The Dreaded Registry List

The DH and I registered for the babies shower 3 months ago and informed family and friends via email and phone calls. Also, we included the information in our invites sent out about 3 weeks ago. I have checked the registry to see what has been purchased so far, and out of 89 items only 4 have been marked as fulfilled. I understand that often time items aren’t checked off for whatever reason so it is probably more, but even granted that isn’t even close to what we need. We have nothing because we are first time parents, full time students, and both work less than full time. I am constantly stressed about money and having enough for the babies. I feel like a horrible person for complaining, but we didn’t sign up for many things we don’t need. I don’t understand the problem people have with getting things off our registry. The shower is THIS Saturday the 13, and the babies are due in December, and could probably come earlier…so we can’t afford to not have most of what we need soon. I feel like crying because I can’t whine to friends and family and tell them I am expecting more because I would feel like a brat and probably piss people off. I don’t know what we are going to do.

 

Don't stress yet; you'll be amazed by how many gifts are purchased the day before or the day of the shower!! And...quit checking your registry, you're driving yourself crazy. Also, we got a lot of gift cards at our shower, and were able to buy quite few things with them, and those purchases don't show up on the registry.

Hang in there!

 

haha, thanks I am hoping Gift Cards will save us. Money has been such a sore issue for the DH and I since we got married. I know all this school will pay off eventually but right now its killing us financially. The first time we were told we were having twins all I could think was "How are we going to afford this??!!?" Does that make me a bad mommy??

 

ditto on that pp...don't check your registry...bad mommy!!!.... tons of stuff will probably be bought in the 2 or 3 days before the shower..I think you'll be surprised... (Unless the only people you know are tight fisted...lol!!)

 

QUOTE(Susanna+3 @ Oct 6 2007, 05:10 PM) [snapback]438647[/snapback]
ditto on that pp...don't check your registry...bad mommy!!!.... tons of stuff will probably be bought in the 2 or 3 days before the shower..I think you'll be surprised... (Unless the only people you know are tight fisted...lol!!)

i'm going to go stand in the corner now

 

I did the same thing, I was checking it all the time and stressing. Like 10% of the stuff had been purchased the night before my shower.
The good news is I got almost everything on my registry at my shower. I think a lot of people just used it as a guide to shop with and went to other stores, or purchased something similar to what I wanted.... I asked for the aquarium swing and I got the rainforest one, etc. Plus I got a bunch of gift cards.

Dont start freaking out yet, I'm sure you'll make out great!!

 

It was so hard for me to stay off my registry too! I got a lot of stuff that wasn't even on my registry or was on my registry at one store but purchased at another for cheaper. Don't stress about it. You little ones will get everything they need!

 

No need to stress out now. When your shower comes you will have tons of things from the registry. My shower was the same week I gave birth (it was planned 3 weeks before I gave birth) and I had to keep checking the registry because I had another one at another store and didn't want to deal with duplicates. Most of my stuff was bought the night before the shower. I even checked it the morning of my shower (it was at 10:30am) and all was looking great. I got done with the shower and everything was updated as to what was bought and only had 1 duplicate, my ex-boss bought from Target most of the others from BRU.

 

I completely understand this!!! I am in the same boat. We're also first time parents and need everything. I've been checking my registry and 5 items have been purchased. Our shower is tomorrow!!

 

Alot of people dont have the things checked off the registry! Just wait and see!

 

All I can say is that I feel for you. I went through the same thing when it was time for my shower. I am a teacher, and we moved in the middle of last school year. For the first time in my life I could not find a job right away, then we found out we were having twins... So, to make a long story short I am not working, and I was the one who made the most money.

Anyway, we had the same issue with our shower. For some reason people seem to want to buy clothes for twins rather than the stuff you actually need. I got a lot of clothes, most of which were larger and off season.... Not to sound ungreatful, but we were really stuck. To make matters worse my mom was so thrilled and even said how great it was we got everything we needed!!!!

So after the shower I made a list on my computer of everything that I felt we needed. I took back a lot of the things that were not necessities (I even got bottle liners without the bottles?!?). We then got some of the things we needed. I also joined the local freecycle which you can find by going to freecycle.com I also scowered craigslist and eBay for other items that I could get cheap. When you join freecycle you can post wanted ads and believe it or not people will respond! AND give you for free the things that you need. There have also been a lot of people here on twinstuff who have offtered and given needed items.

With that said though I can tell you that many people do not buy until the day of or just a day or two before the event.... People like me. So, while it may look like you have not gotten anything you need things may start disappearing from your list even just an hour before the event. Not to mention the whole gift card thing. Sometimes people gon't know what you really need so they get a gift card rather than choose something from the registry.

 

You know what, if you want to return some items to get the things you REALLY need, I SAY DO IT! DON'T HESITATE, DO NOT FEEL GUILTY, JUST DO IT! You are going to be raising twins on two full-time students income and you need the things that are going to make that possible. This isn't one baby. It's TWO, it's harder in most cases and you need more stuff! :hug99: I hope you get more of your stuff. But I say return when possible and get stuff. I really hope you didn't register at Target. Their return policy is HORRIBLE!

 

Bad Girl! Just kidding I couldn't resist either. A LOT of people forget to mark that they purchased the gift. Hardly anything was marked off my registry and I swear I got 2 of every thing. A lot of things were also purchased at other stores or weren't purchased until the day before. Don't stress you will have everything you need.

 

I felt the same way you did awaiting the registry. Our showers in my family are kind of on the small side (20 people) and I was really wondering if we should have even bothered (you can tell I was having an emotional time over this). But we ended up being really blessed!! We had a lot of family out of state sending gifts too. Also, we had a second surprise shower last week. Remember not to discount buying second hand or borrowing from people you know. This helped us too. Btw, Mom to Mom sales help to fill in what you still need really cheap .

 

thanks guys, I feel tons better :love0028: . And I am registered at Target (oops!!). I didn't know it was hard to return things there. Hopefully people will be smart enough to include a reciept so it won't be too much of a hassle if I need to.

 

WE'VE GOTTEN MOSTLY CLOTHES TOO. PEOPLE JUST WANT TO GET WHAT THEY WANT TO GET, NOT REALLY WHAT YOU NEED. IT'S FUN FOR THEM THAT WAY I GUESS, SO WE ARE GOING TO BE RETURNING ALOT OF IT TO GET WHAT WE NEED. ALSO LOTS OF PEOPLE DO GIVE GIFT CARDS. GOOD LUCK.......OH TARGET IS THE BEST FOR RETURNING ITEMS EVEN WITHOUT A RECIEPT.

 

I would stress because I registered 182 items and people only got 5 things off of it. But at the baby shower I was SHOWERED with gifts, :shok: You can't go by that b/c not a lot of people like to follow registries. Like pp said, they like to get what they want.

 

I hope they come through for you!! I know with my experience, they usually do. At my bridal shower, I knew I would be getting lots of stuff from looking at the registry but I ended up with a TON! I think some people forget to tell them of the registry so it doesn't get marked off. Then some got the stuff elsewhere for cheaper ( I have NO prob with that) and then some stuff we didn't register for, which was awesome too.

My baby shower is the same day as yours and, of course, I have been checking it like crazy!! I seem to be fairing pretty well at this point but I "expect" it to get even better because people always seem to buy last minute (myself included)

Good luck!! I really do hope they surprise you!

 

Just checking in to see what happened and how it went yesterday!! :hug99:

 

ooh, its not until this COMING saturday, the 13, sorry I didn't make that clear. So people still have a week to surprise me :wub: