Jack is almost 6 months old and I recently took another pile of clothes he outgrew down to storage (that is to our little, tiny storage room in the building's basement). Time flies too fast while his little arms and legs get longer by the minute. While we love seeing him thrive and do well, of course, I am absolutely sure I will very much miss the adorable tiny baby stage.
Overwhelmed by the plenty of choices and by our lack of expertise, I decided to make it more bearable by creating only one central baby registry with options to add stuff from any retailer, this allowing to pay the lowest prices. After researching the options we found the best out there to be BabyList.
It worked out great and our family and friends liked it a lot. Here is Jack's actual BabyList, so you can see a real example.
After sign up, one can install a "Add to BabyList" bookmark to their toolbar. Then, while you browse blogs, Amazons, stores, for baby products and when you love an item, you add it to your list instantly. You can even write a note. Then you give your private link to your friends and family - we added ours to our baby shower invitations.
People don't actually buy the items from BabyList because they are not a retailer but one can press "Reserve" on your BabyList item and then they buy it from anywhere they wish.
There can be some inflated prices out there on individual retailers lists. For example, when I looked at breastpumps, the Medela we wanted was $369.00 at Babies'r'us. But it was $329.00 at Diapers.com and a first time buyer at Diapers got 10% off so my pump bought from them ended up at $298.00 or so.
Turns out that a general registry list was great for us. However, if you are missing items after your baby shower and really want that 10% off from a big box store, you can simply create another registry with them. I'd make a third point that there are plenty of coupons for 20% off baby items from several boxy baby retailers if you really need an item specifically from them.
Again, for us, BabyList has worked wonderfully. Another bonus point is: I keep using it even now and will for a long time. Its beauty is that I can add anything important that was handed-down to me, gifted or bought, to a list with images and notes. Visually keeping track of the vast amount of stuff you have can prevent you from overbuying things. Side-note: only a small percent of the baby things you own are actually useful and much goes unused or ignored. Cringeworthy.
It could be useful to keep a list of the baby items in one place in case something is defective and gets recalled. Also, one can adding notes to the items so that their BabyList can serve as a product guide for new parents out there, i.e., Jack's favorites, his not-so-favorites, the I-wish-I-didn't-buy-this-because-there-is-no-need/way-to-use-it-in-our-tiny-NYC-apartment item and so on.
That's it as to WHERE to register. What do you guys have in mind? Where did you register, thought about registering? We are so happy with the BabyList friendly interface and how well it has worked for us, Jack and all of our lovely, generous, sweet friends and family. Good luck with navigating the available products for your brand new, adorable baby. Do not stress out, do not over do it. Remember: baby's favorite item will ALWAYS be YOU and safe, healthy and happy are most important. HAPPY REGISTERING!
