Decor & Bedding Sets

Choosing a "theme" for the nursery has been the biggest challenge of registering. There exists no empirical data to consider... simply lots and lots of comforters and sheets, all priced at at least $200/set, plus the cost of sheets, assuming you have already purchased the waterproof phthalate-free mattress, which will be more money because even though the government just banned the use of these dangerous chemicals, the existing inventory can still be sold. (PLEASE READ THAT LINK)

Now consider if you think you babies really use the comforters, (think: heavy fabric, stuffed with fluff, lined with ribbons and fun textured fabric).  I've heard they don't, making the most expensive piece of this purchase is non-essential and most likely too thick to serve its purpose. 

But it's so cute!!!! and I want the nursery to be charming and magical!! Maybe we should bite the bullet and get the set, that way the nursery can have a theme and matching decor and accessories.

So you start looking... Babies 'R Us, Target, Burlington, department stores, linen stores, all the online baby stores, specialty bedding stores, everywhere.  There are soooo many sets but they are mostly pastel, which is funny because babies have difficulty perceiving the difference between colors until 3 months and struggle most with pastels, preferring to view black/white/primary colors.  So the bedding doesn't even help the baby develop. And if you've even seen a toybox or even a pile of toys, you may recall that they are mostly BRIGHT colors so the baby can SEE them... meaning all of the fun toys that will arrive as presents won't really match the theme/decor. (Click here to learn about the development of infants vision)

But maybe its a good long term solution... you know - you can keep the accessories and some of the linens and make it a toddler room! Nope. Although you can transform many convertible cribs into a toddler bed and later regular bed, none of the linens have a grow-with-me option. Just the linens, that the baby doesn't really use. 

So maybe just look for a gender-neutral set... you can use it again with another baby or pass it along! Good luck finding anything even slightly gender neutral. 

SOLUTION: keep looking and finally find a normal priced, piece-by-piece set at Target that is not only super cute, with BRIGHT colors and EDUCATIONAL decorations. It matches the room and will coordinate with most things I can see becoming parts of the nursery. 

DRAWBACK: having to manually search for a matching mobile, nightlight, diaper-stacker and hamper. One would expect easy access to said items in BRIGHT solid colors, so the baby can SEE them - but alas, they, too, are mostly all pastel.   

GOOD NEWS: talking to other Mom's helps! One of my long-distance, do-it-yourself Mom-friends, Tara, suggested this cute mobile that solves the main complaint for mobiles, (they don't play long enough) as it plays for 15-minutes and has a remote the baby can operate!  The cost is also almost half of the others I had seen, ($40 versus $70)

NEUTRAL:  no matching invitations, (because of course I want the invitations to have a theme and match the nursery!) - so compulsive Alyssa uses Photoshop to transform the online pics of the fabric into a digital library that was used to make charming Invitations,  Thank-You cards, the little-tiny-tag on the Shower Gift and the decor on the "Advice for Mom" cards for women to fill out at the shower.  So maybe having an online library was a good thing, as I printed the aforementioned products at Kinko's and saved a bunch of money.... but I could have (and assumably would have) done this with a bedding set, too.