Ah, the plight of all expecting mothers. When are you supposed to start buying baby stuff? Is it bad luck to pick up a few things early in pregnancy? Should you wait until after the baby shower to buy anything at all?
If you just found out that you’re pregnant, I totally understand the excitement of wanting to go out right away and gather allll the baby things.
But let’s hold up for just a second and think through a few things before you rush out to Buy Buy Baby and start dropping cash. After all, you don’t want to blow the baby budget!
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There’s no rush to start buying all of that baby stuff
If you just can’t contain your excitement and want to shop for baby stuff right away you should create an Amazon Baby Registry!
That way, you can do the fun part of shopping and researching what products you want to buy for your baby. But instead of actually purchasing it right away, you just add it to your baby registry for later! Who knows, maybe some rich relative will buy that $500 car seat for you out of the goodness of their heart.
Having said that, here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself before you start buying baby stuff:
How far along are you in your pregnancy?
There’s no real reason to run out to Buy Buy Baby the moment you find out you’re pregnant. After all, the baby won’t be here for 9 months!
But if you see an adorable onesie that you just can’t resist, there’s no harm in buying some stuff for your baby while you’re still early on in pregnancy. It’s not bad luck to start buying baby stuff early or anything, but it’s also probably best to not go crazy yet at this point.
I think it’s important to take time to research the best baby items and consider what you really need before buy a bunch of stuff on impulse. That’s where the Amazon Baby Registry comes in handy! It’s all the fun of shopping, without the commitment. It’s super easy to change your mind if you find a different stroller that you like better!
Also, you might want to consider not getting any baby stuff before you get to 12 weeks or so is if you think it would be painful to have it in the house if you wound up having a miscarriage. Most miscarriages happen in the first trimester, so after that, you’re probably safe!
READ: Must-Have Baby Items for First-Time Moms
Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl?
You might want to wait to start buying baby stuff until you know what gender your baby is. Gender neutral stuff is okay, but I think it’s more fun to know what the sex is before buying nursery decor and baby clothes. That way you can go all out with pink if it’s a girl, or dinosaurs and dump trucks for a boy.
Will you be having a baby shower?
If you have friends that are planning on throwing a baby shower for you, it might be a good idea to wait until after the shower to see what you get! You don’t want to spend a bunch of money on stuff that people would’ve been happy to buy for you as a gift.
If the shower isn’t happening until fairly close to your due date, you might want to think about buying some baby stuff to have on hand just in case he or she arrives early. You don’t want to be caught without a crib or a few diapers on the off chance that you go into labor before you planned!
But honestly, with how easy it is to order things online now, there’s truly no rush to make sure you have everything gathered up to be ready for baby super far in advance. It’s not like you have to physically travel around to various stores to get all of the stuff for your baby.
Even if you have a baby that surprises you with an early arrival, it would be pretty easy to get everything you need delivered to your house! It wouldn’t be ideal, but you could make it happen.
READ: How much does it cost to have a baby?
Do you want to save money by buying baby stuff early?
One advantage of starting to buy baby stuff early is that you have time to find the very best deals! So if you’re 5 months pregnant and you find a great deal on a car seat on Black Friday, I say go for it.
If you’re open to buying used stuff, you should definitely be keeping an eye on Craigslist and the Facebook marketplace for deals on good baby stuff. Some items are hard to find, so if you see something you want you should snatch it up! I really wanted a Thule stroller (so much better than BOBs, in my humble opinion), but it’s very rare to find used ones on sale. So when I finally found one I bought it right away even though I wasn’t that far along!
I also like to use the Honey app to help me get the best deals on new baby stuff that I buy. If you know exactly what you want to purchase, you can add it to your Honey Droplist and they’ll send you an email if the price drops. It’s great because you don’t have to keep checking all of the time and hope you happen to find it on sale! It’s just set it and forget it, then wait for the email.
It usually takes awhile for things to go on sale, so it’s best to add baby stuff to your list early on in pregnancy.
Honey works with lots of online stores like Amazon, Kohl’s, and eBay. Once you have the extension installed, Honey will let you know if you can save money on an item.
You can always save the receipts of baby stuff that you buy early and return it if someone gives you the same thing at your baby shower. Just be sure to check how long the window is for returns, though! Hopefully your friends will be thoughtful enough to include a gift receipt.
READ: Why every expectant mom should have a doula
I started buying baby stuff when I was 7 months pregnant
I personally waited until I was around 7 months pregnant to get serious about buying baby stuff. It made sense to me to wait until after my baby shower to buy a lot of stuff, and we were blessed enough to have a lot of the big ticket items like the car seat and the crib given to us.
I just went on Amazon after the shower and ordered the things that people didn’t purchase on our registry. Then we were pretty much good to go!
I decided it was probably best not to procrastinate and wait until the very last minute to buy all of the stuff for my baby. I knew I probably wouldn’t feel like doing much during those last few weeks of pregnancy, and I definitely didn’t feel like it after you have the baby. So I did myself a favor and got the basics in place before then.
Don’t wait too long to start buying baby stuff
Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter that much when you start buying baby stuff. If you really want to go out and buy all the things on the day you find out you’re pregnant, there’s nothing wrong with that! It might not be the most practical choice, but there’s no harm in it.
It’s not a big deal if you don’t have the nursery painted or you don’t have all of the baby clothes folded and put away in the drawers.
But like I mentioned above, you don’t want to wait until too late in your pregnancy to start buying baby stuff. At the very latest, you should have the basics set up and ready to go by the time you are 8 months pregnant. This would be things like the crib, carseat, diapers and a few basic clothes. Babies don’t really require as much preparation as we tend to do for them, but those things are important to have ready ahead of time.
If you go into labor early, you aren’t going to want to figure out how to gather up all of that stuff with a newborn!
Melinda worked with children for years in a professional setting before becoming a full-time stay at home mom. She currently has three young children, and enjoys sharing tips and ideas about parenting and how to manage a home with excellence. She’s been featured on Heathline and Her View From Home.
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