If I have any advice to give someone thinking about getting pregnant, it’s this: wait until one of your friends gets pregnant first, then get pregnant a couple of months later. Not even kidding, this is the smartest accidental move I think I have ever made.
Some good friends of ours just had their first baby at the end of December. While I’ve done a boatload of research on all sorts of things, nothing beats having someone else be the guinea pigs for you. I know there will still be plenty of trial and error for Kellen and me, but watching someone else work the kinks out and give you real advice? So awesome.
Yesterday, we went and visited our friends and their new baby. They’ve had almost 3 weeks to adjust, and they seem to be doing really well. Surprisingly well. They made it through their first full day of cloth diapering, have survived the first load of laundry, and seem to be happy with that. They’ve been breastfeeding and that’s worked out really well for them–and that’s so encouraging, since I feel like a lot of the advice I’ve gotten has been pretty negative.
I got tips on feeding, changing and sleeping schedules that make a lot of sense to me. I got a tour of their set-up, which gave me a lot of ideas for how exactly we can go about setting up ours (modified to fit much less space, obviously.) I got to ask all the, “How do you like x-random-baby-product? How is the y-random-baby-thing working out for you?” questions and get good feedback. I know all babies are different, so who knows if all of this will apply to us–Isla may hate bath time, changings swings, and NEVER sleep–but it’s nice to see people who are like us doing the things we will be doing in a few months and surviving. Not just surviving, but actually doing really well.
I’m so excited. I don’t really have any fears or worries about being a mom–stupidity? hubris?–but seeing them thriving as a new little family is a significant confidence booster. It may not be easy, but it’s totally doable…and worth it.
PS: I’m at the hospital getting my 3-hour glucose test this morning. I drank down the glucola stuff an hour and a half ago and still feel like utter crap. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to drink orange soda again. I can’t believe how much more disgusting the 3-hour stuff is. I could barely get it down. And I’ve only had 2 blood draws, but they’ve already run out of veins in my elbow to tap. The next two draws should be…interesting. The waiting room is littered with nauseous looking pregnant ladies similarly waiting for their next blood draw. One of the ladies looks like she’s barely keeping it together. She looks really miserable. Some other lady brought her loud, angry husband griping about how Ron Paul isn’t getting a fair shake in the papers. Really? You need to talk about this loud enough for the entire waiting room to hear? Especially when the rest of us are trying to concentrate on not barfing up orange-flavored syrup? So wishing I were heading into the office this morning instead. *sigh*
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