For the most part pregnancy is something that you will never forget – I remember bits and pieces (even large chunks) of all my pregnancies … yup, all 5 of them. Through it all, there are a few things that definitely stand out to me as great recommendations for any expecting mom!

Write a Memoir: Well, actually not exactly a memoir per se, but I would definitely like to suggest that all expecting moms keep some sort of journal – daily or weekly.  It is not only an amazing memory for your child, but can also come in very handy in subsequent pregnancies … just trust me on this one!  You can keep a written journal or a blog, either one works, just keep it recorded and accessible!

Photographic Evidence: Make sure that you get plenty of pictures during pregnancy.  I’m not suggesting that you must go have a professional photo shoot (though that is probably very nice for some people), just simple stage pictures will do – one for each trimester maybe.  I say this simply because I didn’t get any photos of my pregnancy with the twins.  It makes me very sad to this day and we even took the camera to the hospital, but once we got there it was too crazy and they were never taken.  I won’t give you the whole sob story, just suffice it to say that I deem this a very important piece to the puzzle of your child’s life.  Pregnant women are beautiful, so go make a memory for your child!

On a Deeper Note: When we were pregnant with our first son (oh my word, the child is now 13) it seemed that all the other couples in our circle had a certain tecnique they were using.  They had all taken classes, read books, asked questions and were ready to go.  For us though, we definitely had a feeling of sitting on the outside and looking in through the glass doors.

Not to say that their method or way was bad, but few of them even had children yet, and for some reason it concerned us not to find a balance.  That has been a theme for me in many respects … trying to find that balance in life, parenthood, marriage, everything!

There are many parenting and advice books out there, many methods, many beliefs and opinions, but there’s only one set of parents for your child and only God can tell you what the right way to parent that child is.  Go ahead and read a variety of thoughts and ideas, but keep your heart, thoughts and mind on the Lord for direction as you do and watch for those “warning” signs or question marks to spur any red flags for you.

Have you ever spent any time talking with a mother from our “older” generation?  The time before there were all the books, strategies, methods and techniques?  We happened to have very easy access to my grandparents when I was pregnant with our first son and as he was an infant, it was amazing to listen to her stories.  It definitely helped me think a little bit outside the box that the “current parenting wind” was putting everyone in!

You can sum it up with one word – SIMPLICITY!  I think there are two things we need to be most careful of: making up our minds exactly how parenthood will be before we even have children (and not allowing them to have individual needs) and letting those opinions and the opinions of others complicate our parenting.

Keep it simple ladies and be careful not to go into parenthood with too many preconceived opinions.  If you already have your mind and future parenthood mentally set in stone, you might want to tread carefully or you might be the next one being asked, “and how’s that working for ya’?”!!

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This entry was written by Shera on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Baby Fest, Motherhood, Parenting, Pregnancy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.