Gifts For Mom-To-Be.

It’s fun to shop for that special mom-to-be in your life. Here are some ideas to get you started, and we’d love to hear your wonderfully creative ideas in the comments. Dawn Dais wrote a book called The *&^% No One Tells You: A Guide To Surviving Your Baby’s First Year. Sounds cute, and we all know there’s a lot of grossness the first year or two that no one talks about. Conversations in homes with new babies go something like this: Is that supposed to be that color? I don’t think that belongs there. Where did that come from? (Should be a fun read!) Give a Kiva Card! Kiva is a nonprofit that connects loaners to borrowers. You choose whom you’d like to make a small loan to, say a mom who wants to increase her family’s goat herd. She gets the money, buys five more goats, then pays you back. You take that money and find someone else to fund, and the story repeats. You can stop loaning money whenever you want. It’s a meaningful way to help alleviate poverty, one person at a time. It’s a gift from the heart. An iTunes gift card will fill a phone or tablet with loads of practical and cool apps, such as What to Expect’s Pregnancy & Baby, BabyCenter’s My Pregnancy Today, or BabyBump’s Pregnancy Pro. There are also baby monitor apps and just oodles of others that will make the new mom very happy. If there’s a project that you know the mom-to-be wants to get done around the house, get a bunch of her friends together and go over one weekend to get it done! Everybody’s busy with work and life. Sometimes, big projects can be daunting, and a little help from our friends turns out to be a big deal. Most pregnant women will experience morning sickness. The ReliefBand helps quell nausea and vomiting. Give her one, and she’ll be saying thanks every day for weeks or quite possibly months! Never know how long morning sickness will hang around. Let’s not forget dad-to-be. Get him a waterproof camera and he’ll capture pictures of pregnant mom-to-be splashing in the pool, and later, baby’s first bath! There are loads of waterproof cameras of all shapes and price points, so take your time shopping on this one. Fair warning! We haven’t tried specific products out, but they look fun, don’t they? What gifts have you received that you’ve truly enjoyed? Share in the comments, we all want to hear.

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Pregnant? Let’s Tell Some People!

Pregnancy is the best news ever, and it deserves to be shared in a special way! We took a trip around the Web and found all sorts of fun ways to spread the news. Take a look— At Parenting.com there were a bunch of cute tells shared online. A couple of our favorites were the mom-to-be who took a shower and wrote a note on the foggy glass for her hubby to find during his shower the next morning, and the woman who created a flyer announcing the pregnancy, which she had her parents’ paperboy insert in their morning newspaper. Next we stopped by DatingDivas.com and found a few adorable tells. If you have a child still sleeping in a crib, hang an eviction notice on there with a vacate date! Take a picture and send it out. Or, grab the toilet in the classic morning sickness pose while your partner pats your back and reads the What To Expect book. Take a picture, send it out. (Oh, and about the morning sickness, you’re going to want to check us out🙂 LifeAsMama.com found fresh tells, such as this tech-savvy method: photograph three generations of smartphones of tablets, with the newest one decorated in baby wear, or use a baby toy version. Send out to everyone! Oh, and we can’t leave out the motherlode (no pun intended). Pinterest! Look up pregnancy announcements and you’ll find cuties like mock-up movie posters, mom’s and dad’s clothing pinned on a line to dry, along with a baby’s outfit, or mom and dad riding a bike while towing a tricycle behind them. So many fantastic ideas online. What are your favorites? What did you do when you announced, or what do you plan to do? Share in the comments, we want to hear!

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Pregnant? 6 Things You Want To Know Right Now (Or Maybe Not).

Pregnancy is new territory for all of us the first time around, but luckily doctors have figured out quite a bit about it. And there’s always mom or your BFs to hit up for info in a pinch. Here are a few bits we thought you’d want to know, as you prepare for baby. Your due date is 40 weeks from the day of your last period, not 40 weeks from the time you find out you’re pregnant. Good to know, right? Keep in mind that not every baby is punctual. Your nose will start working overtime. Odors that you used to love, like fresh peaches or newly-mown grass, may send you running to the nearest toilet. (Unless you’re wearing your handy-dandy ReliefBand:)) Get ready for a little potty to come out when you laugh or sneeze, particularly when baby gets big enough to press on your bladder. Hey, it is what it is. Your mucous membranes may swell due to what happens to your body when you’re pregnant. This in turn may cause you to snore like your grandpa. Good news is, it probably won’t bother you (although others in the household may grumble in the mornings). Your vocal cords may swell, causing you to sound like a two-pack-a-day smoker or a basso profundo singer. Think of the fun you can have faking people out over the phone. What size are your feet? Be prepared, because they might grow during pregnancy, and there’s a chance they won’t shrink back after. We’ve barely scratched the surface of the strange wondrousness of pregnancy. What’s happening with you? Share your stories with the pregnant women of the world!

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