Things I thank my pregnant self for

A good few months ago, I did an insta story about things I did when I was pregnant that I thought were a pretty good idea. The response I had was amazing, actually and I was slightly taken aback with how many people said they found it so useful. I'm also so shocked every day when I get asked for advice- I have always said I don't really know what I am doing and I am just riding this parenting wave, so I never claim to be an expert. But if I can share anything about my pregnancy, it would be this-

Buying baby clothes-

We didn't do a lot of this, probably due to the fact that we didn't know the sex of our baby, but a little tip my sister gave me was to do the exact opposite to what you naturally want to do- do not wash new baby clothes- keep the tags on. In this case, you can swap for different sizes if needed. You do not know what size your baby is going to be and how long they will be in them for. Bonnie was in tiny baby, (which we had none of) for the first month and newborn until she was 12 weeks. I was convinced my baby would be straight into 0-3 but this wasn't the case. She was in 0-3 for about 2 weeks then went up 2 percentiles and was straight into 3-6.

The Baby Show.

I know it's hard, but if you can wait until the baby show to buy your big stuff, then DO IT!! Everything is so much cheaper there and you can be so smart about buying stuff too. So I went a little crazy when it came to the baby show, but I was a crazy preggo bitch who knew what she wanted and i got it. I decided I wanted the bugaboo donkey weekender and was really hoping they had it on display so that I could buy it at a discounted price. I booked tickets for the Sunday which was the last day and I was right at the front of the queue so when they let everyone in, I was in there looking for that exact pram. I found it on a podium and asked if I could buy it. i managed to get £400 off this pram in the end because it was on display and even bought the add on so I could turn it into a double in the future. Obviously this will only work on the last day, and you have to stay all day as you have to return at the end to pick it up, but it's worth it for how cheap you can buy display models for. Go for lunch or something then come back, make a day of it. And make sure you have room in the car as you take it away that day!! Once I had secured that, I could then relax and enjoy all the bargains! Pretty much everything has at least 10-20% off and if you buy in bulk, you can bargain loads too.

If you cannot make the baby show, sign up for the 'expectant parent' event at your local Mothercare where everything is 10 or 20% off on the night.

Antenatal groups

This is probably the most valuable thing I did in my pregnancy. Whether you choose NCT, NHS or both, don't pass up the opportunity to attend these- the NHS ones are free so why not?! I planned to do both NCT and NHS, but missed the boat on NCT so just did NHS. The content of these classes is not what I found so valuable; it was the fact that you are sat in a room of 10 or so others that are in the exact same boat as you. The antenatal classes in our area are one of the things which have suffered unfortunate cuts recently and has gone down from 4 classes to 2. You cannot get to know people well in that amount of time! The constant of this class surprised me- I don't know what I expected to be honest, but one class was about pain relief, and one about breastfeeding. I was kind of expecting to learn how to swaddle, change a nappy even, and was surprised (and scared?!) about how little I knew still about keeping a mini human alive- I just assumed I would leave the class a fountain of parental knowledge. Looking back, I was glad I had little information to weigh me down- the midwives talk you through that kind of stuff when your baby is here, so don't sweat it. Anyway, back to the most important thing- those other pregnant people in the room with you. In my group, they passed around a 'contact sheet' which had named, numbers, addresses, due dates and emails on it. By the end of the last session, I felt a little deflated; I went to meet people and I had made no friends. I heard so much about mums being so close to those in their antenatal groups and it terrified me that I would know no other mums in my area. I spoke to my husband about my feelings about it that night and he said why don't I just get in touch with them. The best way I found to do this, was to create a group on Facebook, and then separately email them all with the group details. This left joining the group completely in their court and it meant that those who didn't really want to do the whole mum group-coffee-and-cake- meet ups wouldn't feel obliged. Waiting for people to join the group was nerve wracking; but one by one, the requests came in, and as they say, the rest is history. I have the loveliest group of girls that I meet up with weekly. Their advice, their company and their shoulders I have most certainly cried on have been very appreciated over the past 5 months.

If you cannot make an antenatal group, or have none in your area, try a prenatal class. I did prenatal yoga and water bumps.  I found water bumps fantastic.  It was a nice relaxing hour of 'me time' and I felt that I could really tune in with my body and baby during that one hour a week.

Hospital bag buys-

I think I may do a separate post on hospital bag, and I've put a few of my best breastfeeding items in my BF post, but the one thing I would say to stock the hell up on like your life depends on it would be maternity pads. Buy what you think you need, then double it, then double again and you probably still won't have enough.  Brand wise, I found Boots own crap.  Boots own everything was a bit of a let down, to be honest which was great as I had bloody loads as they are always on 3 for 2.  Best maternity pads were from Mothercare in my opinion.

I will most likely be adding to this post as time goes on, but these are definitely my top tips.

A.M.L,

LaLa x