Before I had Peppermint Patty (she is my first love), I had absolutely no clue what baby gear I needed and what baby gear I didn't. I thought if it was in the store, it was necessary. Wipe warmer. Check. Pretty bedding. Check. Diaper Genie (x2). Check. baby stuff out the wazoo. Check.
Peppermint Patty had a pretty room painted yellow with lovely boarder that matched the lovely (expensive) bedding that I had purchased. She even had a lovely rug (that matched the bedding, of course) to match as well. I agonized over the crib. I agonized over the changing table. I wondered if I should get a rocking chair.
After Peppermint Patty came I figured out I didn't really need half the baby gear I thought I did, so when Pig Pen came along (sorry in advance Pig Pen, my second love) she got nothing. She didn't even really have a "real" room of her own for a while. I simply shoved the crib and changing table in the extra room (with all the extra stuff of our house still in the extra room), threw up a decoration on one wall that matched the bedding and called it done. No paint, no extra stuff, no nothing.
And you know what.....she didn't care one bit. She didn't care that the wipe warmer was gone. She didn't care that her room was really the extra room with no fluff. She didn't care that all her clothes were hand me downs from her sister just 2 years earlier and most had stains from her sister. She just didn't care....and quite frankly I was tired....and I didn't care either.
Fair warning if a 3rd child should some how, in some miraculous manor, weasel their way into this family, they will have less than no fluff. They will get the basics. Period. They shouldn't expect more. They are the third. (don't worry....this isn't happening....you know....never)
I was in Walmart yesterday and overheard two ladies, both who were extremely pregnant (I thought I might have to rush one of them to the hospital myself), discussing if they were ready. The first lady said she still had stuff to buy. She was obvisously the first timer. The other lady said she was ready. She then turned to me and said "It's my 3rd. They don't need all that stuff." You know what.....she is right. All that stuff is really for the parents. The pretty room. The pretty gear. The 8000 outfits that will only fit for 3 minutes. The "stuff" that we think we need when really we don't.
Babies have been on this planet for as long as...well....forever. I don't think back in Adam and Eve's day Eve was wondering if her babies would be OK if she wiped their behind with a cold wipe. I also don't think back in Roman times people were wondering if they should buy the cheap stroller for $60 bucks or the expensive one for $600. These things in the end don't really matter. What matters is that when we bring babies into the world we have love, a few clothes, boobies or formula to feed them, a mountain of diapers, and a warm place for them to lay their heads. The rest is just gravy.
