Week 5: City Baby

Yep. We're doing this whole baby thing City Style!

I am not going to lie. I was scared to tell our families about our plan for this baby, but here's the low down on how we made our decision to have City Baby in a One Bedroom Apartment!!

I always envisioned having the perfect little package before having a baby- first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a house and a baby carriage.

Who knew that a bad economy and my retirement plan would lead us to having City Baby. Here are a few facts:

1. In September, I officially become vested in the California State Retirement Program.

2. I have over 3.5 months of sick and vacation time and amazing health care at my current job, which gives me about 6months of mat leave. If I waited to get a new job- I'd have to start from scratch and often maternity leave benefits don't kick in for a year.

3. I live four blocks from the baby hospital. In fact, you can see our apartment from the Doctor's office, and we live even closer to maternity stores, baby stores, parks, etc. For a City that doesn't really do babies, we somehow live in a land of Baby Galore.

And to be completely honest, after a year of looking for a new job, we decided to just go for it.

As for the whole house and commute thing, well. After talking to a financial planner earlier this year, we could have taken the plunge and bought a house near Mr. Spice's work, but then I'd be commuting over two a hours a day-- while pregnant. Which sounded like my worst nightmare.

So what's the plan?

Have a little City baby, and hopefully while on maternity leave, relocate closer to Mr. Spice's job. That way, we can delay my commuting until post pregnancy, which sounds so much better to me.

Until we relocate, the plan is baby minimalism. We are going to try to only really jumping into the land of baby stuff if necessary. Honestly, my role model right now is Creature Gorgeous. I love how she lays it all out there and keeps to her goal of baby minimalism in a world of baby maximum-ism.

So yeah, that's our plan and we're sticking to it. Plus, I love the idea of cuddling up with our little one in our apartment, and then taking him/her out to introduce him/her to the big world. Oh, and remember a few weeks ago when we got our new couch/lounger?? It's beyond perfect for all the during and post-pregnancy lounging that we'll be doing and perfect for any overnight guests to come visit.

I will say that I worried for months that having a City baby would be crazy pants, and I was totally paranoid that our parents wouldn't understand. But with a couple of emails from friends, who made it work; the overwhelming opinion was that they loved being in a smaller space at first. So now, I have completely embraced the idea (mind you this took awhile). It does mean that my dreams of designing a nursery have been put on hold. BUT don't you worry your pretty little head, I have already been crafting up some ideas for our bedroom/nursery.

So that's the low down on how we got to where we are today. Have any of your big life decisions veered from what you 'thought' your life would be?

Any of you Moms out there have advice on what you totally didn't need when it came to baby gear?

And for your viewing pleasure, my first Bump watch picture - or should I say, lack there of: