10 Things I wish I knew then that I know now

Photo taken 11/20/2008. 18 days before Jack's birth. The room wasn't finished, the birth plan wasn't written, I hadn't even had a baby shower yet! We were still finishing the install of our new wood flooring and I was just starting to think about what to pack in the bag for the hospital. A person can learn a lot in just one year. Here are some of the most important:

1. Elastic maternity jeans rule. Don't let anyone tell you anything different. If I could get away with wearing them now, I would.
2. Babies don't care what their rooms look like. They can only see 12 inches in front of them. It's okay if the nursery isn't perfect, doesn't look like a magazine shoot and might not be complete. There's always time. And, even if there isn't time, you will be spending most of your nursery time in the dark.
3. These are my top 5 useless baby gifts (in no particular order.) If you gave me one of them I don't mean to offend you, I just mean to educate others! Baby wipe warmer, bottle warmer, Peepee Teepees, baby shoes and bottle/cup sterilizers. More on this in a later post.
4. It is totally okay to nap when the baby naps. Even if the baby naps every 30 minutes.
   
5. Baby showers are boring for anyone that isn't the mommy-to-be. To all future shower hosts: plan something really fun for all guests and minimize the opening of gifts. Everyone will thank you for it. Except maybe the mommy, but she's already hormonal and cranky anyways...
6. DO NOT spend more than $10 on your baby's "going home" outfit. Your child will wear this precious garment for exactly 12 minutes or 3.4 miles (the distance from the hospital to your house) and then will promptly spit up and ruin it. Put your baby in a cute pair of PJs and call it a day.
   
7. You can never have enough time or enough money to have a baby. If these are two major reasons for waiting to procreate, find 2 better reasons. Try improving your relationship/marriage or training your dog not to jump, bark or lick. Now those are the really important things to work on!
8. Don't try to hang out with other people's babies before your little angel arrives. You might think this is going to be great practice, but you will either get totally freaked out and wish you had never gotten yourself into this or you will learn tricks that only work on that particular baby and you will be totally discouraged when they don't work on yours.
9. Be nice to nurses. In particular, the overnight shift workers (would you want to help someone pee at 3 a.m.?) and ANY NICU nurse. Also important? Your anesthesiologist -- he/she can and will be your best friend.
10. Don't listen to all of the great things that other moms and dads say about their babies. Most likely, they are only trying to make themselves feel better about their child that won't sleep, won't eat, won't stop crying, etc. by bragging about the one thing their kid does well. Their lives are just as difficult as yours. It's just different. And that's okay.