Dawn Dais - 102 Things to Do Before you Are Due

Everybody leave me alone. Ive had a busy day being pregnant and need to do it again tomorrow.

Anonymous

Things

to Do

Before

You Are

Due

Dawn Dais

Art by Leticia Plate

CONTENTS

Introduction

1:

Things to Do as Soon as You Find Out Youre Pregnant

2:

Tips on Keeping Your Partner Involved in the Journey

3:

When and How to Announce to All the Different People in Your Life

4:

Tips on Picking a Doctor for This Wild Ride

5:

Tips for Picking a Pediatrician

6:

Tips on Ways to Capture Your Pregnancy Journey for Posterity

7:

What to Eat, How to Move

8:

How to Keep Your Hormones from Having Access to Your Credit Cards

9:

Tips on Dealing with the Public at Large, as You Grow Larger

10:

How to Deal with All the Fun That Pregnancy Wreaks on Your Body

11:

Clothing, Pillows, and Other Items a Preggo Woman Needs to Feel Human

12:

Tips on Getting Your Financial and Legal Life in Order

13:

Tips for Fun Things to Do with Friends Before Your Free Time Becomes

a Little Less Free

14:

Where, When, and How to Moon

15:

Tips on How to Get the House Pretty and Ready for Baby

16:

Get Educated Before Baby Arrives

17:

More Than Just the Fancy Photos

18:

People You Can Count on During and After Pregnancy

19:

How to Have the Perfect Baby Party

20:

Fun Stuff to Do with Your Partner While You Are Still Only a Party of Two

21:

Preparing Your Career for Hurricane Baby

22:

Helping Your Pets Get Ready for Baby

23:

What to Consider When Trying to Plan Something That Is Completely Beyond Your Control

24:

Tips on Putting Together a General Plan for How Things Will Go Once You Get the Baby Home

25:

Things to Do Your Last Month Before Baby

Introduction

Nine months is forever, then its no time at all.

Parent of four children

When I went into labor a week early with our first baby, my partner immediately started hanging a ceiling fan in the nursery. We had heard that ceiling fans help circulate the air and therefore can reduce the chance of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). But we hadnt quite gotten around to installing the fan by week 39. So while I was having contractions in the master bedroom, there was a home improvement project going on in the nursery. Because we HAD TO GET ALL THE THINGS DONE BEFORE THE BABY ARRIVED! Dont mind that we were planning on keeping the baby in a bassinet next to our bed for the first few months. Rational thought has a tendency to be replaced by utter panic the second childbirth begins.

I love the quote at the top of this page because it perfectly sums up pregnancy: Nine months is forever. Not Nine months feels like forever. When you are in it, nine months is forever. You are growing a little speck of dust into something the size of an alarmingly large piece of fruit (or a fruit salad, if you are having multiples). Your body sloooowly expands to accommodate this new tenant, and the months can feel like years as you waddle your way through them.

But then you get to the finish line and all of a sudden it feels too soon. You need more time! You arent ready! There are ceiling fans to install!

After you have your baby and the months turn into years, pregnancy begins to feel like no time at all. In the grand scheme of things, its a tiny little blip (albeit one in which you feel more like a blimp).

This book is for the time when pregnancy is forever. When youre scared and excited, sure and clueless, ecstatic and prone to fits of rage cleaning. Its compact and easily digestible because pregnant ladies are tired and doing something easy is a welcome change when youve spent your days battling all-day morning sickness and/or the inability to put your socks on without bringing in an assistant.

Early on in my parenting life I wrote a series of books called The Sh!t No One Tells You. They are about pregnancy, babies, toddlers, and various other highlights of procreation. My inspiration for these books came from the fact that at every turn along my childrearing road, I kept finding more and more sh!t no one had warned me about. I felt it my duty to share this sh!t with the world (we all have our callings in life, mine just happens to involve profanity [my parents are very proud]).

Once I started writing the books I also started hearing from other moms who related to what I had to say. We all love our children with every fiber of our being, but also, our fibers are tiiiired. We genuinely want to do the very best for our kids, but also, most days we feel like our parenting skills are hovering around a C- grade. We value our doctors and other professionals who are educated on all matters having to do with pregnancy and children, but also, weve come to cherish the opinions of fellow moms who have been educated at the Graduate School of Living with Tiny Humans.

So thats what youll find in this book, a straightforward pregnancy strategy, from a fellow mom who has navigated her way through the production of two watermelons. These 102 tips are in no way an all-encompassing look into gestation, and all 102 arent a prerequisite to completing pregnancy. Your baby is coming whether or not you do all of these things before you are due. But I do think these 102 tips will help you maximize your pregnancy months and send you into parenthood with a solid game plan.

My tips range from your registry, baby shower, and birth plan, to babymoons, career prep, and dealing with annoying people. Flip through this book and check some of these

to-dos off your list. Use them as a jumping-off point to explore the topics that are most important to you. Combine them with other books, with plenty of trusted advice, and with your own natural instincts.

And maybe do all this before your contractions start.

Trust me on that one.

Have fun with this book, and with your pregnancy. Enjoy these last few months before baby and allow yourself to get excited about the upcoming arrival of your new roommate. Before you know it he or she will be here, filling your life with spit-up, diapers, and more love than you ever imagined possible. Because pregnancy is forever, then its no time at all.

Chapter 1

Peeing on the Stick

Things to Do as Soon as You Find Out Youre Pregnant

Whether your pregnancy was an oopsie or involved intricately charted ovulation cycles, you are most likely going to kick off this party with a home pregnancy test. Or ten. And there youll be sitting, on the toilet or the bathroom floor, staring at a little stick, waiting for it to change your entire life.

If it gives you the positive sign, that bathroom becomes the beginning of your most important story.

But what do you do next?

Freak Out