Buying frenzy

Alhamdulillah, we're now 21 weeks! We (hubby and I) has felt the kickings of the little one, alhamdulillah. Everytime i think of how powerful and great Allah's blessings are, i can't help but shed a tear. I mean, only Allah can truly grant you a life, and each passing day the baby grows with His Will.. if that doesn't bring you to your knees in thankfulness.. nothing will.

The preparation in welcoming this little one is one phase we truly enjoyed. From the doa and surahs to recite, to preparing a list.. and endless research on anything baby related. It reminded me of the times we spent prior to our wedding. Only this time, more thought has to be in place because this is Allah's gift we're talking about! Someone so fragile, so lovely deserves nothing but our utmost attention :)

I googled and found so many versions of baby stuff checklist! But i chose one from a blog that seems sensible and complete. As we go along, i did add few things to the list to suit my parents' home and later on, ours. Stuff like spray bottle and adding changing mats because it makes sense to have more when you're not staying with your parents.

We then started our research.. it excites me to read from one blog to another, on how the items fare. Durability, function and practicality wise - i'm happy we put these as priority, in comparison to how it looks like. Don't get me wrong, we did look for something that soothes the eyes ;) Considering baby stuff isn't cheap, and eventhough we're not about to scrooge on this one, we want to get our money worth. And so far, alhamdulillah.. i think we did :)

So yeah, naturally the next step is to spend that money yo! Hehe. We already did some shopping, which i believe based on my timeline of pregnancy weeks, we're not that far off. And we did take into account i may want to rest in the last few months.. so yeah, we went ahead and bought whatever the list required, whenever we go out.

It's..exhilarating! We went in from one store to another with trepidation, and left with smiles.. I feel happy that hubby and I took time to evaluate and imagine the usage of one item we're about to buy. It felt meaningful, as much as this baby are to us :)

I know it's overwhelming, i mean where to start, what and where to buy.. but we developed a few rules:

• Big ticket items like cot/playpen, stroller, breastpump, baby drawer, car seat are best settled early. Of course, it depends on your allocation and planned usage. For us, these are the priority. 
• Toiletries and baby care (ie feeding) are best bought at baby fairs. Not only they give great discounts at bigger purchase, we also got few freebies!
• Baby clothing can wait. In our case, baby fair was held in Ramadhan hence it's unnecessary to stand and toss clothings in such huge crowd. We decided to start after Syawal.

If you ask me, which item should be researched, i would say ALL. yes, all. From breast pump to diaper.. We didn't buy items we did not study thoroughly, as of now. No matter how attractive the item and prices were, I suppose more information serves better value. And if you ask me, am i willing to spend on my child(ren), the answer is yes, if we feel it is worth it. 

For example, i wanted to settle on a famous, cheaper stroller earlier. I just thought well it's cheap so what's the fuss right? Wrong, because we have to consider the fold up size, the wheels and requirement we wanted (170 recline, parent facing, longer usage, foldability).. we ended up buying a different, costlier brand. So yeah, it really doesn't hurt to study a bit :)