Shopping Momma

I've hopped aboard the consumer train these past couple of days, trying to piece together the beginnings of a baby registry for the folks chomping at the bit to help out. It is mind boggling how many different changing pads, strollers, cloth diapers, and random baby things there are to wade through. I have some strong preferences on some of the basic gear after so many years of baby care, most of them leaning away from our income bracket, but even with only the bare minimum in mind I came away from the laptop cringing with ickyness...how could one little person need so much stuff? And we don't even have a nursery!

I turned from on-line to real world retail today in a mission to find some maternity jeans. After complaining at the beginning of last week that I'll never show or look anything like any of the pictures in my pregnancy books I had a ton of abdominal pain on Thursday and suddenly was sporting a belly on Friday. It is nice to finally have some physical evidence of this crazy process, but I'm getting to the point with my jeans where the elastic trick isn't cutting it. (The elastic trick is very useful for pregnancy or weight gain - you thread an elastic - rubber band for those of you not raised on the East Coast - through the button hole of your pants and loop it 'round the button, so you gain a couple of inches of stretch without the flap hanging out. You do have to make sure you have a long enough shirt to cover your dropping zipper, though, and it is disarming to feel like your pants are undone all day long.) Maternity jeans are wacky, but way more comfortable.

And thus ends my weekend in mommy shopping hell. Luckily we also caught "The Departed", a nice Thai dinner, and a couple of marathon walks around the neighborhood. All in all all too normal and a bit boring. I'll have to start refreshing my alternative lifestyle practice to be a real role model to this kid.