“Baby, now that I found you I can’t let you go, I’ll build my world around you” – Alison Krauss

Everyone always tells you how excited, overjoyed, nervous, etc they are when their having a baby. They tell you how expensive baby’s are, or how your life will never be the same, but no one tells you about the millions of baby items you have to pick out. That’s where Jeffery and I are now (well, more so me). I visited my co-worker Marina and her new baby today and, in addition to her sweet baby Sophia, it amazed me at all the baby items that were in their living room!

Over the past few weeks I have begun looking for child care, furniture, and bedding. Although that doesn’t sound like much when there are thousands of options out there it becomes a daunting task. The good thing is, is there are some great stores in the Raleigh area, and although they are a bit pricey, it’s a great way to get some ideas about baby items and not be overwhelmed.

Strollers seem to be one of the big items in the baby stores. So far I’ve looked at the Uppababy and Peg Perego.  And who knew they come with so many options?!  Bassinets, car seats, stroller seats that face in, wheels made for sidewalks, trails and even sand, and lets not get started on the attachments!

I’ve also looked over some chairs for the baby’s room (a gift that Luther and Carol have offered to get for us). I’ve been pretty set on having an ottoman, but given the lack of space in the baby’s room, and Jeffery’s love of a recliner, I think we may be combining the two with a gliding recliner.  Although this is not the fabric we would get this is the chair I've been eyeing thus far...

Thankfully Mike and Mandy have offered their crib for us to use and I’m now on the search for a dresser that can also be used as a changing table. I read in my Baby Bargains book to look at Ikea. They actually have some options for furniture and other baby items, and wouldn’t you know it, I found something that just might work!

Without knowing the baby's sex it’s hard to look for some things. I’ve been checking out some options for bedding and come up with a couple cute ideas.  I'm sure I'll be tackling this area of baby merchandise more after I know whether it's a boy or a girl.  Thankfully I have a great interior decorator/baby gooroo (Meredith) working on some ideas for me.

Also on the list of things to decide are of course… BABY NAMES! I’m dead set on coming up with a family name and some of the ones we’ve found are: Aurty, Carmie, Harper, Ripley, Dawson, Carter, Stewart, Case, Pearce, Lindsay, and of course Jeffery Jr. is still on the table. The good thing is I’m about 17 weeks currently and we will know the sex the baby on May 17, so in a month from now I’ll have a bit more direction on what I want for the nursery and names.

Until the next sonogram picture looks like you'll just be settling for another picture of my tummy for now: