So how does everybody feel about crib bedding sets? I’m seeing some very complex 13-piece bedding sets for cribs that cost up to $350. They look beautiful but seem kind of useless. You obviously can’t use a pillow or a blanket or a quilt. There is basically nothing you can use except a fitted sheet and a bumper curtain.
Some people are suggesting I’m a cheapo for feeling like this bedding set would be a waste of money. “We can’t deprive the baby!” N announced so dramatically that you’d think I suggested we use the toilet bowl in lieu of a bath tub and a toilet rug instead of a receiving blanket.
Did you buy a bedding set or are you a cheapo like me?
Clarissa's Blog 
Are you kidding? Of course not! What a waste of money. The bumpers that cover the whole of the bars are not even very good for the kid because they stop air flowing. I had one that was purely decorative with little animals on a train that was about 15cm high and went round 3/4 of the bed.
The baby doesn’t give a shit what it sleeps in as long as it’s comfy. Deprivation doesn’t come into it.
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My nieces had:
Mattress protector
Fitted sheet x 3 (so there was always a spare in the event of nappy leakage)
Sheepskin rug thing that goes over the sheet but under baby (they travel a fair bit, so when they stayed at other houses the crib would feel familiar)
Assortment of croched cot blankets, handed down (which were general purpose, used for cot, car, buggy, nursing, playmat etc)
Zip in sleeperbag x 3
If it was cold they’d wear an all in one romper under the sleeperbag.
Assortment of plush toys, none of which the parents bought.
That’s it. Nothing like 130$.
I think the baby stuff market is a racket designed to play on the anxieties of new parents.
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Go visit somebody who is on their third kid and see what it sleeps with.
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I have a colleague who just had her 3 baby, so I could definitely do that. 🙂
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“N announced so dramatically that you’d think I suggested we use the toilet bowl in lieu of a bath tub and a toilet rug instead of a receiving blanket’
I would have fun with that:
“Honey? I think diapers cost way too much, let’s just use some old newspapers and garbage bags.”.
“Hey look! I found all this baby food in a dumpster! It’s only a few months past the expiration date I bet it’s as good as new!”
“You know…. a whellbarrow and some rope would be much cheaper than those baby carriages.”
On the other hand, your descriptions make it seem likely that he’d keel over in a faint or heart attack if you tried that.
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🙂 🙂 🙂
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No — you don’t need any of that stuff except the sheet. I’d have several sheets available in case of leaks. Sometimes I had leaks twice a night, so I would have about five sheets available, if not more. What you save from not buying the huge bedding set can be spent on extra sheets.
Also, not sure how you feel about diapering, but my kids leaked out of their diapers a lot until I switched to Pampers, which are the most expensive diaper on the market. Thing is — at the time, I only had access to coin laundry, so spending a little more on the diapers saved me a ton of money in laundry. So it worked out. I imagine that if you’re cheap you might be interested in cloth diapering, but I personally would never have time for that. For very busy people, I think Pampers are the way to go.
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No, the hassle of cloth diapers just seems way too much. So Pampers it is! We are going to a class to learn to put them on. 🙂
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FWIW, we’ve been Huggies people. Pampers baby wipes though! 🙂
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We started out using Huggies, but ultimately switched to Pampers. But who knows? Maybe your baby will not have blow-out diapers all the time like ours did pre-Pampers. You could always get small packs of different kinds and try them. But for my money, it’s Pampers or nothing.
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Cheapo!
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As someone on their third kid, you just need 2-3 crib sheets, and the bumper if you want, but certainly not necessary for the first 4-6 months or so (the baby won’t actually move much). Make sure you have a mattress that’s plastic on the outside, for the leaks.
My youngest kid is 2 and he just started using a pillow. So yeah, all the frills are completely unnecessary. You can buy a few thin receiving blankets.
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“Make sure you have a mattress that’s plastic on the outside, for the leaks.”
– Yes, that’s the kind we got!
“My youngest kid is 2 and he just started using a pillow.”
– Wow, it’s been two years already! Unbelievable. 🙂
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A woman wrote that in Facebook:
“My lover has Asperger’s. Practically, it means that he never ask me “How are you?”, that he rarely takes the time to hear from me, that he gives me the same red roses for my anniversary even if I tell him each year that I prefer wild flowers, that, when he’s at our house, he helps me one time out of three to carry grocery bags, that he expects me to prepare regularly home meals for him, that I walk always beside him (not in the back nor in front) when we take walks, even though he walks faster than me, that he bawls out to me when I walk one inch behind him, that he needs to talk to me endlessly about his electronic stuff, that he never answers to my questions even if the answer is simply “yes” or “no”, that he talks to me all the time or that he ignores me totally.
But he’s not narcissic nor egoïst. He has Asperger’s and I love him.”
What do you think of this?
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I don’t know what he is but she is definitely a masochist. 🙂
I’ll put this in a separate post.
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If you really think you need a bedding set (which you likely don’t), thrift stores tend to have them at a fraction of the price. My best friend’s new baby slept in a dresser drawer for his first month until they found a new home big enough for a crib; their efficiency apartment didn’t have enough space for one. You will want several of those little baby blankets, they get dirty fast.
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Nobody uses the toilet bowl in lieu of a bath tub. People use big cooking pots instead. 🙂
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My family used the sink, then moved to the main bath when we grew out of it. 🙂
Main reason people use bath tubs here is as a hold over from the days when a) people didn’t necessarily have a plumbed in bath and b) if they did, the bathroom was often the coldest room in the house – safer to bath baby by the fire.
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Finnish babies sleep in boxes, right? And live!
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