Best of Pregnancy Message Boards

***Practice your Kegels!*** This is my #1 piece of advice to first time moms! Whether you deliver vaginally or have a c-section, keeping your pelvic floor muscles in shape *during* your pregnancy will make your recovery (and subsequent sex life) thousands of times better than if you don't. 20 squeezes a day, every day is SO worth it

Be sure to get something to eat before you go to the hospital, and bring snacks with you!! The hospital won't let you have any, but your birthing assistant(s) might want them, or you might afterwards.

READ "THE THINKING WOMANS GUIDE TO A BETTER BIRTH" by Henci Goer!!!!!!! (Trust me - I'm on my 6th baby)

It's always a good use of time to do a quick Google search on whatever your doctor recommends (inducing labor, blood pressure meds, etc.) Sometimes they don't know about the very latest research. (With my 2nd son I was able to talk my dr. out of inducing because of research I did).

Bring breastfeeding pads...pads for your breasts when you leak (and you will leak). Its embarrassing when you walk around with wet spots on your shirt.

Take-out/Delivery Menus for restraunts close to the Hospital: YES! they do deliver! Pizza Hut brought our pizza right up to our room!!! whoo hoo!!! The guy even gave us complimentary breadsticks and a pepsi because we had just had a baby!

Pack a nursing bra, nursing pads, an extra outfit, 3-4 baby outfits, socks (your feet get really cold during labor- at least mine do) hair scrunchies and shower stuff.

MAKEUP: when you are leaving the hospital everyone wants to take pictures of you on your way out to the car with your new baby...it helps a lot if you don't look the crap in those pictures, because they will make their way into someone's scrapbook, photo album, etc! Its also nice to feel as pretty as possible after you give birth...because you feel pretty gross.

Shampoo, Conditioner & Your FAVORITE bath gel: after you have the baby and they FINALLY let you have a shower, you will be so excited to have clean hair and smell all good, its the BEST shower you will EVER have!

CHAPSTICK!!!! your lips get sooooooooo chapped when you are breathing through those contractions!

Snacks for you and hubby.......we got sooooo hungry all the time after he was born and since i didn't want hubby leaving me by myself to go get food, we relied on family members and friends to do the food runs....which was impossible at 2am because they kick every out by then!

Your own big fluffy dark colored towel: again, for that wonderful shower! The hospital towels are really really small and they are WHITE!!!! which means that whenever you towel off your nether regions....yeah....and then you have to hang it up in the bathroom for the whole world to see!!! EMBARASSING!!!

Hair bands: to control that "horror hair" you get from laying in bed so much!

Lotion: my skin was so dry after having Michael, it also helps to banish that constant "hospital" smell you feel clinging to you

Comfy clothes to wear home that don't show your belly: May i suggest overalls? I wore them home and you couldn't even tell that i still had that big belly! Just another step on the road to feeling like "me" again!

A cool weather outfit for baby and a warm weather outfit: depending on where you live it may still be warm or it may already be starting to get cold! I only had a cold weather outfit for my last sept. baby and it was sweltering outside when we took him home!

SOCKS: my feet got REALLY cold so warm and fuzzy socks were a must! It was also nice to have flipflops, instead of slippers, because i wore those in the shower so i didn't get any foot fungus and down the hall to see my baby!

SHAVING CREAM AND A RAZOR: after three months of not being able to shave my legs i was finally able to get at them! whoo hoo!!! not only did i get to be nice and clean when i slipped back into my hospital bed, but i had nice and smooth legs too! i felt like a completely new woman!

Remember that the doc has no authority to "allow" or "disallow" anything. YOU are the one in charge of the care you & your baby receive. You can decline any test or procedure and you can birth any way you desire.

Have your labor support person (friend, husband) bring something else to do like a magazine or book so they're not just standing around and staring at you during the slow periods.

Sorry if it's gross or TMI, but... don't be surprised or embarrassed if you happen to pee or poop while you are in the pushing phase of delivery. It is very natural for that to happen. The nurses and doctors have seen this before and will clean you up no problems.

Don't be afraid of labor. It can be painful, but it is unlike any other pain you will ever experience. Don't go into it with a preconceived notion of your "pain tolerance". You are capable of wonderful things and you are far stronger than you give yourself credit for. I guarantee it. Labor & birth are AWESOME!!

