Baby equipment-buying for a life you don’t yet know.

The dolly was six months yesterday and her highchair arrived the very same day (I had already started introducing different food  as pleading eyes while we ate and several nights of waking with hunger strongly suggested she was ready..the best laid plans and all that). The highchair was purchased without agonising hours online, without endless conversations and most of all, without much anxiety. 6 months has made a huge difference in our approach to baby equipment-thank god. The hours of research on travel systems, car seats and slings are ingrained in my memory; online and in store, where had my confidence and decisiveness gone? The difference isn’t because motherhood has bestowed baby equipment expertise on me (a lot of it remains a mystery and straps often defy me), it is because  I know what the dolly and I do everyday and what we need: I am in it. During pregnancy, I couldn’t visualise our days, whether we would use the car or walk lots. Would I want to push or would I want to ‘wear’ her? Would we indeed leave the house much? I had no idea what our lifestyle would be and it is difficult to buy for days that would be so different to any time before. So we bought second hand in the end so that if it didn’t work for us, we could simply get something else without huge expense. The sling lies unused in the boot and domestic flights meant we confidently purchased a light weight stroller at 3 months. Buying for a life you know is so much easier.