When did you start preparing for a baby? We have some clothes and the beginning of a small stash of cloth diapers however Hubs wants to start buying baby furniture. There’s no way that we will have a baby before next [name_u]March[/name_u] at the earliest so it seems odd to me that he wants to buy furniture now, especially when we live in such a high cost area.
Is it too soon or should we start buying deals as we find them?
When you say “next March”, do you actually mean March 2017 and not the March that will be here in a couple of months? If you’re not even pregnant yet, then yes, I think it’s definitely too soon to be buying big ticket items like baby furniture. There will always be deals you can take advantage of; maybe even better deals than the ones you can find right now! (Exceptions being discontinued items or second-hand/antiques. You probably do want to grab those as soon as possible if the item is something you know you definitely will want.) However, it doesn’t hurt to at least look around and get an idea of what kind of nursery stuff you may want and how much it may cost. Then maybe you can set aside some money for a “nursery fund” that you can use when a baby is actually on the way.
Yes, [name_u]March[/name_u] of '17. The soonest we can start trying is the summer when Hubs gets back from his last deployment.
I don’t mind going to look but he’s all of a sudden sending me links to various stores and asking me to buy a crib, pack n play, etc.
I always feel like I’m going to get yelled at for posting in this section, but here I go anyway. Before you start buying a bunch of stuff I think it would be important to consider how you would feel to have all that stuff around you if pregnancy was taking longer than expected. Would you be okay walking by a crib at that point, especially since it’s something that you can’t really just hide in a closet? If you don’t think it would stress you out or make you emotional, then by all means consider sales or at least start saving for those things.
We started stashing away things after we were married at the start of 2013, even though we didn’t start ttc until the end of 2014, and I didn’t get pregnant until mid 2015. We had things like a heap of clothes in multiple sizes, a baby bouncer, and a collection of nursery decor. I didn’t find it hard at all having the stuff before the baby (ttc took us 9 months), and we kept it all in boxes in a spare cupboard.
The most annoying this was that we had bought a lot of blue and green decor items, but it came down to it, we wanted yellow and grey. We’ve made it work though!
We didn’t buy any big items but I had thoroughly researched everything, and had picked the things I wanted, so that saved so much stress and time once becoming pregnant. We just had to go down to the store and order everything 
I have a little stash of baby clothes and toys (but because when I see things for super cheap like less than a dollar, I buy it), we also have a bassinet (but that was given to us by our parents since my grandpa made it and my parents let us store it in our house since we figured we’d have a baby before my younger sister, so it’s a heirloom)
Here’s the thing, there will always be deals, now if I was offered a crib for free, I’d take it! There’s a difference between saving a few bucks and not spending anything at all. However, you have to consider that these items take up space and also how you would feel having them around. Since you’re not pregnant yet, it could be more heartbreaking if later on you discover you have fertility problems or might not be able to have children at all (sorry to be a [name_f]Debbie[/name_f] downer). It might end up being money wasted in that case.
Also consider items can get recalled or expire before you have a baby, cribs and car seats are especially prone to this. If you plan on telling others, a lot of family members will also give you gifts, I see people who end up with 2 cribs on craigslist all the time, trying to sell the extra crib! So that’s another thing to consider, but it never hurts to see what items may cost and start budgeting.
I think your husband is just a bit excited right now and you kind of have to bring him down to earth. I would say to wait until you are pregnant before doing any big purchases (unless you can scoop one up for free, then go for it!).
Thanks everyone!
I have endometriosis so I’m sure it will take us a while to get pregnant. Since we had a surprise pregnancy last year I believe he thinks it will be easier than what it is. However it only took my mom two months to conceive each time she got pregnant and if his parents even look at each other there’s another baby on the way.
If it takes too long or we’re told it just won’t happen we’ve discussed adoption but when push comes to shove I don’t know how likely he’s do it.
We bought practically nothing for our baby, just a few clothes, toys, books and other bits and bobs so she had some new stuff. The only thing that really cost any significant amount of money was our baby carrier, which has certainly been worth it. All the rest we got as hand-me-downs from my boyfriend’s family. There’s nothing wrong with any of it and I couldn’t even think how much money we’ve saved. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you have any friends or family with a baby who’s due to outgrow their cot/pram/pushchair/whatever around the time you’d need the stuff? People who don’t plan on having more kids are generally thrilled to get their old stuff to a good home. Could be worth considering.
Otherwise I would definitely not want a load of baby stuff hanging about my house for a baby that hadn’t even been conceived yet, not least because you never know what’s going to happen on that front and baby things would have upset me when things weren’t going well for us, but that’s just me. It’s really up to you.
We don’t prepare anything until the baby actually arrives- even his/her name! We have a history of late-term pregnancy loss, and it would just be devastating to have things prepared for a baby that never shows up to enjoy it…
I’d recommend waiting until a baby gets closer enough to think about.
All the best!
Honestly I’d wait. You will get SO much stuff (presents and hand-me-downs) from friends and relatives in the run up to the birth, and it doesn’t stop afterwards either. People especially love to buy toys and clothes, and as long as you trust their taste you may find you actually never need to buy any of these things! We’ve bought one special toy for our daughter and a few outfits that we really loved, but the vast majority of her stuff has been given to us. To be honest, it’s pointless buying beautiful expensive clothes for the first few months anyway because a) they grow ridiculously fast and b) they soil everything you put them in almost instantly!
As for furniture and general baby kit, aside from the basics ([name_m]Moses[/name_m] basket, cot, baby monitor, nappies, muslins, carseat), I would honestly wait until the baby arrives. You are very likely to find that you don’t need all the stuff you think you do (and other people say you do). We still haven’t bought a pram (stroller in American English, I think?) and our daughter is almost 4 months now. It’s so much more convenient to have her in her baby carrier when out walking etc., and as we live in a flat we’d struggle to get a pram up the stairs and into our tiny 3-door car anyway. Best £500 we ever saved!
I have a weakness for baby clothes even though I know I’ll get a ton of them. If it’s under $3 I buy it. I’ve got maybe 10-15 outfits plus one that I splurged on for a special occasion.
[name_f]Glad[/name_f] to see that I’m not crazy to think we should wait on the really big purchases though.
I would buy nothing at all at this point. Here is why:
as soon as you get pregnant, people will start offering you hand me downs. Maybe you are thinking, well shoot. None of our friends have babies yet. But I don’t even mean your friends. One of my husband’s coworkers who we know just slightly gave us three years worth of baby gear in perfect condition. A random lady in the park offered me all of the hand me downs from her twins. These people are not crazy. After our first son I got rid of everything and I was also happy to pass it out to likely looking strangers. You just really want it gone, you know? But really, people come out of the woodwork with this stuff.
you might move, this is more stuff to pack and deal with
baby stuff changes really quickly. The crib that was top of the line in 2016 might be recalled in 2017. Thinga get recalled, things get improved, etc.
unless you live in a seasonless place, I wouldn’t buy clothes ahead of time either. You might stock up on adorable newborn swimsuits and have a baby in [name_u]November[/name_u], for example.
Instead what I would do is save up the money that you could have spent on baby items. Maybe even open a special account just for that. Then when your baby does come along, you have a nice slush fund to spend on the things you really want.
Yes indeed, buy nothing! I think everyone has given you great advice on this already, but I think buying anything ahead of time has too many ‘what-ifs’. Opening a special savings type account for baby stuff is a great idea. You will have many months to shop and you will absolutely be able to find tings at bargain prices in that time.