In my last post I enumerated some of the medical expenses that, my husband and I have discovered, parents need to prepare for for for the arrival of baby.

But apart from saving up for medical expenses, pregnancy is also a time of shopping.

There are three big categories of things to shop for:

(1) Mommy's new wardrobe. When Mommy is pregnant she needs maternity clothes. After she gives birth, she needs nursing clothes. And note that she can't just buy a few sets of clothes to last her the entire pregnancy. For one year, her weight is fluctuating: first she needs small maternity clothes, then larger maternity clothes, then smaller maternity clothes again for her postpartum phase ... and she isn't even sure if she's going to go back to her old weight, so she might actually need a completely new wardrobe after giving birth.

Fortunately, even though you can't escape the need for changing your wardrobe, maternity clothes are one thing that you don't have to spend too much on. Borrow, accept hand-me-downs, and tolerate unfashionability for a year by making do with your husband's T-shirts on weekends.

(2) Baby's clothes. Of course, baby needs clothes. And just like Mommy, baby's weight is constantly changing: newborns go through a growth spurt every 3 weeks. Moreover, he needs to be changed quite frequently: his lampins need to be changed several times a day, as do the clothes that he will spit up on frequently.

Again, the fortunate thing is that infancy is the best time for hand-me-downs. Baby clothes can also be very inexpensive. So forget trying to clothe your baby like a fashion model; now's the time to allow your baby to teach you a lesson in practicality. :)

(3) Baby's furniture and equipment: bottles, medical/hygiene equipment, etc. What my husband and I have found helpful is to distinguish between essentials and non-essentials. Changing table: non-essential. Bottle warmer: non-essential. Sterilizer: nice to have, but non-essential. Bath tub: nice to have, but non-essential (you can use any plastic basin). Crib: nice to have but non-essential. Bottles: if you can't stay home to breastfeed for several months, then it's an essential (and this is one item for which you shouldn't rely on hand-me-downs). Stroller: honestly, it's a non-essential, but the alternative is carrying your baby everywhere you go, which many parents might not want to do.

Bear in mind, however, that a lot of things that are marketed as essentials are not really essential. The most comforting thing for me was reading my mom's copy of Dr. Spock, from when she gave birth to my elder brother 35 years ago. You can't beat the practicality of the previous generation: "Yes, it's nice to have a cradle, but your newborn will be just as happy sleeping in a drawer lined with a thick blanket set aside for this purpose." "Some mothers like to buy bathtubs for their babies, but baby can easily be bathed in the kitchen sink."

I don't intend to let my baby sleep in a drawer, and I will at least buy an Orocan basin to bathe my baby in, if not an actual tub, but what a wake-up call it was, reading Dr. Spock's advice from the 70s. It reminded me that a lot of things that moms now think we have to get our babies are not needs but wants.

The reality is, however, baby equipment can be pretty expensive! Even when you don't buy the expensive brands, even when you try to be practical, everything adds up. We wanted a crib that could be converted into a toddler bed so that it would last us our baby at least three years. We found the cheapest crib/toddler bed we could find: P4500 (compared to around P12,000 in SM). Plus a Uratex foam mattress (P1500) -- so baby's sleeping furniture alone was P6000! Not including bedsheets.

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At the end of the day, you're bringing a new person into the world. And just because he/she is tinier doesn't mean that his/her expenses are proportionately smaller.

But for my husband and I, though we may cringe a little at the costs, we know it's all going to be worth it.