Baby Buys

Because we had been planning for our pregnancy, I had told daddy ahead of time that I would purchase an aerobed I had seen on sale if I was pregnant. I figured that it would be nice to have extra sleeping accomodations when family come and visit our little Sweetpea. Unfortunately, when I found out, it was no longer available, but I did see something else that may come in handy. So, my first baby gear purchase after being officially pregnant was the Supreme Snuggle Nest in green with white polka dots. I figured it would be easier for us when the baby is born, and while I recover, to have the baby in our room at least for a couple months. And, from what I read, this also helps the baby transition to their crib easier because they don't feel as lost in their crib. Daddy and I were pretty excited when it arrived; we set it up on our bed and imagined and talked about how tiny Sweetpea is going to be. We were still letting the thought of being parents sink in :)

Another major item that we have out of the way is our car seat and stroller. We spent hours researching and visiting Babies R' Us, Merry Go Round, and other baby stores to test them out. Our pick? We decided to go with the Chicco (Pronounced Kee-co, not chico) Keyfit 30 travel system. It was rated number 1 in Consumer's Report for safety, ease of use, and fit to vehicle. When we tested it out in the store, it really was very intuitive and easy to use; the base contains a bubble level and easily adjusts up and down, so no need for towels to prop up the car seat for proper fit. For those who haven't heard of Chicco carseat or strollers, the company, design, and fabrics are Italian, but I think they may outsource their work to Asia. Anyhow, Keyfit 30 came in four colors; we thought we might like Atmosphere, but we didn't really like the color when we saw it at Merry Go Round, and daddy thought Race looked to bright red for him. We got to see a different model stroller in the Adventure color while we were in Virginia for the holidays and ended up deciding on that. On second thought, Poetic might be nice as well, but we had no reference other than online pictures since no store seemed to carry it yet. Here's a link to the travel system's features. Thank you Ta-ee and Uncle Philip for giving us the travel system for Christmas.

For those who are curious or in the market, here are the results from the latest Nov 2007 Consumer Reports (earlier report published that year was actually faulty, govn't caught the error). The top 3 seats were: Chicco Key Fit followed by the Britax Companion and Peg Perego Primo Viaggio. The "best buys" were Baby Trend Flex-Loc and Graco Snug Ride with EPS. Here's a link to the report ratings.

My latest buy? A lamp for our nursery. I had been eyeing a lamp from Pottery Barn kids and saw this on sale at TJMaxx last week. Here are pictures, the first two are the ones from PB and the last, our new lamp. It's a bit harder to see the swoop in the lamp shade since we haven't removed the plastic, and you can't hardly see the gingham in the PB pics but you can see it clearer on the enlarged view on their website but they are pretty much similar style and can grow with the kid(s) :)


Well, hope some of the information has been useful. There are still quite a few things that we need or would like to get for the baby. Those bundles sure do add up.