When did you buy the crib and car seat?

After we were approved, we bought one big purchase a month until we had the crib, the dresser, and the travel system. After that, we painted the nursery and then set everything up. Since we waited over a year, it sat there awhile but we wanted to be ready in case we got a phone call. Sure enough, we had less than three weeks from the time we got the call until we picked up our son. We were scrambling to get everything else in that short period of time so were thankful we had purchased and set up the crib and dresser.

I bought nearly all of my "gear" while I was still TTC. A few times, it would help me to focus on the ferility treatments and not to give up. Every thing I bought were gender neutral items.

Everything we got was gender neutral too. We specifically bought before we matched with an expectant mom so that we wouldn't necessarily associate the crib, etc with that specific situation. We were going to keep stuff regardless of the match working out anyway. Funnily enough, we didn't use either the crib or car seat that we originallly bought because of our son's heart problems. :p He was in a car bed until he was almost 5 months old.

I wondered also, we will be buying both when we are active (about 2 more weeks) since we were gender specific we are expecting a girl I am not sure if the crib will be put together or not ahead of time though

Once we were homestudy approved we bought a white crib but left it in the box in a closet. We also bought a gender neutral car seat/stroller combo. For clothes we bought 10 plain white onesies and 7 sleep and plays in yellow or green. We also bought a little bassinet for the baby to sleep in until we got the crib put up. I put everything in the room that would become the nursery, shut the door and never opened it until W was home. We took the car seat and the clothes with us to pick him up. When he was about 4 weeks old I decorated his nursery. Until that time he slept in the bassinet next to our bed. Good Luck on your adoption journey!

I got them right after I got approved which is a good thing coz i had a very short wait. God is good

Walking through Toys R Us tonight, I was wondering the same thing. We went there to buy diapers since I found a pretty decent coupon... We have picked out the crib and glider that we would like. We have 6 c-u-t-e outfits! A friend is giving us her car seat/stroller combo. I was thinking, I have no idea what I'm going to need technically before she comes home! What else should I have on hand as far as bottles and pacifiers go? Should I go ahead and buy the thing that keeps them on their back while they sleep? Or, come to think of it, should we buy those things during the day while we are waiting at the hospital and taking a break? I'm just so excited that it's almost Nov, then Dec!! We only have about 8-9 weeks to go...

I would get a book like baby bargains and do your research, even register somewhere like Babysrus so you get organized (if only in your head) in terms of your wish list.We live only ten minutes from a Buy Buy Baby and a Babysrus but even when we were in Michigan when baby was born we were able to find things on our list at places like Target.You'd be surprised how you can make due with very little ....no need to have the things that prevent them from turning over right away for example because they don't roll over the first month and even if they did, roll up a few towels and prop them up next to baby. Use cloth diapers as burp clothes, burp clothes as blankets....I could have saved THOUSANDS of dollars if i knew what i know now. Did you know that a dishwasher is hot enough to sterilize bottles? anyway, the only immediate MUSTS for a newborn in my opinion are diapers, wipes, bottles, formula, a couple of gowns (maybe 6) some kind of basinette and a car seat. A lot of the stuff we THINK we need ...I feel like the industry preys on first time parents to be honest!

You are awesome!! Thanks! :)

I LOVE my simple cloth diapers for burp cloths!! We have thicker ones and the gauzier ones, both gerber. I love them so much we registered for them too. They're easy to wash, bleach, etc. I've never used a bib, like ever outside of photos if someone gave as a gift or something. We just tuck the thinner gauzier cloth diapers and feed away. Bibs are great for when they can actually "eat". That's another thing to think about, are you having a shower? We knew we would be, but it wouldn't be planned until after our states 30 day revocation period..all family knew that. So we had nearly everything we needed for newborn, his shower is more about 3-6+ month stuff. what we hadoutside of car seat & bassinet: diapers, wipes, the bottles and the stuff needed to clean like those bottle brushes, we did buy a dr brown bottle sterilizer (didn't want the bottles getting the dishwasher chemicals if there was any residue...I'm a spaz I know:D), hospital will send you home with the pacifiers they use, cloth diapers for spit clothes, diaper cream (the hospitals tend to use wet paper towels and not wipes...be prepared for a possible red tushie), soft wash rags for gentle cleanings before the first bath (no rinse sensitive cleaners are great too...like Mustela), qtips and alcohol for cord care (if that's how they tell you to do it), plain white long sleeve and short sleeve onesies, sleepers (zippers will be your best friend...snaps are maddening at 2am!!), have a few newborn sizes in case you have a little peanut like we did...he was in "newborn" for 2-3 weeks and then 0-3, dreft for washing (we thought it was BS and hype, but we now use it for everything...it did make a HUGE difference with his skin). OH..have a few of the good quality nasal aspirators around for nose care and in case of any spit up or puke you need to get out of mouth OR nose...it happens and having one right there will make you feel better. The one they give you at the hospital is for the mouth and not really for the nose, the nasal ones are rounded so you can't hurt baby's nasal passages :)

This just in Babiesrus and Toysrus sent me an email about layaway. That way you can pay at little increments and that way it also isnt in the house. But also if it gets discountinued you still have it.

got that email too! One other thing we had right away with placement was a baby monitor. I was personally really glad to have that one piece of "equipment". I reviewed a bunch of them and we returned 2 before getting the one we have now. Most of our baby gear is hand me down from my 2 year old neice (swings, papasan, pac n play, etc) so we didn't spend a whole lotta anything there...so on the monitor we spent, but I LOVE this monitor system and I'd spend it all over again...with the babiesrus coupon. [url=http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3191958]Summer Infant Complete Coverage Video Monitoring System - Summer Infant - Babies "R" Us[/url] It's not as "color" as they claim, but the overall picture quality is fanatastic on the large and handheld unit. All of the pieces are super lieghtwieght and pick up every little sound (we never have to put the sound reception over 2 bars). This would be my "pick" for any registry.

Actually I'd even remove formula from that list, as you never know what the child will be on at the hospital and they give you a lot of it (we had enough for 10 days). I'd add car seat, swaddling blankets, waterproof pads and pacifier to that list (although the hospital gave us pacis too) but otherwise that's pretty much it.

We didn't start buying anything at all until about a month before the birth. The adoption failed, but I'm glad we did all that shopping so we don't have to now for our new situation. I used to think buying the stuff would make me depressed, but in reality it made me feel like this is *really* going to happen!

We started the process in September and said we weren't going to buy anything. Then, around Thanksgiving, we saw sales and coupons and decided we couldn't wait anymore. We bought everything we would need for a newborn to 1 month, pretty much. We knew we wouldn't have a shower till a month after. Now we're not matched and the nursery is all decorated, I'm alright with it. I know the nursery will be filled eventually. We just leave the door closed most of the time.