Most things are going pretty smoothly for baby preparations. Crib assembled (much to Sarwary's and Shabu's delight!), layette shipment successfully packed up from Greg's mom's house (diapers, back up formula, second high chair, etc etc on the way without having to break the bank by buying locally), baby clothes down from the closet and washed, meeting set up with the midwife to go over differences between usual US and usual Indian delivery practices set up for Tuesday afternoon. You get the picture.
Today we went hunting for a baby monitor. This was never necessary in DC, given that we only had three rooms. But, here, with two floors and nearly 4000 sq ft, I'd like to have one. I had seen one or two models in stores, so I figured we'd just purchase locally given electricity differences.
First shock came when we checked out a model and it was $120 for a bare bones monitor, the type that would cost maybe $40 max in the US. But, OK, we realize most people here don't have homes big enough to warrant monitors and local parenting practices don’t really smile upon leaving a baby more than 15 feet away, anyway. So, obviously, a monitor is a luxury good and (looking at the boxes) appears to be imported from China.
Second surprise came when the store offered to test the monitor before we purchased it. Why would they do that? We were kind of confused ... until they actually did the test and the monitor didn't work. Needless to say, we didn't buy the monitor, and after standing around for 20 minutes for the test to take place, I didn't really have the patience (or stamina) for the sales people to go through and try to find a model that worked.
Luckily, we have two outstanding options. I found a store in Fairfax, VA that sells 220V appliances and thinks they have monitors – they’re checking their warehouse on Monday and getting back to me. Of course, we can also always use a transformer with a US monitor, but I get nervous with so many things plugged in since electricity is very unreliable here – so I’d rather just have a 220V monitor.
2 comments:
Also delighted to hear of all these baby preparations....hooray! A crib! (Has William been perfectly content not to reclaim it?)
The baby monitor as luxury good is completely understandable (weren't they luxury goods here not too long ago?!)...Good luck finding one that works soon enough! Thinking of you all!
The crib had not been down all that long, right? Some places are supersticious about having it up before the baby comes. Where did you put it?
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