Anyway, here's the first few topics (Click on one if you want to go straight to that one - since this blog is long: Pregnancy, Things We're Glad We Bought, Buying Advice, Don't Waste Your Money On...).
(Just so you know, sometimes the "I" is me, sometimes the "I" is another mom, sometimes I combined what moms said or added to it myself. Take it for what it is - new moms trying to help other new moms, roughly. :)
good luck ladies!
Pregnancy
- Enjoy as much of it as you can. It's SOOOOO hard, but try to be an "enjoy the moment" type of girl.
- Enjoy yourself, you are creating a new life in your body. You'll miss being pregnant. It might not seem like it now, but you will. Enjoy feeling the baby move and kick, enjoy those hiccups that he or she gets, those are such precious moments to cherish. And video record them - it's fun to look back on.
- Make sure you have a great digital camera.
- If it’s your first – take lots of pics of your belly.
- Keep a journal, online or on paper – it’s cool to go back and read later.
- Don’t obsess over stretch marks. If you're going to use creams, don’t go and spend a bunch of money, it’s not worth it. Stretch marks are genetic, you're going to get them or you're not and who cares if you do?!?!
- Aches and pains are normal during pregnancy!
- People try to scare you out of doing everything when you are pregnant too! IT IS OK to take a warm bath, drink a couple of cokes a day, etc. Just don't do anything in excess.
- Try snacks before you buy a bunch - don't go on other people's words. You may find all those pregnancy bars, lollipops, etc aren't worth it.
- Get comfy shoes. I found the tennis shoes that had elastic, already laced up, laces were the best - support but stretchy.
- In the final months having a belly belt helped relieved back pressure.
- Take a trip, before month 7, when you’re still feeling good and you’re not huge. It might be your last hurrah for a while.
- Regardless of what they say, you may not feel your baby move everyday. Especially if you take Sudafed! Babies have "tired days" too where they don't move a lot.
- Pregnant with multiples? Definitely join a "Mothers of Multiples" Club. Not only are they a great source of advice for moms of twins and triplets, but also they have garage sales and hand me downs for babies that coordinate and match. They also do a lot of buddy programs in case you go on bed rest. Which, of course, there's a good chance will happen.
- Take the birthing class – it really does help prepare you in terms of what’s going to happen. You’re never going to be fully prepared but the class helps. Plus, at mine, they used the same heart monitor they do in the hospital and I got a read out of the baby’s heartbeat – you don’t get the ones that come out in the hospital so that was pretty cool.
- Don't rush the delivery. Once the baby is out, you can't put it back in so you can take a nap!!
- Stay in the hospital as long as you can if you have good nurses.
- Diaper champ – not the diaper genie. Diaper champ can use regular trash bags, diaper genie has its own. (But I have a sneaking suspicion that the genie is slightly better at blocking the odors – but you can just take out the trash regularly.)
- If you’re getting a monitor, get the video monitor (We were given a baby monitor, not a video one, but since our house is so small we never set it up – once you become a mom your ears become super human and you can hear almost everything – even in your sleep! If we had a video monitor, maybe that would have come in handy so I can check on her and not risk her seeing me if I want her to hang out in there for a little while longer.)
- The Bumbo helps them sit up when they are dying to try it. And it helps give them just the right amount of independence.
- The bottle cleaning/drying rack – very convenient for letting bottles dry. Mine bottles were never even put away till we stopped using them. Just clean them and put them on the rack. You go through them like, um, water anyway. :)
- Bibs! Tons of bibs! You can’t have enough.
- Tons of burp clothes and receiving blankets for cleaning and catching the spit up. Keep them everywhere – each end of the sofa, on the backs of chairs, in every room… everywhere… and even then you won’t have one where you need it!
- Pampers diapers in the white and green package, they say Sensitive Skin. They come with the line in the middle of the diaper that turns blue when the baby pees, that came in handy. But, don’t use them for too long because as much as it would bother us adults – baby’s don’t have to be changed as soon as they pee b/c sometimes they only pee like 2 little drops and that stupid line still turns blue! But, it was really handy. :)
- A nice mobile swing can help them to sleep. I didn’t buy mine until she was 5 months old and since by then she was sleeping on her stomach it didn’t help much but the sounds and lights still helped.
