Shopping for the expecting baby

There is some superstition in Assam (probably in other parts of India too) that we shouldn't buy anything for the baby before he/she is born! Some of our relatives still believe this and told us not to buy anything for the baby before his birth. So what does these superstitious people do? They get second-hand materials for the new-born baby from friends and relatives. Gitika and I don't believe in this crap.

My parents visited us when Gitika was into the 8th and 9th month into the pregnancy. We told them that we wanted to buy some of the stuffs for the baby that will be needed during our stay in the hospital. They didn't object. Next, we had to find a store. We were new to Bangalore and were yet to be familiar with Toys-n-Toys, Apple-of-My-I etc. We thought we'd go to a mall and find some shops there. Dabu also joined us that day. All of us went to Garuda Mall in Magrath Road. We bought a lot of things from Shoppers Stop for the baby - wrappers, blankets, cap, socks, nappies, etc. Interestingly, I didn't know the word diaper till that day. Instead of diapers, I bought some Johnson & Johnson nappies for the baby. I didn't know the difference between nappies and diapers then. :-)

Gitika washed all of those by hand and kept it ready in a separate bag. Good that we were prepared with all these. In the hospital, we spent some time in a ward before getting shifted into a room. In the ward, we saw several new-born babies whose parents were unprepared (or perhaps superstitious).  The hospital provides only one green coloured cloth. I saw the hospital staffs chiding those parents. I had to buy only diapers. (I was still figuring out the difference between diapers and those disposable J & J nappies).