Our baby box arrived

[andrewducker]

It's a bit bigger than I expected, comes with multiple warnings about not putting the lid on when the baby is in the box, and is stuffed full of clothes, toys, a mattress, ear thermometer, bath thermometer, and some condoms. Oh, and a poem written by the Scottish Poet Laureate.

We've already bought a bunch of clothes for the first few months, but this is a really useful collection of stuff, and has made me feel even more excited than I was.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Full contents at https://www.parentclub.scot/baby-box#

[ironymaiden]

The picture on the outside is so sweet! That's a lovely welcome to Scotland.

[momentsmusicaux]

Wow!
I'm a bit envious - Yogi came just a bit too late to get one.

Condoms are optimistic. I've had midwives and health visitors give me the spiel about making sure you don't get pregnant straight away, and you're both too damn tired and in one person's case, very very sore. ('Like being kicked in the arse by a horse', I believe is how it was put.)

[miss_s_b]

Yeah, I laughed in the midwife's face and said "if you think I'm letting him touch me for MONTHS you're having a larf" or words to that effect.

[doug]

Yeah, I think that is a widespread experience, but people do vary. And if it is months, they go past faster than you think, in a bit of a hazy blur, and you don't have a lot of spare time or thought for getting in stocks for when you're BOTH in the mood AND the baby is not demanding attention. Much wiser to have something relatively cheap at hand just in case. Opportunities can be rare and are best seized when they arise, is my strong advice. Last thing you want is to waste 30 golden minutes nipping out trying to find a late night source of condoms - that could be your window gone for a week.

[agoodwinsmith]

Well, there was a day when the wife's discomfort did not outrank a husband's right. People who help don't know how other people structure their lives. My age group all knew women who hardly had time to have a pee between pregnancies.

[lilysea]

Did you buy it, or does everyone with a baby get one?

[marahmarie]

My question, too.

[andrewducker]

Everyone gets one a month before their due date.

(If they want one)

[marahmarie]

Oh wow, that's kind of awesome.

[andrewducker]

Everyone gets one a month before their due date.

(If they want one)

[aerye]

That is excellent. I love the inclusion of the poem!

[doug]

Yay! Baby! Exciting!

[conuly]

If you're silly enough to put the lid on with the baby in the box, I don't think warnings will help.

[nojay]

Google Google "sound insulating properties of cardboard..."

Airholes?

[conuly]

If you're putting airholes in your baby box in preparation for closing the lid, then the warnings have not helped enough.

[marahmarie]

Yes, I was thinking to myself: "Baby in a box? Is this something that's...done in Scotland?"

Which reminds me of too many stories I've heard about short space/baby furniture/etc. in a US home so the baby was kept in the top dresser drawer or some kitchen drawer or...and, yeah, my side-eye is prolific because these are horror stories.

[conuly]

Well, I guess it's done in Scotland, but it's also quite an institution in Finland! Expats come home to have babies so they can have their box!

[marahmarie]

I do not understand putting babies in a box. Or a drawer. Or anything not securely set on the ground with sides tall enough to not roll or fall out of. That's pure negligence (or ignorance, but either way, it's bad).

[conuly]

They've been doing it 80 years, no problem. When babies are little they can't roll, anyway.

[marahmarie]

Oh, so you're just against the lid. I'm against the box (adding a lid is simply unconscionable) but maybe that's just my inner "Something's gonna go wrong" bell going clang, clang, clang. I guess as a SIDS preventative a fairly snug box could be a good fix. Cribs are much freer looking (and in my family there was a fairly huge one, I don't even know why) but of course the baby stands a higher chance of suffocation (and more ways to do so) in a crib.

[andrewducker]

The box is government approved, and safety tested. It's basically a cardboard crib with a fitted mattress in it.

(With warnings not to put it on a table)

[marahmarie]

A fitted mattress sounds like a good idea (though trying to envision how tiny that must be is difficult). I hadn't thought about what the box might be lined with but once I read that realized it sounds better than blankets or other fabrics that don't cushion as much and can get disorganized.

[nojay]

I was a home birth (the last of three boys, my mother was tired of going into hospital to give birth). Family stories say my first "cot" was a drawer from the bedroom dresser.

[marahmarie]

In NY people bragged about doing this! I was maybe 14 the first time I heard about it being done and the mom was as pleased as a pickle with herself. I think maybe that's when realizing people can be just plain nuts got started for me.

[cmcmck]

:o)

You folks are SO lucky :o)

[agoodwinsmith]

I love the box idea *sooo* much. Very exciting.

[armiphlage]

It has Nessie on the side!

[myka]

:-)

Would like baby in box pictures in the future

[threemeninaboat]

That's adorable!
You get a bag like that when you adopt a dog here. Monty came with poo bags, toys, leash and collar, coupons for training, food, health instructions... but they don't sleep in the bag :)

[njj4]

That's lovely, and useful, and all very exciting. When is Loki due?

We'd just started reading about Moses baskets when my former PhD supervisor kindly offered to lend us the cradle he'd made fifty years earlier for their first child.