We’ve started amassing stuff. Some Benin stuff, but mostly baby stuff. You may also recall me being stressed about what baby stuff we needed. Well, I’m mostly over that now. Probably because we’ve made a bit of progress.

In the past few weeks we’ve bought some stuff. Even though I’m still not convinced we’ll ever use a stroller in Benin, we have one. And the car seat that came with it. That’s the only thing they require you own in order to take the baby home from the hospital, so as far as Andy’s concerned, we’re done shopping. We’ve bought some little things like blankets and socks too. Oh, and clothes. We’ve bought plenty of clothes. A very, very small sampling:

We’ll get some more stuff too, of course. I’ve made a list of essential things like diapers, medicines, etc. We’ve picked out a crib and a carrier and a bassinet. Well, not exactly a bassinet. We found this contraption that protects the baby when he sleeps in your bed. Normally I don’t think we’d be baby-in-the-bed sort of parents, but with all the moving around we’ll be doing the first few months of his life (DC to OH to IL to MO and then back to DC before Benin) we’ve decided it’s the best option for us. Well, at least for Andy and me. I don’t think Abbey’s going to be too thrilled about being downgraded to the floor.

I’m sure there’s stuff we’ll end up forgetting to get, but that’s okay. Women have babies in Benin and do just fine. Plus, we can always order things online and ship them over (paying only domestic shipping rates — thank you very much, U.S. government).

So, yeah, I’m not so worried anymore. Except about how much time I’m capable of killing on the BabyGap website. That’s pretty troubling.