One step more ready - Baby items organized

My American mom cleared her calendar and came to "mother-sit" me while my husband had to go for a quick trip to London.

I so enjoyed her company and with her help we got some order to all the baby items, we already have. After the move most of those things have just waited in boxes...for that one fine day.

We have been lucky to get most of the things either as 2nd hand
through friends, from Craig's list or from our family & friends at our Baby shower. As long as everything is stacked and packed though, it is tough to form a concrete picture of the areas, which are well taken care of and areas, where we still need to purchase something.

I have come to the conclusion that most items you can really get here as 2nd hand. If one does not happen to have friends, who might be interested to recycle further their baby clothes / items, which are not needed anymore, there are good bunch of other options.

In Houston area our go-to places have been:
Craig's List - we found here infant car seat, exact brand & color we were after
Goodwill - depends bit on the luck what one may find here
Facebook groups for baby clothes & gear exchange for Houston area (several groups exist)
Once Upon a Child - still need to send my husband to check this place out but have heard lot of positive about the items condition, selection and quality

One funny outcome of the sorting project resulted to....we have enough shirts and all...but did not really have any warmer clothing. I had to laugh that 1.5 years in Houston's heat and even I have totally overlooked the fact that November, when Little-Sisu is due, is typically bit cooler month. It is not cool as in Finland-cool :) Daily high drop from +25 C / 76 F to +19 C / 66 F (Finnish summer day) but night temperatures / daily lows may vary between +12 C / 53 F and +7 C / 45 F. Means that one needs to be prepared to dress up additional layer to the little mustard machine (Finnish commonly used nickname to baby, especially baby boy).

The happy mummi-to-be (mummi = grandma) took care of some of the warmer hoodies and onesies during her shopping trip. I took from that the inspiration to start knitting a pullover.

Even though I was not able to participate much in organizing the clothes and things, am so grateful that with the excellent help of my "mother-sitter" all the clothes are washed and all things sorted out. Allows me focus furthermore in keeping the little guy in the belly, as long as possible :)

Overall can say that we are pretty well covered, mainly thanks to all the items & clothes we were able to get or buy from our friends. Baby shower helped a whole lot as well to get the "must buy" list much shorter. More about my first Baby shower experience here: LINK.

Baby Björn and Haul'a Baby 4-in-1 baby carrier

Boppy Nursing Pillow

Ready for our Mustard Machine and bath time fun

The Finnish Baby Box - all you need for the baby for the first months

Finnish social security system (KELA i.e. National Institute for Health and Welfare) is providing all mothers-to-be with a Baby box (or as known in Finnish Maternity package). The box is solid card board and is excellent bed for the baby during first months. Inside there are clothes and all other items needed for the baby's first year.

The history of this goes back to 1937 when Finnish law regulation for maternity grant was implemented. Initially the law was to support low income mothers but later extended to apply for all mothers-to-be (read more: LINK).

Living abroad has previously meant that one is outside the Finnish social security coverage (except in few exceptional cases), which also meant: no baby box. During the past year thanks to social media there was lot of attention towards the Finnish baby box. As it is rather unique concept on global level.

3 Finnish fathers decided to create a commercialized version for export purposes, yet keeping the Finnish style and quality very much part of the set of 52 (!!!!) products included in the box.
They did not just a launch a baby box but they included also the Moomin version :)
For those, who do not know anything about Moomin - read this: LINK.

...and we were so lucky to get the Moomin Finnish Baby Box from my American mom & dad as Babyshower present. A box full of Finland for our little Finnish-American baby...a box full of Moomins! <3

It was like another Christmas, when opening the box. Words cannot describe the joy waltzing around my heart. I have never grown out of loving the Moomins.
The characters have so much to offer also for adults. When my god-daughters or nephews came for visit, I pulled out some of my Moomin DVDs and enjoyed watching those with them.
When I was living in Finland, every foreign visitor got the "luxury" to watch at least short clip of the Moomins. Even in Houston my friends' daughter has been exposed to Moomins, when ever they visit us :) She does not understand a word of the Finnish DVD but she does not care. First thing in the mornings during their stays, she is asking for the Moomins.

I am already internally jumping out of joy to get to carry the main responsibility to expose our child properly to the Moomins / Finnish language / Finnish culture. Among many other language & culture activities, means also that I will be able to watch the Moomin DVDs with him :)

The Moomin products exist nowadays in several languages and are very famous e.g. in Sweden, Japan and Korea (Link: Moomin.com).

The box included 3 different size categories to cover the clothing needs for the first 12 months and other supplies like towels, wash cloths, muslin swaddles, grooming kit, etc.
It also includes sleeping back, which can be used also as the under blanket, when the baby is lying on the floor / on the ground (e.g. in the park, beach, etc.). Full list of contents here: LINK.
Some of the clothes are too warm for Texas summer but during the winter months, very useful. Also very useful for the future Europe visits :)

Princess Victoria & Daniel, as well as Prince William and Catherine received from Finland baby box as a present for their first borns...our little prince has now one too, thanks to his mummi (grandma) and pappa (grandpa).

