The Hope Chest

This is the last of our "out" cycles so I really haven't had much to post about. But I wanted to share with everyone some of my baby finds and share with you a little secret I'm hoping works out for me!

When Mr. Rockasaur (we'll call him Rocky) and I started talking about babies I started collecting little things here and there for our future baby. Most of the things I have I've gotten for free, some I've picked up for a couple of bucks here and there in thrift stores, and a couple of things were given to me by friends who are just as excited for us to have a baby as I am.

My belief is that if you plan for it, it will happen. I started my first hope chest when I met Rocky and first thought about marriage. I collected little things here and there, mostly magazines and books, and put them into the chest until they could be used. Sure enough, just a few months after starting it we got engaged. So I decided to see if the same luck will come into play with a Baby Hope Chest.

The first thing that was put in the chest was the Pregnancy Belly Cast kit I won on an online contest. Just on a whim I entered a "Mommy To Be" contest being held on a blog and I won! I love the idea of the belly cast because it's a great way to creat a wonderful keepsake for your baby. If you look them up on Google and hit "images" you'll see some of the cool things women have done with their casts! I really cannot wait for the day I get to do my own.

A friend of mine was given "The Belly Book", but is not much of a journal keeper. I am, so she passed this onto me. It's another great little keepsake for you and your child.

About a year ago I started also collecting baby-related books. Since I am very interested in home and natural births I would browse the book section of thrift stores whenever I was visiting one to hunt out some home/natural birth related books. Some of my favorite finds are "Rediscovering Birth" and "Birth Your Way" by Sheila Kitzinger, "Ina May's Guide" by Ina May Gaskin, "The Mother of All Pregnancy Books" by Ann Douglas (this one is not about homebirth, btw, it's a great book for anyone who is TTC/pregnant), and "Husband Coached Childbirth" (the Bradley Method book). I LOVE reading pregnancy books. I haven't finished all of them, I tend to read bits and pieces as I go and don't read too much into the actual pregnancy parts so that I forget things by the time I'm actually pregnant, but I love reading stories, hints, tips, tricks, etc. that the experts have to offer. And at only $0.50-$2.50 per book I haven't spent a fortune on all of that, either!

Another part of my Thrift Store obsession is baby clothing. Usually at Thrift Stores onesies and other cute baby outfits are $0.50-2. A GREAT deal for outfits that probably originally cost $15+. There are some things you shouldn't buy used for a baby (car seat, crib mattresses, etc.), but clothes are OK because they can be cleaned and sanitized. The "My Dad's a Geek" onesie I originally picked up for my brother (who's wife is expecting their first child in October) but DH saw it and thought it was perfect for him. Who am I to argue with that? Into the Hope Chest it went! I'm trying to keep things relatively gender neutral, but at only $2 or less an outfit I sometimes induldge in some gender specific outfits. Yes, I bought a little boy's sailor outfit and a little girl's fluffy pink dress. I live for cute baby clothes! And if I never end up using them, I'll give them to friends who can!
Not all of my good finds I keep. I've given several outfits to my brother and sister-in-law. As well as a few friends here and there. One thing I am REALLY obsessed with for some crazy reason is little kid shoes. I LOVE the cute little patterns and designs they get. I wish they made adult shoes like this! The above shoes I found on Craigslist (a GREAT resource for gently used baby gear) for $5. Never worn. These are See Kai Run shoes which retail for over $30 (and are only the cutest baby/kid shoes ever)! I don't think the seller knew what they had (she said they were a gift). They were older toddler sized so I knew I didn't want to hold onto these for 3+ years. So I gave them to my cousin's little girl. She loved them and I loved seeing them on her.
The Boon Plates I bought off someone's baby registry but later found out that they had already been purchased for the couple. Since I got them from Amazon I didn't want to deal with sending them back, so into the chest they went. Btw, if you aren't familiar with Boon products, I highly recommend checking them out! They have appeared on almost every baby registry I've looked at for the past year.

Last, but far from least, my favorite and best find to date. In reading about the numerous ways you can "go green" with your baby I started getting interested in making my own baby food. It's something you can start and store (freeze) and stock pile and save a lot of money on! DH and I started a garden to get some fresh veggies going and I started eyeing the Beaba Babycook. But at $150, it wasn't something that would make the whole make-your-own-baby-food thing THAT much of a money saver. Then one day I ran into a thrift store (btw, I buy my clothes there, too... it's not just baby stuff I go for!) in between doctor's appointments and realized I still had 20 minutes left to waste after I finished my clothes shopping. So I wondered into the home goods section, a place I rarely go, and something green caught my eye. I really could not believe they had a Babycook there! Thinking it would be $30-40 and over my budget for the day I approached it out of curiosity. To my surprise the price tage read $7.95! I snatched that up so fast I actually knocked a few things off the shelf! I now have myself a Beaba Babycook and saved myself $142 in the process! And now I make sure to make a run through EVERY section of the store whenever I visit one of my Thrift stores. You never know what you will find!

So those are some of the highlights of my Baby Hope Chest. Yes, I know, this has been a very random post, but I really felt like I needed to contribute more. Hopefully in the near future I can continue to share my TTC journey with you!