These are just consuming my thoughts, by the way.... LOL
-Diapers. This may not be for everyone as I know I'm a natural (psycho) planner, but we bought diapers throughout the pregnancy. Our thoughts were that it would be much smoother to spend 20-30 bucks on a big thing of diapers once a month and have a good stockpile then to spend 20-30 bucks every week or two when the baby got here. (we got lots of size 1 and size 1-2) It's worked out well with the exception of us needing a LOT more newborn diapers than I'd planned. That's a tough one, though, because the diapers say they only go up to 10 lbs and you never know how much the baby will weigh (though you sure hope not 10 lbs!) and Kaeleigh wore them till she was probably 11+ lbs or almost 2 mths I'd guess. It just depends on the babies body type.
-Sign up for every single thing you can. Even formula things if you're planning to breastfeed. They'll send you diaper bags (not nice ones, mind you) that have places for keeping breastmilk cool and freezer packs for the same purpose. They'll also send sample cans of formula. I didn't think I'd need them, but when I didn't have enough milk at the beginning I was sooo glad to have formula at home to supplement with and not have to go get any (so expensive!). Also, Carnation Good Start (which is what we feed Kaeleigh and is verybestbaby.com) has the BEST newsletter and they send it via mail (once the baby comes) twice a month. It has great information about her development (even stuff I haven't heard of, which is tough when I read so much about her and did Skylar), recipes (had one tonight--yummy!) and just cool articles. I love it. Yes, they'll send you coupons, too, and if you don't want them you can pass them to someone less fortunate.
enfamil.com
similac.com
verybestbaby.com
Also, I'd recommend a msg board. It was invaluable with Skylar, and I'm loving it this time, too. I visited the ones at Ivillage...there's an Expecting Club for every month (like Anj's Feb 2008) and then once the baby comes, it turns into a Playgroup. I can't say how helpful this has been. When I was pregnant, it was nice to commiserate with other people having my symptoms and getting their solution ideas. Now that she's here, there's always someone whose baby is doing the same weird thing that ours is that is not in any book. And they have already called the doctor or someone else's first baby did that etc etc. Personally, I'm not social so I never wanted/did do the real-life playgroup thing and don't regret that. This is a way for TONS of moms to come together but since we're not all sitting around we aren't doing that terribly unhealthy comparing of ourselves and our kids that we do when we women are physically together. Yes, your child may be way behind the pack (or way ahead) but there's lots of other babies there with you. And you don't even have to post if you don't want to--just lurk and learn.
http://parenting.ivillage.com/messageboards/
Then there's the mthly pregnancy newsletters at fitpregnancy.com and babycenter.com and all of those. Oh! And sign up at diaper sites, too. They'll send samples and coupons during pregnancy and after. You never know which ones you'll like. If you're wanting more organic diapers, sign up there.
huggies.com
pampers.com
luvs.com
-OK. Two-piece outfits. Not a good plan. Some are really cute and we even put Kaeleigh in one that we got as a gift because it's too cute (she wore it today) but every time she wears it I wonder why we do it. She's still needing a lot of handling, and that shirt just rides up her little belly. Two-piece outfits are great for when they're older and they're at least sitting (so chronologically 6 mths+ which means 9+ clothes), but any earlier and you're just always pulling the shirt down and trying to keep them on them right. It's not comfy for them or you.
-Maybe you already knew this?....baby clothes can be really off of the actual ages. Kaeleigh started wearing 3 mth clothes at about 1.5 mths, though now she's almost 3 mths and a few of her newborn onesies still fit. Hmm. It's not a big deal unless you're trying to buy ahead to fit seasons. Don't. Don't buy things for winter, for example, thinking, "Oh, this is a nice toasty outfit that says 6m and the baby will be 6m so that'll work out swimmingly." Just wait a bit and see.
-Have lots and lots of burp rags. Kaeleigh's not much of a spitter, but she of course still spits up and we go through these a lot. Probably would be good to have.....10 or more. I really hate all of them at the store, so hopefully we'll be done with spitting and I can mail mine to you.
That's all I can think of for now. I burned my glaze for my fruit pizza because I had to let it cook and totally spaced it while I was sitting here. Gosh darnit! Oh well. Fruit pizza seems to be one of those ideas that sounds great but rarely turns out for me anyways.
Night, everyone.
