Too many choices, not enough time!

This past Monday on our days off from work John and I decided to go register for our baby shower items. Some of you may be thinking, how fun! I know I was. Unfortunately, it was the furthest thing from fun that I’ve experienced.

We arrived at the first location, Babies R Us, and sat down with the registration desk to give them our information and get the scanner to begin. As we sat there waiting for the lady to input all of our information we started looking around at the sheer magnitude of the store. For those of you that have never been in there, it’s about the size of a grocery store, maybe a little bigger, broke out into different sections like safety, furniture, clothing, etc. I couldn't wrap my brain around how one little baby would need all of the things this place had to offer. Before giving us our scanner the lady gave us a brief run down of everything and a first time registry list. I kid you not she told us there were bathrooms in the back of the store, along with water and Gatorade and mat's to stretch out on. LOL! John and I both looked at each other with a "what-have-we-gotten-ourselves-into" look.
I thought I had come prepared with a list of my own, along with some notes on the best and safest products that were bigger and would be used every day, like strollers and car seats. Boy was I wrong! Within the first 5 minutes of walking into the first section of the store, baby safety, I was lost. There are so many things this store had to offer that I didn't even know existed and to make matters worse, there were about 20 choices for each thing. Did you know that they make mirrors to put in your back window so you can look in your rear view mirror to make sure you baby is still alive in his/her car seat!?! I didn't, and it made me paranoid that I was going to be a bad mother because I didn't know this bit of information.
As we walked through the store it only got worse. Next came the bottle and pacifier area and words can't describe the holy mecca of options offered for those. How am I supposed to know if the baby will want a silicone or a latex nipple or a bottle that's straight up and down or one that has a bend in it?? I have never been more lost in a store in my life and John wasn't holding up that well either. All of the choices and uncertainty started to wear on both of us and we started to get short with one another, which didn't help matters.
A quarter of the way in, by the stroller section, all John and I could do was look at each other and laugh. I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone and everything around me was a foreign object I had never seen before. Thankfully that broke the tension between John and I and we decided to joke around the rest of the way through the store. We did finally finish registering and both of us were physically and mentally drained.
We then went on to Target to register, which almost felt like a cake walk compared to all the options Babies R Us had to offer. It was a little bit more enjoyable, but not much.
I went into it thinking this would be as fun as it was when we registered for our wedding shower items, but it was so far from it! When we were done registering at both places we went home and both laid down and took a long nap. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when Evan gets here, but I'm hoping the overwhelming, panicky feeling subsides a little by then.