By Jill Krause, author of BabyRabies.com and blogger on our sister site bornfreemom.com

Well, we are officially parents of 2. We welcomed our daughter Leyna into the world on December 28th, and the money hemorrhaging still hasn’t stopped.

Are we the only ones who like to throw money (we don’t really have, I’ll add) at “problems” like crying babies? I don’t know what it is, but something about having a baby makes us open our wallet and let all the money spill out into the never-ending pit known as the baby section.

When my first was born, I swear, he had honest to goodness (actually evil-ness) colic by the time he was 7 days old.  It didn’t let up until he was 3 or 4 months. In that time, we purchased every tonic, every device, every blanket, and every pacifier that promised to “soothe fussy babies.” We also bought books and CDs and DVDs, and we probably would have paid for and brought home an Exorcist if they sold them next to the baby bottles.

This time, I was pretty convinced we had all we needed for a second round, and I prayed we wouldn’t be… blessed (?) with another baby with colic. Fortunately, SO FAR Leyna’s pretty good.  (And now, excuse me while I break to go knock on every piece of wood in my house.)

However, the beginning was still a rough transition. I found myself struggling to get Leyna to latch on to my left breast the weekend after we brought her home. I was engorged, my nipples were aching, and I was freaking out a bit.

Cue mass spending.

I sent my husband out for any and every device I could think of that would cure what ailed us. I requested nipple shields, nipple cream, nipple cooling packs, nipple heating pads, pretty much anything that had the word “nipple” on the package.  Money was no object.  I was going to get this kid to latch.

And wouldn’t you know, not a single one of those things wound up fixing the problem (although the creams and heating and cooling pads were quite helpful in easing my pain). No, instead, all I needed was a glass of wine to relax and a lot of determination.  We had our latch issues worked out by Monday.

I think we’re still vulnerable to the spend-to-quiet-the-baby bug, though.  I could have purchased a really nice pair of shoes with all the money I threw at teething last time. I need to remember for the next baby to have a stockpile of cash saved up just for all the special times in a baby’s life when I’m losing my mind and ready to pay anything to regain an ounce of sanity.

Did you get caught out buying baby products you didn’t really need? We’re giving away a BornFree Drinking Cup to one person who leaves their comment here.

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