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How prepared are you now?

785 views 23 replies 23 participants last post by  MeredithK 
#1 ·
I am notorious for forgetting things.
You know, like I'll pack extra clothes for a weekend trip and forget my toothbrush.


So far we have a swing, an additional pack n' play, diapers, stroller, a friend is giving us their nearly new carseat, tons of clothes from the other two kiddos in the basement..............I almost think I should check out those supply checklists.
 
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#2 ·
We barely have ANYTHING.

The only tangible baby item in our house is a bassinet that my SIL gave us that my nephew never used. She has a crib and matching dresser for us as well, but I haven't bought anything yet

I've been afraid to shop- too much loss/bad news for us.
 
#3 ·
I have to keep a list of some sort to prevent myself from unknowingly buying six of the same thing and/or finding myself with no diapers.

I was lazy in getting rid of some things from my first daughter and that worked well. I do need to get

- GMD orange and yellow edge unbleached prefolds, two dozen of each
- Thirsties covers, NB, SM, MD - one of each - lavender and raspberry
- Aristocrats longies is SM
- Snappis
- something to use as a diaper pail

- Nosefrida
- bare Boppy
- nursing bras and tanks

Probably going to wait on any baby equipment such as swing or bouncy seat because I don't know the needs of this little girl. I'll most likely want something along these lines as I'm a single mom and only have so many arms - but - this baby could be a little beast who will insist upon something different.

I have barely started to think about birth supplies and need to get on that. I'm seeing a HB OB who is very chill about the requirements.

Need to figure out what I want to do with the placenta. I'm leaning toward prints and then I don't know what since I have battledore placenta that would make for rad images.

Need to figure out what I'm gonna do with already born kids during baby birth - my mother will come watch them but I do not in any way want her bad vibes here. She's already offering to be "helpful" and come stay before my EDD.

I'm sure I'm forgetting at least a hundred details
 
#4 ·
I'm feeling pretty prepared. Got diapers. Got Amby bed (from DS). Got stroller (this weekend! Phil&Ted double, love it). Got clothes. More than halfway through knitting an alpaca hooded bunting for the winter. Got car seat. Got birth ball. Got bed protectors to save sheets from post partum bleeding and milk (I made these myself - a yard-ish square layer of terrycloth I had around and a backing of polar fleece, also lying around). Have a bunch of other things, too, but those are the main ones. Oh, several slings, of course. And nursing bras and shirts and pads from after DS was born.

We're moving overseas imminently, so I feel good about having all this stuff pretty streamlined and also ready to go.
 
#5 ·
Meh. I'm a procrastinator. I've got 4 months left still!

I did, however, purchase some newborn diapers on a killer sale. That's it. I have to go pick up the baby clothes from my sister and sort through them. I just don't wanna. I don't think there's much baby stuff that I need to buy. Homebirth supplies, however, I need to get going on.
 
#7 ·
i bought one pair of white old navy slip on pants for .99 at goodwill. other than that, we have natalie's leftovers and i think we'll be good for a bit. i kept EVERYTHING, so i won't need to make any major purchases.

i will need diapers. we're going to use 7th generation dipes and try the huggies bio dipes for the first week or so and then order AIO OS diapers. i'm really leaning towards bumgenius. also need 3-4 nursing bras but i've gotten so large that i may have to just get by with 2 because they will be like $60 EACH.

i have made:

3 pairs longies
2 covers/shorties
2 pr socks
3 hats
1 pr booties
1 shell stitch cardigan

and i've got a name blanket (still not sure of the middle name) and a round-a-week blanket on the hooks. the round-a-week has turned out great for helping me tick off the weeks.

i DO have a want list...mostly smallish stuff. i want two skeins of noro (any kind) to make some swanky longies with. i usually use fisherman's wool to save $$$ and it's not itchy and lanolinizes and felts up pretty well. i'd like some more leather strips to make moccasins oh and some more sock wool.

a big $$$ want would be the amby bed but sure as i bought it, i'd have another chest sleeper like natalie. we have a cradle...that works for 'play' time for mom and dad.
 
