My former nanny is 9.5 months pregnant as of this writing. She posted this lovely photo of her San Francisco apartment on Facebook last week.

The flags above the birthtub were made by her friends to welcome her baby.

This post is part of a series sponsored by Philips AVENT in support of the launch of the double electric Comfort Pump.

Pumping breast milk was still a mystery to me as I made secret lists of baby names and notified my boss of my pregnancy. I learned about it when my co-worker Mimi, newly back to work after having her first baby, invited me over to her house to show me the ropes of having a newborn.  That those ropes would include a tour of her freezer was totally news to me.

What rookie moms need to know about going back to work while breastfeeding:

1- You will need to own a breast pump. This is a device with a small motor that uses suction to extract milk from your breasts into bottles. (Not shown in this picture is the plug.)Place the suction cups over your breasts and press the power button. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, goes the pump, squeezing your nipples, making milk flow through the funnel into the bottle. When you are finished, you’ll unscrew the bottle tops that have the funnels attached and replace them with a regular flat cap for storing the bottles in a lunchbox or small cooler during the rest of your workday. At home, remove the flat cap and replace with a rubber nipple. Now someone else can feed your baby breast milk from the bottle.

2- Pumping will require a private place to be and a 15-20 minutes break a couple of times each day. Your company is probably legally required to supply this for you and if you are not the first woman to go back to work and continue nursing at your workplace, your HR person will know exactly what you need and help you make it happen. If you work at a big enough place, ask someone who has already taken a maternity leave to show you how she does it. [Read the stories we've compiled in our pumping project to feel less alone.]

3- Stockpiling milk during your maternity leave is a really good idea. Thanks to Mimi’s advice, I began pumping about a month before returning to work. My goal was to have enough milk in my freezer to provide a cushion so that when I went back to work, I didn’t have so much pressure to produce the same amount of milk my baby was consuming in my absence from the get-go.  Pumping takes some practice. Getting used to the pump at home will help you relax more when you return to work.

4- Buy some Sharpies. You may develop a different system, but here’s what I did: Locked myself in the “Maternity” closet at my office; pumped into the bottles that came with my breast pump; stored them in a small lunch bag in my office’s refrigerator; brought the lunch bag and my pump home each day; transferred breastmilk into resealable bags for storing in the freezer; washed and dried bottles and pump parts for the next day. I would use a Sharpie to mark the date on the bag. When my husband or nanny used milk from the freezer, they would use the oldest bag first. Breast milk can be reheated from a frozen state for up to four months.

5- You get what you get and you don’t get upset. KIDDING! You will definitely get upset at some point. Frustrating things that pumping moms face are: inconveniently timed work activities that compromise your pumping schedule; having to remember to bring all the components to work each day — and that one time you forget the lunchbox and have to hide a bottle of breast milk in a mug of ice in your desk drawer; producing less milk than you hoped for; co-workers not understanding your need to pump. Other pumping moms will have experienced those disappointments. Feel free to complain to us.

While this post is sponsored by Philips AVENT, all advice and experiences are my own. Heather and I pumped for five breastfed babies between us and we strongly believe that whether you’re going to pump for a couple of months or a whole year, you should treat yourself to a good double electric pump. You’ll be glad you did. (Read more about the Philips AVENT Comfort Pump on Amazon.com >)

Photo Credit: dianaschnuth via Compfight cc

Did you or do you keep a pregnancy journal? Unless you count this here blog, I did not. Geralyn Broder Murray created a diary with sweet illustrations and thought starters to help you remember the agony and — in dreams with Ryan Gosling — ecstasy of pregnancy.

Because those memories fade (which is why some of us go on to have more children), Geri shares her illustrations and some tips for remembering to remember the small moments.

Here are a few ways mamas-to-be can get the most out of their pregnancy journals:

- Carry the pregnancy journal in your purse - this way you can jot down a few notes very quickly while waiting at a doctor’s appointment/car wash/check-out line.

- Collect those little scraps of pregnancy memorabilia to attach inside the journal later – an ultrasound pic, a belly pic, a shower invite or kind note from a friend.

-Be candid. This journal is for you and you alone. Don’t be afraid to share what’s really happening with you and your baby; you don’t want to look back on simply a good pregnancy story – you want to look back on your pregnancy story.

