Saturday, September 27, 2008

Buying baby stuff is exhausting

I'm bloody exhausted. We didn't get a good night's sleep, we both woke up uncharacteristically early for a Saturday and then spent most of the day running about getting baby stuff. And to think this is WITHOUT the baby! Wait till he comes along, wanting to be fed and diapered and winded... I can't imagine how tired I would be!

Today we got some more stuff for him. We bought a travel cot which would double up as his playpen downstairs. I can't see myself climbing up and down the stairs all day long so we've decided that he would be spending most of his days downstairs and we'll only bring him upstairs at night or for baths. There's a kiddie furniture place just at the end of the road where we live but the owners have left for their Lebaran holidays, so I'll wait till they come back before I go enquire about cots.

We've bought his little baby bath. I took a 1.5L Coke bottle to test out the size of the bath and it seems all right to me. Of course, Coke bottles don't wriggle half as much as a slippery baby, so it wasn't exactly an accurate test. But I'm glad I won't have to try and hold onto Little Monkey in a large adult bath, that scares me.

We've finally bought his towels! Yay! It was the one item of clothing we consistently forgot to get for him. This means that even if he suddenly decides to arrive next week, he'll have clothes to wear, milk to drink, a place to sleep, clean diapers and towels to dry him off after his bath. The towels are cute ones with a hood to keep him warm post-bath.

We saw this all-in-one baby safety kit at Mothercare, Senayan City and bought that. It comes in a handy plastic see-through briefcase and contains a digital and strip thermometer, safety scissors, baby clippers, syringes for medicine, nasal bulb to suck out any mucus he may have in his wee nose and teething aids. I like it because it comes in one handy case and all you need to do is grab the case instead of looking for the items separately.

What else did we buy? Oh yeah, a steriliser set + breast pump. I'm all for Daddy to help with the feeding and besides, I'm not very confident about breast-feeding in public should we take him out for walkies so I thought it would be best to just express breastmilk into bottles and bring it out. It took us forever to pick the set because there were so many options available and we were getting confused standing at the shelves.

I haven't tallied up all our expenses yet but I think we've already spent about Rp 12 million so far buying just the basics, about Rp 11 million spent on my monthly visits and various tests and we anticipate spending a further Rp 30 million on the delivery. (approx. exchange rate Rp 10,000 = RM3) Not cheap having a baby!

I think we're all set. I'm still missing minor stuff like gripe water and nappy rash cream but I'm feeling more confident now that if he comes early, we're all ready to welcome him. Don't you dare appear till I'm 38 weeks pregnant though, my Little Monkey!

4 comments:

  1. Congrats! isn't it the best?! have you bought a sleepsack for you little one? We like the one from Halo (halosleep.com) They make a sleepsack swaddle that was SO needed for us (we never mastered that swaddle blanket deal) the Halo sleepsack swaddle makes "burrito wrapping" your baby so easy and the "wings" for the swaddle part come off and you have just a sleepsack!
    check it out! it is our #1 baby item! Congrats again! being a parent is the BEST!

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  2. Thank you! *beams* I'm feeling on top of the world actually but then again, I haven't had to deal with the night feeds yet!

    Yes, we bought him sleep sacks but not the swaddle type. Some of my friends swear by swaddling, some said their babies didn't like it. We're going to try it anyway and see how he responds.

    Thanks again for your note. :))

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  3. Swaddling is great for helping your baby sleep longer through the night. If you read "Happiest Baby on the Block" it's usefulness is best in the first 3-4months after baby is born.

    Night-feeds - if you can, get the lactation consultant in the hospital to teach you how to breastfeed lying down - that's a real saviour for the night feeds so you can sleep at the same time.

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  4. figur8: The lying down breastfeeding position really appeals to the lazybum in me. He's a nightowl foetus, so I'm guessing he's going to be the same when he's born and I seriously don't know how Dear Hubby is going to get enough shut-eye for work when he arrives unless we sleep in separate bedrooms.
    Just a month more to go now... whee!

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