Search Results for: blog what i wish i had known as a first time mom

Pregnant: Am I Doing It Right?

During my pregnancy I’ve felt a couple times like I wasn’t “doing it right.”  Not that I wasn’t taking care of my body or baby properly, but that I didn’t care enough, and that meant I wasn’t going to be very good at this whole mothering thing.  I didn’t feel that way in response to serious events, or in the face of friends with children, or anything like that. It started when I was asked “what’s your countdown?”  I had no idea what the person was talking about.  Apparently it meant how many days left until my due date.  I … Continue reading →

If I Had My Life to Live Over

I believe in stockpiling. I really do, but what happens when saving something for someday means that you never get to enjoy it? Erma Bombeck was a well-known humor writer who succumbed to illness. When she found out she was dying, she wrote a poem called “If I Had My Life to Live Over.” One of the lines of the poem was “I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.” Isn’t it so true? How many of us save stuff for someday? Someday comes in many forms: someday when there is scarcity … Continue reading →

Happy News for the Royal Family Despite Illness

 What wonderful news out of England, that Duchess Kate is now pregnant. She is early in her pregnancy, and is unfortunately experiencing a very severe case of a common early pregnancy symptom. Most of us are familiar with morning sickness, and many of us have experienced it at some point during our pregnancies. However, only about one percent of women will experience morning sickness as severely as Duchess Kate is now experiencing it. The scientific name for excessive morning sickness is hyperemesis gravidarum, or excessive vomiting during pregnancy. In case you are wondering what qualifies as excessive vomiting (after all, vomiting … Continue reading →

Three Simple Rules for Anyone Attending a Birth

 This post is dedicated to all of the fathers, partners, husbands, and others who will be attending births in the near future. While we, the pregnant women, appreciate your willingness and desire to be present at the births of our children, we do respectfully request that you follow a few ground rules during your participation in this important event. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when the time comes. Rule number one. Everything changes once those contractions start coming. It does not matter what I said last month, last week, yesterday, or even this morning. It does … Continue reading →

What Happens When Your Water Breaks?

If you are pregnant, chances are you have heard at least one or two accounts of how someone’s water broke when it was almost time for their baby to be born. While having your water break before you head for the hospital is completely normal, it is also normal for your water to remain intact until you are at the hospital and your labor is well underway. What is it like for your water to break? I have no idea, because mine did not break during either pregnancy, it had to be broken both times. I did some research so … Continue reading →

Baby Center’s 15 Best Baby Products of 2012

If you are in the process of planning your baby registry, you may want to take note that BabyCenter has released its list of the top fifteen baby products of 2012, as chosen by moms. Who better to offer real life feedback on what works (and doesn’t work) for babies and their parents, and, perhaps more importantly, why. Since parenting is such an individual thing, it only makes sense that there are many products out there to address the needs of different parents with different lifestyles. Of course, it makes it a little harder to pinpoint which products will work … Continue reading →

How To Avoid Oversharing Pregnancy Related Information

Social networking can be a great way to keep friends and family abreast of all things pregnancy – related. For one thing, it sure beats having to make phone calls to absolutely everyone every time key information (like baby’s gender) is found out, and worrying about whether you have remembered to call absolutely everyone lest you should forget and offend someone. The one drawback with social media is that there tends to be a lot of oversharing going on. How can you be the thoughtful pregnant woman who keeps all of her friends and family up to date with the … Continue reading →

Gender Disappointment – It Does Happen Sometimes

Whether you are expecting your first child or a subsequent addition to the family, you are likely to have some feelings about what the new baby’s gender is. Also, no matter how hard you try to avoid thinking about the subject, you are likely to have some amount of desire for your baby to be a particular gender. With my first pregnancy, I wanted to have a little boy. When the ultrasound showed that I was indeed carrying a boy, I was elated. During my second pregnancy, I felt like I was carrying a girl and like I wanted to … Continue reading →

What I Wish I Had Known As A First Time Mom

Do you see that picture? That sure is a cute baby. Okay, so I am totally biased because I’m his mom, but that picture reminds me of something that I did not really pay any attention to before I had a baby. I am not sure what I was expecting to see when I welcomed my first newborn three years ago, but I probably thought that he would look something like the baby in the picture. I was wrong. Newborns don’t look like babies. They look like newborns, and when your newborn baby is placed in your arms, you will … Continue reading →

What Would You Change?

If you could turn back time what would you change? I’ve thought about this a lot. How many times have you wished you could do things over, make different choices? It makes me sad that I wasn’t married once, for the rest of my life, I wish I had made better choices. When I see how much value my home has lost and how upside down I am in it I wish I could go back and undo that choice. I wish I had gone to college, had more children, written a novel, been a better mother, sister, friend. So … Continue reading →