Baby Mania

Best Friend: “I just feel like I can’t get any bigger…”
Me: “You can, and you will.
Best Friend: “I’ve been to every Homesense and Marshalls in the city looking for the perfect nursery ottoman, I feel addicted and I don’t even care about decor.”
Me: “I know, nesting is a real thing, it takes over and makes you feel like a crazy person. It’s normal, just try to think about stopping soon before you’re broke and your husband leaves you.”
Best Friend: “Yeah, ok. Think we can find some matching muslin swaddles & crib sheets tomorrow?”
Me: “For sure. You’re very hormonal right now, so I don’t really want to rock the boat…”

Lately, my work has been about all things baby. From Pinterest nurseries to ‘how to dress the bump’ seminars, I am surrounded this winter by pregnant ladies. I can empathize as it wasn’t that long ago I welcomed my first little one to the world, but I feel that with the added pressure of social media’s perfect rocking station and looking good when you’re feeling like a whale, we need to put things in perspective.

1. Maternity clothes for the most part are not overly fashion-forward. What’s Jessica Alba wasting her time on soap suds for, when she could be co-creating the secret to designer clothes to make the rest of us look like her when we’re 8 months pregnant and busting out of every over-sized gap t-shirt we can find?

2. Having a beautiful nursery is a luxury…not a necessity. I will say, however, that you spend a lot of time rocking and crying and dreaming about margaritas in that one small space as you settle your child back to sleep roughly ten times each day. So coming and going from a bad bubble-gum pink room that your father-in-law generously offered to paint and hang photos of every animal in the Jungle Book does wear on a person – or so I can imagine.

3. Stuffing yourself into your favourite pair of jeans that you deem ‘stretchy’ enough to handle your newest body accessory is a no-no. We all know you were skinny once, and will be again, just let these nine months run their course and try to remember that women are warriors. We grow humans, and make milk, there’s absolutely no need to try to become body illusionists on top of it all, by continuing to wear our pre-pregnancy clothes.

4. Decorating a nursery based on what you think your little one will love is ridiculous. Pull a room together that makes you think of beautiful things like being at the beach or hiking through the mountains. No newborn looks around the room and thinks: “Geez.. you really went gender neutral here Mum, should I find a new family that values a feminine aesthetic?”

5. Lastly, don’t feel guilty for splurging a little bit, even if you really are poor. Getting through your pregnancy and first year of raising a child is difficult. You deserve to buy some things along the way that masks the pain of losing your self-identity (temporarily).

XoNatalie