The hardest piece of baby equipment to buy

I bought my Honda Accord about seven years ago from a dealership in town. I remember it very well. I was so dead set on buying an Accord that I did all my research ahead of time, picked out the color, etcetera, so when we got to the Honda dealership, all I had to do was make sure they had the one I wanted with all the features I wanted, test drive it, negotiate the price and financing, and sign the papers. I think it took less than an hour. And I absolutely love that car. One of the best investments I ever made, and it has been fully paid off for about two years with less than 70,000 miles on it currently.

If only buying a travel system for my daughter was that easy.

It took us about ten minutes to decide on what crib and changing table set we wanted at Target. I spent one evening researching breast pumps and ordered one online. Everything else that we have bought for the nursery and for the baby has been a relatively simple decision and one that we agreed on with ease. Deciding which travel system (aka combination infant car seat and stroller) we want is very hard.

We have now spent about six shopping trips agonizing over this decision...four trips to Babies R Us and two to Target. You should see us...P takes every one of them off the shelf, looks over every inch of the system, pushes it around, puts it down, picks it up, pulls it into a standing position, takes it apart, you name it. The Babies R Us guy that walked by us tonight asked if we needed any help, and P just replied, "Just doing some test drives." Uh, YEAH. I thought we were definitely going to buy one tonight, but at the last minute, we ended up walking out with P muttering something about doing some further research online and checking out reviews of Chicco systems.

And the funniest thing is, having the infant car seat is the ONE thing that we absolutely have to have before we bring McKenna home from the hospital! And yet we can't make ourselves get it! I wonder if it's a mental thing? At the rate we are going, P will be running out to Babies R Us while I'm in labor to get one if we don't decide on one soon.

In other news...I guess my daughter decided that I needed some relief, because she dropped significantly last night. Apparently it's normal for babies in first pregnancies to drop several weeks before labor, so she's just getting ready. It was heaven this morning when I woke up...the area below my bustline was soft and pliable, I could actually breathe comfortably, and I went to the office with a SMILE, can you imagine that?

I had no idea it would be short-lived though. Now, instead of jabbing my ribs with her feet, she's jabbing the bottom of my ribcage and my lungs with her feet....at least I think that's what she's doing. I have pressure now in a new place, and I can feel little hard spots all over my midsection. I came home from work with huge cankles again, my wrists are aching, I had hot flashes all night, and I just can't get comfortable no matter what. So I'm back to being whiny again. At least I got one night of great sleep.

We have an appointment on Monday to check out one more daycare place. It's $100 more a month than our original choice, so I'd say they'd have to dazzle us. They come highly recommended though, so I'm looking forward to meeting with them. P's office is also giving us a baby shower the last week of October, so that should be fun, even though we really don't need anything else at this point other than gift cards to Babies R Us to use on diapers after I decide which brand I like best. I've bought three small packages for now...Pampers, Luvs and Huggies, and I figure once she's here and I've tested them on her to figure out what the best ones are for her, I'll send P to Babies R Us to get a case of them.

I have absolutely NO plans this weekend other than trying to clean up the house since it's slipped a bit (me working from the office is really biting into my cleaning time), working on writing my Christmas cards (since I know I won't have time to do them later) and getting the stuff we need to do our baby announcements (again, since I know I won't have time to do them later). Oh, and debating between whether or not I'd rather have the doctor induce me the second week of November, waiting it out until she's ready to come on her own, or willing my water to break and labor to start ALL by itself right now. I really don't want her to come in October since it'll really mess up my return to work plan, but I actually dreamed last night about giving birth and what it would feel like not to be pregnant anymore. (So what if I dreamed I gave birth to a toddler who could walk and talk?) Not having this pressure on my midsection would be just heavenly.

Ta ta.