HAPPY DANCE!

Someone I love dearly is PREGNANT! I'm so excited! I LOVE babies!

Tonight as I was cleaning up from dinner I was thinking about what advice I could give her. Things I wish I had from my pregnancy.

I'm so glad we had our friend take maternity pictures for us toward the end of my pregnancy. I love the picture we have of Hubby kissing my belly. I didn't do weekly belly pictures or pregnancy posts. I'm ok with not having those.

I do wish I had taken more pictures toward the end of my pregnancy. Most of you know that at 38 weeks I was dilated and having contractions and we all thought he would be here before my due date. Those last 2 weeks and 5 days were really hard for me and I didn't take pictures like I had throughout my pregnancy.

I also wish we took more pictures in the hospital. Erin at Ridin' with the Robertsons had a photographer in her room taking pictures of everything and I love them! We don't have a picture of the three of us from the hospital and I wish we did. I looked awful because we got to the hospital at 4am but a picture of me sitting up or holding my baby would have been nice. Oh, and a belly picture in the hospital would have been good too. I got there and was 6-7 cm and said epidural now please. Didn't think about posing for pictures.

I'm sexy and I know it! I look like this in every picture. My dad really knows my good side ;) I'm going to have to take some glamour shots and post them next time!

I am a by-the-book parent. If something isn't going well I searched wildly for a solution in books. This also means I have read EVERY fuhreaking book. When we first had Chase we swore by the book/video Happiest Baby on the Block and credited it for helping us get through the first two nights in the hospital. The only issue I have with that book is it encourages the jiggle. My toddler would still like to be jiggled to sleep. My FAVORITE book for all things parenting now, is The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems by Tracy Hogg. My issue with her is night feedings. We just got Chase putting himself to sleep again which also resulted in him going from 4-5 night wakings to 1-3 (usually 1!). I still nurse him when he wakes at night. Some may disagree with that.

When I talked to her today I told her to get everything done now. I thought I would get the nursery decorated and our house organized after the baby arrived. Uh, yeah, no. You have no time for anything once the baby comes! So get it done now!

You may also come up with a birth plan or plans for how things will go. Probably none of them will go according to plan! So you might as well get prepared for that now :)

Oh, and start a blog! I'm so glad I have this and my secret blog to look back at!

We kept Chase's name a secret. I loved doing it that way because we didn't hear any negative opinions about his name. Once he was born everyone told us how much they loved his name. So my advice is to keep your name choices a secret .