Nine things every expecting mother needs to know
1) Don't buy too many clothes before the baby is born
For 2 reasons. First, is you may buy all these clothes, and think they are cute and adorable, but once you actually see the baby, realize that the clothes don't fit their personality, skin tone, and overall look. You might think I'm silly for saying that. It's a baby, who cares what he or she wears? But if you are like me, who enjoys dressing their baby you will care what they wear. I got some outfits for Grant. Luckily not to many, but now that Grant is finally big enough to wear them, and I put them on him, I ask myself, what the hell was I thinking? They totally don't go with Grant's style nor are they his colors. You might think I'm ridiculous for being that way. But Grant looks great in bright green and blue. Lighter colors like tan and light blue not so much. And he has a preppy style, some cloths just don't look right on him. So do yourself a favor a wait until your baby is born before buying tons of clothes. What you may buy may not be the right look for your baby. Trust me. Also don't buy too many clothes mainly because babies grow extremely fast. Grant had tons of winter clothes that he got as presents, and ended up not wearing half of them, because the time they fit him, it was summer. Now he is growing like a weed, and only fitted in his 3-6 month clothes for like a month. Now he is in 6 month clothes. So another reason not to by too many clothes, you won't know how big they will be by a season, babies grow at different rates. Grant was only 5 pounds, but never did I think he would catch up so quickly and be in 6 month clothes already.
2) Don't freak out if the nursery isn't done before the baby comes. It will be ok.
This is every expecting mother's freakout is when the nursery isn't done. It's sheer panic when you are not prepared for the baby. I will say we didn't have the nursery done before Grant was born. Actually we didn't have it done until like 2 months after he was born. Did I panic? Yes. But did the world implode that my nursery wasn't done? No. Everything ended up being fine. As long as you have the esstenitals, like a pack n play, diapers, clothes, etc. It's ok if the baby's room isn't finished yet. The baby sleeps in your room the first couple of months anyways, so if you don't have the baby's room painted or arranged the way you want, don't stress! The baby doesn't care what his or her room looks like. They just want to be taken care of and loved by their mommy and daddy. :)
3) Don't get sucked into getting all these state of an art baby products. What works for one baby might not work for another. Wait until the baby is born and let them decide what you need.
When I put stuff on my baby registry I thought I had to have all these state of the art baby products. Mainly because I listen to other people and what they told me what worked for their kid. So I thought I needed it. I thought I needed tons of pacifiers, I thought I needed a swaddle sleep sack, I thought I needed pacifier clips, and the list could go on. Well Grant doesn't like to be swaddled and he hates pacifiers. I have lots of baby cream, but Grant breaks out with the Johnson and Johnson baby cream. I have a lot of baby stuff I thought I needed, but Grant doesn't like it. So get the basics like clothes, baby towels, bottles, fingernail clippers. But don't go too crazy on things like soothers, mobiles, etc. Wait until your baby is born, see what they like, and then buy the baby items for them. Trust me, every baby is different, and not every baby product works on every baby.
4) Just because you breastfeed doesn't mean you'll instantly lose all the weight.
I thought with breastfeeding I would instantly shed the pounds. Well I did shed some pounds the first couple months. Now it has stopped. I'm stuck on this same weight, and can't lose any more weight to save my life. I still need to lose another 15 pounds, and the pounds aren't shedding off. I thought if I'm breastfeeding, the pounds would come right off. Not so much with me. I've heard some women who breastfeed end up not losing weight until after they stop breastfeeding. Maybe that is the case for me. I at least like to hope and wish that it is the case. It's probably not, but don't assume you'll lose weight very quickly. It takes time!
5) Be open to the idea that your birth may not go the way you want.
You can have a birth plan and the perfect idea of how you want your birth experience to go. If you get lucky it may go the way you want. But most likely it will not. Open your mind to all the possibilities. You may have to have a c-section. You may not get to breastfeed your baby right away. You not get to hold the baby right away. You may cave in and get an epidural. Come into your birth experience with an open mind, you can't guarantee that the perfect experience will happen. Remember as long as the baby is healthy that is all that matter. And even if things don't go your way, the end result is completely worth it.
