Mom Resources

There are a lot of resources out there for new moms and moms-to-be. Being pregnant is incredibly overwhelming in itself, with the hormones, body changes and huge expectations. When you add in thinking about caring for another human being, it's daunting. While I was pregnant with Little Man, I hadn't the slightest clue about how to take care of babies. I had never changed a diaper before he came. I didn't know that newborns ate every two hours. But when do I get to sleep? And how in the world can I raise a child not knowing where breast milk comes from? Does a magic hole appear once you give birth???

I read What To Expect When You're Expecting (the mom bible) while I was pregnant and while it prepared me for pregnancy, it didn't really tell me how to be a mom.

Courtesy of Workman Publishers

I adapted the "we'll get to it when it happens" philosophy. Trial-and-error. And while it proved useful for a little while, eventually I had to learn from real sources. These real sources are moms themselves.

At the suggestion of a co-worker, I joined the site Babycenter.com. I entered in Landon's birth date and became part of the August 2011 Birth Club. It's just a forum for moms, but it has proven to be more useful than anything else. These are moms with babies the same age as mine who are going through similar situations. They ask each other questions to see if what their baby is doing is normal. "My baby's poop is hard", "He has a rash on his cheek", "My son plays with his spit-up" (yes, this was a real topic posted today). I have yet to start a topic, but I always seem to find the answers to the questions I have by a mom who has already posted about it.

I still flip through the follow up of What to Expect, which is What to Expect The First Year

It's a good encyclopedia of all things baby-related. But the problem is trying to find time to sit down and read topics like a 4 page answer to a sippy cup question.

Sites like TheBump.com (sister site of TheKnot.com) are helpful for moms-to-be. While this information is by no means necessary, you can learn what fruit or vegetable your little one is now the size of. The Stir on Cafemom.com has a lot of mom, pregnancy, and pop culture stories. Babble.com is another BabyCenter-like site. These are just a few of the millions of resources out there.