Monday 18 October 2004

i like that one 'cos it's red



We went to Babies R Us yesterday, which turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than I anticipated. Normally, every time I read a baby equipment catalogue or go through a baby store site, I break out into hives. How do I know which car seat is the best? Do I really need a travel system, or should be just use a regular pram? 3 wheels or 4? What are differences between baby monitors, apart from the price? Aiiieee! Too much choice! Aaaaiiiieeee!!



So with slight trepidation, we headed into Cambridge to do some test drives. The buggies/prams/all singing, all dancing travel systems were surprisingly easy to sort through. Some were obviously too heavy and bulky, others didn't have many useful features, and some appeared to be pricey for no good reason (£300 for a pram that doesn't come with a car seat? Bah.) We tried out a few that seemed to fit the bill: I could lift it, it was easy to figure out, and it had stuff on it that we needed. Plus, the one I liked the best was red. I like red. We looked at car seats, cribs, monitors, bedding (I love how boy things always have dogs on them), and tried out nursing chairs (dangerously comfy). I made notes of the ones we liked and will see if we can get them cheaper at Kiddicare. Baby shopping no longer scares me and I have now armed myself with notes and preferences for various items. Oh yes. Hear me roar.



I still can't think about labour and delivery yet (really, the thought of how this baby must come out of me at some point freaks me out) but as the weeks go by, the reality of becoming a parent becomes much more tangible. Before the bump starts to show, before the first "real" movements are felt (i.e. the movements that are undoubtedly baby), it's all a little surreal. Even after the first scan, I was hesitant to run out and start buying little scratch mitts and teddy bears. Since the 3D scan when we found out Pip's a boy and I started feeling a lot more movement, I truly do understand that this is all very real. And it's a very good feeling. I no longer fret on a daily basis about things going wrong and I don't feel like I'm jinxing things by talking about "when the baby comes" or buying things in preparation. I was speaking to someone the other day and mentioned something about "our son", and although I tripped over the words slightly, they were so very nice to say.



But I think it'll still be a while before I can watch stories about birth on the Discovery Health channel. Blergh.

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