Registry fun

I'll admit it, I might be a bit addicted to registries. After all, we just finished 'completing' our wedding registry items a few months ago and in fact one of our 2 wedding registries will be open until my due date (another great benefit of being due almost 6 months to the day after your wedding ...) and now people are actually buying us gifts off of our baby registries! I registered such a long time ago and had basically forgotten about them until last week when packages started to arrive. So much fun! I will of course admit to being embarrassed by our friend's generosity in such a short amount of time, but really, I'd far rather receive useful gifts than endless stacks of princess-themed pink newborn onesies.

When I registered we were still living in the mini-apartment, so I really tried to pare the list down to the bare minimum. And I also decided strategically to buy all the expensive items* I could used (i.e. the crib, strollers, rocking chair and diaper bag, we skipped a changing table but recently found a bureau on craigslist for $40 and bought a pad for the top of it) so that there was nothing too extravagant on the list. And after the activity this week, there are really only 2 big ticket items we will need to buy (the breast pump** and a high chair, which we won't need till May) and a few more cloth diapers and we're set! Of course, I'd love some extra sheets and cloth wipes and a few of the little luxury items I've registered for, but they're not things that we'll need to run out and buy anytime soon. All of this makes me very excited and thankful that even if my friends are more than a bit flaky sometimes, they do come through on certain things no matter what.

* I know everyone has different expectations. Just to clarify, I consider anything at or above $100 a big ticket item and unlikely to be purchased off a registry. I did receive both a new carseat and a crib mattress as gifts, which were most unexpected and delightful.
** After our breastfeeding class this weekend I think that I've been sold on the Me.de.la Fre.estyle rather than the Pump In Style. Sadly, there is a huge price difference, but given that I would ideal like to pump for up to 12 months and will need to keep freezer stashes in multiple cities and will start part-time daycare at 4 weeks, I think it's probably worth the upgrade.