Never underestimate your intuition. Try to be in tune with your body and recognize the sometimes subtle info it gives.

Don't underestimate your body's ability to birth the baby! Your body & baby know just what to do. Your body was biologically designed to conceive, gestate, birth & feed a baby! Let it do its job unhindered. Don't be scared into unnecessary interventions by the "big baby" theory. Your body will grow a baby that is the right size for your pelvis. Unless you have a structural abnormality of the pelvis you can birth your baby vaginally.

Breastfeeding is harder than you think!!! I REALLY recommend going to at least one La Leche Leage meeting and getting in touch with a lactation consultant BEFORE your baby is born. It will save you a lot of pain and difficulty.

Do yourself a favor and buy some of those Tucks pads for post-baby soreness.

I loved the comment someone made about your nether regions not looking exactly the same afterward! That was such a shocker for me after my first. I'd pushed for about 2.5 hours and I was stunned at how swollen I was.

First week after coming home from hospital, if you are breastfeeding, be prepared for your breasts to become incredibly engorged...and I do mean to the max. Make sure that you have cabbage in fridge...the cabbage leaves do wonders for that engorgement!! I couldn't believe the relief! You just layer the leaves on your breasts inside your bra. Trust me on this one. :-)

Rest when your baby rests...don't try to get things done. Adjust to new baby for the first couple of months before trying to do things as you did before. Like the other posters said, take everyone up on their offers of help!!

Well-meaning relatives WILL set up camp in your house unless you tell them otherwise, and you often end up taking care of them as well as the baby. Get the word out early that you'd like your family to space their visits out so you're not overwhelmed those first few weeks.

Swings are lifesavers. I didn't get one until DS was 5 weeks old and I really wish I had one from the beginning. Since he was colicky, he always wanted to sleep in my arms. He loved the swing and it allowed me to free my arms for a couple hours every now and then.

I absolutely love baby gowns and Onesies, you can never have enough of either. I hate undershirts. I've heard people say they only used undershirts until the cord came off. Undershirts don't stay down. You'll spend 75% of your time pulling the undershirt back down to cover the baby's belly. Use gowns. The newer gowns have that great elastic on the bottom that keeps them down where they belong and they're not too tight.

Booties are extremely cute but rarely stay on a baby's foot. Socks work much better.

I would asks for 4 sets of 3-5 babytee's each..You'll need them badly, especially before the umbilical cord falls off.

foam wedgies -- used to keep the baby on his/her side/back, 2 sets are even better so you can use one while you wash one.
burp cloths -- cloth diapers are greatfor this
socks and hats -- just a few for cool nights
sheet protectors -- I don't know the exact name of these. They are about 16" x 16" and are made of a washable, heavy, almost felt-like material. Put one the baby's bottom if you are having diaper leak problems. They will eliminate the need to change the entire sheet. I also used these for changing pads.

Just get a few bibs to start, not all babies are droolers (I personally don't like the ones with velco closures because they catch on other clothes in the washer.)

Flat cloth diapers are a must for wiping up spit up. I never used bibs with Sam until he was eating solids. Other than the onesies or t-shirts, I wouldn't register for clothes, because people buy those anyway. You may want to consider registering for a couple of hooded towels. We used those for a long time with Sam -- I thought I had way too many at first, but we ended up using all of them all the time! Ditto for the baby wash cloths. I was going to use regular wash cloths but then discovered that those are just too bulky to fit between tiny toes and such.

You can't go wrong with either the OTSBH (Over the Shoulder Baby Holder) or the Maya. They are both cotton, sturdy and can be washed daily. Buy early so you can wash and dry many times before using (they get softer). I got mine through the La Leche League catalog, however I'm sure you can order off the internet.

The Snuggli sling was worthless (babies are too little in the beginning and then they kick out at you after that).

With slings, don't worry if babies spine isn't perfectly straight and they seem bent when you put them in your sling. They aren't straight in your womb either. One of the things I notice that is such a benefit of sling-wearing is how much you talk to your baby and describe everything to them, because they are right there and almost at your eye level.