[blparent] Baby Organization Tips?

[Judy Jones]

Hi, Allison,

I totally get where you are. In our families, my blind husband and I were the youngest siblings, so were the last to have kids. I got tons of hand-me-downs from my sister-in-law through toddlerhood. Forl ack of a bettble idea, I got some sighted help to sort, and out came the garbageb ags for storage. Clothing ages 0-3 were the most important, so for right now, just concentrate on the clothing matching your baby's age, figure out a system for the immediate. Over the years you'l grow into a system that will work for you and your family, you don't have to have it all figured out right now.

Have clothinga ges 3-6 months at the read for the next growth spurt, stored but ready.

Clothing ages 6-9 months store. Clothing ages 9-12 months store.

Clothing ages 1-2 years store, same with clothing ages 2-3 years, 3-4 years, and so on. Label each bag with the clothing sizes.

Do the same with diapers. Keep out the diaper size you need, but store and label according to size. Stl ove the idea of a diaper raffle, and you will be surprised how quickly thesea bundant diapers will disappear, or how quickly your baby will grow out of them.

About matching. I agree with you, outfits should match, but only concentrate on the immediate, and learn the outfits as you need them. For instance, get familiar with the 0-6 months right now if your baby is newborn, or whatever age she will be when she comes to you. 

Regarding sock: When our fi girl was a baby, I was determ-ed to have matching socks and was easy to do. I used safety pins and pinned pink pair together at the toe, lavender at the heal, yellow at the instep across from the heal, blue at the cuff, and left white alone. Don't remember any red stocks, but she did wear red tights as a toddler, and I tied a knot in the middle of the clean pair, knot the toes of the pink, whatever works.

However, when she got older, more mobile, starting to play in the neighborhood as a toddler, going to preschool, I was  starting to get overwhelmed with missing socks, swapped socks, and asked my sighted sister about this. She said that at that point she gave up and got both boys and girls white socks. I started doing the same and never looked back.

Of course, as they got older into grade school and of course middle school, they were looking after their own things. Both girls are very coordinated to this day and are in their twenties.

Anyway, hope all this helps you. Just take care of the immediate, and know you and your family will grow into the rest. By the way, those one-piece outfits, you can never have enough of them for babies. I loved them, and you don't have to worry so much about color matching. When they start !;come more mobile, then they will be wearing more of the traditional outfit.

BTW, if you feel comfortable doing so, try some fun colors you haven't worn before. I wear lots of neutral myself, but every once in a while want to have some fun with different matching colors. Enjoy.

----- Original Message -----
From: Allison via BlParent  <blparent at nfbnet.org>
To:  blparent at nfbnet.org
CC: allison82 at cox.net
Date: Saturday, December 5, 2015 10:19 pm
Subject: [blparent] Baby Organization Tips?

>
>
> Hi Everybody,
Our baby girl will be arriving in approximately five weeks and I'm trying to get somewhat organized beforehand. We've finally reached the point that we've accumulated some baby supplies and we're now trying to sort through the clutter.
Does anyone have suggestions for keeping track of diapers and baby clothes? We had a diaper raffle at our shower, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but now we have tons of packs of diapers of varying sizes and shapes scattered throughout the house. Before I start sorting and Braille labeling everything, does anyone have a diaper size organization system that you recommend? In short, does anyone have an idea that sucks less than dymo tape and index cards? <smile>.
As for baby clothes... we have what feels like several dozen sizes of those too. A different size for every 3 months or so it seems. And the colors... oh the colors! Everything baby girl seems very matchy matchy. Which I actually love in theory cuz it's adorable, but in practice... will I actually be able to keep track of which pattern or specific color shade of pink or purple or aqua goes with which? Or which cute little owl or elephant or giraffe design goes with which other animal design? I have a system of labeling my own clothes which works just fine, but it appears that baby girls have many more possible shade, pattern,  and color combinations than I do. I use 3 or 4 different safety pin styles that I use on four main color categories for all of my clothes. Since my categories are based on more neutral colors like black and beige that one doesn't usually see in kid clothes, I'm thinking my own system won't quite work for baby. And Darrell, my fiancé who is also blind, God love him, doesn't label any of his clothes ever. I have no idea how he shows up to work matching at all. Given that, I think we may need a new labeling or organization system for baby clothes, ideally one that we can both follow since we will both be dressing baby. 
BTW, a terrific blind parent friend of mine whom I love and respect tremendously just suggested that I not worry about trying to match baby clothes since most everything is pink or purple and more or less goes together, but I admit that didn't feel quite right to me. Is she correct that I should let this go? Will I eventually be too sleep deprived to care about subtle shade and pattern matches? Like, does the fact that I'm concerned about this issue at all only demonstrate how much time I have on my hands now as compared to when baby actually arrives live on the scene?
Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks,
Allison, Darrell, and Baby Girl Pending
P.S. What's up with all the owl designs on baby clothes? Does anyone else but me find them wise but totally not cute?

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Judy
Sent From My Braille U2 Mini