Baby Registry Saga – Part III [Lessons Learned]

Prologue: Following “Baby Registry Saga – Part I,” and “Baby Registry Saga – Part II,” I’m here to share the lessons learned so far.

Lesson 1

Resist temptation and stick to a plan.

All things baby are so irresistibly adorable! And nesting couldn’t be more real. Every time I went to any store it was as if the baby section was calling my name. I had to then create some rules and checkpoints so that I wouldn’t spend all my money in the blink of an eye. When it felt hard I bought a set of Burt’s Bee bodysuits on sale ($5 for two!!) and hugged those cute little organic outfits the whole night haha.

Lesson 2

Don’t stress (too much) over it.

No matter how much effort you put into curating items and having options available for both online and in-store shopping, people will bring random things. It is very sweet of any and all friends/family to bring a gift to help us welcome baby, so it doesn’t bother me, but I feel like I could have stressed WAY less about what was on my list.

Lesson 3

Most coupons you get are not really worth it.

They often cannot be combined with any other offers and have a limited expiration date. I found that most coupons had strings attached and really just wanted my information for marketing, but the discount wasn’t really worth it – i.e. the same item or similar was cheaper when sold by a store that doesn’t take said coupon. The best set of coupons was from Target. After that, Buy Buy Baby and Bed Bath and Beyond often have 20% off coupons that work for select items that have consistent pricing throughout. I’m saving those to buy Halo sleep sacks, which didn’t go down even for Black Friday.

Lesson 4

The welcome box/bags from the big registry places are totally worth it.

Some take more work than others, but you end up with a mix of full size and sample items that are very useful. All these are seasonal and change with the year/month. Here is what I got from each one (beginning of Fall 2019):

Amazon welcome box included:

• Newborn bodysuit
• Swaddle
• Dr. Brown’s 5oz. bottle
• Samples from Honest, Huggies, Cetaphil, Avent, and more.

Babylist welcome box included:

• Pampers diaper changing pad and diaper sample
• Huggies diaper sample
• SkipHop teething toy
• “One Day Old” Bebe au Lait milestone
• Envenflo 5oz. bottle and pacifier
• Water wipes sample
• Baby Bum sample
• Nanobebe breastmilk storage bag
• Other small samples and coupons.

Target welcome bag included:

• Dr. Brown’s 4oz. bottle
• Nuk pacifier
• Avent 4oz. bottle
• Water wipes samples
• Pampers, Honest, and Up&Up diaper samples
• Disposable nursing pads
• Aveeno sample
• Johnson’s sample
• Other small samples and coupons

BuyBuy Baby welcome bag included:

• Avent 4oz. bottle
• Oxo baby food freezer tray
• Honest wipes, shampoo, and body lotion samples
• Aquaphor rash cream sample
• Mustela Hydra Bebe body lotionLansinoh nursing pads and breastmilk storage bags
• Other small samples and coupons

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Lesson 5

It takes (A LOT OF) time to build a registry.

Not for the baby shower, but for yourself. As a first-time mom, there were many items I had no idea existed! Baby Breeza won the award here. Also, it was a mystery figuring out what would work better or even what was actually necessary. Going through the many registry checklists was helpful, but going to the stores multiple times and looking at the actual item, then reading reviews, asking friends, and finally going to the store to look at it again was my general process for all the big and/or high ticket products. Deep breaths.

Overall, this was a big learning curve, and I will only be able to test my freshly gained knowledge in a few months. It has been a fun game to play! How was your experience building your registry?