Babies R' Us Hell

We registered this weekend. After about four hours in Babies R' Us (BRU)and two hours online...we are done (almost). We also bought our nursery furniture this weekend! That was after about twenty hours of shopping for those items. First the furniture....

Did you know that BRU pretty much has a monopoly on cribs in the triangle area? Well they do. Sure you can find them at Target, Walmart, and well that is about it if you want to physically see them. Furthermore did you know you can easily spend $1000 on just a crib and a dresser? Lets remember that this is furniture that they are going to bite, bang, pee on, and slam into on a regular basis. I don't even have $1000 furniture in my room. So our initial idea was to buy some of great quality that would last them for 12 years+. Well that soon got tossed out the window when I realized that it would be destroyed (no matter the quality) way before that. I also wanted black, but this is impossible to find without buying a higher end brand..think Basset Baby. We ended up getting our nursery furniture at Target, which I originally was against since they did not have full size displays for me to examine. But after some research we found that most people were quite happy with it other than a few paint chipping issues. We also got antique white because that is cheaper in price from some reason. It is a cute set and real wood (could paint it if I got the urge)! Both Crib and Dresser for a grand total (before taxes) of...... $400 dollars! That is a $600 savings from the BRU alternative. And half of their stuff was particle board. I feel like I got a steal! We are setting it up this afternoon so I will report back at a later date on that adventure. Here are some pics.

The crib looks white but it is actually vintage white as well. Oh did I mention it is a convertable crib...BRU of similar quality start at $400. All I need now is a bookcase, which I am eyeballing on line. PS Love the bedding...wish I could find it!

On to our registering experience. First let me say WE SURVIVED and you can too. Saturday's at BRU is torture for first time parents, but that being said is the ONLY place to go. The staff was awesome and mostly men which shocked me. I asked how many months of training they went through to be so knowledgeable! All the other stores were clueless. We first had to ask for help when after twenty minutes we could not figure out how to fold up the stroller. The odds of an engineer and a scientist not figuring this out is good for first time parent so don't laugh. Then when we moved onto car seats we had another great experience from the staff. Of course he did lecture me on how it was not a good idea to put a baby in the backseat of a convertible but we will let that slide.

Here are my tips for registering there

1. Register online first. Then you just have to go in and grab a scanner and get to work.

2. Avoid Saturdays, although I had no problem finding staff it was just CRAZY until after five.

3. Skip the shopping cart. There is just not room to maneuver it on a weekend. We ditched it after five minutes.

4. Do some of the little stuff online (e.g. bottles)

The big things we needed to put our hands on were the swings, exersaucers, strollers and car seats. Remember this is what everyone else is doing too. MADNESS! We spent an hour in the stroller aisle pulling them down, folding them, etc. Hint: It you are short and wimpy like me it is not an easy task to find a stroller that is usable. Plus finding one that doesn't take a huge amount of trunk space (refer back to convertible) is a chore as well. Travel systems are a WASTE OF MONEY!!! Don't do it. We saved by buying separate, plus those strollers are ginormous and heavy. We ended up going with the Combi Cosmo at a whopping 11 pounds. Light and folds the smallest without getting an umbrella stroller.

Only drawback is storage but I'd give that up for light and tight anyday. The Graco metrolite was a close second but was five pounds heavier and a lot bigger folded up.

The only thing we have left is bedding, a big debate among the parent's to be, and a bookcase. Whoohhhooo! Weekend mission accomplished.