More Stuff to Buy

*Updated 11 January 2012*

I'm creating a list of things that we still need to buy for Jacob and myself (in preparation for breastfeeding) just so I have a reminder. Up until now I only had an imaginary list! Haha!

Here it goes:

1. MORE modern cloth nappies -- Bumgenius 4.0 with snap closure, GroVia One Size All in One and itti bitti tutto are some of the brands I also want to try. Although I already have 2 GroVia AIOs, I want to add to it. To date, I have 38 nappies (30 One Size Fits Most & 8 newborn ones) which I feel is not enough if I plan to do the laundry every other day. So I definitely need more!
* 10% OFF GroVia website using code PTPA (valid until June 2012)* 
>> I have a GroVia stash en route to Sydney from the USA. It has 14 One Size AIOs, 2 sets of wipes and an owl shirt to match Jacob's GroVia owl nappies. :) I think I can stop buying nappies FOR NOW. I'm not saying I won't buy more LATER, though. We'll see how we go with our current nappy stash. :D

2. washable/cloth wipes -- Since I'm going to be using MCNs, I figured I might as well go the washable/cloth wipes route. Makes sense, right? :D The GroVia washable wipes doesn't look too bad and by far the cheapest branded ones I've seen. >> My mum & sister bought 2 lots of these cloth wipes from The Eco Baby Boutique. I'm hoping they are good.

3. curved car window shade for Honda Civic -- Jacob is going to be born in January which means it's going to be Summer here. I can just imagine how hot it's going to be. We're already experiencing extreme heat most days now and it's still Spring. >> Just bought a car shade set from Costco. Hopefully it does the job.

4. grooming set -- nail clippers, comb & brush, etc >> I asked my mum who's coming to visit us to buy from Manila. :)

5. health care kit/first aid kit

6. organic baby toiletries (body wash, shampoo, oil, lotion, sunscreen) -- I might try Burt's Bees' Baby Bee Getting Started Kit first. See if Jacob likes their range of products for bubs. :) >> I've decided to put as little product on Jacob as possible. I've read that water's fine in bub's first few months. Just the same, I have some sample goat soap on stand by which we got from one of the baby shows we went to last year. :)

7. nappy rash cream compatible with modern cloth nappies -- I'm leaning towards GroVia Magic Stick for convenience. I hope it's good. >> Bought one because of free shipping from GroVia website and also availed of the 10% discount. Win! :)

8. digital thermometer -- Still deciding which is best: ear, forehead or the good old under the arm one. >>  I asked my mum who's coming to visit us to buy from Manila. :)

9. Gro Egg digital room thermometer -- Kaartehan lang ng nanay ni Jacob! ;p >> Bambini Pronto had a 55% off SALE, so I bought one rightaway. :)

10. bottles, bottle brush, dummies, steriliser -- I'm leaning towards getting Avent. Also, I'm still not sold on using dummies but I'm putting it on the list just in case I might need to. >> We've been given Avent bottles on our first baby shower. I'm hoping I'd get the need to use them much later. :)

11. flat head support for sleeping -- I don't want Jacob to end up like his mum in terms of flat head. Haha! The one we saw at Baby Kingdom is called baby-head-rest.

12. washable/cloth breast pads, Lansinoh nipple cream, nipple shields

These are the things I can think of right now. I'll cross out/add to this as appropriate. :)

More Jacob Stuff

We've bought a few more things for Jacob these past couple of weeks. We're slowly but surely ticking off things in my (imaginary! :D) list.

convertible car seat from birth to 18kg

The Baby and Toddler Show Sydney

Last Sunday my husband and I went to The Baby & Toddler Show at Darling Harbour. We decided to leave our car at the train station near our house and just take the train to and from the city. It was raining that day and I made the wrong clothing choice in deciding to wear a dress. :( Good thing I thought to wear footless tights underneath. I was freezing during our walk from Central Station to Darling Harbour and from Darling Harbour to Town Hall Station! Thank God I didn't get sick.

Tickets normally cost $20 each but we got 2 complimentary tickets. I got one from my Mother To Be bounty bag and the other I think from Babies 'R' Us. Bottom line, we didn't pay for entry and that is a pretty good deal to me! Hehe. The doors open at 9AM but we were told that those with complimentary tickets get to go in at a later time of 9:30. But when we got there at around 9:15 we were able to go in anyway. Upon entry, my husband and I were given empty tote bags and vouchers for free Bio-Oil. The tote bags proved useful with all the free samples we got throughout the day! More on that later.

The first purchase we made was the Fisher-Price i-Glide Cradle 'n Swing. It normally retails for $329.95 but Fisher-Price had it on special just for the show. We bought it for just $69.99 including delivery. Pretty awesome deal right?! The show's facebook page announced this deal a couple of days prior to the opening day. I showed it to my husband and he immediately said NO. He said it's too big for our tiny house. I didn't push the idea. I knew I would get the right time to do my convincing. *evil grin* What do you know, the first stall we went to was Fisher-Price's. The cradle wasn't too big at all! An assistant showed us a demonstration of it's features and from there it wasn't too hard to convince my husband to buy Jacob one. Success!!! :D

photo credit

The only other purchase we made was a Snotty One. It's a battery operated nasal aspirator and we got it for $40. My husband was the one who really, really wanted to buy it but he also says he'll be so happy if we don't get the need to use it, EVER. :)

Now onto the free samples. Most of the samples we got were different brands of disposable nappies. I will be using cloth nappies for Jacob but since all the nappies that I bought are one-size, they might still be too big for a newborn. For this reason, I'm happy to start with disposables. :)

My husband and I really enjoyed the show. It also served as a bonding time for us. After the show we went to have our belated anniversary early dinner at PANCAKES on the Rocks. Yummy food! It was a great day indeed. :)

Shopping for Jacob

Shopping is fun but shopping for Jacob is way, way more fun! We have been buying bits and pieces for Jacob these past few weeks. Nothing major yet, except for his pram. I saw this pram on sale while I was browsing through Baby Kingdom's website. I then showed it to my husband who said it looked fine and I could order it online if I wanted to. I had apprehensions about ordering the pram online though so I didn't. First, there is a delivery fee of $70 which of course I didn't want to pay since there is a Baby Kingdom about 20 minutes away from our house. I also wanted to see the pram and be able to test it as well. So a couple of weeks after I saw the pram online, my husband and I decided to go to Baby Kingdom in Penrith. We saw the pram and had the sales assistant demonstrate its features. My husband was satisfied so we bought the pram. Catch is the pram was only available in one color -- electric blue. Keep in mind that this happened way before we found out that we're having a boy. My husband 'convinced' me that the pram's color is more purple than blue. I, being a sucker for anything purple, heartily agreed. Haha! And so, we took home Jacob's pram that day, a Quinny Buzz 4. We got a great bargain because we also got the matching Quinny Dreami Carrycot, all for $440.

Daddy  with Jacob's pram

My husband assembled the pram just so we can check if there is any defect and if all the accessories are complete. I took the picture above before he dismantled and put the pram and dreami cot back into their boxes.

Meanwhile, Jacob got his first gift over the weekend -- Dr Seuss Alphabet Frieze and Mobile. Auntie Jeana's children, Kuya Liam & Ate Sam gave it to him. Liam even wrote the note himself. How sweet is that?! :)