Hand-me-down, Baby

Baby Charley is the third apo (and girl) in my side and the eighth (fourth girl) in my roommate's (my husband's, btw) side. She's also the youngest of three apos born last year; her Kuya Joaqui was born April 12 while Ate Hailey was born three days after. This, of course, has several perks. One of which is we get a number of advices from my in-laws' first-hand experiences.

However, the biggest and the ultimate perk we have is receiving a lot (tons!!) of hand-me-downs because Baby Charley's cousins are basically 8 months older than her. Of course, their baby clothes won't fit them anymore.

One of the grandest hand-me-down we got was the crib - in fact, we received two of them! One is a wooden white crib, which we left in Batangas so Charley could sleep there while we're there. The other is a spacious Baby 1st red crib, which we have here in Makati. Charley loves both cribs, but she has outgrown the white one already. Good thing, we could still use her red crib. It has a diaper changing deck with a middle deck for infant. Since Charley could stand up and climb out of her crib already, she's using the lowest deck. Pretty soon, she's gonna graduate from that, too! Oh no!

Besides the cribs, we also received a high chair, also from Baby 1st, and Charley loved it a bit until she realised she hated being confined while eating. We still put her in her high when she's in the mood though because we still wanna teach her to eat independently.

Also, Charley receives a number of pillows, toys, and rattles, which she started to enjoy when she was 4 months already. So you can say we have a cat, duck/chick, and cow pillows with 4 sets of hotdog pillows.

However, the biggest and largest in number we received are clothes and shoes! 99% of Charley's clothes and shoes are all hand-me-downs! The remaining 1% are gifts from friends. These clothes include white baby sandos and pj's, socks, onesies, jackets, shirts, dresses, and shoes! And these came from top brands like Polo, H & M, Gymboree, Guess, Ginger Snap, Baby Gap, Osh Kosh, Carter's, Ipanema, Nike, Converse, and shoes from Baby Couture. I think, we have only bought six pieces of dresses for her.

Here are several disadvantages of receiving hand-me-downs:

• You can't choose the design or the color. 
• You're not sure whether it'll fit your baby. Charley grows insanely fast and she's a little chubbier than her 16month old cousin, so there are clothes that are a little too sikip na for her. 
• You've seen the clothes worn in pictures already. 

However, the advantages we get from hand-me-downs are astonishing and not to mention, outdo all the disadvantages: 

• It's the ultimate tipid tip. Baby things are expensive, and we have saved millions! (okay, prolly not) from hand-me-downs. We could use the saved money for her monthly check-up and other necessities - milk, diaper, vitamins. 
• Babies grow fast, and they usually wear their clothes just once or twice. Before you know it, they wont fit them anymore. 
• We can't afford to buy those expensive branded shoes and clothes on our own, but we have them! 
• It teaches our family to humble and to be gracious all the time. We have set our pride aside, and receiving hand-me-downs make us simple, humble, and generous for all our blessings.

What we have saved based on the prices from Lazada.com
Baby 1st Baby Crib - Php 5,999
Baby 1st high Chair - Php 4,000
Ipanema - Php 700
Carter's dresses and onesies - Php 1,000 - Php 2,500
H & M pants and dresses - Php 400 - Php 1,000