A Spot of Shopping

Well we figured this weekend that while we had the time we would buy a few more of the essential items required for when the little one - who is accumulating a LOT of stuff - arrives.

Ry has picked up some extra weekend work which means he and possibly I will be away for 3 out of four weekends in May and seeing as we just don't know when our baby will decide it's time to move on from my womb it pays to be prepared huh. So we can now safely bring bubs home and have nappies to cover his/her cute little bott.

So here's the car seat we opted for. Concord Ultimax - sounds impressive eh? And well it is. Safety features are good and bubs will be snug as a bug in this seat. Instead of a dinky car seat, which may be slightly more practical in that you can remove them from the car and, in some cases, attach them onto a pram , we opted for one with a long term vision. This one is suitable for newborns to 4yrs. It also has another insert for a snugger fit for a baby (not shown in picture). The covers come off and are washable. The seat has different angles for rear facing and front facing with a flatter angle for when you've got a baby strapped in. We had the demonstration at the store of how to fit it and so hopefully when the time comes we can manage that again ourselves.

Next for another essential item. Nappies. It wasn't a hard decision at all to go with washable nappies. With growing concern for the environment in which we live and what the future is looking like for our children I figure that we really need to do all we can to not add to the destruction.

The NZ Green party has some pretty interesting facts:

It takes one full cup of CRUDE OIL (!) to make the plastic for each "disposable" nappy. SCARY!!

1.3 million trees a year are felled for NZ babies in disposable nappies. Disposable nappies use 3.5 times more energy, 8 times more non-renewable raw materials, 90 times more renewable materials than reusable nappies. We already need to plant a few (hundred!) trees for the carbon emissions we have contributed to flying to and fro between UK and NZ.

It takes as much energy to produce one disposable nappy as it does to wash a cloth nappy 200 times. Must remember this on the days when I really can't be bothered doing the washing.

Disposable nappies take up to 500 years to decompose in landfill sites and can harbour up to 100 different types of virus, including live polio virus from vaccines. Hmm not good.

I'm not sure if I've even mentioned the fact that we're booked to go on a bit of a holiday end of August when our bubs is 2mths old. We've had mixed comments from people about this. Some think we're crazy others say "Go for it!" we just listen to the latter. Anyway we're really excited about this trip. We're heading to Croatia and Italy and will be joined by our mothers which is going to make it all the more special.

I think it's going to be great to do some travelling so soon and to introduce our child to the joy of travel at such a young age. Also to show that it can be done and probably that to do it so soon is the best option. We met a couple on a recent trip to Sardinia and they had a 4mth old who had been to 20 different destinations since birth! Inspiration!

So anyway to ease travel and in the hope that our child will sleep well when we travel we decided to buy this travel cot. It's like those kiddie tents that fold up tight and spring out. Comes with a good mattress and mosquito net. Best thing is it weighs less than 1kg and so won't take up too much of our luggage allowance. I can't believe they even call those solid cots 'travel cots' they don't seem very portable to me. We' will put bubs in it a few times before we go so she/ he gets used to the feel and smell of it so that it's familiar enough that bubs will want to sleep in it when we're away. That's the plan anyway...

And there you have it. Hopefully the last of the big spending on this little being. It's been fun and there's plenty more fun to be had.

XO Mez