6) Get all the sleep you can now before the baby comes, because you won't get a straight eight hour of interrupted sleep in a LONG time. Unless you get lucky, and have a baby that actually sleeps through the night early on in his or her life.
Grant is 5 months old and will sleep from 10:30 to usually 5:00 in the morning. I usually go to bed around 11:30 to midnight. Maybe if I wasn't such a night owl, and went to bed at a decent time I would go to be at 10:30. But once Grant goes to bed I actually have time to myself. So I take advantage of it. I miss having straight eight hours of sleep. You may get lucky and have a child that sleeps 12 hours straight. But if you have a child like mine that hates sleep, that won't happen. Though I'm learning to run on low hours of sleep. I never realize how much I would miss my sleep until I had a baby.
7) Take a lot of pictures at the hospital.
The whole birth experience goes by so fast, and you'll regret if you don't have very many pictures. I will say for myself because so much went on with Grant, and I didn't get to hold him until 20 hours later; I barely took pictures of him. I regret not having very many pictures to look back on. It goes by so fast that before you know it your baby will be a year old.
8) Your body may not ever look the same after having a baby
Unless you're one of the lucky ones who look like you never had a baby. It's amazing how deform my body looks after having a baby. I have stretch marks everywhere, a deflated belly, new flab on my hips and everywhere else. While everything is shrinking, and I'm losing weight, I'm bigger in different places, it's like my weight has shifted in other places. It's funny because the other day someone at work commented on how they liked all the new dresses I was wearing. None of the dresses I have been wearing were new. And I never got comments before I was pregnant and had Grant. So I'm not sure if my new post pregnancy body has made my dresses look better on me, or all my weight has shifted that my dresses just look different in a bad way.
9) Sleep when the baby sleep, is not practical advice. It doesn't happen that way.
People told me this advice, and I wanted to follow this, but the thing is the time I would get Grant to sleep was the time I could finally get dress, clean the house, etc. I use Grant's time to sleep, as time to get stuff done and have me time. It's hard to go to sleep knowing there is so much that needs to be done. Now when it's time to go to sleep, I'll sleep when the baby sleeps. But when the baby is sleep during the day, I don't have time to take a nap.
For 2 reasons. First, is you may buy all these clothes, and think they are cute and adorable, but once you actually see the baby, realize that the clothes don't fit their personality, skin tone, and overall look. You might think I'm silly for saying that. It's a baby, who cares what he or she wears? But if you are like me, who enjoys dressing their baby you will care what they wear. I got some outfits for Grant. Luckily not to many, but now that Grant is finally big enough to wear them, and I put them on him, I ask myself, what the hell was I thinking? They totally don't go with Grant's style nor are they his colors. You might think I'm ridiculous for being that way. But Grant looks great in bright green and blue. Lighter colors like tan and light blue not so much. And he has a preppy style, some cloths just don't look right on him. So do yourself a favor a wait until your baby is born before buying tons of clothes. What you may buy may not be the right look for your baby. Trust me. Also don't buy too many clothes mainly because babies grow extremely fast. Grant had tons of winter clothes that he got as presents, and ended up not wearing half of them, because the time they fit him, it was summer. Now he is growing like a weed, and only fitted in his 3-6 month clothes for like a month. Now he is in 6 month clothes. So another reason not to by too many clothes, you won't know how big they will be by a season, babies grow at different rates. Grant was only 5 pounds, but never did I think he would catch up so quickly and be in 6 month clothes already.
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| This outfit makes me angry. Why did mommy get me such an ugly outfit with a hood on it? |
This is every expecting mother's freakout is when the nursery isn't done. It's sheer panic when you are not prepared for the baby. I will say we didn't have the nursery done before Grant was born. Actually we didn't have it done until like 2 months after he was born. Did I panic? Yes. But did the world implode that my nursery wasn't done? No. Everything ended up being fine. As long as you have the esstenitals, like a pack n play, diapers, clothes, etc. It's ok if the baby's room isn't finished yet. The baby sleeps in your room the first couple of months anyways, so if you don't have the baby's room painted or arranged the way you want, don't stress! The baby doesn't care what his or her room looks like. They just want to be taken care of and loved by their mommy and daddy. :)
3) Don't get sucked into getting all these state of an art baby products. What works for one baby might not work for another. Wait until the baby is born and let them decide what you need.
