Learning the hard way

For starters no one tells you how cheap a baby can be. Everyone tries to make it seem so expensive and it can be if you don't go about it the right way. Now I know some babies have problems you don't expect but I was lucky enough to have a very healthy baby. I still ended up spending a ton of money I didn't need to though! The only advice I was given my whole pregnancy was don't buy newborn anything. Other than that as a new mom I was on my own. I bought everything and I mean everything I found on the internet that people said were good for babies. I also got really excited since it was my 1st kid and started buying clothes at 12 weeks pregnant. Little did I realize that was my 1st mistake. Once it got around the time I was having my baby shower I made a registry. I put on there the items I really needed but couldn't afford at the time and then some little things that people could get if they didn't have the money either. Then came the day of my baby shower I had seen no one got anything off my registry. This made me scared to open the presents so I waited until everyone left to open them. Almost everyone got me clothes and other things I already had. It made me kind of upset that I had spent so much time making that list for no one to look at it. It also meant I had hardly anything ready for my baby other than having a ton of clothes! That was the one item I told people not to get because I already had a bunch. It makes you realize no one listens to you. So once all this happened I just quickly bought as many things as I could to get prepared for the arrival of my son. A lesson I wanted to tell other 1st time moms though is learn from my mistake. I know it's exciting to start buying things for your child but from what I've learned you should just store some money in savings and don't buy anything until after your baby shower. This way you know exactly what else you need. Another lesson is don't buy everything these moms say to buy. A big one for us were baby hats and mittens. Every single one of my sons hats didn't fit him expect for his carhart hat. Along with the mittens he wouldn't keep them on his hands he would do everything in his power to take them off. Something my dad taught me was putting socks on his hands so I would recommend doing that and if it works either keep using socks or then you know if mittens will work for your child or not. With hats you should definitely buy ones that stretch. Other baby items vary from child to child too! Such as bibs, pacifiers, and mobiles. My son hated wearing his bibs so we just use burp cloths. He also will only use hospital pacifiers and refuses to take any others. When it comes to mobiles my son now seems to like it now that he is 3 months old but before it scared him. I recommend getting one but save your money and get one when they are a little older. I wish someone would've told me all this when I was pregnant and I could've saved so much money and had it while I was on maternity leave. This is why I wanted to write this information for my 1st time moms I hope it helps!