Unnecessary Items

I remember when I was pregnant I kind of went a little crazy with the registry process. I am a big planner AND registering is like going on a shopping spree without spending any of your own money! Now that Ava is almost 8 months old I have been reflecting on how fast she is growing up and how it seems like just yesterday she was my little baby bump! There are only two things that I can think of that I could have definitely done without...



1. Buying the fancy crib bedding set. That thing was probably $300 and you really don't need it. The bumpers were really cute, but I think they are probably a suffocation hazard. The mobile is cute too, but again, unnecessary. The comforter is currently being used as a window curtain because you aren't supposed to use blankets with babies because of the suffocation hazard. The diaper holder...I used this for the first 12 weeks when I was on maternity leave, but now it is just a pain to fill it up (I cloth diaper so I just leave the clean dipes in the laundry basket). I do like the dust ruffle and the curtains and matching lamp, but again not really necessary, babies don't care about that! So basically the only necessary item: crib sheet!



2. Hiring a doula for my birth - Obviously for those of you that have read my birth story, I did not have a birth that I planned on. Aaron and I did just fine on our own and honestly, the performance of my doula is the only thing that I am truely disappointed in with my birth. She should have stopped by when my contractions were 5 minutes apart. An experienced doula should know that they need to talk to a laboring mother in order to truely assess how far along they are and I had told Aaron that I didn't want to talk to anyone (probably the first sign that things were getting serious). Instead Aaron called her for advise and she was taking a nap! I know she felt bad about the whole thing and she didn't make us pay our last installment and tried to make up for it by giving us more post-partum care, basically a really expensive house cleaner! The best thing she did for us was suggest I make a "tssss" noise to help hold myself back from pushing and taking photographs when the ambulance doors opened. Oh, and the belly caste is pretty cool, but next time around Aaron will do that.