nesting! {everything we've bought or gathered for baby!}

i've often heard of women in late pregnancy experiencing a strong "nesting" instinct, and i've thought it sounded kind of silly. but recently i've discovered that nesting is a real thing!

last month i was feeling markedly anxious about collecting all the "gear" we need to welcome our baby boy into the world, and - now that most of it is gathered - this month i am feeling a gigantic urge to deep clean and organize every nook and cranny of our flat and our life so all is ready in advance of our little one's birth day. each day i am feeling more and more prepared, but i still feel like there is a lot to do, and time is going by so fast! i have two and half more weeks at my job -- after that the boy may just come home to me on hands and knees scrubbing corners or having pulled everything out of drawers to reorganize again :)

because we live in such a small space, because we are so dedicated to not accumulating a lot of stuff, and because we are quite budget-conscious, we've taken a really minimalistic approach to baby gear. it's crazy how much the world tells you is needed for a tiny little baby! we've tried to purchase or gather only the bare essentials (plus just a couple of fun bonuses), and then we'll add to our supplies as needs arise. this process of gathering gear has been really overwhelming for me at times - because there are so many options and opinions - but i'm finally feeling good about what we've got (currently in a pile in the corner of our living room, awaiting the arrival of an ikea dresser!).

in case it's helpful to anyone out there, and to remind us of this fun (and sometimes not-so-fun) nesting period, below is a list of every single thing we have collected in anticipation of our baby boy's arrival. there are so many lists of "newborn essentials" out there on the internet, and every family's needs and circumstances are so different, but i'm really glad we've been able to cut a lot of things out and keep it simple.

one: moses basket
to allow baby boy to sleep right next to us in our very small bedroom for the first few months of his life (and to put off filling our living room up with a crib!), we bought this darling palm moses basket with rocker off of amazon a couple of months ago. we ordered the cream colour, which came out of the box looking distinctively pale pink - so we decided our little boy is going to defy a silly gender stereotype and rock his dainty-looking bassinet :) on its stand, the basket is the perfect size for being next to our bed, and i love that it can be carried around off its stand. i think it will be just right for our baby boy's first sleeps.
two: dresser with changing pad 
our little guy won't have his own nursery for quite a while, but we thought he deserved some storage space for his stuff :) we bought a cheap dresser from ikea, which will be delivered this weekend and will fit barely into a small (two foot) cubby corner in our living room. we'll put a little diaper changing pad on top of the dresser and hang a homemade mobile from the ceiling (see #12). that's the extent of our "nursery" for now!
three: baby clothes
there are so, so, so many darling baby clothes out there! and i definitely oodle over and want to buy every cute thing i see -- but we have tried to be super vigilant in not accumulating too many clothes for baby boy. we got a bunch of hand-me-downs, and a bunch of adorable clothes items as gifts at our baby shower. i've only had to supplement with my own purchases just a little (essentially just a five-pack of onesies, a three-pack of footie pajamas, some socks, a darling little hooded sweater, and a suuuuper cute tiny church outfit).
four: diaper bag
this was our one big splurge - we purchased a fawn design diaper bag. i just love the both the look and functionality of these bags (which can be worn as a backpack or a shoulder bag!), and decided that, for something i will use every single day, it was worth paying a bit of a pretty penny to get one i really really like.
five: baby carriers
we plan to go without a stroller as long as we possibly can - because we live up two flights of very narrow stairs, and because we appreciate the benefits of baby wearing, and because strollers are so dang expensive! so, we were really glad to be gifted with two different baby carriers: the nesting days skin-to-skin newborn carrier and the ergo adapt.
six: pacifiers (and other random small items)
my sister gave us a little collection of pacifiers to try out with baby boy (to figure out which type he likes best - if he'll take a binky at all!). i also purchased a baby-body-sized sponge to lay our baby on in our bathtub, along with some baby shampoo and a couple of washcloths. oh, and one bottle to start with! we know there will be a smattering of other small items we'll eventually need to pick up (nail clippers, a snot grabber, medicines, etc.), but we'll get them as the need arises.
seven: postpartum supplies for me
one last thing i am still on the hunt for is a lovely robe to wear at the birth centre and at home in the days immediately following the birth of our baby (any suggestions?!). i've picked up some cheap and really comfy postpartum clothes, a nice big package of nursing pads and maternity pads (and also some adult diapers to have on hand...) and some new underwear to suit my continually changing body.
eight: nursing cover
we were gifted a nursing cover from covered goods, and i'm so excited about it! i love that these covers are so multi-purpose - for breastfeeding, covering carseats or shopping carts, or even just to wear as a stylish infinity scarf!
nine: baby blankets
we bought this simple striped knit blanket and are excited that ian's mom (who is an incredible
seamstress) will be sending us a minky blankie and a special quilt in the coming weeks and months. it will be so special for our baby boy to have blankets lovingly made by grandma wright!
ten: disposable diapers and cloth diapers
we bought a big package of newborn-sized disposable diapers, as well as a starter-kit of cloth diapers (i found a killer deal for gently used gdiapers on ebay!). i would love to use mostly cloth diapers after we get the hang of things a bit - so much cheaper and better for baby and the environment!
eleven: swaddles
so many people told me that aiden + anais swaddles are the best! i bought just a couple cheaper big muslin squares first, and then when i saw some cute aiden + anais swaddles on a great sale, i decided to add them to our swaddle collection so we are all set for quite a while.
twelve: materials for a diy mobile
i'm not a super crafty person, but something in my nesting instincts is making me want to create something cute and special for baby! so i bought an embroidery hoop and some felt balls and am going to try to make a little mobile. we'll see how it goes!
thirteen: baby tent for traveling!
my sisters brought a kidco baby tent over from america and gifted it to me at my baby shower. we're so excited to use this in our continued travels with baby boy along for the ride!
fourteen: crib
we don't plan to use a crib for a few months, but since we were organizing (and paying for) an ikea delivery for the dresser (#2), we decided to buy the crib now and assemble it later. the simple, cheap crib we got will fit just right into another cubby in our living room, opposite the baby's dresser/changing table. we will likely put up a curtain rod and curtain to help block out light.
other items (to borrow rather than buy!)
we have some sweet friends that have offered to lend us some items that we may not use for very long, including a baby swing/bouncer to try out, a car seat to get the baby home from the hospital in a taxi, and a manual breast pump to get the hang of pumping while figuring out how nursing will go for us.
that's it!
there are all kinds of other things people say you should have for a baby: monitors and diaper pails and nursing pillows and gliders and bottle warmers and on and on. of course there will be some things we'll eventually find that we need beyond what we have, but it feels right to us to cut out many things are make do!

this week is a full one for the three of us! in addition to work being especially busy for both the boy and i, we've attended a breastfeeding class and had a meeting with our doula, and tomorrow we are going to a labor & delivery class at the hospital, and this weekend my sister shawni and her family are coming to town! we've started incorporating some childbirth-prep exercises into our daily routine, and we want to make sure our hospital bag is packed by the end of the week. also, because our baby is currently breech, ian has been supporting me in trying all kinds of random techniques to encourage little boy to turn in my womb. will anyone reading this please cross their fingers for us that he will flip to be head down?!? :)

{nesting illustration from here}