photo credit: johnkalad

The first year of your baby’s life can be the hardest, happiest, scariest and best year you get to experience with your child. You are going to experience so many emotions during the baby’s first year! Luckily there are baby books about every aspect of baby’s first year, and reading several books while pregnant, as well as during baby’s fist year will make you more comfortable around your little one.

Everyone is always concerned with the next milestone that their new baby is going to reach and if he or she is doing things at the same pace of their piers. In fact many new moms focus so much on what everyone says their child should be doing that they seem to lose focus on what the child is doing.

Then years later, you may look back and wonder what happened to that cute, cuddly baby you once had. While you were looking ahead, he or she was growing up and before you knew it that magical first year of their life was gone. It starts out kind of stressful, with the new parents not knowing what to expect next: from sleepless nights, colic, and spitting up to growth spurts, there is never a dull moment or a time to relax.

Before you know it those first few months are gone and your baby is sitting up, crawling and finally walking. He or she is talking or trying to and eating real food. The best advice I got when I brought my babies home was to slow down, to stop looking ahead of what comes next and to enjoy what the baby was going through at this time. You can never go back and get these moments again. So, instead of looking to what your child should be doing, could be doing or what is next, live in what is now and keep a record of it, for you and for your child. And enjoy motherhood!

photo credit: aprilandrandy

Determining what baby room furniture is needed for a baby’s room is one of the fun parts of being pregnant. Now imagine if you will multiply that by two, three or sometimes even six. When you have multiples, the particle furniture will often win out over the cute, decorative furniture.

Keep in mind when you are selecting your furniture for your multiples room, what the basic necessities are. For example, cribs, changing table, dresser and rocker. Let’s just assume that you are planning and buying for triplets. You are not going to need three of everything; however there are some items that you can not live without three of.

The first and most expensive item on your list will be the cribs themselves. When selecting your cribs make sure you take into consideration the size as well as shape of your room. You will want to have a plan ahead of time of where you are going to place your furniture.

While you will need three cribs, it is only necessary that you purchase one changing table. If room and/or funds are tight you can go without the dresser altogether for a while, unless you are lucky enough to find a changing table that has a dresser built in. If so then you have turned two baby furniture pieces into one, saving space and money in the long run.

It is better to think with your head when shopping for baby room furniture rather than with your heart. Always keep in mind what the ultimate need is, what is not needed and have a plan before going into the store. As with buying furniture for any other room in the house have a budget in mind and do not go over it, regardless of how cute the furniture is.