Strollers and car seats and changing tables, oh my!

Last night was the first time I didn’t feel totally overwhelmed by all the new things I have to learn and started to embrace it.  I know a lot of the SMC ladies have been buying, or at least researching, baby stuff from before they even got pregnant, but for me it’s been a combo of being afraid to jinx it, being overwhelmed by all the new information, and being too sick to deal with anything.  For the record, I’ve actually been pretty sick this week – every time I write that I’m feeling a little better it’s like the Blog Gods want to punish me and I end up getting really sick right after I hit “publish”.  Feeling especially ooky right now.  But I will blog through it.

Somehow though, and probably because my Mom Guru friend and I had a conversation about it, I started to relax a bit about all the “stuff” and even googled strollers, pack and play, and car seats today.  It’s just like any new skill – totally daunting at first, but soon you learn the ropes.  I mean, there are just so many questions – how often do you bathe a baby?  How many diapers do you go through in a week?  How does pumping work?  This is the kind of information mothers and grandmothers passed on to their daughters back in the communal living days; but since I have neither, I have to rely on friends and Google.  Which isn’t so bad, considering. 

I have so many people offering to give me free stuff, it’s been pretty great – now I just have to figure out how the heck to organize everything.  Having a room to shove all the baby stuff would be great, and technically I could put my wall back and re-create the second bedroom I eliminated in my “I’m never having kids” frenzy a couple of years ago.  And maybe as the months go by I may decide this is the best solution, to just set the room up now even if the baby won’t sleep there.  I know I don’t want my house to become completely overrun by hideous plastic crap.  But how can it not when I have absolutely zero storage?  Every closet is filled to the gills with clothes and boxes, every piece of furniture jammed.  I’ve done a lot to de-clutter in the last few years, but the fact is I still live in and run a business out of a very small house, have no garage, and a shed that’s so filthy and full of animal droppings it really isn’t suitable for storing anything I care about.  So I’m really going to have to put my organizer cap on and think of clever strategies for putting all these large, bulky things out of the way so that I don’t go crazy.

I so wish I could just have all cool vintage stuff, but unfortunately there are no practical vintage car seats, strollers (not really), or other new labor saving devices.  I might be able to get away with a vintage high chair or bassinet, but that’s about it.  Then I think about the women living in five story walk-ups in New York with no car, no washing machine, and a little one bedroom space, and I figure, if they can do it, I can do it!