My Doula

In my opinion, every pregnant woman should have a doula. Or maybe they should have my doula - I just love her!
For those of you who might not know what a doula is (I only found out myself through a friends' blog about 2 years ago), I've found an explanation from the "medical dictionary website" that sums it up pretty well.
"dou-la: A non-medical assistant in childbirth. A doula is not the father but is usually a woman who is experienced in childbirth. The role of the doula is to provide the mother with physical and emotional assistance before, during, or after childbirth."
I feel so lucky that I met a wonderful doula who agreed to take Jamie and me on as her clients. She is very knowledgeable, helpful, warm and sincere in her desire to help me have the best childbirth experience possible. Because of her, I have learned so much about proper nutrition and exercise in pregnancy. More importantly though, I've learned about all my options when it comes to drugs, procedures, tests and what it will be like to deliver at the hospital. She has loaned me some wonderful books, suggested movies to watch and is available 24/7 for any questions that I might have.
When the big day finally arrives, she'll be there with pain management techniques, encouraging words and support for Jamie (she'll even make sure our cats have food and water before we go to the hospital. She's that awesome!). Once the baby arrives, she'll be there to help me breastfeed, she'll take pictures and she'll even write out a birth story for me.
I feel so much more confident about experiencing labour and childbirth now that I know she'll be there to help me and Jamie. I think all first-time mothers should feel so lucky!

The Baby Stuff Blues

Now that I'm 25 weeks along in my pregnancy, I've turned my attention to buying items for baby. At first this seemed like an exciting, fun thing to do but in reality I find myself completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of stuff that babies apparently need. I can't be the first new Mom who is in disbelief (and now procrastination mode) over this. For someone who is only going to weigh about 8lbs (that's my limit!), check out this list of items that baby's going to need:

- clothes

- car seat

- stroller

- crib and other furniture like change table and/or dresser

- blankets

- diapers

- sling or some other means of moving baby around when the stroller is not handy

Now here are some other items I've been told I can't live without: baby monitor, play pen, bassinet, all manner of toys (exersaucers, play mats etc), swing, bottles, rocking chair, vibrating chair, high chair, bumbo chair, diaper bag etc., etc., etc.
So where does a good mother begin? What's reasonable? What's affordable? When I walk into the baby stores, I'm overwhelmed by the selection. I feel like I need a personal shopper to pick out all our baby stuff. Is there such a job as that? I can't believe I'm drowning in a world of over-priced baby products that Baby Fontaine will grow out of in three years or less and worse yet, won't even care if he poops all over them. I wish I could feel the same!