I have a nine-year old and a six-year old. What that means is that I was pregnant FOREVER ago; before sleeping through the night and first steps and first bites and potty training and swim lessons and T-ball. It also means that what I remember of being pregnant – those precious months – are pretty much that my stomach was huge (both times!) and that I was by turns nauseous and ravenous.

I wish, truly wish, that I remembered so much more – more of what it felt like when the baby was moving, hiccupping, rib-tickling me, and what it was like to attach dreams to a little person who was still only theoretical and fully contained. I really think those nine months deserve to have a sweet little chronicle of their very own.

From Pea to Pumpkin can be found at www.peatopumpkin.com and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/PeaToPumpkin

My baby sleeps in a windowless closet. For reals. Since we moved to a bigger house this past summer, he no longer shares his bedroom with my office, but he didn’t get any more space in the bargain. Let me take you on a tour.

Though it is a rather large closet, it is a terribly small bedroom. If you stand in the middle of it, you can touch every piece of furniture. To your immediate right against the wall is the full-size crib; but, don’t trip over the glider getting there. Beneath the crib, we have plastic bins for outgrown clothes and out-of-season-stuff. Behind the glider hides the perma-iPod that functions as a white noise machine and a video monitor aimed at the baby’s sleeping face (that we stopped using months ago).

Straight ahead is the small set of cubbies I bought from Target that holds books, toys, wipes, burp cloths, a coaster for baby bottles, and a small lamp (also from Target). As you can see, the stuff we need to grab for diaper changes is to the left and what we want for storytime is to the right.

To your left is the changing table. We keep all the diapers and supplies in the top drawer so they are within easy reach of the adult but not the kicking feet of the baby. Also? No need to mount any shelves on the wall. [Side note for interested germaphobes: I pretend that the froggy changing pad cover helps folks know which end the baby's head is supposed to be as opposed to his bum. I'm sure it totally works.]

Next to the changing table is the laundry bin and garbage cans. Because we compost diapers, we have one diaper pail for those and another trash for regular garbage.

And that’s it. Now we’ve spun all the way back to the beginning again. I tried to use my phone’s panorama perspective to capture the entire room at once.

This photo cracks me up because the super long perspective makes it almost look big. And the wobble around the boys shows how completely unable I am to hold the camera in a straight line. So, don’t worry, it’s a standard glider and the boys are just fine.

The noise-minimizing rug is 5×7 and almost fills the room. I added it to absorb some baby sounds; it kinda works. And I’m sure on some level the “no windows” is getting Sawyer to sleep later.

Do you have any more tips for my super little baby room?

Natalie Gordon runs an amazing resource for expectant moms and dads: BabyList (babyli.st) is a totally custom baby registry that let’s you ask for anything that you want: maid service, spare batteries, those cute hand-crocheted booties from etsy, and a crib? Yes times four. She offered us her best insight in how to get your baby shower attendees to get you the stuff you really need. And we said, yes times four!

I was already obsessed with keeping your friends and family from going rogue when I received this email from one of our baby registry users:

“With our first baby, hardly anyone used our gift registry and we ended up with a lot of… well, a lot of crap. Do you have any advice on how to get people to actually use the registry?”

Yes! There are things that you can do to nudge people into buying off of your baby registry. We have a lot of data (over 8k baby registries created with over 400k items and over 55k purchases).

1. Choose stuff at different price points
Your co-worker who isn’t coming to the baby shower still wants to get you small gift. Having “gifty” things at the $10-15 price-point is perfect. Great ideas – board books, bubble bath, baby hats, cute onesies, bath-time toys. Here are a few good ones:

• Burt’s baby bee bubble bath
• Sticky bellies monthly milestone stickers
• Dandelion baby mittens
• Soft bath toys
• Adorable Xylosaurus onesie
• Cloth peek-a-boo forest book

30% of items purchased off of baby registries are less than $15.

Someone (maybe your grandma or your mother-in-law) will get you the big-ticket items. Cribs, crib mattresses, bedding, highchairs are all things that those close to you want to help out with. Make sure to ask for the big things so a generous relative doesn’t end up getting you 20 different small things. Here are a few bigger ticket items to consider:

• Dwell Studio mid-century modern crib (vintage style not actual age)
• Skip Hop polka dot mod crib bedding
• Graco car seat
• Ergo baby carrier
• Beaba Babycook baby food maker
• Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair

10% of items purchased off of baby registries are more than $100.

