Baby stuff
Saturday, 26th May 2007 by JulieI was rather expecting that my free time would start to
evaporate once the baby arrived… But it turns out that the little guy is using up a lot of our time right now while he’s still got weeks to go! (And not just for scans and doctor’s appointments either.)
Last weekend, for example, just vanished in a blur of baby business.
For starters, we painted the spare room (when I say we, I do mean mostly Tom), going over the yicky old cream paint with a nice clean white.
Sunday was more relaxed but still had a baby theme. Firstly, there was a mound of 
tiny clothes to wash and hang out — a generous loan from friends whose baby boy is just passing 4 months.
Then we had a great evening of boardgames with another couple who had their firstborn less than 2 months ago. This makes them perfect for sharing pregnancy and new baby experiences with, and they’re also keen to pass on a number of useful baby items to us as they’re out-grown. 
Along came Monday, which we’d both taken as a day’s leave, and with it our (my) goal to finish off the long-postponed “baby shopping”!
Fortunately we had already taken care of a lot of the bulkier essentials (stroller, car-seat, Moses basket etc.) as well as some of the less bulky ones, like clothing, as loans or second-hand buys / donations from friends. But according to the list we got from the hospital and the books I’ve been consulting, this still left us with a whole host of goodies that we really should have on hand more or less immediately after the big day…
On the grounds that a branch of the Fine Burger Company is very close by, we chose the Mothercare in Oxford Street to start off our shopping. It’s their newest branch, and rather a large one, so I was quite disappointed with the selection they offered on many of the baby essentials. For instance, they didn’t sell single hats in a newborn size! Only as part of an expensive gift ensemble that also included socks, mittens, vest and a babygrow! And their breast-pump selection was abysmal.
Nevertheless we did find a lot of other things from our list there, and afterwards mopped up most of the remainder at a large outlet of Boots, just up the road, that also had a whole floor of baby stuff.
As a very last stop — following some yummy burgers and ‘shakes — we found a natty black changing bag, in the satchel-style I’d been after, at John Lewis. And from there we made our weary way home.
So I think we can conclusively say that we are pretty much there in terms of our equipment! Phew!
The painting of last week has been great for helping us to de-junk the baby’s room. Â For instance we have finally made a move on getting rid of our three old computers that have been languishing in the cupboard for far too long (just waiting for us to find an environmentally-friendly way of disposing of them).
And as part of the putting-the-room-back-together process, Tom put up his
“Nerdy Baby ABC” cards, which do look very cute:
