How To Survive Registering For Baby

A few weekends ago we got to check another task off our baby-to-do list: registering!

I know registering can seem a little daunting - there is just SO much information out there on what your baby "needs" and it can totally be overwhelming. I decided that I wanted to do as much research as possible before we went to the store so that the registry process could actually be fun - yes fun! I'm not crazy I promise, just a little lot type-A. You'll see.

I also had the extra goal of wanting to make sure husband didn't get overwhelmed at the baby store. He's mentioned more than a few times that places like Buy Buy Baby and Babies R Us are heart-attack-educing.

Lastly, and let's be real y'all, we live in a tiny apartment, and even though we're planning to move to a slightly larger home before the baby arrives, my husband and I are minimalists at heart and are firm believers in less is more. We strive to own less but better quality stuff.

"Baby stuff" is a term Taylor totally hates. He sees visions of large plastic baby things taking over the living room and eating us alive.

Okay that's slightly dramatic, but you should drop the phrase "baby stuff" into a conversation with him and just watch his reaction. It's funny.

As a disclaimer, I have had to explain to Taylor why we need some of the things we registered for - he was usually easy to convince (and then all of a sudden that thing went from "stuff" to "okay").

As I've mentioned before, over the past few months I started scouring the internets, Pinterest, and various mom-blogs for the best tips on baby gear, plus what is actually necessary vs. totally overkill
(overkill = stuff, and stuff = death**according to Taylor).

Without further ado, let's begin the process:
I started by making myself a word document with a general list of the categories we'd need to register for:

1. Gear
2. Sleeping
3. Bathing
4. Feeding
5. Care
6. Playing/Learning
7. Nursery

From there, I'd just jot down (or Pin) any particular items that I really liked (or notes about things I didn't like) when I was searching blogs online (or when I'd hear of things that friends really liked or disliked). Major pluses for items that combined multiple functions into one.

Then I started researching suggested baby registry lists and adding in subcategories to make sure I had all areas covered.

There are a zillion "suggested registry lists" by the way. Just in case you were wondering.
And most of them are way overkill. Again, overkill = being eaten alive in your own house = death.

These are the more generic registry checklists that I found online; mostly from large baby stores, baby magazines, and/or baby websites:
Buy Buy Baby Registry Checklist
Babies R Us Registry Checklist
BabyCenter Registry Checklist
Nordstrom Baby Registry Checklist
The Bump's Registry 101
Parent's Registry Checklist
They were all helpful as a starting point, but did feel like they were "lists for the masses."

So this is an example of the subcategories I then listed under my original categories:

Gear
-Stroller
-Car Seat
-Diaper Bag
-Carrier
-Pack 'n Play
-Rocker/Swing
-Monitor
-Highchair

Then I turned to some of my favorite mom-blogs, and was able to find much more thorough registry checklists (plus a whole lot of information like how many crib sheets I actually need and why!). These are some of the best ones out there, in my opinion:

Lucie's List
Man oh man does this have a ton of great information! They go category by category and compare different options and give lots of advice about brands and pros and cons of each item. It's pretty lighthearted and easy to read, but packed with worthwhile information. I hope they keep updating as new baby items come out. Definitely a favorite resource.

Wise Baby
I've been a fan of this blog for a while - they have a plethora of gear reviews (totally helpful when you're trying to get more scoop on a specific product), plus they also have weekly roundups of favorite baby items from real moms. One of the best sections however, is the compilation of all their registry guides. It includes everything from a general (ie the "essentials") checklist, to a suburban checklist, to an urban checklist, to even a babyproofing checklist or a minimalist checklist! I may or may not have read through them all.

Alpha Mom
Hilarious website where I get weekly emails about the growth of the baby. They have a pretty decent registry checklist that's believable and just downright funny to read.

Cloud Mom
Primarily a video-blogger, Melissa has a bunch of articles (and videos) about different sections of things to register for. She also has a ton of how-to videos on a variety of topics like bottle feeding and baby sleep basics. Overall I feel like she's a really trustworthy source (I think she's had 4 or 5 kids of her own?) and her site is easy to navigate. My only two complaints with her site are that I find it hard to find time to watch videos and I wish she had more summary posts to go along with them, and that I wish she had a big summary registry guide. I found that I had to click around a lot to a bunch of different articles and videos and I wish there was one big one somewhere.

