Who knew a baby NEEDS so many things?

What was the perfect Valentines Day gift for me this year?  A day of preparation for the baby…courtesy of my sweet husband.  Or, maybe that should say – courtesy of my husband who kindly obliged because I’m pregnant and occasionally hormonal ;)

I felt fairly prepared for this adventure.  I have read a few baby books, researched top brands for cribs, strollers, car seats, play yards, etc.  I even utilized Consumer Reports to research reviews on safety.  And guess what, I was still overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed may not even fully describe our experience. 

Babies R Us and Target are the two best options for our geographic location – we (and most of our family) are too far away from Pottery Barn or other larger stores to make registering at those stores practical.  I preferred Babies R Us, as they had all of the top rated items that I wanted (stroller, car seat, high chair, play yard).  The entire store is color coded and they send you through the store with a color coded list of everything you could potentially need.  And this is the part that becomes overwhelming…It is easy to identify the big things you need, it is the things they tell you that you must have for everyday use that made this process overwhelming for us.  We never guessed that you would need 25 different items to feed and bathe the baby. 

Overall, it was an interesting experience.  And it did not help that we arrived right before lunch (without eating anything prior). 

The overall lessons that I learned:

• Someone could make a lot of money (at least from me) to consult with first time parents on what is actually needed for their child
• Stores are motivated to encourage new parents to register for everything…the more items on the list, the more likely they will make money on the registry
• The baby probably does not need everything that is on the list.  I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that we will be able to successfully raise our child – even if we do not have 15 receiving blankets and 8 different accessories for our stroller.

If you have not completed your registry yet, hop on over to my website for a full "how-to" guide to creating a baby registry.  This walks you through step-by-step information on ways to make the registry process as simple as it possibly can be. 

Good luck!