Things That Cause Spousal Arguments - Registering For Your First Baby

A friend contacted me the other day in hopes of getting some help with the overwhelming feat of registering for one's first baby.  I had to stop, sigh, and take a deep breath.  First off, let me say that I was and still am very happy to help; I might even make a series off this topic.  Thanks for the inspiration Janelle!

When I was brainstorming this idea, I'm pleased to report that a flood of happy emotions overcame me.  I truly enjoyed the trek down memory lane, thinking about my little girl when she was just a baby, and remembering what it was like to anticipate her arrival.  And oh, the day she was born; there is nothing more monumental and memorable than giving birth to a child.  Hold on, I need to get a kleenex...

While I strolled, rather skipped, down this wonderful memory lane, out of the blue a negative realization hit me and stopped me in my tracks.  I think I should share an experience with you due to both the humor and ridiculous nature of the event I'm referring to.  I wonder if I'll regret this once I hit "Publish Post".

Let me first say that my husband and I rarely argue.  I am very lucky in the fact that my husband is not a fighter.  Our personalities complement each other that way.  Rather, Josh is a very mellow, keep your cool, hold it together all the time, kind of guy.  I wish I was this type of girl.  I am a red-head and the stereotype of red-heads being a little fiery unfortunately rings true for me.  Along with the before mentioned hair-color, personality situation, I am also known for being a bit perfectionistic, and I plan every detail of my life out, sometimes even planning bathroom breaks on those days when time is really crunched.

So I think I've set the stage, my fiery, red-head, everything has to be perfect, pregnant, and hormonal personality, makes the trek out of the city to Target and Babies R Us with Josh's mellow, every things going to work out on its own so why plan ahead personality.

Before we departed for our adventure, you should know I was actually excited, we were going to make a date of the evening.  Soon reality hit and we both realized that what we were going to be doing really wasn't fun.  An hour into trying to stay patient with my husband who kept responding, "I don't know, this looks good", as he walked down the store aisles shooting every item he saw with the barcode lazar gun, ignoring the fact that we actually needed to chose just one type of bottle from the 20 brands in front of us, and oh wait I think I might have a coupon for this one brand, but let me first look through this giant stack of coupons, and oops, I dropped them again, but I can't bend over, and I just wish my sister would answer her phone so she could help us, and Josh would you please stop doing that, and agghhh!!!  That's pretty much how the evening went.  Four hours later we were driving back home in silence, and all you could hear was the vicious marking of my pen on the registry print-outs in my lap, crossing off all the duplicate baby items that Joshua had registered for in addition to the wine glasses, the mens underwear size L, the flat-screen TV, and the $600 vacuum.

This was our experience.  And it wasn't until I actually experienced being a mom that I realized how silly I was to get so upset, to worry so much about things that didn't matter.  So I'm writing a series of posts on this topic, in hopes of helping to ease the frustration and stress of registering for your first baby by suggesting both the beautiful and the practical.

A Series for the Expecting Mother and People Who Know an Expecting Mother...
Day #1:  Etsy Direction - Baby Style
Day #2:  Tackling the SuperStores - What really needs to be on your list?
Day #3:  Product Review - The Products and Companies I Now Love! + The Unmentionable Must Haves
Day #4:  Great Books For Parents and Child
Day #5:  Sewing Ideas - Some Practical, All Beautiful

Today, I leave you with some images of Monet's Nursery...