Stuff is arriving

Yes, stuff. Despite our attempts to make the arrival of this new human being as carbon-neutral as possible, we still need "things". Luckily, most of these "things" have been lent or given to us, including lots and lots and lots of clothing. My mother gave us a rather groovy colourful baby chair with toys on it that originally belonged to my niece. We've temporarily loaned it to our friends C&C for their 3-month-old, who absolutely loves it. Don't get too attached, toots...

The big focus last week was on The Dresser / Changing Table Situation. We were determined to find a used one on Craigslist, but faced a challenge which C told me was "like trapping badgers" e.g. bloody difficult, because they get snapped up so quickly. However through sheer persistency on the part of K (and the loan of a minivan from C), we got one for the rather reasonable price of $125. Here it is in its recently-arrived and not-yet-put-back-together glory:


The other piece of stuff that arrived was the breast pump, this one being the cutting edge new "hands-free" device from Medela. This will be extremely important because K will be involved in writing her thesis for her masters through to December, so having hands free whilst pumping can be seen as a distinct advantage. It has to be said that with the hot weather lately, K has been suffering a bit with swollen feet and ankles, which has made her feel generally "big". In fact she described herself as feeling like a "cow", which I did my best to refute because she didn't look that way, but how she feels is how she feels and it's hard to change sometimes. This feeling was not helped by this picture on the box of the breast pump:

Yes, I know they're trying to demonstrate how this product is ideal for the busy professional woman, but they clearly didn't take into account the self-esteem of the pregnant woman - let's not forget that most buyers of this product are going to be currently pregnant at the time of purchase and probably nervous about the prospect of breastfeeding. Talk about presenting a harsh reality. I'm sure most mothers who have been through this think this is no big deal, but I can tell you that a picture like that is intimidating to a woman who is pregnant with her first child.