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    The second mistake people often make as they get ready for their first child is they put “baby” furniture in the nursery. It looks so cute, but in just a few years your child isn’t going to like being around baby furniture. On the other hand, a toddler is not going to remember what furniture they had as a newborn. So it’s more practical to get the things you’re going to need—a bassinet, a crib, and a changing table or a changing attachment—and buy traditional furniture. It can be more youth-oriented—but don’t buy furniture that works only in a nursery, because it’s not going to be around long. You can tell that by how poorly a lot of it is made!
    As much as I love secondhand stuff, I want you to be careful with secondhand car seats, cribs, and bassinets, because safety standards change so much through the years. I have two daughters, one born in 1989 and one born in 1999, and it seemed like nothing was the same when my second daughter, Stephanie, was born. Cribs have tighter safety standards. Car seats are completely different. Unless you’re doing hand-me-downs for a child born a couple of years earlier, I suggest you buy new.
    As for the crib, don’t go overboard. I have a friend who spent $800 on his daughter’s crib, and when I heard that, I was in shock. Stephanie’s crib cost $109, and you really have to work to spend that much. Cribs that meet all safety standards start at around $69. You can get very attractive-looking cribs from $109 to $129. The unnecessary $700 that he spent on a crib could buy a lot of food and diapers.
    Christa DiBiase, executive producer of my radio show, bought a crib for her new baby online from Kmart. It looks just like an $800 crib from Pottery Barn, and a friend mistakenly thought she had bought it there. But Christa’s cost $180. Too rich for me, but quite a deal nonetheless.
    Go to www.safekids.org, the Web site of the National Safe Kids Campaign, for some great safety tips. For example, it says that cribs are required to have no more than 2⅜ inches of space between the slats or spindles, and that a safe crib will have a mattress that fits snugly, covered by a well-fitting crib sheet.
    Christa decorated her entire nursery for about $600, and got the look of fancy baby stores and magazines for thousands of dollars less. She went to the flea market and found a great long buffet painted in distressed white. This is “the look” for baby furniture these days, Christa says, but it can be extremely expensive. The cool thing about her “dresser” is that it has two cabinets and three drawers (great for storing baby supplies and clothing). It’s much longer than a normal dresser, and easily accommodates a changing pad and supplies on top. It cost her $200, and she has received many compliments on it. If she’d bought it at a retail store, it easily would have cost her $1,500, especially with the distressed look. She can repaint it and use it in a formal dining room once her child outgrows it.
    Christa also found a beautiful lamp and a chandelier for her baby’s room at the flea market. The chandelier is in an antique white color, and she bought five different-colored shades she found in an outlet store. It looks like one she saw in a baby store for $800, and she paid a total of $100. Her other flea market finds: great shelves, a cute bookcase made to look like a picket fence, and some prints for the baby’s room.
    Christa went to a discount store that specializes in home decor and crafts and bought some cute accessories similar to those she saw in a fancy baby store display. She bought a decorative painted birdcage to hold baby supplies in. Cost in baby store: $90. Cost at the home decor discounter: $10. She also bought a white bunny planter to hold Q-tips and a small white watering can to hold cotton balls. Each was $5. The similar accessories in the baby store were $35 each. She also found a great basket to hold baby toys. It cost $10.
    For the