You have forgotten what your toes look like, turning over comfortably in bed is a dim and distant memory and you'll wear anything as long as it's comfortable - you are eight or nine months in to your pregnancy journey and you are about to embark on one of the biggest challenges you will ever experience in your life. The reality of impending motherhood and all the changes that it will bring can be daunting but we here at Babyblooms have a couple of suggestions for a few fun things that you can do in the last couple of months before baby arrives to help celebrate this stage of pregnancy.
First of all you can start to drop sizeable hints about how fantastic it would be to have a baby shower. You can of course plan your own shower, this is a great way to make sure you have no unpleasant surprises and if you enjoy organising these sort of events then go for it, but if you would rather sit with your feet up and let others plan for you, a few well-placed hints to your best friend or mum should get the ball rolling.
There are a couple of things about a baby shower to bear in mind however. As the mum-to-be you may want to make sure that the shower does not take place at your house. Well-meaning friends may think it will be easier for you not to have to leave home but you definitely do not want to be stuck with all the tidying up, so you may want to subtly suggest it is held elsewhere. You may also want to have some input into the theme of the shower, this will be an event that you will look back on with great fondness in the coming years, and a naff theme may put a bit of a downer on the day! Also, don't be worried about making some suggestions for suitable gifts for the shower, your friends and family will want to buy gifts for you and the new arrival, and a list from you will be an enormous help. Finally, it is a really lovely idea to leave a keepsake book out for all the guests to write a message for your new baby. This is something that you can add to as baby grows and will make a beautiful memento to look back on.
A baby shower is much more than a party, it is about rejoicing in friendship and celebrating the start of the journey into motherhood. It is strengthening a vital support network that you will need as you embark on those tricky first few months and beyond. So whatever the theme or location, the most important part of the shower is to relax and enjoy spending time with friends and family before baby's arrival.
Another fun thing to consider in these last few months of pregnancy is enrolling you and your partner on a course of antenatal classes such as those provided by the NCT. The information they provide is useful but the most fantastic part is meeting other new mums (and dads) in your immediate area. When you all start the course you have nothing in common apart from a similar due date but if you are lucky enough to get on as a group then you may well form lifelong friendships. Nothing beats sharing the highs and lows of coping with a new baby with someone else going through it at the same time, you will laugh and cry together in equal measure and in the end a friendship forged in this furnace of emotions will last forever. You will also eat a lot of cake....
Finally, if you have worked through your pregnancy you will be approaching the start of your maternity leave. You may feel that once you have stopped working you still have a lot to organise for the baby, you may be thinking of ways you can keep busy before the birth. We have only one piece of advice for you here and that is to make sure you set aside plenty of time to put your feet up. Sit on the sofa, eat chocolates and watch daytime telly, sit in the bath with a cup of tea and a good book or relax in the garden in the sunshine. None of these things will be possible for the next 10 years so do as many of them as you can before baby arrives!
There is an old adage that it takes a village to raise a child and in our twenty-first century lives we often live away from our extended families. So in these last few weeks of pregnancy take time to connect with friends both old and new, put your feet up and enjoy the peace and quiet and get ready for the adventure ahead!