Welcoming baby Tolu: a baby registry, third time around

Tolu has done this twice before. By the third pregnancy, her own circle had moved on — most of her friends were past the baby-shower stage themselves. She wasn't expecting much in the way of gifts. "Honestly, I'd talked myself into doing it all alone again."

"My third baby. I finally felt allowed to ask for help."

Why a list still mattered

She built a Wishari list anyway, mostly as a self-organising tool: a place to track the gear she still needed, the things she'd worn out from the older kids, the cot that needed replacing. She shared the link to a small group chat — her sisters, three close friends, her mum.

The first contribution came in an hour later. By the end of the week, the cot was funded.

The unexpected part

What surprised her most wasn't the money. It was the love notes. Old friends she'd lost touch with sent paragraphs alongside their contributions. "Reading them felt like opening cards from another life. That part I wasn't ready for."