Before you started really trying to conceive, you probably purchased a few baby items.
Giggling excitedly, you went to a store and purchased a baby books, onesies and a few additional cute baby clothes. Maybe your mommy friends lent you some stuff, just in case. You happily put these items in a box in your basement until you were pregnant. Fast forward 2-10 years, these ‘cute’ baby items are now collecting dust in your basement and the books that were once brand new, have formed spiderwebs on them. Over time, you have slowly given away these items to expectant moms. “It’s Molly’s damn baby shower this weekend. What should I get her? Might as well give her a bag of books….” “Co-worker, Denise, is expecting again??? Maybe she would like that expensive receiving blanket I bought 5 years ago.” Just wipe off the dust, Denise, and the blanket is as good as new.
There also might come a time when you move to a new home, and there is no point in bringing these old boxes of baby clothes. You find yourself having a garage sale, selling off those items meant for your baby. You now have a lawn filled with baby stuff and all your neighbors are wondering ‘who is this crazy childless lady with all this baby stuff?” I’M NOT THE CRAZY ONE, MRS. PENNYPACKER! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO JUST PURCHASED A STUFFED ANIMAL THAT’S BEEN SITTING IN MY BASEMENT SINCE 2001.”
Well, at least you made $24.00 at your garage sale. You can put that towards your next fertility treatment. Score.
I can relate to this except for we actually did not run out and buy anything until we started our first IVF. We thought IVF was just going to magically cure our infertility! We were very wrong! After a few IVF’s my hubby wanted us to throw away the Baby Name book he had bought! He said it was bad luck. If you would like to hear our story visit http://www.ivfsuccessstories.info
Yep, I’ve done that. Now I can at least say that I am buying the baby related stuff for my niece or my God-son. However, some of those items may never see the light of day because they are in a blanket chest in our bedroom.
LMAO, Girl! You crack me up!
OMG I have one of those boxes in my basement now!
LOL I have bunch of pirate shirts and pink onesies in my bedroom drawer! All from about four years ago when we had started TTC and I had done some traveling. Every where I went I’d pick up an outfit for the future baby but not even a souvenir for myself. I never imagined a life without kids and four years later my womb is still empty. But I have lots of hope!
Yikes! Once again, you nailed it. I had bought all these books about getting super healthy before pregnancy, etc etc etc. Turns out, no matter how healthy I am…I just won’t ovulate (or at least not more than twice a year)! I had a drawer in my dresser-bottom drawer-for all the cute baby clothes I bought pre-baby. It took awhile, but we got there…so will you guys!
I’m super glad I didn’t get that tshirt that said “big brother” on it for my son.. it definitely wouldn’t have fit him now more than a year later (that one ended in miscarriage)! My husband won’t let me sell the baby stuff we had for my son even though after 2 years of trying for another child and all kinds of infertility treatments we’re no further ahead. It’s kinda depressing to store (and have moved) all that stuff to a new house. Every 2WW I tell him I just need to purge it so it doesn’t taunt me and every time he won’t let me. (bastard!)
When I was a teen and early twenties working full time with little bills I knew I wanted children so I spent money on all sorts of baby stuff, bath, stroller, boxes of brand new clothes, made baby blankets, the list goes on.
now after getting married we are still childless after more than a year of ttc. It gets discouraging and I sometimes really just wanna get rid of it and wished I just saved the money instead.
I am guilty of everything in this post. I actually recently used some of my stash for baby gifts.
@waiting for #2, I got rid of everything about 2 years in, I absolutely needed to. I figured if I magically got pregnant I’d just replace it, I can’t look at the crib every time I go to the garage, it’s too cruel.
LOL… sad but true.
I did have pregnancy books, but after the third miscarriage, and then approaching the 4 years anniversary of trying, I finally dropped the whole lot of them off at the thrift store. And all my infertility books. I was just sick of looking at my entire sad history on the book shelf.
I stored the items from our first child in the basement for 7 years, and through 3 cycles of IVF. I thought it would jinx things if I got rid of them too soon. After failed cycle #4, I thought “the hell with it.” Objects aren’t going to determine whether I get pregnant and we can always buy new stuff. I donated everything to a local charity that helps homeless families in transition to housing and it felt great. We’ve moved on to a final, fifth cycle with donor egg, and if it works, I can’t tell you how happy I’ll be to get to shop for baby stuff again.
