Unprofessional Parenting

I was reading up on pregnancy info this morning and I came across a “Mom’s share what they wish they had known about pregnancy and labor” article. Some of it was informative and some was down right hilarious.  My favorite was a woman who said she wished she had known to have her hospital bags packed early. She said she went into early labor and her husband had to go home and pack the bag for her. It ended with this gem “He brought me thong underwear!” The entire article can be found here and is good for some laughs.

Inspired by this here’s a quick list of my own (I’ll try to keep it short but I might need a part II for this one).

• I wish I had known that no matter how uniformed people are they will offer a pregnant woman terrible (sometimes unhealthy) advice.  I got some real whoppers that well meaning advice givers who would swear they were right.
• That there is a certain generation of women who were convinced through marketing that formula feeding is better than breastfeeding. I researched this later after being astounded at how frequently a certain person hassled me that I shouldn’t breastfeed because there’s no way to tell that the baby is getting enough to eat and clearly my son was starving all the time.
• To bring a baby blanket to put over the car seat when taking my son from the hospital to the car. It was warm but some woman actually walked up and grabbed his hand (blocking my wheelchair to prevent our escape) on the way out. Note to well meaning baby lovers: Don’t touch a 2 day old baby without permission! Especially if you’re a stranger with who-knows-what germs all over you!
• To politely ask well meaning visitors at my house to put back any furniture they move to “make themselves more comfortable.” I had a c-section and found myself trying to push around huge ottoman’s, really heavy dining room chairs, and coffee tables that guests had moved around to sit in our put their feet on. Seriously, how rude!

Here’s my gem of the day:

• I wish I had known to put the instruction booklet for the car seat in my hospital bag!! It was across the parking lot in the car when my husband got frustrated that we didn’t know how to adjust the thing small enough to fit a newborn (as we were trying to leave the hospital). We started to get in some huge argument because neither of us knew and we were both stressed out and really tired. Luckily the nurse walked in and had the grace to help before we got out of hand.

Any other mommies with advice to share?