When I read a few weeks back that Parents spend on average £2,628 on their child’s nursery, I threw my head back and let out a big self-satisfied laugh:

“Ho-ho, we haven’t spent anywhere near that!”

That’s not just because we are supremely tight but because we have no qualms about accepting 2nd hand things from people (also Mrs C’s parents bought most of the nursery furniture).

But back to 2nd hand things. The most expensive item that we got 2nd hand is a really nice Mama and Papa’s Freestyler Travel System (or pushchair come pram come car seat to you and I). Had we actually have paid for it, I would have cost us a fair chunk of that £2,628 that we saved on the nursery. But we didn’t pay for it so we were very happy. Except…

It doesn’t really work as a pram. Little P could easily slip out of the bottom if we hit the curb at high speed. There’s no way you can configure the Travel System so he will face you either. He’s always hidden behind the canopy. And finally, it’s quite bulky whe collapsed and the boot on our car is only small. After much soul searching, Mrs C and I both agreed that a withdrawal from the war chest was required.

Our hands were shaking as we both inserted our keys into the locks on the chest. On the count of three we unlocked it. Dust, moths and the smell of old but unused bank notes filled the air. Crikey, this was indeed a momentous occasion.

We took the money down to City Prams where the most patient and helpful shop keeper helped us decide between the Quinny Buzz (that automatically erects itself!) and the Bebe Comfort Loola.

Due to it’s small size when collapsed and the ease with which to put it up and down we plumped for the Bebe Comfort Loola. It does what we want and Mrs C could make it do all the things it was designed to do easily enough.

The only down side to the purchase was that I had to push the thing back to our house sans bebe. Like some crazed old bag lady. Oh well, at least that took my mind off actually spending some money on our son.

Mrs C bought a Baba Sling from the NCT this week. She says she’ll need to keep her hands free when she goes for walks so she can keep control of Bernard. Fair enough, it’s hard to walk a dog and push a pram at the same time, I would imagine.

Despite not being to concerned what people think of me I do have a level (regardless of how low that might be) of self-respect. So I had already ruled out the papoose as an option as an affront to anyone’s (and most definitely my own) dignity. You can’t wear a papoose and hold your head high. The only positive I could come up with is that you’d be so embarrassed to be seen wearing a papoose by another living soul that you’d have to go walking in some pretty remote places. But we want to walk the dog in the local park, not trek through Snowdonia. So a papoose was out of the question.

The sling seems like a reasonably good alternative. Not too shameful to be seen with one and the baby seems to fit quite snugly and securely inside (that’s what I’m guessing from looking at the promotional pictures anyway and why would they lie about something like that?). Plus if caught carrying Junior in it by someone I know, I’m pretty sure I get away by claiming I’ve broken my arm (I would then have to avoid seeing that person for the next 6-8 weeks, possibly by taking a long walking holiday in Snowdonia).

I think I’m going to stick with the pram as number one baby transport method though. Especially after I spent so much time on Sunday trying to work out how the bloody thing fits together…

One of the things I find most entertaining about our NCT classes is how we all seem to stick to our gender stereotypes oh-so-closely. This week as we broke the ice by telling each other how we had prepared for the impending births all the women seemed to have done women-things (bought a lot of baby grows and read pregnancy magazines was the women’s top 2) and all the men seemed to have done men-things (bought new cars and put up nursery furniture was the men’s top 2).

It makes me chuckle to think about it now, but I felt that there was a real pressure of expectation on me (I don’t whether it’s from the the group or from me but I feel it) to say that I had done these manly things when in fact I hadn’t.

Fortunately for me, Mrs C had to say what she had done just before I did. Her preparations included “Mr C getting me pregnant”. Yes, yes, thank you I am the man…

It got me thinking though. I had always intended on putting that nursery furniture together before Junior turned 21 but should I make the effort and put it together before he’s actually born?

Fortunately the in-laws came down and made answering the question a lot easier. “I’ll help you” said the father-in-law. Bingo. He even has tools that make this sort of thing easier. That made me think a little more: if I’m going to be a *dad* do I need tools? I do have a set of allen keys and tyre levers for my bicycle, I wonder if they count.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that the nursery furniture is now together and ready to be destroyed by the devil in a nappy and ready for next week’s NCT class for me to brag “Well I have put the nursery furniture together, don’t you know”.

Warning! Blogging about Blogging Follows:

Part of me writing this here blog it to try and help support the family when Mrs C returns to work and I become a Stay at Home Dad. I’ve been contemplating a few things over the past weeks and after reading Darren Rowse experiences I’ve made an addition to this site.

Yes, I’ve just added an Amazon.com aStore to this site. Check it out, then check out some goods (do you see what I’ve done there, do you?).

The store can pretty much be classified as Stuff to Buy Babies, but there’s also a section for Dads and Moms (I’ve gone American for the purpose of making cold hard cash). I do have control over what appears so if you’d like to see anything there that isn’t at the moment, just leave me a comment and I’ll make the change.

As the store is provided by Amazon you can log in and shop with your existing Amazon ID and the store is just as secure as Amazon.com.

I believe that I may need to get more than just me and my mate Matt reading the blog for it to generate any revenue but it’s a start.

Anyway enough reading, get shopping

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS A PAID REVIEW:

When i was a child I was a big fan of the He-Man cartoons (probably one of the reasons I’ve turned out so muscular) and as such I always wanted new He-Man toys, books, clothes. It wasn’t until many years later watching Father Ted on TV that I realised I missed out on an entire range of products that I could have forced my Mum and Dad to buy me. I’m talking about Dougal’s He-Man duvet cover. I can only imagine that it would have been like sleeping in the bed at Castle Greyskull. Happy times.

I’m certain that I was like every child. I had a favourite cartoon and wanted all the stuff I could get my hands on that had a picture of it on. They just never seem to have much more than the occasional toy in the local department store.

Fortunately for the modern child there’s a better way to get their hands on their favourite cartoon character, courtesy of withcharacter.com. They sell baby gear that’s branded with a number of different cartoon characters, so whatever your kid likes there’s something for them (I’m particular taken by the Patrick Cuddle Pillow!).

If you want to kit out your babies room in a stylish fashion they also sell a really nice range of MiGi bedding. The green and blue fish patterns, stripes, polka dots and argyles create a tasteful and timeless style for your baby’s nursery.

Yesterday we received our Dutailier nursing chair that we ordered many moons ago:

By God, it was worth the wait though. It must genuinely be the most comfortable chair ever made, EVER. We decided to get the matching footstool too, which means you can put your feet up, recline the chair and rock yourself off to the land of nod.

It worked it’s magic on Mrs C this morning, as despite sleeping in until 10, by 11 she was nearly back asleep in the chair.

The only down side with the chair is that our charming 2 bedroom house, is now becoming a very cramped 2 bedroom house.

Oh well, when you’re rocking away, dreaming your on a hammock on a tropical island, who cares how much space there is in the living room?