2. Add a note
Some registries let you add a note to each item. Use it! If you were buying a gift for a precious newborn to welcome it to the world would you really get it something “boring” (aka useful) or something “lovely” (aka impractical). Does anyone really want to buy you a humidifier? Not really. But with a note like, “This will be a huge help if Junior gets a cold. And we’ve even heard that it helps babies sleep better!” Now your friend is able to get you the gift of SLEEP! It’s priceless.

If an item has a note beside it, it is 50% more likely to be purchased off the registry compared to an item with no note.

3. Ask for gift certificates
Do you have friends who leave things to the last minute. Give them an out by asking for a gift certificate. They can print it out the morning of the shower and avoid a last-minute rush to a store.

9.0% of baby registries include gift cards.

4. Make sure everything is in-stock
Before you send out your registry info check that everything on your registry is still in-stock. Baby clothes are notorious for going out-of-stock when the seasons change.

Huge thank you to Natalie for sharing her insight. Natalie’s awesome site, BabyList, is an online baby registry that lets you put items onto it from any store. She is obsessed with keeping your friends and family from going rogue. Find out what your budding family really needs with their new personalized baby registry checklist.

Cara is a contributor to our other blog, {510} Families, and is fast becoming an expert not on “what to do with (and without!) your baby,” but rather, “what to do while pregnant and on bedrest when you have another child.”  She offered to share her lessons learned with us.

At exactly 26 weeks pregnant, I had pre-term contractions. Thankfully with medicine and IV hydration, they slowed and eventually stopped.  However, I have been on bed rest ever since (almost 6 weeks now) and will be until I reach 36 weeks.  So how does one keep from going crazy while on bed rest and with a 4 year old?  The biggest credit goes to my awesome husband  for adjusting his work schedule (he’s a PhD student and is teaching this semester) as much as possible, so he is here almost every hour that my daughter isn’t in preschool.  Lifesaver!

Here are the rest of the ways I keep from losing my mind and going completely stir crazy about the fact that I haven’t been outside my house in a month other than for doctor’s appointments.

Try not to think about the fact that you haven’t been outside your house in a month.

Write a guest post for one of your favorite blogs. (Editor’s note: Yes!)

Shop online.  The combination of bed rest with holiday shopping and deals has been a bad, bad combo over here.  My neighbor recently said, “I have a box show up every day with all this holiday shopping!” and my husband and I just laughed, since we have many boxes showing up every day. It keeps me entertained! (This is my favorite site for finding the best deals)

Catch up on photo albums/scrapbooking. When my daughter was born, I began using a scrapbooking system called Project Life.  It makes documenting every day (or less often if you wish) totally easy and yet, not surprisingly, I had fallen way behind.  I am seizing this opportunity to print hundreds of photos to fill in the gaps on 4 years’ of life and get them all into the album, as well as captioning them. It has been a much-needed emotional boost as I see all the fun my daughter and I had when she was tiny and I imagine what this little guy I’m working so hard to keep inside will do.

Journal.   Most of my writing has been catching up on my Project Life albums, but I have also done some writing in a pregnancy journal as well as writing letters to my little guy.

Play with your kids.  When my 4-year-old daughter is at home, I try to do things with her other than watching TV. Just because Mommy has to stay in bed, that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything good. My daughter and I have done LOTS of coloring, paper dolls, crafting, reading, game-playing, and movie-watching. The key to our sanity is ensuring that she go stir-crazy, so my husband takes her on lots of outings and we’ve kept her enrolled in activities, just like I normally would during the week (I’m a stay-at-home mom).

Watch a lot of movies/TV shows.  Netflix streaming is a must if you are on bedrest.  You’ll thank me, I promise. When nobody is home, I power through television like nobody’s business. Among other things, I’ve watched almost three full seasons of Cheers (often while working on photo albums) and a handful of documentaries.

Do crafty things. I already liked hands-on projects so I made an advent calendar, sewed Christmas ornaments, and have colored in a coloring book a LOT.

Read and read and read and read.  A friend loaned me four books, and when I returned them a week later she said, “Wow, you do have a lot of time on your hands!” And that wasn’t even the sum total of what I read that week!  I’ve read both fun books and more “serious” books since I have the time.

