You are pregnant and so incredibly excited to meet this little one growing inside you. In fact, you are positively glowing. You have waited to start creating that baby registry for a long time, so you bounce on down to the nearest baby gear store. You walk into the store and stop dead in your tracks. Feeling a little overwhelmed you automatically start practicing your Lamaze breathing.
"Oh my God" you think to yourself, "Where the hell do I start?" Crib, bassinet, moses basket, co-sleeper ("what's that?" you wonder), portable crib, crib mattress, bumper pad and sheets, glider/rocker, dresser, changing table... and those are just the items on your left in the front half of the store.
You start to walk around in a daze when you spot the stroller section: jogging, double, single, pram, light-weight, umbrella, all-terrain, luxury. "This is ridiculous," you think, "I just want a stroller. I can’t even think about jogging right now."
Wait there’s more. You round the back of the store to find car seats (infant, convertible, booster), seats that vibrate, bouncers, swings, safety gates, play yards, baby carriers, high chairs, booster high chairs, potties ("I think I'm going to hyperventilate. There are ten different potties. Who needs that kind of selection for a gross potty?"), baby monitors, bathtubs, and ("oh geez, there it is, the dreaded milking machine") the breast pumps. "I'm outta here," you say to yourself.
However, in order to get out of the store you must work your way back to the front, walking past all the toys, DVDs, clothing, and diaper bags. As you are now in a full out sprint for the front door, you catch a glimpse of a bright-colored book. You halt in your tracks to look at it. You are out of breath. Let's face it, these days you can't run more than 15 steps without getting winded. So, you pick up the book, The Baby Gizmo Buying Guide. You open to the table of contents and see a list of absolutely everything you just passed in the store.
Epilogue: You read and re-read The Baby Gizmo Buying Guide in three days. You took grueling notes, flagged pages, and felt prepared to hit the store again. You knew exactly what you wanted and why. You felt confident in your choices and didn't pick one out of the twelve high-chairs because it was pretty. For the car seat, not only did you understand all the lingo, you knew which one fit your needs best. You also knew the main features you wanted in a stroller, so when you reached the store you narrowed your selection down to four and "test drove" those four to find your fit. You had your baby. You had all the gizmos you needed. And your baby grew up to be the well-adjusted, self-confident, driven daughter you are incredibly proud of... all because you bought The Baby Gizmo Buying Guide. Amazing how that works!
Emily's Note: This book is well worth the $11.55 at Amazon.com. You will finish it feeling like a confident, well-informed consumer. For those of you who like to read editorial comments and reviews on specific brands and products, have no fear. Although they are not found in the book (the book would be outdated before it was published), they are found on the BabyGizmo website. For example, if you want find out their Editor's Pick for Top 5 Strollers, click gear, click strollers, click the type of stroller you are interested in, and the Top 5 are on the right.
