Tiffany Raiford
My oldest daughter will be 8 in just a few weeks, and I’ve become a bit nostalgic as I remember all the moments that led up to her arrival. My husband and I had been married for more than three years before we became parents. We were on a vacation in Hawaii when he told me he’d love to have a baby, which was something I’d not considered at that point. I was only 24; in fact, that’s why we were in Hawaii. It was my birthday and we were there to celebrate. It took me a few months to warm up to the idea, and I was pregnant immediate. We were so excited; even more so when we found out we were having a girl. My husband had six nephews at the time, and my brother had a little boy. There were no girls in the family.
We were so excited about our little love. The moment we found out we were having a girl, I was online at Pottery Barn ordering the crib and the nursery furniture I loved. I already had the bedding sets and accessories I loved most in my cart at Restoration Hardware Baby & Child for both a boy and a girl, and I got rid of the boy stuff and bought the girl stuff. We spent thousands and thousands of dollars on that sweet baby girl – and we love her like you only know if you are a parent yourself.
But…there’s always a but, isn’t there? We overdid it, and we learned pretty quickly that we overdid it. It’s not nearly as expensive as you think it might be to have a baby, but it all depends on whether or not you take the advice of parents before you. When it comes to a first baby, it’s totally and completely understandable that you want to go all out and buy everything new – I don’t blame you, and I think you should if that’s what you want.
However, we learned some serious lessons with baby number one that we applied with our second daughter and our boy/girl twins. If you want to listen to a mom who has been there, done that and somehow survived mostly intact, read on.
Forget Brand New
Listen, I wouldn’t have done it with our first. And to be quite honest, I didn’t even do it with the twins. They all got brand new stuff. However, baby number two used her big sister’s crib and changing table and many other items. Why? Because babies tear things up, ruin them, spit up on them and they don’t know that the crib they’re sleeping in belonged to sister a few years before. Why spend thousands on a new crib that the baby is just going to chew on like a giant teething ring at some point? Hand that thing down. I would have done it for the twins, too, but we couldn’t find the same crib to match when they were on their way so we went brand new with both. You may also consider a baby crib rental as an option.
In our group of friends, we passed around a lot of stuff. Swings, bouncy seats, jumparoos, exersaucers, boppy pillows, bumbo seats, rock and plays…you name it, one of our 11 kids used it. in fact, probably most of our 11 kids used them at some point. Why? Because you realize after baby number one is born that it doesn’t matter – and it’s so much cheaper.
Don’t Go Crazy on Clothes
Our first daughter had a closet filled with Burberry dresses and shoes for church. Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, and so many other name brand items filled her closet and she rarely wore those clothes. Why? Because it took us all of three seconds to realize that baby spit up does not come out of clothing very well, and that fun, frilly clothes are more of a pain to get on and off than anything else. Inexpensive onesies from Carters are the best.
Forget the Unnecessary Items
Let’s see, you don’t need mittens when you can use little socks. You don’t need all those blankets for the baby when you can buy the Velcro swaddlers. You do need lots of crib sheets, but you do not need a million baby towels and hoodie towels and wash cloths. Button up pajamas with footies are the best because you don’t have to take them completely off the baby in the middle of the night to change them – even though zippers are much easier.
You don’t need a baby bathtub because you’re going to get a little lazy and do sink baths most of the time. You don’t need baby bath toys because you aren’t going to want them to play in the tub – you want them out and in bed.
Hospital Bills
Did you know you can ask the hospital if you pay in cash for a discount? Once that bill comes in the mail, call them up and tell them that you’d like to pay the bill in cash and ask if there is a discount available for you. Most of the time, you can get a discount as much as 40%.
Photo by Getty Images
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