Take your friends up on their offers of help.  People are SO willing to help, seriously.  I don’t ever like feeling like a burden.  I like doing things myself and helping others, so this one was a little hard at first, but then I realized that people were offering because they cared and really wanted to help.  So yeah, I’ll let you watch my daughter while my husband and I go to the doctor.  And, yes, please do come knock on my door and invite my daughter out to play with your kids.  And chocolate cupcakes delivered to my door?  Thank you!  One friend offered to bring me lunch — when you’re on bedrest and experiencing cravings from restaurants, this is a delightful offer.

Stay social. Thank goodness for e-mail, the phone, and Facebook to keep from feeling completely isolated from the outside world.  I’ve also read many more news articles and blogs than I normally do, letting myself follow the rabbit trails that an article posted on Facebook takes me down.

Crossword puzzles.  I like crossword puzzles (and all those kinds of word and logic puzzles) and always buy a magazine of them when I travel, so I have many on hand that are only partially completed — it’s a way to keep my brain stimulated. (Editor’s note: A book of puzzles is a nice, specific response for those who ask “What can I bring you?”)

Blog.   The grandparents would disagree, I’m sure, but I’ve tried to keep up with our private family blog a bit better while I’m on bedrest. Yeah, I’m failing, but my heart is in the right place.

Let yourself feel just a little bit bad for yourself every once in a while.  It’s okay to feel a little bummed out that this is happening.  It’s a bummer.  It isn’t normal, and that’s always a little hard.

Live vicariously through others.  After telling me about her dinner plans, my mom said “I’m not trying to make you feel bad about not getting out of the house!”  Hardly!  I wanted to know all the details of where they were going and had fun living vicariously and looking forward to the day when my husband and I will celebrate either my being off bedrest or our little guy’s arrival with a dinner out…maybe just at Rubio’s or something quick and cheap, but still OUT!

Enjoy the restful/alone times while they last.  This is the one I’ve tried to stay focused on. While it can be boring and crazy-making, it is also a really restful time in my life.  Those moments when my daughter is at preschool and my husband is at work, I can play music, read, nap, or watch something with no internal guilt over “I should be DOING something.”  Those busy days will come again. There will be a newborn and I will be washing dishes, doing laundry, cooking and cleaning again — for now, I rest.

Thank you, Cara! Heather wrote about finding the fun in bedrest in the past but she was totally speculating.

Were any of you on bedrest during your pregnancy? If you’re on bedrest right now, be sure to say “hello”!

My fellow Americans, history is upon us. It’s an election year. If you have a newborn in the house, it can be like living under a rock for several months. But you can still be in on the fun.

I suggest you throw a debate-watching party to reconnect with your childfree friends. You supply the house and TV, your guests bring the pizza or real food and dessert. TiVo makes this kind of event easier, but it’s not essential.

Here are some games you can play to keep the party lively:

• Baby chooses the president. Take note of which debater makes your baby more fussy. Vote for the other ticket.
• Mommy bingo. The good folks at Mom’s rising have put together a bingo game. Score when someone mentions a key word for moms. Fun and informative.
• Old school drinking game. Suggest everyone drink when the moderator has to say “now be specific.”

The final presidential debate is Monday October 22 at 9pm eastern/6pm pacific time and last for 90 minutes on many many channels. For upping the nerd factor, follow along on twitter at #debate or #2012debate.

It’s social, it’s political, and it’s no fuss for you. No cooking, no dishes, good times. Go ahead and compost those paper plates and biodegradable corn “plastic” ware.

You’ll see from the comments that I originally posted this in 2008!

I’m gonna file this under preschooler, because Julian and I had a good time making this adorable paper flag banner for his room when he was about 3, but I’ll also tag it with prenatal, because I made a similar flag banner for Scarlett’s room before she was born. I made the one for Scarlett out of fabric, though.

The picture here is of the results you get if you use the kit sold by the Paper Source.

The ingredients for the kit are so basic, you can really just do it on your own. Then end result is a colorful string of flags that can be tacked up on a wall for a quick, festive decoration.

What you need:

1) enough scrapbooking paper, wrapping paper, or magazine pages from which to cut 15 flags.

2) enough string or ribbon to accommodate 15 hanging flags.

3) glue

Cut this shape out of your selected paper.

Bend over the top portion so that the sides line up with the sides of the bottom triangle. And please excuse my Photoshopping.

Apply glue to the touching parts of the paper.

Place the flap over your string and press together so that your flag is glued in place. If you are using thick paper, you may need to put your drying flags under a stack of books so that the flap stays folded over until secure. Repeat.

