It has been no secret that I have not enjoyed this pregnancy. There isn’t a lot to look forward to besides getting bigger and well, obviously, someones arrival. The one thing I have kept focused on is the day I got to go start our baby registry. Sounds so small but for me it was an exciting thing to look forward to. That day finally came over this past weekend.
We are having two baby showers towards the end of August and I felt there was no better way to celebrate my birthday this past weekend than diving through a store with a scanning gun. We chose Babies R Us and Target to register at. I would have actually done Buy Buy Baby over Babies R Us but ours is not done being built. We chose to do two places as not everyone has a Babies R us near them, nor do some people want to make the trek into one. It can be overwhelming.
To prep for this day I printed a registry suggestion list from Babies R Us website. I went through the list and crossed off things that I knew were a waste of money, not needed for our family, or were already purchased (carseat/stroller/furniture.) For the larger items i.e. swings, bassinets, etc, I did some research ahead of time online so I had an idea of exactly what I wanted to register for after I was able to see/touch the item. I knew this would make going in a lot easier. I also wanted to avoid mindless registering, which is what we ended up doing on our wedding registry, and I feel that is how you end up with really expensive, random kitchen items, that stay tucked away in the pantry. We don’t want our house littered with baby items that are used very little or not at all. I have a decent memory of what we used with Rebecca, granted every baby is different, but it helped.
So off we went, the moment the doors opened at Babies R Us (to avoid crowds) and were handed our scanning gun by a helpful lady at a desk who explained all sorts of fun things. I can say it went fairly well and we made a large dent in what we wanted to register for. We had a good time together and laughed our asses off for much of it. It was eye-opening to the Husband, to say the least. You can say we are not very “Team Pink” by any means and if you didn’t know better, you would think we were having a boy or didn’t know the gender based on the amount of gender neutral items we chose with a few truck prints tossed in, courtesy of my construction Husband. And dog printed stuff. I think stores need to be a bit more gender equal on animals, dogs are not just for boys and cats are not just for girls. Needless to say, if we have a boy one day down the road all of these items would still work.
After some lunch to refuel we headed to Target and that was the beginning of a disaster. Let me start by saying, Target is my mecca. Who doesn’t love a good cruise through that place? The youngest girl to ever work at Target customer service handed us a scanner, said all directions were on the scanner and walked away. Huh? After a struggling set up on the damn thing (It listed myself as the role of father) we headed to the baby section. I was saving smaller, basic items for Target. (Sheets, onsies, lotions, etc) To start with, we almost threw the scanner because it refused to do its one main job. Then it would delete something we did scan or error out. Plus, the choices were so damn slim in store or the shelves were bare. We ended at the alcohol aisle where I indeed register for rum but not my rum of choice because that one refused to scan. Points to the friends who will purchase THAT bottle.
We finally sat in the middle of the diaper aisle, feeling exhausted, listening to a Dad in another aisle ask his young son if he wanted the blue balls over and over. We are so inmature, we laughed our asses off. Defeated, we decided we would just go back to Babies R Us, next weekend, to add to our registry for everything that Target greatly lacked. Oh, Target, how you disappointed me. And yes, we could add more online but I live in the midwest, where to this day, not all people have internet and for those that do they sure as hell aren’t going to order anything online. Just being realistic here for our kind gift givers.
With that I went home, got online and changed my online Target registry profile to list me as the mother, instead of the father. So far, we are nailing this parenting thing.
Through My Mistakes 
I used Baby List because you can merge registries from a variety of stores. I do agree with you that not many people will like my online approach. My husband’s family has yet to embrace technology like we have.
I have heard about that! Great idea! I wish we had more family that would embrace technology so we could do that! Crazy world they live in:) haha
You can merge your Toys R Us and Target ones on there? Just a thought. Yes I love technology. Don’t know what I’d do without it.
Haha we have the same humor! (Blue balls). Just keep thinking you will have a precious angel when it’s all said and done. Thanks for sharing! -Angela
http://www.hangrywife.com
Glad we aren’t the only ones with the dirty minds:) And yes, it will all be worth it!
Your post made me laugh. I can totally picture you guys laughing in the aisle. All your work will pay off and you’ll get a lot of nice things and not too much crap — there’s always that Aunt that goes rogue and buys you something off your registry and on too of that completely useless or ugly
I told my Husband no matter what we do the random crap will come from people. All meant from the heart, but random anyways. At least (most things) are returnable:)
At my baby shower an Aunt showed up with a wine bag and a bottle in it. I got SO excited and was about to label her as the coolest Aunt ever…until I pulled the bottle out of the bag and saw that no, it wasn’t wine, it was a bottle of sparkling grape juice. *insert disappointed face here* The next baby shower I go to I am SO bringing booze for the mother to be. Now that I know what the 9 months of pregnancy entail, I think every new mom deserves her OWN (no husbands allowed) bottle of her booze of choice! I hope someone gets you that bottle of rum. I totally would!!!
It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun doing the registry. I actually laughed hard at your comment about the dad repeatedly asking his son if he wants the blue balls. The exact laugh I needed this morning! My little tip is, from now until your baby shower, don’t look at the registry to see if things are being bought. You will likely find that a lot of people won’t start buying things until a week or two or even a few days before it. I watched mine about once a week and could not understand why people weren’t buying anything off of them, but come baby shower day, we actually got quite a few items off of both lists, but a lot of people also didn’t bother with the registries and bought what they wanted, so we got a crapload of clothes too. Either way it is a lot of fun opening up gifts that people took the time to think of you and the baby when they picked them 🙂
An alcohol free bottle in a wine bag? That is just mean! Haha! Once my friends have birthed their said baby, I have always brought wine and a gift card for food. It has always been met with grateful eyes so I figured it has been worth it. Now being the pregnant one, I’m wanting the same!
I remember checking my wedding registry waaaaay to often so I’m going to try to do the opposite of that and NOT watch it:) I am completely grateful for whatever people want and do buy us so I’m just going to roll with that:)
Wow, what an experience at Target! I thought about registering at Target, but for a number of reasons ultimately decided to go with Amazon instead. We are also registered at Babies R Us and Pottery Barn Kids (for the bedding and nursery accessories). I figure these stores are a good combination for both the Internet shopping lovers as well as those who prefer to shop in store.
That sounds like a really good combination for everyone! It is tough trying to think about your kind purchasers:)
We are having a girl and are also not team pink. I find it’s quite hard for friends and family to understand that we would prefer the minimum amount of pink. So many boy items could be used for girls as well!
Haha, glad we aren’t the only ones out there. It is just so MUCH pink.
I was so annoyed with Target!! For some reason, I remember them having aisles and aisles of baby shit, and now it’s one tiny little section. I ended up doing the majority of my registry on Amazon because I love to research the crap out of things online. And for the select few that still don’t know how to use the internet, we registered for wipes and diapers at babies r us. I gave up on Target.
I’m so laughing at this! In my head I felt the same about Target. Aisles of cute basics, easy for people to pick from that don’t do things online. WRONG! I debated on Amazon too because it is so much easier. I did a lot of reading of reviews there and that helped me narrow down my Babies R Us list. And hey, you can never have enough diapers:)