On Saturday, we had our big “Baby Planning Day”. We decided to dedicate this day to getting through some of our baby to-do list– like scheduling the maternity & newborn shoot, buying some of the “big items” for the nursery, and making our registry. It felt a lot like wedding planning!

To get motivated for the day ahead, we treated ourselves to some Starbucks coffee in the morning. Then, we made some delicious bacon & cream cheese bagels to keep us energized. Cindy was actually really craving these, so while it doesn’t sound like much, it made her really happy!

Like wedding planning, baby planning was so overwhelming. It’s so easy to get carried away and think you need to buy everything on every checklist. Prior to our baby planning day, we had already spent a good amount of time sifting through those lists and deciding what we thought were necessary for us and what we felt like we could do without. For example, we decided to hold off on a baby monitor. For one, we live in an apartment and will probably be able to hear baby cry from anywhere in the apartment. We also felt like if we did get a baby monitor, we would be glued to it all the time. So to not tempt ourselves, we decided to wait and see if we really need one once baby is here.

We spent the majority of the day buying the “big stuff”…like the crib, stroller, bassinet… and also a few other smaller but necessary items like crib sheets, infant carrier, etc. This was the most overwhelming part of the day. Each item came with what felt like a mini research project– to figure out what the item is even for, features to consider, and finally what brand to buy!

We butted heads a lot throughout the day. Jake’s method is search on Amazon and go with the first option with a good price and a majority of good reviews. Cindy’s method, on the other hand, is first read a few articles about the item, then read review articles from bloggers, then search for a list of the recommended brands, then compare those brands to the off-brands, then read all the reviews for the specific item we’re looking at, and then decide. Maybe that’s why it took us so long to get through it all. But we did it! And we’re still married. lol.

We probably seem like eager beavers since we still have about 4 months before baby actually arrives. But Jake has a busy schedule come Spring Quarter– he has a few papers to submit to journals, he also has a few papers he needs to finish writing, he needs to advance to candidacy, and he has to plan and write out the summer course he’ll be teaching. It’ll be a lot of work, but he wants to get most of it done before baby arrives. Cindy will also be busy, though not quite as busy as Jake will be. She has to write out sub notes and lesson plans for whoever takes over while she’s out on maternity leave. Plus, she’ll probably be large to the point where it would be difficult to help construct any of the furniture. All that to say, we figured it would be good to get a big chunk of the to-do list done now.

Anyways, we wrapped up the day by making our registry. There isn’t much we need. But if anyone wanted to show baby some love, then we thought it would be nice to have around (especially since it’s looking like we’re not going to have a baby shower because of the pandemic). If anyone is interested…here is the link!