I recently came across a BabyCenter.com pregnancy journal entry (“Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda”) in which a mom-to-be outlined things she should have done differently during her pregnancy. I could certainly come up with my own list (watched the scale more carefully, worked out past the second trimester, etc.) – but, in an effort to be positive and celebrate the one-week-before-due-day marker, I thought I would put together a list of things that I think we actually did right. I’m happy that we:

-Bought our house and moved when we did. Packing and unpacking in July (when, in retrospect, I was barely pregnant) was a breeze – but doing so anytime beyond the 8th month would have been a huge pain.

-Got all our baby stuff together relatively early. We had a lot of the essentials purchased months ago, and our nursery put together about three weeks before the due-date. I know some people are superstitious about getting things done too early – but the thought of scrambling around at the last minute (or after the baby arrives) sounds a little awful to me.

-Took several trips (both big and small) throughout the pregnancy. I have fabulous memories of our first-trimester trip to Prague and Montreal, as well as our little summer and fall get-aways to Phoenix and elsewhere. Knowing what was in store for us over the next 18 years or so, I didn’t feel any guilt at all about floating around in the pool sipping virgin pina coladas or getting pampered at one of our favorite Scottsdale spas. All those pre-natal massages were nice, too.

-Launched this website. It’s been a fun way to keep people updated on things, and it makes far-away family and friends (of which there are many) seem closer.

-Waited to have a baby until we were both really ready to have a kid. Being parents is a huge commitment and lifestyle change (or so they tell me!), and I think it’s important that we both felt confident, capable and excited by the time I got pregnant. (Okay, Q was probably more of all of those things than I was – but I wasn’t too far behind.)

-Got married in the first place. We’ve had a lot fun together, and I’m assuming these next few years – with the new addition to the family – will be just as great. Q is going to be a wonderful dad.

-M

This entry was posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 10:16 am and is filed under 01.Pre-arrival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.