Surely you remembered the car seat. And clothes. And if you didn't remember diapers, you will.
But before you bring home the new 8-pound addition to the family, you probably should plan on needing more than just some fresh wallpaper and a drawer full of jammies.
You need $236,600.
Not counting college.
That's the average, inflation-adjusted cost of raising a child in the United States from birth to age 18, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
And if that's not a little intimidating, it should be, financial planners say.
"People don't glide in here and say `We want to have a baby. Can we afford it?' But they should," said Kevin Condon, a financial adviser for Baltimore-Washington Financial Advisors Inc. in Ellicott City. "At the point that there's a pregnancy in a couple's life, they need financial advice - probably even before then."
Financial advisers such as Condon say the transitional periods in life - marriage, divorce, graduation, retirement - typically demand the most financial planning.
And if you're about to have a child, or thinking of having one, you're staring down a transition that is as financially demanding as they come.
First, the good news: With a baby, you get a tax break. You're allowed a child exemption on your tax return, and you could reap a $500 credit per child if your family makes less than $110,000 a year.
That means you can change the amount of taxes withheld from your paycheck and increase your take-home pay - probably enough to offset the increased health insurance cost.
But before you blow your windfall on a new minivan, you might want to think about a few baby-related expenses that financial planners say should be high on your priority list:
Insurance. The top advice from nearly every financial planner is to get adequate insurance before having a baby.
Life insurance is important, but so is disability insurance. The idea is to guarantee your child a certain lifestyle even if you're not around - or healthy enough - to provide it.
And women should get life and disability insurance before they get pregnant, whenever possible, because some polices are difficult to buy afterward.
Estate planning. You need a will. Even if you're broke, you want to name a guardian and a trustee.
The actual cost of having a will drawn up and recorded shouldn't be more than a few hundred dollars, but it should be among the first lines drawn as you sketch out your financial future.
Tax planning. No more E-Z forms for you. Now you need some real help.
Especially if a new house is part of the lifestyle change you're undergoing, advice from a tax expert could pay off. Besides getting a tax exemption for the new dependent, you also can deduct some child-care expenses and avoid some taxes by investing in your child's name.
Start saving. All babies are different, but one thing's fairly certain: They get bigger. That means more clothes, larger furniture, maybe even another room or a new house. You'll also have more incidental expenses with children than without - doctors' bills, birthday presents, safety features for your home. You'll be better prepared if you pay down your high-interest credit cards and build a cushion of cash in the bank.
Start investing. Maybe your baby doesn't have any teeth yet, but braces aren't so far off as you think. Neither is college. Nor the first car. But your child has a friend when it comes to investing: compound interest. The younger the child, the better.
If you were to invest $250 a month into a portfolio returning 10 percent a year, you could build an account worth nearly $150,000 by the time your child is ready for college. Most advisers recommend ditching those $25 savings bonds from granddad in favor of some stock-based mutual funds.
Raising a child to age 18 will cost between $117,390 and $233,850 depending on family income, according to the USDA, which tracks child-rearing costs because of the prominent role that food plays in hiking up those costs. Factor in inflation, and the cost ranges from $174,090 to $344,800.
"When people talk about having a child, they don't think so much about the costs. They just know they're going to have to make sacrifices," said Peg Downey, a financial planner for Money Plans in Silver Spring.
There are obvious ways to save money raising a child - cloth diapers and homemade baby food, for instance. But the expense might not be as drastic as young couples often think, experts say. Quite often, money simply shifts from the old priorities to the new one.
"More toys for the baby, less for the parents," said Downey.
She tells couples to keep track of their spending to identify trends and see how it's likely to change.
"They find out they're spending $3,000 a year on vacations, but they know they're only going to grandmom's once a year now," she said. "They can allocate the rest for the child."
Certainly some advanced planning is warranted, Downey said. For most new parents fumbling with diapers, financial matters are equally mysterious.
"Most people who are about to have a child aren't getting financial advice from anyone but their parents," said Condon. "But it's a good time to get some professional advice. The level of complexity in their lives is only about to begin."
