WHILE WAITING FOR THE BABY
Becoming a mom is special. More so if it’s the first time. Priya Khandelwal, 30, a first-time mom tells MoneyQuin how she prepared for her first baby. She meticulously describes her excitement and the long list of stuff she shopped for her first one.
Read through... you’ll want to be mum by the end of it. But before that you’ll want to be rich!!
By Priya Khandelwal
“…The first thing I did when I came to know I was pregnant was I cried. It was an emotional moment. The following months were spent in sheer anticipation, filled with excitement, emotions sometimes welling up, enquiry and well wishes from family and friends and visits to doctors.
And in between all this, it was also important to plan and get stuff for our first baby. There was no dearth of advice and naturally no scarcity of things in the shops.
I started going to pre-natal classes from my fourth month. That was Rs 5000 for 16 weeks with one class a week of one and half hours. This was sort of useful. I managed to keep in shape even after the delivery. Also, like its generally believed that women crave for certain kind of food when expecting, I had no such craving. I attribute it to the yoga during these classes. Also, through these classes I learnt how to conduct myself through the pregnancy and delivery. Small things matter great deal.
For my child, I started shopping when I was around six-month pregnant. O God! We bought loads of baby clothes like rompers, little vests, t-shirts, full-sleeve body suits, baby blankets, beddings.
And soon I realized if you want to be rich and have a baby too, you got to choose between the two. Having baby is really very expensive these days. Not that babies demand much, but there is so much cool stuff available for your new-born and you can afford it to some extent that you tend to spend too much. Perhaps more than what is required.
When we were kids, there was only so much that we got. And no one really complained!!
Initial set of clothes that I bought her was a dozen of everything. All this cost me a cool Rs 8000-9000. Then there was nappies, beddings, cot accessories, cotton sheets. In the last month of my pregnancy, I went shopping for soaps, shampoos etc. I’m not a big fan of Johnson’s baby products as they are not as mild as they claim to be on the baby. So I bought the entire range from Mother Care.
Then came baby gym and a bath tub, cot mobile, cot accessories. A cot is nothing less than Rs 12000 rupees. These cots come with a cradle inside. A pram and a car seat combination cost Rs 15,000. We got one gym for about Rs 3000. Cot accessories, the things that hang around your baby’s head were another Rs 3000-4000.
Once my daughter was born, we got bottles, steriliser etc. The steriliser cost Rs 8000-10,000 rupees. Bottle warmer another Rs 4000-5000.
Then yes! A Baby Monitor!! An absolute must. You keep one part of the monitor next to the baby. The other part, the walkie talkie is with you. It is sensitive to the slightest movement and sound. You switch it on and you get to know whatever’s happening in the room. There are these monitors which have a screen to give you video play of the room. But I had an audio one because I had a full-time nanny. It cost me Rs 7000.
Ah! Diapers! Expensive again. A pack of 10 costs 100 rupees all of which are utilised in a day in initial months.
Now with nuclear family and working couples, nanny has possibly become very very important for raising a baby. But relying too much on her may backfire. Parents must continuously train nannies and monitor her the way she handles your baby.
I bought these Touch & Feel books for my baby when she was just a month old. She loves these 6-page books. I also got sing-along books which have these sing-along CDs like O’McDonald and Humpty Dumpty.
These books are fantastic and I recommend it to all mothers. You show your child a picture and you play the music. They absolutely love it.
The first year is really expensive as babies grow at lightning speed. All the clothes that I bought for my daughter before she was born, she literally wore just for 2-3 weeks.
She is in her fifth month now. I’ve started feeding her apple juice, apple stew, and vegetable soup.
We got foam-padded mats. They are like yoga mats with a little more padding. This cost 1800 rupees. That encourages her to crawl…”
The list seems unending. But by now you know raising a kid is no easy play. You also know that shopping malls today offer so much variety that becoming a mum is so much more comfortable. So hit the mall, get your baby all that she would need and care for!!
