Rookie Moms

We recommend you try using that baby carrier, stroller, whatever before you really need it.

Whitney actually practiced using her breast pump on her leg when she was 40 weeks pregnant, and it was a good thing: she ended up needing to use it for real the day after she gave birth, which is no time to figure out such an appliance.

Tips for Baby Bjorn:

1. If you had a C-section, you might not be ready for this for a few extra weeks. Get to know your stroller instead!
2. Follow the little picture or see instructions online.
3. Lay the baby some place safe.
4. Adjust the straps and put it on.
5. Install baby.
6. Put on a little baby hat for sun protection.
7. Put on your own jacket to look really advanced.

Note: Itty bitty babies face you. Babies with good head control face the world.

This suggestion came from my friend Sunny on a rainy day. “You put a boy in a small bucket and see how long it takes for him to get himself out,” she explained. “In this case, he wanted to stay in there.”

Seriously, a new container that your child has never seen might inspire some imaginative play that allows you to ignore him and focus on reading clever web sites.

Put toys in the bucket. Let him eat a snack in the bucket. Turn the bucket over and stack blocks on it. Hide something under it. Decorate it with sticky notes. Roll it on the kitchen floor.

Faced with all his usual toys, Holden turned toward his faux rattle and rolled it and shook it for 2 days. Here’s how to make this awe-inspiring toy:

1. Wash and remove the label from a Gerber Prune Apple Juice container
2. Let dry (important or it all turns to mush and is fun for noone)
3. Insert about 6 Cheerios or Oatios
4. Leave for baby to discover

And that’s it… I’m not kidding that this thing holds his attention right now better than his wiz-bang “real” toys. He likes to shake it and also roll it around the carpet and the floor.

Scrounge around for some pictures of you and your mate together from when you first started out dating and wooing. Make a collage and put it on the fridge to remember your pre-baby lives.

It can be as easy as tacking up a few old favorites that have been sitting in a drawer (bungee-jumping, wine tasting, skinny dipping?) or as high-tech as you want.

I did this for our dating-aversary using Kodakgallery.com last fall and it was a big hit. If you go this route, you’ll want to pick a square number (4, 9, 25…) to avoid the weird repeat feature. You can use as few as four pictures or as many as a hundred.