I feel like buying stuff would be jinxing myself, but then I get on motivational and think buying stuff means committing to myself that its going to happen. I guess it will take it’s own track regardless of whether you buy stuff or you don’t.
There was a great bit in ‘Waiting for Daisy’ (http://www.fertilehealing.com/?s=Waiting+for+Diasy) where the author talks about how she stopped buying clothes because she thought she would be pregnant soon…now that I am totally guilty of.
oh my lord that was way tooo funny! especially part of what the neighbors think lol and the $24 part was great. I had a friend who kept telling me she is saving her maternity clothes for me so I could borrow, then she finally told me she waited so long she sold them, I politely smiled and just laughed but was hurting on the inside….lol
oh my gosh! me too! I kept it for so long that when I went to go into that box about a month ago, I found mice had made homes in the baby clothes! hahahha! I pulled them out for my husband as we were cleaning the attic saying, “Aww, I can’t wait til we can finally use these….AAAHHHH!” Yep, the box was destroyed. Oh well, can’t use them anyhow. And both our sides of the family have given us cribs. We have 3 cribs and no baby. And the maternity clothes all of my sisters have handed down to me through the years? Thanks, but by the time I get pregnant everybody’s going to be wearing space suits or something….
That $24 could get you several 6-packs….just sayin’
Joey AKA The Childless Mom
I didn’t buy any baby stuff but I inherited a lot of them from super fertile big sister who thinks that by handing over her baby stuff to me, I would miraculously conceive. I’ve given all of them away!
http://www.preggyproject.com/2011/03/what-to-expect-when-youre-expectingto.html
I’ve been giving mine away as gifts. I was down to two books – the baby name book (threw it out), and the book that is really special to me. I have to get rid of that one, but I refuse to let someone else have it. I’m thinking about burning it – that would probably feel great!
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I have a stroller in my trunk, but I am not and have never been pregnant. I also have three onesies, two bibs, and a few other items in a tin box that says “Hang in There” that hubbie got for me almost a year ago. We have been ttc for a year.
[late to the party here, but...] i havent entered into baby-paraphenalia buying, but about 3+ years ago i did accidentally receive a very nice maternity shirt along with other items i actually had ordered online from the ga.p. i held onto the shirt knowing that my dh and i wanted kids (although we hadnt ttc then) and that if i got rid of it, i’d probably regret it soon when i got pregnant, and that it must be some kind of *sign*. ttc 3 yrs now no luck. i threw the shirt away somewhere around 2.5.
Thank you for spending some time to talk about this, I’m strongly about it and love learning read more about this topic.
I still have a baby names book on my bed side table…its been there since my miscarraige 4 months ago. And my “what to expect when you expecting” is my coffee table book at the moment. I have read and reread the preparing to become pregnant and loss and misscarraige sections over and over.
@Coach Factory Outlet: has it ever occurred to you that maybe the readers of this site spent have been so emotionally run over that they no longer have any money left for fake bags?
@Sinan: Bah ha ha! I’ve been wondering the same thing.
Thank god I didn’t buy anything for my pregnancy that ended in miscarriage at 8 wks…
Luo Ji was surprised to see jordan retro 11.
My husband and I have been ttc for 5 years. About a year ago decided to do foster to adopt while still ttc as we wanted at least 2 children, so we did the home inspections, the classes, and jumped through all of the hoops. Well we were told we would have a baby about 45 days after our last inspection so we outfitted a complete nursery including having the closet rebuilt for more space. Well it never happened for reasons still unknown as the agency continues to tell us it’s going to happen and we have not gotten pregnant. We are getting ready to start our first IVF and I want this for so many reasons including having a child to love and cherish but I have to admit what is also on that list is the reason of so I won’t have to walk by that empty nursery door and know what’s on the other side any more. Good luck to all of you ttc I pray everyone gets what they are searching for!
After finding out that my husband was sterile, I wanted to get rid of every baby book I had. No reason to keep them if I know that our only option for children has been pushed back 10+ years because of finances necessary. Ugh.