Before babies

[Nineteen88]

Hi all,

Very first mumsnet post here. My partner and I are very much in love and after our 4th mutual friends pregnancy announcement we’re now officially broody and talk about trying early next year.

So my question is- does anyone on here have any golden pieces of advice that they now have and wish they new before even just starting to try for their first baby?

If you were to be trying for your first baby again- would you do anything differently? Would you live in a particular size house, save a particular amount of money? Or even sign up to certain groups? Etc etc

Very much looking forward to reading the replies!

Luv newbie :)

Welcome to Mumsnet

Things I wish I knew...

• If you're struggling with morning sickness but not actually being sick you can still go to the doctors and try medication. I really regret not going to see the doctor, I had 24/7 nausea for weeks and weeks and just assumed it came with the territory. Having spoken to people whilst pregnant/since having DS it turns out my experience wasn't normal and I should have tried medication.
• If you intend to breastfeed then make sure you have an experienced person to speak to or start visiting a breastfeeding group in plenty of time before the baby arrives. There's a very small window of opportunity to establish your supply, often the help comes too late if you do struggle and lots of people end up giving up because they have no other choice.

I wouldn't do anything differently when TTC, we took a middling-relaxed approach. DTD every other day from AF finishing through to it starting again. No tracking or anything. I fell pregnant the second month so the approach really worked well for us.

Regarding money. We did the sums, worked out how much my maternity leave would cost and saved up in advance. It meant I could really relax and enjoy my maternity leave.

The only other thing I can think of is that there are a lot of things you can do with your baby (in normal, non-pandemic times). But your baby won't be any worse off for not going to swimming lessons, baby yoga, sensory sessions, baby groups etc. Go to the group you want to go to, at least for the first 6 months, in my case I've not been to any groups cause it just wasn't my thing.