things i'll do differently

I won’t lie. I can’t wait to be pregnant again (although, I can actually wait… no, Ryan isn’t getting a brother or sister anytime in the near future). I’m amazed at how fast the past eight months has gone by since she was born. I can’t believe it’s been a year and a half since I found out I was pregnant. First, I counted her life in hours because it was unbelievable… “she’s only eleven hours old”… and that turned into four days old… which became one week, two weeks, one month, four months, six months… I just can’t believe how quickly it all goes by. It seems like only yesterday that she was so tiny in my arms and would randomly sleep for four or five hours while we watched football (oh, newborns!) and her cries sounded like a baby kitten… and look at that little stinker now. She’s crawling all over the place, yanking on the curtains, feeding herself cereal, climbing out of her bathtub and tiring herself out so much during the day that her bedtime keeps creeping up earlier and earlier. She has a bedtime! And a naptime! And bathtime! When she was tiny, it felt like we did everything by the seat of our pants and now she’s carved out this little scheduled routine for herself. She’s a big girl.

I’ve started thinking of all the things I’ll do differently with my next pregnancy and our next baby… not because I did them wrong the first time around, but because I think I can make the experience better.

• Not indulge less, but perhaps not as much… I ate like a champ throughout my pregnancy. I don’t doubt that my eating habits were to blame for much of my nearly 50 pound weight gain… but I was pregnant and hungry and happy. I kept McDonald’s and Red Hot and Blue in business. Next time, I probably won’t eat less (because I know how unbelievably hungry you get – you’re a bottomless pit!) but I’ll try and limit how much terrible food I eat.
  
• Speaking of weight gain… I challenge myself to keep my weight gain under 30 pounds. 35 pounds, max. There’s no need to hit 50 again! Next time, I’ll exercise a little more… especially throughout the first two trimesters.
  
• Staying home with my little one(s)… If we could afford for me to stay home right now, I would probably already be pregnant again. This is just a dream, but next time, I really hope to be able to stay home with my babies for good. Not just for ten weeks.
  
• No more ‘sposies… I considered the switch to cloth diapers with Ryan but she spends so much time at our mom’s houses. I can’t really expect them to invest the time and energy into it – it just doesn’t feel fair. But, after much research (and discovering those cute Bum Genius 3.0s!) I’ve decided that next time we will be cloth diapering.
  
• Homemade baby food… I occasionally make food for Ryan right now (mostly ones that are easy and don’t require baking or steaming before pureeing – mango, avocado, etc…) but next time, I plan on making all or most of the baby food. Even though Ryan eats all organic foods at this point, it’s only when you make the food yourself that you know exactly what they’re eating. Plus, it gives me an excuse to buy the Beaba Babycook. My mom wanted to buy it for me the other day (thanks, mom!!) but Ryan’s going to be moving on to table food before we know it… but next time!
  
• Invest in a fancy schmancy swing… Despite the advice we received, we didn’t go the fancy schmancy swing route and I wish we had. I would have loved to have brought Ryan home and laid her in the Little Lamb Papasan Swing (who wouldn’t want to lay in that??? It has lamb ears!) but they just looked so enormous. We ended up borrowing a swing when she was a few weeks old but it wasn’t soft and luxurious like this and she never really got into it… next time!
  
• TMI Warning: L&D info coming… Next time, I’ll say yes to the mirror. The idea freaked me out this time around but now I regret not actually seeing Ryan being born (although I definitely felt it!!). Next time, I may actually ask my mom to videotape the entire thing. Next time, and I already gave a TMI warning so you’ve been warned… but next time, I’ll use the stool softeners religiously.
  
• Obviously this is in God’s hands (but a girl can hope, right?) but next time, I’d like to give birth in late Winter/early Spring. The only downside I see to this is that I wouldn’t be swimsuit-ready for the summer but maybe I won’t even care. It would be a heck of a lot more comfortable to be pregnant in the winter (and the maternity clothes are cute!) and having a baby in March means being able to go on lots of walks outside since it’s getting warmer out… I felt like it got too cold too fast when Ryan was little.

As far as items I wouldn’t use/need again… I’ll keep the swaddle blankets but Ryan was anti-swaddle from the beginning. Huggies diapers (unless you like major poo blowouts). Dreft detergent (way too fragrant – use a free and clear detergent instead). Travel swing (especially since I want to buy a larger swing – either way, we never used it). Gerber onesies (if you buy them, buy them two sizes too big – they shrink soooooo much). Bumbo – thought we would use it a ton when she started sitting in it… but she started wanting OUT of it within a month.

Oh, and must haves?

• Boppy. Must. Have. A. Boppy. Ryan’s almost eight months old and we still use it every single day. She lays on the couch and the Boppy sort of cradles her while she eats. It’s the greatest thing ever.
• Fisher Price whale tub.
• Born Free bottles. Sure, they have a few more pieces than regular bottles like Avent, but they’re wonderful. ”They” say they reduce colic, ear infections, gassiness and reflux… and I like to attribute our good luck in those departments to these bottles. Plus, I like how wide the nipples are.
• Footie pajamas (particularly those from babyGap).
• Carter’s super soft dot changing pad cover… SO SOFT! Buy two.
• Fisher Price Rainforest Bouncer – Ryan was beyond addicted to this thing for several months. Steve’s mom just bought one for Morgan and Peter so hopefully Mason will love it, too.

I should really get back to work… but I wanted to keep track of all of these things – if not for my own record, then to help any mommies-to-be out there. I don’t think I’ll even get into the crazy notion I have that I may be able to give birth med-free next time. For some reason, I feel like the fact that I made it to 6cm before my epidural makes me confident that I could have made it longer… hah. We’ll see about that.

Finally, I just have to announce that I stepped onto the scale yesterday and I am officially officially officially… at pre-pregnancy weight. I even fluctuate below pre-pregnancy weight depending on the time of day. My body certainly isn’t shaped the same and my pants are one size bigger than before, but this baby girl is so worth it that I don't even care!