Now that we know we have a little girl on the way, I have been relieved for several reasons. For one, it’s nice not to have to refer to my daughter as “the kid” or “it” anymore. It gets tiring for my husband and I to constantly refer to our baby in a neutral way, for instance “I can’t wait until we get to hold him or her” or “is the kid moving today?” It’s just nice that she can now be just ”Haley.” Or, when I’m yelling at her in the future for being bad, “Haley Nicole McCaffrey!!!!” It’s also really nice to be able to actually begin planning for her arrival. I have been wanting so badly to buy things for the little Bean, but since I didn’t know the gender yet, I had to hold back. I did not want scads of yellow and green everything. After the long 18 week wait, I now finally knew that I was having a little girl. The next step was to register.

My husband and I have already ventured out into the wide world of gift registries when we were getting married, and I’ve got to say that the gift registry is quite possibly the best thing in the world. There is no room for failure. No one can say, “Oh..I thought you wanted that gold striped toaster that plays ‘Bonanza’ each time the toast pops up” because they obviously didn’t pay attention to your registry. In fact, I think every one should create a new registry for each holiday and birthday. It’s a brilliant way to keep Great Aunt Margaret from getting you the same old gaudy Christmas sweater, as long as she knows how to operate the little computers where you print out the list. Of course this can also be dangerous when in the hands of someone who could misuse it, like my husband. I’ve come to discover that men have attention spans of exactly 20 minutes. As we were registering for items for the bridal shower, he eventually got bored and the next thing I knew, we had 6 bottles of shampoo and a Hannah Montana wig on the list next to our knife set and bedsheets.

As Patrick and I stepped into Babies R Us, we had a common goal: scan everything that our child will need for her enterance into the world. Being first time parents, this is a very daunting task. We started the journey through Babies R Us like I would with groceries: start in the back and work your way up to the perishables, or in this case, the expensive cribs. We scanned like true amateurs.

 ”Honey, check out this stroller, it has 4-wheel drive, temperature regulation, and a built in coffee dispenser. Do babies drink espresso these days?”

“They must, we want to make sure to get the best stuff for our daughter, scan it.”

“Do we need 26 bibs?”

“You’re right. We should probably get 30.”

For me, the most confusing part of the entire registration process wasn’t cribs or strollers, it was bottles and pacifiers. There are more varieties of these two items than anything else in the whole store. Forget planning purchases for your child around your nursery theme, first make sure you are able to feed the kid. I thought there was a couple different bottle designs you chose, then you slapped a rubber nipple on it and called it dinner. This is not the case. There are different sizes and styles of bottles and nipples, and my husband and I had the challenge of deciding what our little half-pound fetus might like when she is thrust into the world. This was one of many things that we decided to throw caution to the wind and go for the variety pack, that way if she is upset with our choice, we can offer her some options.

After all was said and done, I think we managed to scan all the basics. (We did get some help from an experienced mother in the diaper aisle as we stood staring at all the different brands, wondering which variety we should be paying $40 for for our little girl to eventually deposit her dinner into. Apparently 2nd time moms have a radar for helpless 1st-timers.) I even bought my first baby clothes, which was extremely fun…for me anyway. Pat’s eyes were glazed over, and he was slowly inching his way towards the exit and the Best Buy nextdoor. Here are a few things I picked up:

And this is just the beginning. I can’t wait til Pat and I are in Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving so I can go shopping with my wonderful mother in law and sister in law Shannon. Black Friday–be afraid. I have a kid to clothe.