Getting ready for Baby

The countdown is really here. In a matter of weeks (I'm 37 weeks pregnant) we will get to meet this little one who has made our life more interesting with his/her squirming and daily multiple bouts of hiccups. We will also get to know if we are having a boy or a girl.

I think we have all the stuff. This small human requires alot! Yesterday we bought a carseat. I've sewn 24 cloth diapers and we have several plastic panties to put over them. Last week we found a bassinette that we will use here in Johannesburg. It reminds us of a casserole carrier but is for babies to sleep in. Back in Mozambique, we scoured the used clothing markets and came up with a decent wardrobe that only cost us between 2.5 meticais and 15 meticais per garment ($0.09 to $0.54). This doesn't include all the ointments and wipes! Plus, my mom is coming from the States after the baby is born with more stuff--books and toys, brushes (to use if he/she has hair, which if he/she takes after my mother, won't have hair for a year) and nail clippers and probably alot more that I don't know about.

Babies in Mozambique do not have this much. Their car seats are the capulanas tied to their mother's body (sometimes an older sibling). Diapers depend on the family's socioeconomic status, whether they have plastic panties or not (it frequently is risky to hold a baby in Moz). Most babies, I think, sleep with their parents initially. And becuase their little bums are not encased in water proof material, I doubt that many deal with diaper rash. From what I've seen, mothers douse a liberal sprinkling of powder all over their little brown bodies which shows up as white lines in the creases of their fat wrinkles, warding off diaper rash?

One thing that is common despite the discrepancies in amount of stuff is that babies are loved.