When I put stuff on my baby registry I thought I had to have all these state of the art baby products. Mainly because I listen to other people and what they told me what worked for their kid. So I thought I needed it. I thought I needed tons of pacifiers, I thought I needed a swaddle sleep sack, I thought I needed pacifier clips, and the list could go on. Well Grant doesn't like to be swaddled and he hates pacifiers. I have lots of baby cream, but Grant breaks out with the Johnson and Johnson baby cream. I have a lot of baby stuff I thought I needed, but Grant doesn't like it. So get the basics like clothes, baby towels, bottles, fingernail clippers. But don't go too crazy on things like soothers, mobiles, etc. Wait until your baby is born, see what they like, and then buy the baby items for them. Trust me, every baby is different, and not every baby product works on every baby.
4) Just because you breastfeed doesn't mean you'll instantly lose all the weight.
I thought with breastfeeding I would instantly shed the pounds. Well I did shed some pounds the first couple months. Now it has stopped. I'm stuck on this same weight, and can't lose any more weight to save my life. I still need to lose another 15 pounds, and the pounds aren't shedding off. I thought if I'm breastfeeding, the pounds would come right off. Not so much with me. I've heard some women who breastfeed end up not losing weight until after they stop breastfeeding. Maybe that is the case for me. I at least like to hope and wish that it is the case. It's probably not, but don't assume you'll lose weight very quickly. It takes time!
5) Be open to the idea that your birth may not go the way you want.
You can have a birth plan and the perfect idea of how you want your birth experience to go. If you get lucky it may go the way you want. But most likely it will not. Open your mind to all the possibilities. You may have to have a c-section. You may not get to breastfeed your baby right away. You not get to hold the baby right away. You may cave in and get an epidural. Come into your birth experience with an open mind, you can't guarantee that the perfect experience will happen. Remember as long as the baby is healthy that is all that matter. And even if things don't go your way, the end result is completely worth it.
6) Get all the sleep you can now before the baby comes, because you won't get a straight eight hour of interrupted sleep in a LONG time. Unless you get lucky, and have a baby that actually sleeps through the night early on in his or her life.
Grant is 5 months old and will sleep from 10:30 to usually 5:00 in the morning. I usually go to bed around 11:30 to midnight. Maybe if I wasn't such a night owl, and went to bed at a decent time I would go to be at 10:30. But once Grant goes to bed I actually have time to myself. So I take advantage of it. I miss having straight eight hours of sleep. You may get lucky and have a child that sleeps 12 hours straight. But if you have a child like mine that hates sleep, that won't happen. Though I'm learning to run on low hours of sleep. I never realize how much I would miss my sleep until I had a baby.
7) Take a lot of pictures at the hospital.
The whole birth experience goes by so fast, and you'll regret if you don't have very many pictures. I will say for myself because so much went on with Grant, and I didn't get to hold him until 20 hours later; I barely took pictures of him. I regret not having very many pictures to look back on. It goes by so fast that before you know it your baby will be a year old.
8) Your body may not ever look the same after having a baby
Unless you're one of the lucky ones who look like you never had a baby. It's amazing how deform my body looks after having a baby. I have stretch marks everywhere, a deflated belly, new flab on my hips and everywhere else. While everything is shrinking, and I'm losing weight, I'm bigger in different places, it's like my weight has shifted in other places. It's funny because the other day someone at work commented on how they liked all the new dresses I was wearing. None of the dresses I have been wearing were new. And I never got comments before I was pregnant and had Grant. So I'm not sure if my new post pregnancy body has made my dresses look better on me, or all my weight has shifted that my dresses just look different in a bad way.
9) Sleep when the baby sleep, is not practical advice. It doesn't happen that way.
People told me this advice, and I wanted to follow this, but the thing is the time I would get Grant to sleep was the time I could finally get dress, clean the house, etc. I use Grant's time to sleep, as time to get stuff done and have me time. It's hard to go to sleep knowing there is so much that needs to be done. Now when it's time to go to sleep, I'll sleep when the baby sleeps. But when the baby is sleep during the day, I don't have time to take a nap.
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