Preparing For a Baby

This shit is actually happening.

I pride myself on my organization.

I am a control freak.

I attempt to do everything I can to be prepared.

Here is what I did that I feel like actually made a difference and helped.

1. The number one thing I did that helped the most BY FAR was prepare and freeze meals. HO_LY SHIT I cannot express enough how awesome this was. My mom came over and helped me for an entire weekend, we prepared about a month's worth of individually packaged meals. I can do an entire post on this at some point, but I HIGHLY recommend doing this. It is worth the time. Those first 6 weeks are hell and anything you can do in advance to help ease that transition is totally worth it. (crappy photo but it shows how full it was, everything you see there is an individually wrapped meal)

2. Prenatal Yoga. This felt amazing physically and mentally. I started it very late in pregnancy, the next time I will start right away. It really brought me into a calm place, when otherwise I was a basket case.

3. Register EARLY. If I could do it again I would have registered as soon as I started in the 2nd trimester. I waited until a couple weeks before the shower. There are so many options for baby stuff, and it is completely overwhelming. AND on top of that you don't ever know that you will even like it so really it is all about research research research! Figure out what your friends like, what the reviews are. Then go from there. Keep it simple.

4. Let yourself have an obsession. I was super obsessed with the idea of breastfeeding and having the perfect nursery. The amount of time I spent researching breastfeeding (it's own post later) feels like a waste of time now, where as the nursery I am so happy I spent so long thinking and planning on that one. I think it is hard when there is so much to learn, there are just some things that need to be learned on the job.

5. Do things you want to do. I was such a raging bitch during pregnancy and I couldn't drink and was just unhappy. Looking back now, I wish I had relaxed and done more things that I can't as easily do now. I did squeeze in a few things, mainly alone time. (being pregnant you never truly feel alone, but close enough)

6. Let the husband get his yaya's out. People were pretty shocked that I "let" him go off and do random crap during my pregnancy, get wasted, have so much fun, etc. But just because I was a grump and no fun didn't mean that he had to be. I feel great doing this and being so chill. He went on a couple of trips, got wasted, went out with friends more. We did have some bumps but I'm glad he got to prepare for baby in his own way.

7. Sign up for those classes early! I loved the baby 101 class! I had ZERO baby experience so learning what different color poo meant was actually helpful. Learning how to put on a diaper (though much easier on a doll than in real life) was great! And guess what!? Everyone likes to take classes so don't wait until the last minute, mine filled up so fast I had to hunt around the bay area looking for classes that weren't full!


I'm sure there are more... obviously one of the downsides about writing posts 6 months + after the fact! I'm trying to hurry so I can get to current stuff but don't want to leave out any of the details!