Advice for a Mom-to-Be...

I have several friends who are currently pregnant including my new sister-in-law.  She is pregnant with her first child and like all first-time moms her question as she awaits her baby is, "What do I need?"  Like every woman who hits her "nesting" phase she wants to prepare the baby's room and make sure to have all the necessary equipment but seriously, where do you even start?!  When you get pregnant the first trimester is filled with so much excitement and anxiety.  When you finally clear the "safe zone" you start to relax a little and accept this new reality.  You also enter the 2nd trimester and get a burst of energy that demands you buy every possible thing you will ever need for that baby.  Or at least register for it.  Registering for these things can be far worse than it was when you dragged your husband along to register for wedding gifts.  Sure it was annoying to watch him scan tv's and camping equipment but this time around he will be even more clueless and it is not your home depending on good choices, it is a real live person you will soon bring into this world.  Talk about pressure...and a recipe for one of your first pregnant fights.  


Thankfully there are thousands of mothers who have done this before and one good thing about mothers is they like to share advice.  Although you will despise this advice at times, like when a stranger in a grocery store rubs your belly and says, "You better breast-feed that baby, its the healthiest thing you can do!" Or that ever so helpful relative that tells you how she "never drank caffeine and you shouldn't either."  You will come to cherish moms that have been-there-done-that who can help you bypass the fluff and get exactly what you need for your new addition.


There really is so much you need to do to prepare for a baby that one post really can't fit it all so I have decided to dedicate a post a week to this subject.  We will break it down into preparing:


materially: your registry
emotionally: what to expect beyond delivery
physically: a heads up on all the weird things that are yet to come (yes there are more bodily changes headed your way!)


Not to scare any preggers, just to give you a real sense of what to expect.  I am no expert and I hope that all of you other "veteran moms" out there will share your 2 cents in the comments section each week.  Remember your first pregnancy and all the questions.  Remember too all of the things that came after delivery that you just weren't prepared for and help shed some light on it for these new moms-to-be.  I hope that this little series will be helpful, not scary or too opinionated...we all know you can get plenty of opinions from those strangers in the grocery store!  The goal is to prepare the best you can and then relax so you can await the best thing that will ever happen to you!


Check in next Thursday, the 14th for "Registry 101"


(If you are reading this and already thinking of your most favorite piece of baby equipment, email me so I can include your input!!)