- The sheets that have a zipper layer that you can easily remove and replace without removing the entire mattress to get the sheet off are awesome. You realize this after you've had to untie all the strings on the bumper, pull the mattress out, take off the sheet, put the new sheet on, put the mattress back in the bed (while not messing up the bed skirt if you have one, then re-tie the bumpers. And for moms of multiples it’s worse when they get one done and then turn to do the second bed. Ugh!
- For twins, the only stroller you will need for the first 9 months to a year is a Double Snap and Go. Don't let the store tell you that you need a fancy one. It's pointless. Get the Double Snap-N-Go. Once your twins have outgrown their baby carriers, then upgrade to a side by side. Not front and back stroller. Your babies will both want to be in the front looking out and if they're side by side than they can play together. I love my Baby Trend Jogging Stroller. Just wish it were a little lighter. But, that can be said for all strollers, especially double strollers.
- Go ahead and splurge for those precious first baby pictures. You'll never have the opportunity to take those again. Don't let anyone tell you it's too much trouble or too expensive. They're well worth it to have the memories!
- Get good lotions but don’t go crazy with them. I use lotion on Kayla only when she needs it – they have soft skin already. Aquaphor seems to be the lotion of choice, especially if they get eczema. And they don’t need diaper rash cream every time you change their diaper. Again – only when they need it. You could probably get away with never buying any – just using the free samples. In Kayla’s 7 months I’ve put diaper rash cream her less than 5 times. A + D ointment was the only recommendation I got there – I use Butt Paste.
- Go to wal-mart.com and babies r us.com and read the reviews on products, they come in hand to see other peoples comments and/or pictures but then go to the store and play with the stuff. You won’t know what you need till after you’ve bought everything and started using it, so ask friends for recommendations on what they like. For example, my stroller was nice, got good reviews, but you know what – when I have the car seat/carrier in it, and the stroller seat down, I can’t get into the basket underneath. Other strollers sit up higher so you can get into the basket. I didn’t realize this when I bought it. Also, decide if you want the baby in the room with you at home or not. We did, but not in our bed so we set up the pack and play or the cradle my dad made us at the foot of our bed. But, she still ended up in our bed for the first few months. But decide what you want to do then you’ll know whether to get the pack and play or the co-sleeper or nothing.
Buy less than you think you'll need...I feel like we have too much "stuff". Target and Wal-Mart can always be visited – and will be! Those cashiers will be your new BFFs. - The more expensive stuff didn’t last or they don’t like – make friends with the dollar store!
- Research the pros and cons of the infant seat/carrier you like. We found out the hard way that our Chicco and Graco carriers don't fit in grocery store carts.
- If you don't receive one of the larger toy items at a shower, check out the consignment stores and sales. Most of the time these things are still in excellent condition because they aren't used for very long. Bumbos, mobiles, jumpers, snap and go strollers, etc can all be bought there. Just start looking before you need it – I always shopped too late (as in the weekend I wanted to buy) and they don’t always have things in stock. Give yourself plenty of lead time so that if they don’t have someone one weekend, maybe they have it the next.
- Check out ebay for room decorations – many things can be customized to fit your bedding choice even if it isn’t sold with the bedding set. I bought a light switch cover, a lamp cover, and had curtains and wooden letters made all to match her bedding – all bought on ebay!
- A fetal monitor. If it wasn’t broken or only 3 times and either way you could hardly hear anything which resulted in way too many scary moments.
- A body pillow - it didn’t help at all, not worth the $70. The baby didn’t even like to use it afterwards. I just used the extra pillows we had around the house and that worked great!
- A mini crib, get a full size crib. Too hard to find sheets for it and not practical to have at all.
- A wipe warmer. If they start out getting cold wipes they’ll never know they can be warm. If you find you need one try to get it 2nd hand b/c you won’t use it for long.
- A bottle warmer. One mom bought it to keep at the side of the crib but I never really used it. Another mama’s warmer almost melted the bottle and damaged the Playtex Drop-Ins.
- Too many toys or activity centers. They outgrow these so quickly! But do register for them. People love to buy these as gifts.
- Fancy bedding for the crib. They can't sleep with a blanket until they are almost one anyways, so it ends up in the closet. Wal-Mart had very cute things and didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Thanks for this post! There were a lot of helpful ideas!
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