Three-Hour Tour: A Story of Registration and Survival

Is it coincidence that it took us the same amount of time to register at Babies R Us as it did for the castaways to end up on a deserted island? I don't think so. However, the castaways on Gilligan's Island may have packed quite a bit more than we did for our tour.

It was a warm Monday evening and we arrived at the behemoth baby mega store, Babies R Us, with one water bottle, one granola bar, clipboard, Consumer Reports app on one phone, bookmarked website for the Department of Highway Safety on another phone and a list of essentials for the soon-to-arrive little bundle. We were going to set up our baby registry.

To prepare for the day, we did research on items, narrowed the list to the things we wanted, and did a couple of recon missions in order to have a better lay of the land. If you have never been to Babies R Us - it is the equivalent of a Wal Mart Mega Store, but filled wall-to-wall with every item in creation designed with a baby or toddler in mind. In a word - overwhelming! But, we were determined to do this. This is the ultimate place for your baby registry, right?

The tour started innocuous enough. We sat at a desk with a pleasant woman who entered our information into a computer, provided us with materials to help guide us on our mission, handed us a scanner gun and then let us loose into the wilds of the baby jungle.

I won't lie. The scanner gun was a treat. It has become one of my favorite toys at Costco. I hope your Costco has one too - it makes shopping there so much more entertaining. Sorry, I digress. It happens when I talk about gadgets. Back to our story of survival.

With the scanner gun in hand, as well as our other registry tools, we set out on our trek. We had one and a half hours in mind for this tour of duty. But, apparently the registry gods had other ideas for us. We started at the back corner of the store and decided to make our way around so we ended at the front of the store. Swaddling, receiving blankets -- all a cinch. We even had fitted sheets scanned in a few minutes. As bears, ducks, dinosaurs, butterflies and giraffes flew by, we were stopped in our tracks by the decision to choose a mattress.

Which option was best for the baby? Which one was green and enabled us to transition it to a toddler mattress? Checking apps, lists, and getting sips of water...we made our choice. And, we moved on. But, our tour slowed at cribs (the one we had chosen a couple of months ago was no longer there), high chairs and pack n play/bassinet combos. Then, it was time for a bathroom break (I am six months pregnant; this baby likes to sit on my bladder and I've been instructed to drink at least 80 ounces of water each day).

We bypassed the jumper aisle - I am leery about having my child placed in an item that looks like a Mardi Gras float. Seriously, if you haven't seen these things - they are scary! Add lights and your child could easily enter the APS light parade.

Car seats were no problem because the research on this item had been taking place for a couple of weeks. We went through this area like trained ninjas.

By the time we made our way to bottles, bibs, pacifiers, we were beat, but we needed to continue on. I even considered handing off the scanner to Ry and telling him to go on to toys and clothing without me. But, we soldiered on together.

At the end of the night, we looked at our scanner and we were pleased and astounding that there was more than 100 items logged. When we went to close our registry, we were told, "Not bad. You guys are pretty realistic. Usually people register for about 200 items."

I was aghast. How long does that take? And, how do people train for such a tour? I don't think I would have had the stamina. We walked out the doors - accomplished and a bit wary.

The next day, I was rehydrated and preparing my clipboard with a question sheet for a daycare tour. This was going to be nothing compared to the three-hour tour.

Note: Ryan and I have felt so blessed by all of the support we have been receiving these last six months. And, the fact that we have close friends and family planning baby showers as we speak, giving reason for a registry...well, this too overwhelms us. We are two pretty lucky individuals...make that three lucky individuals.