dgt@phoenix.UUCP (Dan G. Theriault) (01/13/85)
No need to panic, help is always near at hand. We are expecting our first child May 4 so are in much the same position. My Doctor gets tons of magazines and the like from publishers and stores. One I just picked up was the "Mothers Today Source Book." It is a magazine with tons of manufacturers and their products listed. It is not a complete listing but it is very extensive. The list prices and model numbers are also given. We have been looking through it at our leisure, then pricing through discount catalogs and stores. When I first looked through it I almost panicked with the idea that we needed so much. Common sense soon took over and I realized much of it is fluff. Also much of the stuff children need is not needed right away. We are not going to buy a feeding table until the child is about 6 months old, for example. Now for car seats: we will be using the Century Infant Love Seat. It is one of the most highly recommended infant seats on the market. Because it is only good until the child is 20 pounds my family got together and decided to buy one and swap it around (no need to have 4 love seats in one family). So far we haven't had overlapping infants so it is o.k. But once you have a car seat, crib, stroller, playpen, high chair, and chest plus a few odds and ends you are pretty well set for the first couple of years. You can then pick and choose what fluff you want. I hope this helps. People have been giving me advice for the past three months (some solicited much not) and I have found it useful to listen but to consider the source. You can spend as much as the stores want you to, but you can also spend what you want to. Good luck Candace