Links to the attention towards Finnish Baby Box:
BBC - Why Finnish Babies Sleep in the Box
Finnish Dad take the Baby Box Global
Why Americans Will Never Get the Finnish Baby Box 
I found this article humoristic, at the same it serves as a good reminder of the different scale of US and Finland, when put in comparison.

My very first Baby Shower

Before my own baby shower I had never been to a baby shower. In Finland this American tradition has been raising its head only during the past year or two.

I was really happy to get to know that my mother-in-law was planning to throw one for me. I would get to experience the baby shower at its origins in the true American style.

Side note: I personally prefer to call "mom", when ever suitable. As mother-in-law has distancing clang to my ears and I consider her as my American mom. Same goes to the rest of the family...my father-in-law is my American dad, sister-in-law I refer to as sis and brother-in-law as bro. They have welcomed me with open arms and hearts...to me they are my family here and not just "in-laws".

The tradition in US goes back to Victorian times but apparently has been in fashion nation wide since 1950's. Some things have changed between now and then. It used to be only for women and nowadays mixed showers are organized as well, including the men to the joyful celebration.

I know from the family video clips that my American family were hosting mixed baby shower already in the 1970's, total trend setters and ahead of time :)

I like the mixed baby shower concept, as it can be tough at times for the father-to-be to feel to be part of the pregnancy...since the baby is in the bump and not visible. This way the father-to-be gets to share the joy and take actively part to the preparation of the baby's arrival.

So, how was the baby shower? It was lot of fun and I really enjoyed the event.
After having spent few days in the hospital by myself that week and having gotten the order for couch/bed rest, it felt nice to be among people and just have fun. We had the extended family in town for the cousin's event and some friends of ours joining.

Mom had prepared everything tip-top, as always. She has inherited from Nana the skill of organizing parties and hosting them perfectly. The buffet style menu was nice mixture of Nordic and American style with, among many others, variety of dip vegetables, meatballs, lots of cheese and smoked salmon.

After everyone had filled their belly with food and drinks, time to laugh...we had the game "who knows the Mom-to-be / Dad-to-be best" and with our gang goofy answers were not spared :) It was easy, engaging and fun way to share some additional info with friends and family. Not to forget the laughter we got from the very creative answers.

The presents were mixture of items from our baby shower list and those, which our family & friends wanted us to have. As per the custom they were placed on the present table and opened by me & my husband at the end of the baby shower, one by one. This way sharing the joy of giving and receiving with everyone. Nice way to also show appreciation to all, who participated.

One of my friends, who lives in NYC and is fantastic & happy mother of a baby boy, bit over one years now. She has given me great tips and advices on the journey becoming a mother in US. So, I knew to create a baby shower register in Amazon.

Why Amazon? It is not limited to certain store's products and you can easily find variety of things, including enough simple items for low costs but also the ones, which are necessities but where it would be great help to the parents-to-be to get support in purchasing those.

Having gone through the experience as mother-to-be, I can only say that baby shower should not be seen only as "just another excuse to materialize everything" but it is good to keep in mind that it is one of the best way to take off some of the burden from the parents-to-be and help them to get some of the items needed/wanted for the new family member. Also nice way to give family and friends the chance to be part of the new comer's life in very concrete ways. To me the presents from baby shower make even more difference in daily life than e.g. wedding gifts. Because everything we received, which we are truly thankful for, is for a very important purpose and going to be part of the daily life after little Sisu is there.

I also like it that one is nowadays able to put the list together. There is lot of stuff....which you don't need and getting the hang of that is best done through a friend, who can advice (like in my case, my friend walking me through her baby shower list) or browsing the baby shower lists from others. Most of all using common sense, which can be tough sometimes when one is pregnant :)

Our baby shower was in the building my American parents live, where the facilities are great! We had the party room for this purpose and all guests were pampered with variety of drinks from the bar, one room further. After the official part of the baby shower was done, we moved outside to the pool. My role stayed in lying down in the cabana's shadows & socializing. While rest of the crew could enjoy the pool side fun and drinks from the pool bar.

It was a lovely day! Nice to spend time with family and friends. Thankful for their participation in preparing for our little Sisu's arrival.

As stated earlier, a very much needed injection of joy after few days in hospital and having, apart from my husband's & American parents visits, mostly just the doctors / nurses to talk to. I am so thankful to have such loving family around me, who all participated in making it happen. My sis and bro (this is how I like to call my sister-in-law & brother-in-law) were actively helping with the preparation. Also my bro is known for his photographic skills, thus he was the designated photograph. Dad was...as always taking care that everyone had drinks and fun :)