decisions...decisions...

 Over the past month, I have been researching baby gear with the help of my mom and some friends. A special thanks to Blair for suggesting the Baby Bargains book because it has been a huge help! The book is written by Denise & Allen fields. It compares EVERYTHING baby and ranks it based on quality & price. They have field tested all the major brands and then some. I have found it very helpful and I suggest it for any first time mothers! I just find that this stuff can be so overwhelming if you let it. I decided I was going to research and pick out 1-2 items each week. Brad and I have picked what I consider some of the big stuff and Amy is going to help me register on Monday for a lot of the other stuff. This post is for my documentation only and you don't have to pay any attention to these boring baby posts if you don't want to. :)


 This is the crib we picked. I looked at several between the $400-$700 price range (not including the converter kit). That's just for the crib! wowzers. We are using a dresser we already have. I looked at the top 3 ranked brands in BB book and did some additional research of my own. This crib is Baby Cache and its carried by Babies R Us. Baby Cache is a line manufactured by Munire. I originally looked at another Munire crib that was closer to $700 at another store that carries more designer nursery furniture. I also liked two cribs in that store made by WestWood and Young American. When it came down to it, I just didn't see the $300 difference between those cribs and this one we chose. This is a sturdy piece of furniture and its definitely not crap. I'm not a huge fan of the legs but It was hard for me to pick one that I liked the back & the legs. This crib was on sale at Babies R Us for $419. It converts into a day bed with rails for $89.99 and a full size bed with a conversion kit that is an additional $159.99. 
Note: The only reason I'm recording prices here is for my scrapbook purposes only. I want to be able to remember these things years from now. :)

 This is the nursery pattern we decided on. Brad really likes this one and my first choice was much more expensive. I originally didn't want any "characters" on the bedding but I still think this one is cute and not too busy-busy. We also like that we don't have to pain the nursery because the green already matches :) 

This is the Mosaic Transport by Kids Line and although I didn't pick it out while at Babies R Us (my mom actually found it online). I was pleased to see that Babies R Us carries it so I could include the pieces in my registry.

This glider & ottoman set is by Shermag. It took us about 45 minutes to pick out the glider. This is 40 more minutes than it took us to agree on a crib! ha. (but I did more research on the crib). We both thought this glider was comfortable and that says a lot considering I'm 5'3" and Brad is 6'.  This one is right at $560 including the ottoman. Again, this was not my first choice, the one I liked more was - you guessed it - $200 more. My mom has always said that I have great taste. ha. Some of them were just too tall for me (my feet dangled completely) and some were just too hard or not wide enough. I felt like Goldilocks trying these out. 

A few weeks ago, Brad and I made a separate trip to Babies R Us to look at car seats & strollers. That was definitely an entertaining trip. We had no idea what we were doing. We ended up picking the Graco Snug-n-Ride car seat in the Laguna pattern and the light weight stroller that works with it. We didn't like the travel systems because we thought they were too bulky and heavy. 

At the moment, I'm torn between two baby carriers - The Bjorn and the Ergo. I'm leaning towards the Ergo because I've heard such great things but one caveat is that Will would not be able to face out.  I will graciously accept your opinions on this topic -- if you feel strongly one way or the other. :)