to buy baby clothes before we've even conceived?

[Notyetamummy]

I saw the cutest unisex outfit today and couldn't resist .

Is it silly?

I'm only 23 but may well have fertility problems have to have an op shortly as one ovary contains a large endometrioma (growth of womb-lining cells) and the other is well and truely stuck down to the side of my uterus due to endometriosis. I also have signs of quite aggressive ongoing inflammation on scans.

After long discussions with dh/family/medical school clinical sub-dean (I'm a final year medical student) etc. we decided that we'd ttc. We're now really excited .

Anyway, I'm terrified about the op and buying this adorable outfit made me feel better.

Was it a really bad idea?

When did everyone else start buying clothes?

See it as your lucky outfit! Don't worry about it! It can be your symbol of deciding to ttc!

well if its only 1 outfit and it makes you feel better then i think yanbu but i know people that have gone ott and buy a whole wardrobe (a girls one!) and they are not even in a position to think of ttc, i find it a bit silly

I don't think it's unreasonable or silly but I would be careful of causing yourself extra heartache - if you have trouble conceiving (and I'm not saying that because of your medical issue, I would say this to anyone), having baby clothes in the house will be a punch in the gut. So my advice is to keep to just this one little outfit and don't buy anything else.

i bought a lace baby bonnet in belgium before we even got married and thought about babies. i was ecstatic to use it

I think I did it, it brings hope, doesn't it. Good luck in your quest, you are only young you have plenty of time and lots of options open to you.

only one outfit can't do any harm. but I'd stop there.

I used to read practical parenting magazine before we started TTC! (I was still at college and we decided to wait until I'd finished A levels)

best of luck :)

I just see it as an old fashioned "hope chest" except for hoping for a wedding (which is a bit passé now), you're hoping for a baby.

My dh and I had loads when we started ttc, we haven't got loads of money and I found that this way I could buy the really lovely things as and when they came along on offer or second hand (I could never have bought everything I wanted after we got pregnant).

Fibilou I bought one too in Brussels, well before I got pregnant!

AreYouAFreudOfTheDark Did that not scare your parents?!

no, they didn't know about it.

I used to read it on a bench in town

DH was living with us before I even started in college, and we were utterly desperate to start a family. didn't tell my parents we were going to try, though I did tell them I was rejecting my place at uni and they were (surprisingly) ok with that. in the event we conceived within the first few days, and told my parents straight after taking the test. after the initial shock it didn't take them long to get really excited about being doting grandparents :)

I did this, bought an outfit and a rabbit (furry toy!) in the January, conceived on first attempt in April so wasn't even ttc! I cried buckets when DD was sitting in her little hospital plastic box in the babygrow with the rabbit in the corner.

Yes I bought a little vest a few months before I conceived DS. It had an elephant and giraffe on it. I wanted to use it as his bringing home from hospital outfit but when we were trying to dress him in it the long sleeves completely unnerved us first time parents :) We ended up puttnig him in a short sleeved vest with a lovely wide neck. He wore the other vest a couple of weeks later.

eeek, I'd spend the money on yourself while you still can. You'll be looking for money for two pairs of shoes soon enough.

DH and I bought a little cuddly bear for our future child, on the day we decided to make the initial phone call about adoption. Said bear is currently sitting in the cot with excited DS!

I would be careful tbh.

Obviously we all want hope and to think that everything will be ok, but I have endometriosis and it took 3 years to conceive DS, we were told it was unlikely to happen as DH had problems too and IVF was to be our only option. Luckily I found out I was pregnant 3 weeks before IVF was due to start. This time I conceived on the first try.

I wouldn't even look at baby stuff and if I had had anything in the house, the disappointment each month would have been enormous.

Hopefully things will work out for you, please keep us updated, but my friend has just conceived DC 2 after 10 months of trying (with no fertility problems) and her desperation was overwhelming. It often appears that the people who want it badly take longer and the people who think "oh it will take a while" get pregnant straight away. I can name loads of examples!

Don't get carried away but good luck and hope it all works out for you!

magichomes Feng Shui consultants actually advise this if you're trying to conceive. Also cleaning under the marital bed until it is spotless and then not cleaning again until the baby arrives.

Good luck.

I have just realised something REALLY spooky!

DH and I had been TTC for 9 month on and off.

In April, I re-decorated our bedroom and had the carpet steam-cleaned - which obviously meant emptying the room and cleaning thoroughly under the bed.

I then conceived on my next cycle!

Better tell the cleaner not to hoover under the bed until March!

I bought a baby blanket when I was TTC. It took a while but I used to get it out sometimes, and now it's sitting in the moses basket waiting for the baby who is due in four weeks. As someone else said, it's a good way to make your decision feel more concrete.

YANBU, I feel the same.

I have PCOS and I regularly find myself wandering about the baby departments in stores watching all the other parents to be buying things. I'm temepted but I'm a fatalist and I don't quite dare buy anything.

I think it's a bit bonkers. Like buying something for your wedding before you've been proposed to.

Good luck though, hope TTC goes well for you both

People used to do that all the time though, Floopy, my mother always referred to a 'bottom drawer'.

Really RockBat? How odd. I'd think I was jinxing things, or that I'd drastically change my mind by the time it actually happened!

In the olden days mind, when people were bonkers but collecting linen and other household things and even baby clothes and blankets, anything for the future house really was what people did.

I had many years of fertility treatment including three rounds of IVF all unsuccessful. Whilst I was going through the adoption process subsequently after many many years of getting no-where I finally cracked and bought a beautiful blue paid of baby shoes, which embroidered trains on the side. Didn't even know whether I would get a boy or a girl or age (was just hoping it wouldn't be a pony).

When I finally met DS I gave him the shoes as his first birthday present. They fitted perfectly and I still keep them as evidence that sometimes total folly can work out!

I think if you want to buy a token item, it's better to buy before getting pregnant, rather than when newly pregnant. At least then it's for the hypothetical babies you're hoping to have in the future rather than tied to one pregnancy which may or may not work out. I say this from my very wobbly state having just lost my first at 20 weeks. I'm so glad we didn't have things around which were specifically bought with this babe in mind. Equally, others may find the tangible link comforting, giving them a focus/outlet for the grief.

Wishing you all the very best. Good luck