Welcome to the WTF lists. Being pregnant and being a new mom is super confusing. People tell you that you need a million things. You don’t even need most of those things. Let’s explore what you actually need and what’s a giant waste of money & time.
The second I found out I was pregnant, one of the first things I said to Adam was:
I don’t want a baby shower.
I’m one of those weirdos who takes on extreme guilt when someone spends money on me or buys me gifts.
I feel bad.
I feel like I have to one up and then send them something back.
I feel like I have to thank them one million times and even then, it’s not enough.
Gifts send me into such a panic mode that I’d rather buy everything I need in life on my own and then sit beside the stuff as I quietly bark at my credit card statement.
But the thing about being pregnant is that people want to buy you things and if you don’t tell them what you need or want, they will send you things you DO NOT NEED and DO NOT WANT.
And you don’t want that because you don’t have the space or mental capacity for items you won’t know what to do with when the baby comes.
So eventually, I caved. I bought a few thousand dollars worth of stuff on my own and then made a list of things that other people could buy me, all under $200, that wouldn’t make me spiral in a strange state of commiseration.
Here’s my registry. A lot of what is on there are gift cards because that’s what I actually want and need. But I put a few things on it. TBH, during my midnight panic buying sessions, I bought a lot of things off of my own registry and then deleted the items once I purchased them. So, don’t follow this list closely. I’ll make another list soon of everything I bought for the baby.
BUT! If you’re on the fence about creating a registry, do it.
You need it.
So people will stop asking you about it and pick up items that you need ASAP.
The best advice I can give you, from my experience, is to make your registry on Baby List. I swear on my life this isn’t one of those sponsored posts. I’m not getting paid a dime to tell you this (I wish I was though). But here’s why I love it:
It lets you add ANYTHING from ANY store on it. If you do a registry through Buy Buy Buy or Amazon, you can only put their products on the registry. But you can legit put anything on Baby’s List so it gives you variety of what you can ask for.
Once you add an item, it gives people a handful of options of where they can buy it and the current prices from each of those places. For example, I wanted a breast feeding pillow and it told people they could get that exact one on Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond, or Target and then shared the price next to each store. That way, you give your loved ones store and price options.
The return policy is beyond amazing. I felt pressured to add a bunch of stuff onto the registry and when I got some of it, I was like ooops I don’t need or want this. I was able to secretly return through Baby List without the person ever knowing and get a gift card that I could use on something I really did need - like a 250 pack of bamboo diapers.
I’ll do another post about what to put on your registry but if you have any friends who recently had a kid, and you like their style, google their name and see if you can stalk their old registries. I did that - a lot - and it really helped me get a head start on what I needed to buy.
Anything on yours that you adore? Share share!