Pregnancy advice and a local baby boom

Isn’t it funny how life runs along in tandem.

Baby booms

2009-2012 were some baby boom years, and strangely 2011 saw lots of babies born or due to my old schoolmates and friends who lived in the same road growing up.  My old next door neighbours had 3 grandchildren due that year. All in, 8 of us from one village road growing up had children in that one year…and that’s just the ones we knew about.

Given I was one of the first to give birth, one of them, and another friend did ask me for pregnancy advice.

Pregnancy advice

The most important thing I think is to relax during pregnancy, especially if you’re usually quite stressed out or a bit of a drama queen.

When I was pregnant I didn’t want to be stressed out and end up with a really demanding baby who wouldn’t settle.  I’d seen friends with older children, and noticed how they and their children were from a young age.

The friends who were higher maintenance and stressful types, tended to have babies with colic, or who wouldn’t sleep or settle. Who had to keep a strict routine and try the more forceful techniques like Gina Ford that some people don’t like.  I was personally all for Gina Ford having heard so many friends rave about her advice and how it worked for them (unfortunately N wouldn’t play ball and do the routine I was trying – he worked out his own routine that wasn’t far from Gina’s methods).

In contrast the babies and children who seemed more laid back, more easy to deal with and look after, had parents who I regarded as more relaxed. Who just went with the flow.

[bctt tweet=”My theory is chilled out mum = chilled out baby #parentingadvice ” username=”etusty”]

My theory is chilled out mum equals chilled out baby. It’s certainly true of many of my friends and their babies.  I tried to chill out in pregnancy and it seemed to work for us. N was a pretty contented baby and has continued that way so far.

How did you deal with pregnancy? What advice would you give to pregnant women?