Fabric garland

I’m sure there are versions that look more fancy and finished, so I’ll describe this fabric banner as quick and dirty. The material is heavier than cotton meant for quilting. I guess it’s upholstery-weight fabric.

I cut triangles with pinking shears, half from one pattern, half from a different pattern in the same color palette.  Then I sewed one long stitch across the top. Ideally you’d have a long piece of complimentary-colored ribbon and use that to both secure the triangles and to tie to some nails in the wall.  But this method resulted in a banner that has held up for more than five years, and I think it took me about ten minutes to make. It helped me turn my gender neutral nursery into a baby girl’s room. (The crib used to be where that play kitchen now stands.)

This post is part of our Makin’ It series. Want to make something else? Check out the whole list of DIY projects for parents.

I saw this cute personalized baby blanket made by Two Tinas* on Daily Candy years ago, and I thought, “I can do that!”

Well, I was half right. Though it counts as easy sewing, it took me a team to get it done. I first tried to make one for my niece and required my MIL’s mad sewing and quilting skillz to finish in time.

Planning the blanket was fun. I liked picking soft fabric and colors. But between my mild fear of the sewing machine and my lazy measuring style, I needed back-up. My MIL helped me source the materials, cut out the pieces (thank you!), and got me started with a few practice stitches. Sadly, she left me with several pieces of my project pinned to each other but still unattached.

The kicker is that you need to know the baby’s name (or initial) in order to begin the sewing. See my final thoughts below.

Five years later, when Sawyer was born, I had the materials at the ready for a new blanket. So, I just waited for my MIL to come back to town, and VOILA,  a half hour later — a gorgeous handmade blanket!

The upshot is that if you’re a wiz with the sewing machine, you should make this snazzy blanket yourself. And if not, maybe your mama can come help you when you’re on maternity leave and she’s looking for projects around the house. After she’s filled your freezer and cleaned the bath tub a second time.

Materials needed:

1. 1 yard of adorable flannel patterned material (can be made into swaddle blanket if you give up!)
2. 1 yard of soft, fuzzy baby minkie material
3. 1 foot of soft wide-wale corderoy in complementary color (for the circle)
4. 1 foot of soft-ish black denim or felt (for the initial)
5. Stitch-witchery or other iron-on adhesive
6. Enough quality thread for sewing it up
7. Patience, tenacity, a working sewing machine

Materials alone were about $50, as much as buying a nice one. But I got enough for two blankets.

Steps:

1. Print a template letter. Use Word to make a super huge lowercase letter in a serif font until you’re happy. Print and cut the template. Cut out the letter on the black material exactly.

2. Cut out pieces. I traced a dinner plate to get my circle round and of a good size. I cut my letter based on the template plus a second shadow letter in a different color (optional). I cut squares as big as I could evenly get them. Hey, I told you measuring wasn’t my strength.

3. Attach the letter and circle. Use iron-on adhesive to attache the letter(s) to the circle. Run it through the sewing machine to make it extra secure.

4. Sew the circle to the flannel. Attach the circle around the edges to the flannel material. You’re almost done.

5. Sew the front to the back of the blanket together. Lay out the two squares of fabric so the right-side-outs are facing each other. Pin it so it doesn’t wiggle. Stitch around the perimeter 3 1/2 sides. Squish the whole blanket together and force it through the hole so you can see the blanket right-side-out. Tuck in the ragged edges and stitch the rest together.

6. (OPTIONAL) Quilt it together even more. If you know what that means, do it. If not, no big.

Final thoughts:
Though I truly love my finished product, I found that waiting for babies to be born in order to do the initial frustrating. Since the letter is the first step. In keeping with Whitney and my theory that monogrammed gifts are problematic, I suggest either giving this blanket “special lovey status” (meaning it never needs to be shared) or going with the last initial instead of the first (Warning: be sure you know the baby’s last name! This is not always obvious).

Dalia relaxes in Central Park on my blanket. Success.

* As far as I can tell, The Two Tinas are no longer making these blankets either. Do you suppose they got frustrated waiting for babies to be born before they could get started?

It’s no secret that Heather and I (and our husbands) are big fans of Dr. Harvey Karp. His 5 S-technique of soothing a newborn infant seemed like genius secrets we never could have come up with on our own. We recommend watching his DVD, The Happiest Baby on the Block during the last two weeks of pregnancy and again in the first few weeks of the baby’s life.

