Tag Archives: Things to do before giving birth to a new baby

What People Wish They Knew About Pregnancy – Part 3

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Before I begin, I want to say this is something that I had asked the people on the app “Peanut”. This is an app where mothers sign up and can meet other moms around their towns and essentially become friends and hang out (Not a sponsor). However for me I felt it was far too overwhelming and in typical fashion I stopped using the app. I did however ask a question to the community, that question was “What is something you wish people told you about pregnancy or birth”. These are some responses and once the other parts become active I will be posting them below with links. And you are more than welcome to check them out yourself too!

What do you wish people told you about pregnancy and birth Part 1
What do you wish people told you about pregnancy and birth Part 2

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Fundal Massage for uterus was something that I had NO IDEA about when I had given birth the first time. I will say having a c-section for my second I did not notice if there was any massage which I assume there was not due to the fact I had just been cut open there. However with my first vaginal birth HOLY MOLY it was tough. The nurses literally will put their palm or even their fingers and wiggle it around your abdomen to see if your uterus is shrinking back and it does not tickle. They check this periodically and it is absolutely not comfortable at all. Yes it is important and needs to be done but just know that it does not feel great though at all. I know when it comes to having our third and final child, as much as I am hoping to have a vaginal birth similar to our second I am HOPING that this massage happens quickly and it becomes short lived!

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Forceps or vacuum was something I knew very little about and thankfully with the 2 children I have (And hopefully the 3rd when the time comes) we dont need to know anything about these! This is where you have to have these tongs to help pull your baby out. And the vacuum is just that, it will suction to the top of your babies head to help them come out of you. I was only told about these in my 1st pregnancy when the doctor was half threatening me with gaining too much weight and how this may be something that is needed if I kept gaining. Luckily I never needed them as my son came so fast however I have heard of these being essential in giving birth for whatever reason. In the moment I can imagine they are horrifying and worrisome.

Lack of sleep from labor to months later is something that you may think is assumed however it isn’t. I will say that with my first two son’s they have been nearly incredible sleepers compared to stories I have heard from friends. As obvious as it may be no one really talks about the lack of sleep you get after a baby is born. For my second pregnancy I found it was a lot harder to sleep the bigger I had gotten however I don’t remember that with my first. Afterwards you are also looking at about 2 months of lack of sleep where the first month you are basically a zombie in the process. I know it sounds crazy but it is true. Babies do drink every 3 hours so they need to really be up that much. After about 2 months both of my son’s slept alright averaging maybe 6-9 hours a night. What makes this challenging is that when you have multiple children. With my first I was able to sleep when he slept and catch up on sleep. However with my second that was not entirely possible due to the fact that he was on one nap per day and the newborn didn’t exactly sleep when you wanted them to!



Mom Guilt is something that I dont think anyone ever can prepare you for. This also can be parenting guilt too. One of the first things I know I felt guilty about with mom guilt was not wanting to breast feed. It is hammered down our throats as a mom that if you don’t you are depriving your child of certain things that they never talk about all the reasons why breast feeding may not be right for your family. For me, mentally I just was unable to breastfeed. I did not enjoy it, I felt wrong doing it, and when my son had jaundice and feeding was super important to make it go away it scared me and made me paranoid that he was not drinking enough. That is not to say that it doesn’t work for other people but for me I loved the fact that my spouse was able to feed our children and I was able to sleep a bit, or that I wasn’t hooked up to some sort of pump the entire time or waking every 2 hours trying to make things happen. The guilt I felt this for my first child was tough. It was extremely hard to even get past. I have a friend who breastfeeds her kids and she said flat out fed is best. There is such a stigma about parents who choose to formula feed that it needs to be stopped. It would probably help with things like postpartum depression as well if we never had so many pressures on us parents before the baby has even been born!

As you can see there is multiple things that may seem pretty obvious to others however this is not the case. This is something that maybe by writing these out a new parent may know before the situation arises! And if you are pumped to read this I can’t wait for you to read the other ones when they come out too!

If you would like to purchase the book you are more than welcome to do so here, though the link is for the Canadian site you may need to be redirected to the Amazon sited for your Country to be able to purchase a copy for yourself!