#9 ·
Um. I bought a blanket the other day. Does that count? Its soft and fuzzy on one side and silky all over the other side. My son loved that type of blanket and they're hard to find here so I snatched up the pink one when I found it.

Other than that I haven't prepared anything.
I've still got 4 months left. It feels a bit early to start preparing to me.
 
#10 ·
Jen- I got a homemade nursing bra from this site that I love and I bet she'll do larger sizes. They're gorgeous fabrics and affordable ($35).

http://hyenacart.com/kokobebe/index.php?c=11

I'm the kind of person who packs EVERYTHING for a trip and then can barely lift the suitcases. I'm always having these dreams that I have to leave in a hurry and I have to pack my backpack and I can't find my shoes. LOL. So I tend to over accumulate. Must be a throw back gene from my grandmothers from the Depression era.

I think the only thing that I still Need (besides a homebirth kit) is a stack of newborn prefolds.

I really recommend getting/making wool longies and other wool accessories for the winter. The other thing that's nice to have on hand is some basic remedies/tinctures so that you don't have to run out for them once the babe is here and someone gets sick or gets a funky cut/rash. Calendula, arnica, chamomile, echinacea and some nursing tea herbs too.
 
#11 ·
Well, I bought a dresser.


Otherwise, I have quite a to do list.
 
#12 ·
I'm pretty set, we don't have much clothing because we aren't finding out what the baby is.....and I am so happy we don't have a bunch of clothing. With DD we found out and after my baby shower it was like a Pepto-Bismo bottle had exploded in our house, PINK everything.

I have some cloth prefolds, I need covers. I'm doing sposies much of the time anyway, which I already have a TON of bought with coupons and on sale, so way cheap.

We need a dresser. Still have a car seat, plus I will get another from Molina Healthcare for my pregnancy. I'm thinking though I'm getting a booster for DD from that. We have a bucket seal, a Fisher price Safe Voyage which is basically a Britax marathon(we use it as DD's backup right now). We are pretty set.

Not worried about the clothes thing, my DH has a HUGE family and there are lots of baby clothes, plus if the baby is a girl we have DD's stuff.

We are pretty darn prepared.
 
#13 ·
I'm in good shape as far as stuff goes since I had a baby girl two years ago. Much of my equipment is at a girlfriend's house who borrowed it last summer when she had her baby daughter. I have to get those things back and wash them. We are pretty much set for clothing, too. It is nice to have all that. I need to add some dipes to my collection and I have boo koo organizing and minimizing to do. I don't know how we end up with so much crap, but I feel the need to simplify. That is my biggest hurdle at this point.
 
#14 ·
We're completely and totally unprepared!
(Materially, that is.)
I have nothing from dd - she was 12 years ago - and we're not acquiring stuff until we finish the nursery this month so that we have a place to put things.
So, if the babe were to be born today, s/he would have:
1 pair baby-size converse hi tops - gift from dh's brother
1 lovely, soft white blanket - crocheted by my mom
1 set infant sleep positioners - dropped off by a neighbor who's not using them anymore
1 romper, 1 pair longies, 1 sweater, 2 hats and several pairs booties - knit by me

That's it. I have been doing research on the car seat, stroller, co-sleeper etc... when we have a place to put them, we'll get them. Ditto on diapers, onesies and so forth.

Like a pp, I've felt funny about buying too early. Like I would jinx the lil critter or something. Weird, I know. Sooner or later I'll have to face the fact that there really WILL be a new baby friend coming to live with us in a few months!
 
#15 ·
Im very prepared for the baby.. the home birth not so much! We have all the furniture ( car seat, crib, bouncy seat, clothes, cloth diapers etc)
I just got my list from the midwife last week.. I got to get everything together, washed, labled and ready by the 36 week home visit. I need to make food too.. I figure ill start all that around 31 weeks or so.. and set up the crib etc...im so uncomfy that last month I don't want anything to have to do...Ill have it all done before or by 36 weeks I hope!
 
#16 ·
This is the sum total of baby items currently in hand:
4 small receiving blankets (which my mom bought right after I told her I'm pregnant)
4 newborn onesies
A baby carriage that an anonymous person left on my porch (it's a very cool Perego)
A baby bib that says "I love my Daddy" that I got for DP for fathers day
A newborn NY Yankees cap

That's it. Kind of sad! I'm dying to nest but holding off.

