{New Weekly Feature} Welcoming the Stork!

This guy's been working some serious overtime...

It’s official: everyone we know is pregnant.

Okay, not everyone, but pretty darn near it. Considering the colossal number of weddings the Hus-b and I attended in recent years, we suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise that now each week brings another happy announcement, every social occasion becomes a parlor game of “Is she drinking?”, and our Facebook feed is approximately 83% baby pictures. It’s a fabulous time of life, really, to be witnessing your nearest and dearest becoming families all around you. We’ve been there — heck, we ARE there — and we truly could not have managed without the invaluable advice of so many friends who have been there, done that, and already bought the Disney Princess t-shirt.

You would think that all of the pregnancy, birth and child-rearing advice you need could be easily sourced in books or from those ubiquitous BabyCenter alerts. (Guess which size of fruit our fetus is this week, dear!) However, we urge caution: Dr. Google is the enemy, folks, the place that will convince you that every twinge is preterm labor, that every newborn sneeze is RSV and that. You. Must. Breastfeed. (Or else!) There’s plenty of helpful information out there, we’re sure, but it’s veiled in a lot of crazy. And then there’s the baby gear — the insane amounts of baby gear! — that will be pushed on you endlessly by Amazon and Babies”R”Us whether you actually need it or not (cough, wipes warmers, cough). How to know what’s truly essential and what’s useless, space-sucking crap?

That’s where your friends (and us) come in: your best resource (other than your doctor, of course) is the collective wisdom of friends who have welcomed the stork before you. They will be the ones to tell you the difference between a kick and a hiccup, where to buy nitrate-free hot dogs, and which situations call for double diapering. In an effort to bring some sanity, reason and (most importantly) a little humor to this glorious time o’ life, we’re launching a weekly series all about preparing for baby (and what the heck to do with the little darlings once they’ve arrived). No, we’re decidedly *not* becoming a mommy blog (perish the thought), but we like to think that family life dovetails perfectly with our original mission of living beautifully, tastefully, and as always, with some sass on the side.

{NEXT WEEK} In The Family Way: Getting There Gracefully for the Over-30 Set (i.e., how not to punch people in the pie hole when they tell you to “Just Relax!”)