Ka-CHING!

So one of my jobs over the next couple of weeks is to get the nursery back in order. My husband and I have successfully transitioned our toddler from the crib to the "big boy" bed, which is a relief, so now it's time to move on to job #2. We're keeping the nursery as is (thankfully!), but now we have to start the shopping to make sure we have everything that we need. It's a matter of figuring out what the little man still needs and what we have to buy in duplicate. Now this only becomes more complicated when, in a matter of months, our son may outgrow a lot of the things he's still using. So, do we spend the cash now, or just cross our fingers and hold out until he decides he doesn't need stuff anymore?



My list is as follows:



1) Double stroller - Of course one of the costliest of the purchases we will have to make. We currently own a single travel system (where the car seat buckles into the stroller) and wanted to not have to buy a new car seat (which is also quite expensive)...so we were on a mission to find a double stroller that fit our car, our car seat and budget... I was about to resort to this:

and thankfully CRAIGSLIST called! We did a quick jaunt down the street to pick up a lightly used (for only three months!) double stroller (in the exact same make/model and colour as our original) for $200 less than the store price. I can hear my husband's wallet exhaling as we speak!

2) Playpen - This is on my "yet to purchase" list because I'm still in the process of figuring out if it's a worthwhile buy. Although my son is technically in a "big boy" bed, he is still an EXTREMELY restless sleeper. I'm afraid that if we put him in a proper bed, rather than the toddler bed that he's used to, he'll roll out. So, do we keep the playpen that we have and hope that he'll outgrow the restlessness before we have to do a sleepover? Do I buy another playpen and keep it "just in case"... or do I bite the bullet and buy some travelling bed rails that we can keep in storage until we need them? NO CLUE.

3) Monitor - Is the world made for one child? I just don't get it. I've been trying to track down a unit that can "monitor" two kids at once. Is that really a challenge? Any monitor that I've seen has one "child unit" and two "parent units"...Like, honestly, do you really need two parents to be listening for the same kid? And most of the time monitors are battery operated, so they're portable, which means you don't need to set them up in multiple rooms...I just don't really understand. My fear is that we invest in another monitor/parent unit and it interferes with the original, making both units completely useless (I'm saying unit WAAAAAAAAAAAY too much). What to do? Maybe I should just save my sanity and not listen to either kid...could work, right?

4) Air purifier - Now, I understand that this is more of a luxury than a necessity, but it's proven to be a lifesaver for our son. He's such a light sleeper and the air purifier acts, not only as what it's originally intended for, but also as a noise machine, filtering out any unwanted/unnecessary noises and allows him to (on the odd occasion) sleep through the night. I've also read that having an air purifier in a baby's room lessens the chance that a baby would die from SIDS. That being said, I'd like to have one in the nursery, but there's NO WAY IN HELL I'm going to take my son's away from him and risk him waking up at every cough or sneeze in the middle of the night. These are generally not cheap, so I'm starting to see the dollar signs adding up here.

5) Brace yourself for the biggest and most expensive purchase on the list...NEW CAR - Yes, I said it. New car (NOT MINI VAN...so don't get excited!). Now this is also a pipe dream more than a reality, but it's something that's been weighing on our minds since we realized I was pregnant for the second time. Although our car has suited us fine over the past two years, it does have several quirks that may or may not be worth working around. Because my husband and I are of above average height, we both need quite a bit of leg room. Our leg room, however, takes away room from the backseat. This posed a bit of a problem when we first brought baby #1 home, because the passenger seat needed to be pulled forward to accommodate the rear-facing car seat. Anyone in the front passenger seat over 5'6" was resting their chins on their knees. So, comfort was a bit of an issue there. Luckily we were able to work around it and someone could always sit in the back with the baby. This time, we won't have that luxury. With both back seats occupied by children someone is gonna be cramped...and because my husband is 5 inches taller than I am, that someone is gonna be me. Now, can I suffer through it for a year, until we can flip the car seat from rear-facing to forward facing? Probably. I'll be a martyr and sacrifice a little bit of comfort. Unfortunately, we're running into the problem where my eldest is taking after Mommy and Daddy and growing a pair of long legs himself. Now, sure, they're long enough that they can bend at the knee and hang down in the space provided, but he has this fascination with kicking and pushing his feet into the back of the driver's seat. I don't want to sound like the Princess and the Pea, but it's freakin' uncomfortable. So, you can see my dilemma. If we buy a car that has a little bit more rear seat leg room, we can eliminate all the issues above. However, if we buy a car, we raise the issue that our monthly expenses will go up exponentially (and on only one income for 12 months, that may present to be a stretch, especially with another bum to diaper and mouth to feed!)

Now, this list obviously doesn't include things like toiletries, clothes, diaper pail and all that jazz, but I've eliminated the small stuff on the list to save space. If, however, you readers can think of anything else that I'm missing (or anything that I can scratch off the list because it's unnecessary) PLEASE send me your thoughts. I'm completely oblivious to how much our lives will change in the next two months...bring me back to reality!