Then, in toddlerhood, he gave us more practical advice: talk like a caveman! While talking like a caveman feels idiotic, having that trick in my back pocket helped me out during some serious toddler tantrums. (Scarlett wants more bath! But Mommy said “No”! Scarlett is mad! Scarlett wants more! bath! right! now!) I still use a modified version of his strategy with Scarlett, repeating back what she wants so that she knows she’s being heard. For all the details, you gotta read the book.

On June 21 at 7.30 pm, hundreds of movie theaters across the country are going to host a Parents Night Out during which Harvey Karp will explain his slick parenting moves to the audience. (Click here for a list of participating theaters.) This is a one-night only event. Tickets are available now, and attendees will also receive free swaddling blankets.

I think this sounds like a great event for expectant parents. Tell your pregnant friends!

Hey there rookie moms and dads, I want you to think about your most vulnerable moments as a new or expecting parent. We all have them. Did you hire help in the form of an in-home baby nurse or doula? How did you know what you didn’t know? I was so lucky with my rookie baby that my sister was my birth doula, but after that I was pretty much on my own struggling alongside of RookieDad Alec to figure it out on the job.

Rate your baby nurse is a new website that allows parents to rate infant caregivers, doulas, and night nurses to help the other families trying to hire the right person.

The site’s founder, Melissa, had a truly frustrating experience hiring such a person when she was superpregnant with her daughter. She found the experience of hiring an in-home newborn nurse fraught with stress and mystery and was let down by one particularly unreliable nurse. She created a website for parents to exchange information to help the next parents in her shoes.

Did you love your baby nurse or doula? Share your personal experiences to pay it forward to other new parents struggling to choose a baby nurse. Currently available to residents of US and Canada.

You can follow @RateUrBabyNurse on twitter to find out more.

I had heard about the Dunstan Baby Language as “the woman who speaks baby talk on Oprah” several years ago. It sounded like a brilliant idea, but without my own crying baby, there wasn’t much opportunity — or drive — to test it.

I flirted with the idea of buying the DVDs a few times when I was pregnant with my third baby only to talk myself out of such a gimmicky purchase.

Then, during a particularly stressful 3am shrieking fit (his, not mine), I one-click ordered it. Yes, in the middle of the night. I was so desperate to understand what my five-week old crying baby was trying to tell me and how I could fix it that I would have speed-dialed Priscilla Dunstan herself and invited her over if I knew how. Such desperation also caused me to reread all the parenting books that I assumed I had graduated. I had freshly dogeared copies of all my old favorites in nearly every room of the house. Insanity, I tell you.

So, then what?

Within two days, a package of two DVDs arrived at my house. I was so relieved to see them. Priscilla Dunstan, the baby lady, advises you to watch the first DVD and practice before moving on to the second one. Luckily, each of the two lessons is less than 20 minutes because c’mon folks, I need answers NOW. I watched the first video lesson immediately and waited another day to watch the second.

Just like I already knew, she outlined five different baby “words” and their meaning. To make it easier to hear the words, several different babies made each of the sounds. I honed in on the key differences just like she suggested. She also offered helpful parenting tips to calm fussy babies for each of the different scenarios.

I summarized my new learnings for Alec and the big brothers too, both to further internalize the sounds and to get more allies in solving Sawyer’s issues.

Does it work? 

Yes and no. I recognized most of the sounds and was able to give more immediate relief to my baby. That part was excellent. Holden and Milo joined me in audio detective work while Sawyer screamed in the minivan during school pickup. We upped our empathy and really paid attention rather than just cranking the Death Cab for Cutie and loudly shushing as we had been doing.

But (and there’s always a but).

My baby made a few cries that sounded nothing at all like her language. And after about six or eight weeks, he stopped sounding like any of the DVD babies.

The bottom line.

Pick up a copy when you’re still pregnant. Study it with your partner and put a cheat-sheet of the baby cries up on your fridge. I think it’s a great tool to have from Day One so watch, listen, learn, and use it immediately because your baby will move beyond these sounds by about two months old.

I highly recommend for a mom’s group to buy and study together for an afternoon or to train your big kids about their new baby sibling.

But if you’re at the six week peak of fussiness, this will not solve your problem. Just tough it out.

Buy Dunstan Baby Language on amazon. Or borrow my copy. I’m not using it anymore!