Shop til you drop

I confess: I love to shop.

Not for myself, really. I like shopping for baby/kid stuff.

And I like online shopping -- comparing prices, looking for the best deals, trying to get the lowest possible price through a combination of sales, coupons, free shipping, and money back from Ebates.

So when my SIL in Bangkok asked me to pick up some things and bring them when we visit in a few weeks, I was pretty happy to oblige.

Now after a few days of trying to chase deals, I'm tired, and I'm positive I'm not going to like it when my credit card bill comes this month.

It's strange -- you would think that prices on just about anything, including baby gear, would be much cheaper in Asia. But as we found out in February when we tried to buy KB a Pack-n-Play there -- au contraire! The Pack-n-Play was ridiculously expensive, and apparently so are most baby things that we get quite easily and reasonably-priced here.

So here's my shopping list:

- breast pump
- nursing pads
- baby monitor
- breastfeeding book
- baby care books

I got her an extra set of flanges/collection bottles as well. I remember those days of frantically washing pump equipment to get it ready for the next use. An extra set of collection tools really came in handy.

I also got her the Avent conversion kit, for collecting milk directly into the Avent bottles that I hope she is still using. I wish I had had this when I was pumping for KB.

Initially, SIL just wanted me to loan her my breast pump. But as I did some research, I realized that even the pump I own (the Ameda Purely Yours) is meant to be only a single-user system. Especially with the twins being a wee bit early (36.5 weeks), I don't want to take a chance with sharing my used breast pump.

Aside: What *does* one do with a used breast pump, anyway, if they're not meant to be shared? Of course, I hope we will use ours again in the next year or so, but what then? Can they be sterilized for re-use? Surely they don't all end up in the landfill.

Anyway, I think I am done shopping except for one more book. I need to pick up one of the week-by-week milestone books, but I think I'll snag that at the bookstore sometime this week.

Oh, and maybe some DHA supplements. Or not. I just read what kellymom had to say about that, and it seems supplementing is not recommended.

Hmm. Did you take any DHA supplements while breastfeeding/pumping? I took them the whole time. Whoops.