i spent how much?....

i have come to the realization lately that i really need to pare down on baby "essentials".  i put "bunny ears" aka quotations because i pretty much deem anything funky and chic a baby essential.... and i spend way to much money on said essentials.

so let me break it down a little.

before amelia was born, i decided i wanted to cloth diaper.  i have no idea where i got this crazy idea, and if you had asked me even 5 years ago if i would be cloth diapering a baby in my early-twenties.... i would have absolutely had a laugh-riot.  so here i am, scraping poo off microfiber inserts and running a double rinse cycle multiple times a week.  but, i digress.... i didn't know anyone who had ever cloth diapered a baby (successfully or unsuccessfully) and so i really had no guidance.  I decided to buy all of the diapers we would need from birth to potty training at once.  i went with a single brand (i won't name names.... but you can find this information somewhere on my lovely bloggy!) and made my $800 plus purchase.

diapers arrive.  we wait.... amelia arrives.  we wait.... she was too small to wear these diapers! for almost 2 1/2 months she was too small.  so we had to keep buying disposables.  so finally we got to try our cloth diapers.  um, why didn't i get the memo on how much my child was going to pee?  because then i probably would have done more research on fabric types because buying $800 plus worth of diapers that have a significant hemp ratio did not work out for us.  i was changing her wet butt every hour and a half.... i knew something was wrong.

i finally convinced caleb to let me buy all new dipes, with the guidance of my completely wonderful core group of cloth diapering friends (love you girls!).  we have such an awesome variety now!!  i sold our old ones for the price i wanted and haven't looked back since.  i'm still in the process of receiving new diapers as some are custom made and take a couple of weeks to be ready.  *sigh* i can't wait to get them :)

so, another thing i feel like i spent way too much money on and didn't get much use out of was our really expensive mei tai carrier (again, no names.... but you can find more information in the blog-chives {blog archives?}).  we got this really great one that allllll the celebrities had and it was supposed to be soooo fantasticalicious (can you read my sarcasm?) and seriously, from day one... amelia hated it.  everytime i would try to wear her in this carrier it was a fight to the death.  she won, obviously.  i sold the carrier to a friend in the end and moved on.  amelia absolutely adores her $13 wal-mart baby carrier.  go figure....

i really wish that more companies let you "rent" products or have a trial period because, in hindsight, i would have done way better with past purchases.  now i need to move forward and be a smarter spender, be more aware.  i feel like i did a good job, with caleb's help of course!, buying amelia's big girl carseat (which we should have gone with from the beginning... again, hindsight). 

our next purchase is an umbrella stroller so we can enjoy going to the zoo or aquarium.  we have picked out a Combi stroller and i think it will be really great for us.  it has a ton of good options, and i love the way it folds up.  originally, i wanted a Maclaren, because they are so.stinkin.cute.... and because they have a nice pricetag... cha-ching!  why do i always think that higher priced items are better?  well once we put the two stroller side by side at Babies R Us i could definitely tell which would be better.  of course, i was stubborn and put up a fight because i wanted the precious maclaren but the combi is going to be perfect for us.  perfect for my lovely amelia.... and that's what really matters.

what "essentials" do you wish you could go back in time and decide differently about?