Do Your Homework

Coping with pregnancy and motherhood comes back to being prepared. I didn’t struggle with infertility for years. I didn’t spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars to conceive. In truth, we weren’t trying to have a baby. And in fairness, we weren’t NOT trying, either. The extent of our family planning was to follow a clearly-inaccurate online fertility calculator and AVOIDING the fertile days, rather than targeting them. Even with 21st century technology assisting us, the rhythm method is still clearly a bogus method of birth control, fyi. We did plan to have a family, some time next year after we got married later this year. It seems the baby just had other ideas as to when it would like to arrive.

But had I been prepared, I probably wouldn’t have been so thunderstruck. A few days after hearing the big news, I got on Target.com and looked at car seats. When over 150 items returned, I started to cry and closed the computer. Why did I need 150 car seat choices? And would I have to wade through as many strollers, diaper bags, cribs, changing tables, baby monitors, high chairs, and other accoutrements? I had NO idea where to start, and here all of a sudden was this mountain of information. I didn’t know the first thing about taking the first step toward conquering it, and didn’t know if I had the energy for the ascent.

I’m happy to report that at the start of my fourth month, it’s getting better. I’ve gotten some books (more about those later) and joined a prenatal yoga class (more about that later as well). Getting informed, asking questions, and finding others who have been through pregnancy, labor, delivery, and motherhood have made me feel a lot less alone, and a lot more prepared. I can actually shop for baby gear now without crying. I consider that progress.