Best baby item not found on any registry

When preparing for our daughter's arrival I asked lots of people what items we absolutely needed at first. The answers varied. But in reality I found the most helpful item was not one that came from the baby aisles.

It instead came from the dollar bin in a moment of weakness that it was cute, could help me get organized and was only $1. I picked it up months before her arrival with no specific use in mind.

As the clock ticked down on my pregnancy I decided to print some documents to carry with me just in case, mainly maternity leave related items, so I pulled out my dollar bin find thinking aha now I have a purpose for this folder. When we went to the hospital the folder went with me.

It has since become the most helpful tool I have. At the hospital any paperwork was slipped into the folder. It's bright color made it easy to ask family to put papers in it. When we came home everything was in one place. When we had her first pediatrician appointment I grabbed the folder and had all I needed and more. I've continued to take it to every appointment and it is now chock full of data on our daughter. In the days when we were wandering in a sleep deprived haze it saved our sanity and countless hours searching for that important paper we had just seen.

While friends and family may think it odd, a similar folder will now be included in any baby gift I give. What was your most helpful item after having a baby?

Jennifer Erickson is a Sr. Communications Specialist with Texas Health Resources and New Mom to a baby girl.

The name game

Have you ever clicked on a link and then really wished you could unsee whatever it was you clicked on?

That’s how I felt when I clicked on a story about the most popular baby names this year, according to one website.

Yes, I know it’s just one site. Rationally I know that it’s not a representative sample and it doesn’t mean that our daughter is doomed to be surrounded by other girls with the same name.

Things no one told me

It’s funny how once people know you’re pregnant the advice starts flying at you from all sorts of unexpected angles. But even more amusing, for me, has been that the advice seems in many cases to be too late. Now I’m not advocating we start proffering advice the moment a couple gets married, but there are a few things I wish people had told me before I was pregnant.

Sleep now because you won’t later. I’ve found this is the first piece of advice anyone offered this pregnant woman. Um, I’d like to meet the pregnant woman who is getting good sleep because it sure isn’t me. That ship sailed at about six weeks. I needed that advice during the months spent trying to get pregnant. If I’m not up making trips to the bathroom, I’m up because I’m ravenous because dinner didn’t taste good after all, or because I’m so congested I can’t breathe. The nights where I’m so exhausted I sleep five hours straight are pure heaven and you must believe I do treasure those, but it’s not like I’m back to my teenager or college-aged self with the sleeping in.

New birth trend? Gentle C-sections

For baby number two, 31-year-old Lindsey Canon is hoping for a much different birth experience.

During labor with her son Tommy two years ago, his heart rate decreased dangerously and caregivers quickly rushed her to the operating room for an emergency C-section. Since she hadn’t had an epidural yet, she was under general anesthesia and didn’t remember any of it.

“I didn’t see him until six hours later,” she said. “It’s hard when you don’t get to see your baby right when he’s born.”

She also had a hard time breastfeeding, and gave up after four weeks.

This time around, though, she’ll undergo a C-section now done a little bit differently at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. The method, called gentle C-section, involves giving Mom and baby immediate skin-to-skin contact after birth and, if mom wishes, lowering the drape so she can watch the delivery. Gentle C-sections are done for Moms and babies without complications -- so Lindsey would not have been a candidate for it when she gave birth to Tommy.

Prepping for Baby Number Two

Preparing to welcome a child into the world is nothing new for me and my husband. But explaining the arrival of a brand new baby to my daughter has been anything but easy.

To a certain extent, she knows something’s going on with my protruding belly. At daycare several months ago, she ran around lifting up her shirt shouting, “Baby, baby!” And lately, she’s been patting and rubbing on my stomach. I tell her that her little sister is inside my tummy and that she’ll be a big sister soon. Then, she’ll look at me with those big, beautiful brown eyes and just smile. But on rare occasions, she’ll grab my stomach with her chubby little hands, put her mouth to my stomach and start screaming. I don’t know if that’s her way of communicating with her little sister or not, but it’s entertaining.

Bringing Up Daddy

A couple of days ago, I called my husband to tell him I was running a little late after work and asked what he was doing. “Hanging out in Will’s room,” he tells me.

This is actually not an uncommon occurrence since our unborn son’s room has started to take shape. I’ve come home to find him lying on the floor with pillows (and the four-legged children). When asked what he is doing, he says “waiting for Will.”

Baby Registry

It is that time during the pregnancy that we start to invade the baby stores and start looking at what we want to use for our upcoming addition. This is not an easy task.  The last time I did this, it was 2003, and boy have things changed since then!

With so many sites to offer advice (Pinterest, Facebook, blogs, etc.), I should feel like I can make a more informed decision about what products I should buy.  However, with so many more avenues available, there comes an equal amount of opinions.  Good, bad, or indifferent, how do you and your spouse decide what is right?

Round two – Not a TKO, but close to it (some days)

Here I am, again, experiencing the joys (and sometimes uncomfortable stages) of pregnancy. Feeling life growing inside your body is a feeling like no other, and one I thank God for allowing me to do once more. On the other hand, as I sit here typing this blog (and I must mention my frequent “potty breaks”), I can only giggle and think, “Here we go again – round two!”
I compare pregnancy to boxing, because some days you feel as if you’ve literally been knocked out, and then you have those days when you’re so excited that you’re pregnant, all you do is smile while rubbing your stomach.

Jacob's Montessori Nursery

"So are you still doing that bed on the floor thing?"

I get this a lot from my friends, who probably think I’m nuts but are too nice to say so.

While patiently awaiting Jacob’s arrival, I’ve been preparing his Montessori-inspired nursery, bed on the floor included. What exactly does that mean? This excerpt from “Montessori from the Start” by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen sums it up nicely:

The room is carefully, if minimally, furnished to address the four areas of necessity for the infant: an area for sleeping, for changing, for nursing, and for activity. Almost everything within the child’s room is low to the ground and each item will adjust to her changing needs as she grows.

A boy's best friend

John has a best friend and a protector - the first thing he looks for in the morning when he wakes up. His all-purpose word, "Hey-yo!" is most often directed not at me or Daddy, but at Bandit - our dog.

John loves Bandit.

Bandit is 13 years old, and part rat terrier and part something else fluffy and portly. He pre-dates me in our household, and has become quite the creature of habit.

So when we found out that I was pregnant, we did wonder how he would react to a newer, more demanding, louder member of the family. Would he bark all the time? Would he be jealous? Would he like the new baby?

Gift from the new baby

Trying to decide how to help my 18-month-old granddaughter, Allie, accept her new brother is total guesswork. 

However, my daughter and I have decided that maybe a baby doll for her to change diapers, feed a bottle, and generally all around take care of while Mommy is taking care of baby brother would be great. To really make the impact we are hoping for, this baby doll is going to be a gift from her new baby brother.