interesting exceptions to my tightfistedness

[psocoptera]

I've been a bit slow about buying meeple-related equipment or supplies - I've been putting items *onto* a list, but have yet to start checking any of them off of it. Part of that is my general miserly reluctance to exchange money for goods. It occurs to me now that there's another area of meeple preparation in which that's not at all true, which is that I'll merrily fork over significant sums of money for anything that sounds like some sort of education - childbirth class, infant/child CPR and first aid class, and now breastfeeding class. The usefulness of these classes is not obviously greater than that of major gear items like an infant carrier or co-sleeper or stroller, and the costs are in comparable ranges, but I hesitate to pull the trigger on the co-sleeper in a way I didn't at all about the CPR class. Some of that is surely that the classes have limited space and immediate deadlines, whereas there's really no risk that the world will run out of strollers if I delay, but some of it seems like something more interesting - a general sense, perhaps, that you can't really waste money on Learning Things in a way that you could quite easily waste it on Stuff? (Or maybe it's a paradox of choice thing - I just assumed we'd do Red Cross CPR classes, while there are thirty bazillion different options for strollers.)

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

you also don't need to store the information the same way as the stuff.

[rebeccapaul.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I can help... If you intend to be in the NJ area (or maybe the New Haven area) with a car before the meeple arrives, you can borrow some of our supplies. (We might want them back if we decide to have a second child, but they do not need to live in ou attic in the mean time.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Well, thank you very much for the kind offer! I am finally feeling close to getting off of the shopping fence, and think I have ideas about what we might buy for most of the significant gear items, and as I recall you have cats so I'd be somewhat hesitant about borrowing anything that wasn't going to go through the washing machine given my severe allergies. But I really appreciate the offer, and certainly if you have advice about gear items you really loved or hated, that could be useful!

[glassonion]

Yeah, i agree with Ruthling. I'm generally *not* tightfisted, but that means i'll go on a nice dinner out without a second thought, but still have hesitation when i consider Buying A Thing.

There's a sense in which the commitment level is greater, because once you Buy A Thing, you're stuck with it, even if it wasn't the best possible thing. If you commit to your stroller, and three weeks later you find a stroller that's seven times better in every way, you'll be annoyed about it, but you'll probably stick with the one you've got. If you take a class, and three weeks later find one that's seven times more useful in every way, you can just shrug and shell out for the new class, without having to sell the old one on Craigslist.

[gannet.livejournal.com]

Since I see you're open to recommendations...

If you get an infant car seat (as opposed to one that converts to forward-facing), I'd recommend the kind of stroller which is really a framework for the car seat to sit in. It worked well for us, anyway. Also, if you have two cars, you can buy a second base for the infant car seat and have one base in each car. It's much simpler.

Theo slept in a dresser drawer on the floor when he was fresh home from the hospital. That's mostly to let you know that there are some things you don't need to rush on. ;)

When it comes time for baby food, don't bother with the little jars. Expensive! Instead get a food mill and use it to convert some of what you eat to mush.

I'll see if I can remember anything else...

[rebeccapaul.livejournal.com]

You don't een need a food mill! Just give the baby chunks of soft food to feed themselves. (You can buy a mesh feeder that holds the food so they can gnaw on it, if you worry about choking.) Less work in terms of preparation and feeding, potentially more messy. (Of course, you generally wait until 6 months for solids anyway, so this is not urgent.)

We were not stroller people, but I do recommend having a baby carrier of some kind. There are many patterns online, so you might be able to commission a crafty friend to make one. (My mother and sister made my main one.)

I liked having somewhere I could put Jonah down in each room - a bouncy seat, an activity mat or even a towel on the floor when he was little, and an exersaucer when he was older. (Some people are concerned that excess use of an exersaucer can cause leg problems, so we didn't use it excessively.)

Also, if you haven't, you should check out Freecycle.
I'm sure I have more opinions, but I can't think of more at the moment...

[irilyth]

We actually already have a food mill, as it turns out. :^)

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Hee, aww, dresser drawer. I admit I'd been thinking of "place for sleeping" as one of the more urgent items, but we *do* have a laundry basket...

The stroller options I am thinking I want to go test drive (test push?) are in fact the kind of thing into which you snap the baby bucket, so it's good to hear someone else say that worked for them. Thanks!

[jenizie.livejournal.com]

Oooh, recommendations...

I'll second the recommendation for the infant carseat / framework stroller combination. Of course, this is coming from someone who barely used a stroller at all before about 6 months -- I don't think we even bought it until about 3 months.

We had two baby carriers we loved -- the Moby wrap and the Ergo. Really we could have gotten away with just the Ergo, but the Moby was nice for the first few months, especially around the house.

And the other bit of gear we loved was the co-sleeper (Arms Reach). It kept Laurel right near us, but avoided the issue of making our bed safe for a newborn, which we just couldn't figure out a way to do without making our bed too uncomfortable for us to sleep in.

But yeah, I understand and share the hesitancy to commit to spending money on stuff despite a lack of hesitancy to spend money on education. We did that as well, to the point of only buying a bunch of our gear two days before (as it turned out) Laurel was born; and some not until afterward. It worked just fine.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Your recommendations list is eerily like unto my shopping list... ::grin::