Final Prep for Baby #2’s Arrival!

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With the fact we have a new baby on the way and his due date coming quickly, there are some things that I had to for sure do before his arrival. This was to make things as easy as possible.

First, we had to make sure we would have people who could be in place to watch our first son Vincent! This was obviously important because we could not just leave him where he was and hope for the best. Due to the fact that I am currently not speaking with my sister (She is anti-vax for various reasons, you can read my stance about that here) and the fact my brother is well, not being very nice either, we had to do a bit of thinking out of the box. My Dad is off work on Wednesdays and Thursdays so if by chance the labour starts on one of those days he can always come over and look after Vincent on those days. My mom is also normally off 2 days a week however she does work during the days and may not be able to just leave work. Therefore we have my friend from elementary school Emily who will be on stand by and will bring her 2 youngest over to take over and watch Vincent if it happens and my Mom is still working and what not. Afterwards we figure if we need to spend time in the hospital like we did with my Son, he had jaundice and needed to be under the tanning lights than we would simply send my partner home and I would stay in the hospital with Felix. That way it would be easier since he also would be able to take some time off work even if it isn’t parental but a few days to help even out before we bring Felix home. Obviously we hope we can just give birth and bring him home!

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Next is the little things. This would be finding the bottles we used for Vincent and putting them together, washing the newborn and small 3 month old clothes in special laundry soap also. We know people don’t always use this however with my luck and dry skin we feel this is the best choice. Not to mention the fact we are starting to do formula right off the bat with no breast feeding this makes it easier to just have things prepped and on the counter so when the time comes and we need to start making bottles again we are able to do so without having to look for things last minute either. I also had set up the bassinet in our bedroom and a basket in there that has things like diapers, and wipes, bibs, and receiving blankets. Our son Vincent is currently sleeping in the crib in Felix’s room so we don’t want to have to wake up him in the middle of the night for a change. We want to be able to do everything in the bedroom and near so it makes things really easy for us. Once Vincent goes to his room in his bed (When we make the switch) and the flooring is done it will make things better and we can obviously use his bedroom.

Hospital bags is another thing that is basically included in the 1st one. It can be really challenging because of the fact that hospitals provide different things and or they don’t provide things. This is a new hospital for us since we gave birth to our first son in Quebec. Now we are in Nova Scotia and based on conflicting posts in a Facebook group I am in for expecting Moms in 2021, there seem to be different things with what the hospital provides. I basically am packing the same things that we already had or have packed for Vincent and hoping we don’t need anythings else. Apparently this hospital does have WiFi which our last did not so that will be great to bring our tablet so that my spouse can call his family from there and video chat with them! They wont be able to meet our newest fella till about the spring so this will be a great way for them to meet him even if it is virtually!

Lastly, Christmas! Since we normally decorate so early during the holidays, and I say we but mainly myself, we have to make sure everything is done for that. I recently have gone and bought all of the Christmas gifts for everyone. I will need to go out and get a few last minute ingredients at the supermarket however I am thankful that the bulk of gifts has been bought so I don’t need to be hanging out and walking around needlessly in a mall or something. I did a lot of shopping online and still finished things that needed to be done on a Sunday when there would be less people out and about. It really saves me a lot of stress to not have to think about going out. I mean what if Felix decides to come late, and I am not feeling like myself so we have to go out than.. I was thinking the less I need to go out in this pandemic world with a newborn or even solo the better. As I am sure you have seen before we are very much homebodies and this is a great way for me to just relax and enjoy our new home while still being able to have peace and quiet without going out and bashing my way through crowds.

Other than that, I am still waiting and trying to anxiously wait the arrival of our new baby. I hope the transition from a one child family to 2 goes smoothly but I think it will be a great time none the less. We are very excited even if we are still waiting and waiting for him to show up! Hopefully he decides to make an entrance into the world just like his brother did and it is a few days early, that would be a nice bonus for sure!

Was there anything that you really needed to do before you gave birth to a baby or a loved one did?

Were you part of a birth plan during someone’s special moment?

Let me know in the comments below! Especially if they differ from the ones I mentioned above!