Mommy Advice

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My college roommate, Tory, is having a baby soon (along with almost every other person I know). Tory's sister sent me an advice card to help Tory "Achieve Baby Bliss."  I took a few days to think about the best advice to give her.  When you're pregnant you get ALL KINDS of advice and "words of wisdom." Sometimes from complete strangers at Target - "Thank you, Gertrude."


Since I know we have many pregnant blog readers - {HI!} - I thought I would compile my list and add some advice from my Mommy Blogger friends.  We aren't necessarily "veterans" but we have been down this road and we have all had different experiences!


Kady's Advice:

• Stay laid back and easy going! It will be passed on to your baby.
• Babies cry and toddlers throw fits. It's a guarantee. Perfect your "stink-eye" for idiots that don't understand this.
• Remember to make time for yourself. It will re-energize you and make you feel like a better mommy. 
• Take time to find a good, reliable babysitter (even if you live by family!!) - they're worth every penny!
• Try to peek in on your sleeping baby/child every night.  After long days - with lots of "no-no's", crying, and time-out's - it will remind you how much you love your child AND it's just nice to see him/her NOT moving

Brooke's Advice (from Little Jakobsen) mommy to Molly - 22 months:

• Distractions, distractions, distractions. This is more helpful when the child gets older, but always have a Plan B (and C, and D)
• I suggest starting to lift weights with your left arm to bulk it up. Otherwise, after a few months of baby carrying, your body will look more like Popeye
• Sleep when the baby sleeps. Best advice ever!
• Stash snacks everywhere - your purse/diaper bag, the car, the stroller...(see distractions)

Kate's advice (from Expanding Erdels) mommy to Audrey - 4 months:

• Make decisions about how you plan to handle important child-rearing issues before you have to actually handle them.  Share your decisions with your in-laws and parents before they have to handle them.  Get everyone on the same page ahead of time.  Stick to your guns and be confident in your decision.  You can always change your mind later if what you decided doesn't work for you or your child.
• Read as much as you can before your child is born about the first year.  Equip yourself with tools for how to handle things like excessive crying and sleep issues.  That way, when the crying won't stop or the baby won't sleep and you are exhausted and at your wit's end, you will have something to try that you don't have to think very hard about.
• Just because something doesn't appeal to your child the first time you try it, doesn't mean that they won't love it a few days or weeks later.  Example - my daughter hated her swing the first few times I put her in it.  So, I gave up on it and it collected dust.  But, when I tried it, out of desperation, a few weeks later, she loved it and calmed right down.

Carrie's Advice (from Buckets & Birdies) mommy to Greta - 4 months:

• Don't be afraid of generic baby products.  I LOVE Walmart wipes and diapers.
• Don't feel guilty about rocking/holding/kissing your baby too much.  There is NO such thing as too much affection.  (Some lady told me that too much affection makes for a clingy baby.  She had a fat [butt] and bad highlights.  Clearly, I did not take her advice.)
• Take one day as it comes.  I thought by the time my baby was 3months old, I'd be back to my pre-baby weight.  Don't read People magazine about some celebrity that is back to a size 0, two weeks after her baby was born.  She is an alien and totally not normal.  It took 9 months to gain 40 pounds and it is going to take longer than 2 weeks to lose it.
• Don't feel guilty about leaving your child with a sitter/relative for a few hours to get a manicure.  The moms that don't do anything for themselves, well, they usually are a hot mess.

Becky's Advice (from Naptime Confessional) mommy to Lia - 20 months:

• Create open play experiences and do them too! Trust me, a tuperware filled with oats/water/rice and a few cups and spoons (or scoops as Lia calls them) can save your sanity. Don't get me started about 'pom poms' you buy at the craft store in a bag of 100 for about a $1. Lia loves to carry them, put them into and take out of a paper sack, walk around calling them "little bitty balls." Dump a bag of glow sticks in the tub. Give her pipe cleaners and a strainer to poke them into. No need for an expensive play house, Lia loves her painted cardboard box. It's not about the Pottery Barn horse, although I'd love to have it. It's about the experience.
• Let go and give in sometimes. Picture a vacation potty break, getting stuck in the rain under a tiny awning with a wiggly little toddler who wanted more than anything to play in that water. Imagine my husband's face when I said, strip her down and let her go. I think he asked me if I was really serious about twenty times. It was vacation, it was warm, it would make her happy, she was wiggly, she was whiney, I had spare clothes...why not! Everyone should dance in the rain at least once right? So let her run around in the rain, paint her entire body if she wants to, hop in the muddy puddles, dig in the dirt. You will remember the joy and no matter what the clean up, it's worth it. 
• Start manners early. There is nothing cuter than hearing please, thank you, your welcome, or bless you from a one year old. And be prepared to give that child anything asked for when that cute little "puh-leez" come out because you won't be able to resist!
• Choose your battles. She wants to wear a cape and plastic fireman hat to the grocery store, fine. Maybe later it won't seem so bad when you have to make her wear a diaper instead of run naked.