Score!!!

This week we have gone from owning nothing baby related to acquiring a number of important items, most of which we did not have to pay for! It is very exciting to get hand-me-downs. I have no shame in accepting others' cast-offs and in fact probably have more enjoyment from receiving them than I ever would if I had to shop.

Traci and Jack gave us a car seat their little guy D has outgrown. It is practically new, and should accomodate our little person for his or her first year. This was the highlight of my week because I have been worrying a great deal lately about our ability to fit an infant seat rear-facing (as required by law for a year) into our one reliable car. Each time I've ridden in a car that has also held an infant, the front seat in front of the baby seat is pushed up almost to the dashboard. Rob and I, at 6'1" and 6'3" cannot push either of our seats up to the dashboard, and we are not looking to take on a car payment on a newer/different car. I have lost sleep at night worrying that we will have to choose between keeping our car or our baby. Fortunately, with the aqusition of the car seat (THANK YOU, T & J!!!) I was able to test it out and we can keep both the vehicle and the infant. Whew.

So about more gaining of important baby stuff:

Kendyl alerted me to a big sale at Cotton Babies and I picked up 8 cloth diapers today. We're sampling 2 different types in a few different sizes. If they work out, this could be almost 1/3 of the diapers we need and I paid 40% less than they are worth. All but one are new (CB also sells use diapers), but "seconds" or slightly irregular. I have no idea what makes them "seconds" but they appear to be completely normal diapers.
Tonight we had dinner with Kevin and Kathryn and Mike and Dana and K and K offered us several of their used baby items and my favorite thing to acquire secondhand: clothing for me from other tall women!! YAY! We now have bedding for a crib (no crib but maybe later...), a plan for some maternity clothes and a baby sling, and several outfits for little people that they apparently barely used as a number of them still have tags attached.

If we can get away with buying nothing new for this child, I will be so, so excited. Cloth diapers don't count. YAY for hand-me-downs!!