There was a debate here awhile ago, about why R&R delayed the baby shopping until the last minute, or more precisely, until one week before the due date. Some people seem to think that this was so, because Ross is indifferent to his daughter, I however reckon that there's another reason to it:
After the incident with the crib that Joey had found in 807 Rachel developed something that could be described as "Crib-phobia" and needed to see a therapist about that (Hey, she's American, they need to see a therapist for everything). When he heard about the crib incident, Ross thought that it was about time to start shopping for the baby, however Joey adviced him not to bring this issue up when talking to Rachel, as she was still suffering from her phobia.
So instead, Ross asked Joey and Monica to go with him and scout the village for baby stores. Why would he take Joey and Monica you ask? Well, Joey was Rachel's roommate at the time and seemed to know her better than Ross, and Monica... Well, Monica, babies, y'know... She knows everything and she'd certainly enjoy baby shopping as much as staring through the window of a dry cleaner. Besides, Chandler could certainly do with some time on his own, since he got married he had no chance to check out Joey's newest 'Erotic Art' tapes...
So Ross, Joey and Monica went looking for baby stores one day, but they didn't get very far, as soon as they entered the first store, Monica disappeared and after half an hour the guys found her in a corner with two teddy bears stuffed under her sweater, obviously daydreaming about being pregnant. When one of the sales women saw what Monica was doing, she told her to put back the teddy bears and get the hell out of the store and never ever dare to come back there.
After wandering around in the village some more, they came across this other baby store. Careful not to get into trouble again, Ross decided to go together with Monica, so that she wouldn't wander off again and Joey 'volunteered' to check out the toys (remember at this point they don't know whether it is a girl or a boy). Everything goes well, Monica and Ross work through the list of items Rachel will need for the baby, they write down prices, pick up some catalogues etc. When they go to the toys section in order to tell Joey that they can leave, they find him hitting on this sales woman, Katie (mwahahaha....). She seems interested, but not as much as Joey would have hoped. When Katie sees Ross, she starts to smile, but Ross doesn't seem to notice. What he does notice though, is this book lying on the sales counter, written by one of the most famous paleontologists of our time.
"I've had enough with baby shopping for today", says Ross as they leave the store. Monica obviously disagrees, but Joey, still bummed from not getting Katie's phone number, suggests to grab some pizza and go home.
Some more weeks go by, and all of a sudden Joey finds himself falling in love with Rachel. He's not very comfortable with this situation, after all she's not only pregnant with Ross' child, but also his ex-girlfriend/ex-wife. He spent many nights wondering what to do and one day, when Ross was at their apartment complaining about missing out on so much of the baby stuff, he spontaneously suggested that R&R move in together. Instead of worrying about the baby shopping, Ross now had to take care of making room for Rachel in his apartment and getting her stuff from across the street. Meanwhile Rachel enjoyed bossing around the rest of the gang as they helped Ross carrying all her stuff - "being pregnant really does have its advantages", she thought.
(I'll skip 815-817, otherwise I'd be drifting off too much)
Just as things started to calm down again, Ross recovering from the breakup with Mona, and Rachel recovering from Joey's confession, the Geller's anniversay came closer and closer. R&R hadn't even had time to get used to living with each other and it didn't look they would have much time to get used to this situation. Naturally, Ross wasn't quite sure whether to bring up the subject of baby shopping or not - and from past experience with Rachel he figured 'as long as I don't do anything, I can't do anything wrong' - at least he knew where to take her, should she bring up the issue.
Then came the big anniversary... The supposed newly weds made a few hundred bucks, which they could use for some of the stuff they needed to buy for their little girl - or Ross could take his share of the money and get really wasted, since he was more or less forced to relive a period in his life he had a hard enough time leaving behind as it was already... Now everybody knew how he had considered to propose to Rachel before Xerox girls got in the way... Huh, wait a minute, how did he get to end up with the Xerox girl? Right, too much alcohol! "So we better keep the money for our baby", he finally decided for himself.
Before they knew, Rachel had her baby shower, and Monica, having had one of her smart moments, had told everyone she invited what R&R still need for their baby, so that they don't have to buy *everything* - or so that they have at least *something* when the baby comes - "they are giving this an awful lot time...", Monica thought. A few days after the shower, Rachel realizes she still needs a lot of stuff for the baby, this freaks her out so much that she can't sleep, so she goes to lay down on the couch.
A few minutes later, Ross comes out of his bedroom and.... Episode 821, "The one with the cooking class" begins :P
So, these are my ideas for why they were so late with the baby shopping. Comments? Corrections? Hatemail?
Andr