I'm wary of buying lots yet because we're going to be moving at the beginning of August, and I'd rather just wait to get it than get it now and have to move it all.
I will be getting a crib and a swing from my best friend's sister, lots of clothes and a bouncy seat from my best friend, and then I'm hoping that people will buy us stuff for a shower.

And I will admit that I don't even know what some of the things you all have listed are! What are longies and shorties? Are they pants? GMD orange and yellow edge unbleached prefolds? Thirsties? Snappis? Nosefrida? I've got to google all this stuff!
 
#17 ·
I am so unprepared. It's starting to freak me out a little bit. October seems so far away still, but on the other hand, so close!

Basically, before we start getting the baby's room ready, we need to clean out DH's bedroom at my in-laws, so that we can store stuff there, because we just have a two-bedroom apartment with no storage and all the crap that's in baby's room now has got to go somewhere ... this Friday we're scheduled to clean out that bedroom so hopefully that will kick-start some progress.

In the meantime I have purchased: One set of super-cute ceramic owl bookends for baby's room. Because we all know that if there's one thing a newborn really needs, it's ceramic bookends.

Yeeeeeeeeah, I've got a lot of work to do.
 
#18 ·
We are pretty set. We have a crib changing table, clothes for the first 6 months or so, cloth diapers, a baby car seat. . . And my baby showers are coming up yet so Im not too worried about the few things we dont have yet. I dont however have any of my homebirth supplies that my midwife said to order. So in that aspect no Im not ready.
 
#20 ·
We've got most of the cloth diapers we'll need. I'll probably buy a little more as I see the need for them.

I have a stroller picked out that I want to buy (or have bought for me
).

I want a changing table this time for our front bathroom - still have to get that.

We've got tons of blankets, but I could use a couple more baby towels and washcloths.

Have to order the birth kit soon! I don't feel ready without it in our house.

I really need to get back on track with my Hypnobabies homestudy course. Dd has been really sick this week, so I've been neglecting it.

We've just received tons of baby boy clothes from SIL for 0-6 months, but I still need to go through them to sort and wash. I'm not too worried about having enough clothes; our family and friends LOVE buying baby clothes!

I'd like to get another sling - one that I can nurse more easily with.

We've got the infant car seat from Dd (and I gave it a good washing last week), but sooner or later we'll have to buy the convertible. That's pretty $$$, so I think we'll wait.

The crib is up and ready (how much we'll use it I don't know, but it makes me feel more prepared
).

I cleaned up Dd's old infant bathtub the other day.

Have a bouncy seat from Dd.

We painted the kids' bedroom last month, so that's a big project out of the way. It looks great!
 
#21 ·
i have been nesting already. lol. i have everything i need and it is all set up.

all i need is some more wraps, a swing, and maybe a baby bath tub. all i really need there is the wraps. i just know that i will be needing those. i didnt cd DD until 10 mo so am feeling unprepared about cd a newborn. i know i am going to get poop all over them. lol.

i have all the clothes the babe will ever need already washed and in the drawers. i have the crib all set up and made with the mobile and everything. all i need to do after the babe is born is take off the one side and sidecar it.
 
#23 ·
MIL bought us a swing, and we got a second-hand carseat from my cousin that I still have to check out and see if it's even usable (it's clean but looks like an older model, so I don't know yet). Other than that... we have NOTHING. Absolutely nothing.

We are beyond broke; we were planning on cruising garage sales and thrift stores this summer to get the majority of our baby stuff, but I don't even know if we can afford to do that now (I just lost my job). Our families will be helping out with a lot of stuff, but I'm freaking out on the inside. Not prepared AT ALL.
 
#24 ·
I barely have anything! Someone gave me a boppy pillow and my sister bought the LO a cute outfit. That's it, though. I'm not sure I'm even going to have a shower, so I have to get everything together.

I'm falling somewhere in between feeling that it's still early to buy stuff and a few more weeks and I'll be in the third trimester!

I feel like I need to start getting stuff though, it's just so overwhelming!
 
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