Our expecting friend Amy asked an interesting question the other day that you may have missed:

Any suggestions on how to gently decline Mother's Day wishes when one is still about a month away from being a mom? I know folks have the best of intentions, and I am probably just being superstitious, but it doesn't quite feel right yet...

I never faced this one myself -- because my first baby was born in early spring, I wasn't pregnant on Mother's Day. But I'm sure many of you were. What did you say when someone wished you Happy Mother's Day before you were actually a mom?

I guess I would have done what I did when people meant well but had other kinds of unwanted things to say or do. Like touching my belly when I didn't really know them. Or saying I was obviously carrying a boy or a girl. Or telling me their delivery horror stories.

I'd just smile, smile, smile, until they stopped or went away.

Anyone have advice for Amy?

(Photo of Bono kissing Gwen Stefani's belly at the 2006 Grammy Awards, by Richard Hartog, Associated Press)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Thanks for all the great comments, gear recommendations and other pieces of advice for Amy and other moms (and dads) to be. I'm sure we all appreciate them, with the possible exception of Amy's friends and relatives, who will now have to deal with a supersized registry of all your suggested items.

Even with all those recommendations I found myself wanting to know more about some of the gear (Lea Orlando, what's a bumbo seat?). So I'll do a little more research and save that list for later. Meanwhile, with your comments and some advice I've been thinking about, there's more than enough for a tip sheet on Things We Wish We'd Known before that first baby came.

Here goes. (Click below for the list and see why in the world Coco Chanel is pictured in her little black dress. ...):

Continue reading "Tip Sheet Thursday: Advice for the expecting" »

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

Well, ladies, we can't say that on some level we haven't wished for this....

Did you see the pregnant man on Oprah yesterday? If not, you can catch up on Thomas Beatie's story here. Beattie says he is a transgender male from Oregon who kept his female reproductive organs. Because his previously-married wife could no longer conceive, he told Oprah, they had him artificially inseminated. The baby girl is due this summer.

The couple are also telling their story in this week's People magazine.

Obviously this is a very unique case, but do you think it will give men more awareness of what mothers go through to bear children?

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

There's an interesting story on the Los Angeles Times web site today about parents wrestling with the circumcision decision. It's interesting to read the statistics behind the debate: In 1965, the story says, 85 percent of boys born in the U.S. were circumcised. In 2005, slightly more than half were.  

How did you make this decision for your son/s? And if you're expecting a boy, is this a topic of debate in your house as birth approaches?

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

The Chicago Tribune reports that by tricking the body with medication, herbs, or pumping, adoptive mothers can breastfeed a child without giving birth. The newspaper included stories of mothers who made it work.

This Web site is dedicated to supporting the practice. Here's an older story about adoptive breastfeeding from the Web site of Mothering magazine.

Have any of you readers who've adopted tried to breastfeed? Were you successful? I'm interested in the pros and cons.

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

The Associated Press reports that because of concerns about a chemical used to make plastic baby bottles, glass bottles are making a comeback. But there are concerns about those, too -- they're breakable, for one thing, and more expensive.

Have you used glass baby bottles? Let us know the pros and cons, and if you have any local sources for them, please share in a comment below.

(Associated Press photo of Dr. Brown's Natural Flow glass bottles)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
                    

You may have missed Amy's great comment over the weekend. She's an expectant mom who would like a blog category for moms to be. She rightly points out that she probably has more time now to read the blog than she will when her baby comes in June. And now's when she could use our help with the following:

I'd love to know of a local place to look for cribs and such so I don't have to resort to a chain. I'd love to know if any Baltimore moms use diaper services (I've had a hard time finding any on the internet) or use gdiapers to try to be a bit more green ...?

 Does anyone have advice for Amy? (She got two good tips under her comment already, but I know there's more intel out there.) Please give us some ideas for her crib purchase, which as we all know is one of the most important and nerve-racking a new mom will ever make. And I'd love to hear about cloth diaper services; I'd like to post more on green parenting later, but if you have any leads now I'm sure readers could use them. Meanwhile, there's now a new Expecting category along the right rail, where you'll find posts of use to families awaiting a new addition. Thanks for the idea!

(Sun file photo, 2006, of Graco Windsor Travel Lite Crib)

Posted by Kate Shatzkin at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)