So, as I browsed through these sites, I added to my original list until I had a really good skeleton of a registry checklist. Here's what ours ended up looking like:

Once I had the list above, I detailed out any specific items that I had already decided on (like for a pack 'n play, I knew I was sold on the 4Moms Breeze and so that was the only item in that category and I knew we wouldn't have to look at any other options at the store). Remember all that previous research? That helped a ton here.

Okay this is the part where I went a little OCD, but stick with me!

I had already narrowed down where we wanted to register, so I took a little time (over multiple weekends), to go through the store's website and look into the products they had in each category. I tried to narrow things down as much as I could so that I only had a few options listed under categories I was unsure on. This sounds a little overly-detailed, but I promise, it made things so much easier when we went in to the store!

Once my list was complete, we were almost ready to register. There are a few last things I have to mention that were vital to the registry process going smoothly:

1. Sign up online before you go. A friend let me in on this tip and it was a huge time-saver! It's super easy and fast to fill out your information online. It takes forever-and-a-day when someone is signing you up in-store. We were able to walk right in, give our names, and were handed a registry gun. Done. 
2. Aim to register at an off-peak time. Since we work during the week, I knew I wanted to wait for a weekend instead of trying to register in the evening after work. Being tired and hungry, plus the idea of the store being kind of messy after a day of sales didn't seem like it would set us up for success. We decided to go on a Saturday morning, right when the store opened. We actually ended up with the added benefit of deciding to register on a snowpocalypse day when most of Dallas decided to stay home, so it was extra-deserted. Woot!
3. Feed + caffeinate your spouse (or friend)! After almost 6 years of marriage, I've learned that going to places like a baby store or the mall while Taylor is tired or hungry is just plain bad for both of us. We made sure to have a big breakfast and then stopped at Starbucks on our way so that we had something to sip while we registered. If you're going shopping with a friend, buy them a meal before you go!
4. Set a time limit. Anyone ever been shopping and trying on clothes when suddenly you realize you've been in a store for over an hour instead of the quick 20 minutes you promised your spouse? This happens to Taylor and me all the time. So, we went in to the store with a 2-hour time limit due to another commitment that morning, and it actually worked out really, really well. We didn't have time to dawdle in each section so it made the selection process pretty efficient. It also guaranteed that we left the store before we hit the point of total exhaustion (and before too many other shoppers got there). To be honest, by the end we were still pretty tired but it was way better than if we had gone in without a time limit. 
5. Have fun! Seems like a no-brainer, but seriously, enjoy the time together. Talk about how cute your baby is going to look in that hooded bath-towel or how you can't wait for your baby to play with that adorable toy. Take pictures! Be silly. You're registering for snot-suckers here, people! It's totally worth it to stop and laugh! Create memories. I couldn't wait for an excuse to park in an "expectant moms" parking spot (and believe me, I still don't feel like I'm totally entitled to use those spots most of the time - I'm trying to wait until I'm more pregnant), but we went ahead and did and then documented it because I was so excited.

So then we registered. We walked through the store and referred to my list and checked things off as we went. Easy as pie.

Seriously though, having a list (plus a pretty solid idea of what we were getting ourselves into) totally helped the process go smoothly. I was able to glance down and know if I just wanted Taylor's "okay" on a certain item I had picked out, or if I needed his help deciding between two options. It also helped me, Mrs. Type-A, know that we weren't forgetting anything.

Even Taylor had to admit that the registering process went very smoothly. Total success!

I will say that since we were trying to stick to our 2-hour time limit, there were two sections that we didn't really get to browse: car seats + baby carriers. So, a few weekends later we went back to the store in the middle of the afternoon on a Sunday. Man oh man what a different experience. There were people everywhere and stuff everywhere (it looked like people had been ripping things off the shelves!). We quickly looked at the things we needed to and then left - and then added them to our registry online. The first thing Taylor said when we walked out? "That was insane. I'm so glad we registered the way we did."

So I guess I'll add a #6 to the list above: don't worry if you don't register for every single category on your list the first time you go. If you get the bulk done at first, you can always go back again at a later time (or just add stuff online) after you do a little more research. And by the way, that's the beauty of having a list:

We truly had fun registering, and it still amazes me that people are shocked to hear that!