozen times a day. Better to have a little more than you really need than not enough!

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  11. Congrats on the 35 week mark!!! We did use socks with Jillian. Granted she was a fall/winter baby when it was colder, so you can probably get by with fewer. We also bought some soft shoes/booties for when we went out. Be warned on receiving blankets...I have a million and found that Jillian could break out of a receiving blanket swaddle. I ended up having a miracle blanket FedEx'd to me for a pricey sum, but it was well worth it. The only other thing I didn't see on your list are diapers and burp clothes. We had a baby that spit up constantly so we went through a lot of both. Rather than buy pretty, expensive burp clothes we used cloth diapers.

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  12. Wow, 35 weeks!!! I am so excited for you, you are SO close to meeting your son. The last few weeks can really drag by, I hope you have some fun things planned as a distraction. :)

    Eight receiving blankets should be plenty. People gave us tons of blankets, we probably only used 10% of them. Do get some socks, his little piggies will get cold! I also second what Jen said, tons of burp cloths. Some people with newborns especially prone to spitting up will put bibs on them so they don't constantly have to change outfits.

    Like E said, even though you didn't have a shower (perhaps especially for that reason), you'll get lots of gifts when people come over to meet him... and people LOVE buying baby clothes. I think you have a good variety of stuff, you can fill in as needed.

    To answer your question on my blog, I joined LLL when Bean was about 4 months old, our co-op preschool when he was 6 months old, and the MOMS Club when he was 10 months old (mainly because that's when I first learned of it).

    LLL is easiest to join right away. I think you could join a MOMS Club right away too, although obviously there would be events that you'd just have to sit on the periphery of the action. In our club, we have tons of events at parks in the summer because Seattle weather is so gorgeous. Even with an infant, you could go to those and get some valuable Vitamin D for you and sunflower while you chat with other moms. No one will think you are weird for joining soon after your son is born, and that's when you'll have the most questions! :)

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  13. Welcome to 35 weeks! I think it sounds like you're pretty well prepared---and you've got plenty of advice, too!

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