Advice

Everyone loves to give advice, few people actually like to hear it. I usually count that to be true for me, but as I've been to my zillionth baby shower and I'm still learning things, I think I'll be glad to have a gaggle of women in the area that have 'been there, done that' and already tried all of the brands of all of the swaddles and diapers and butt pastes.

Baby showers take up a lot of my time, I guess that comes with the territory of being friends with late 20's-something couples, almost all of whom are married. A friend recently had her shower and a few months ago she had the brilliant idea to gather all of the tidbits she could from the moms and compile them into a book.

I've decided that I'm going to get my hands on it, package it, and start giving it as a gift to my pregnant friends both here and elsewhere. I know there are millions of books on parenting and pregnancy and babies and baby products, but what could be better than true blue "I tried this and it was awful" or "I tried this and it saved my sanity" from someone you know?

I can't tell you which baby bottle is best for weening, or which cloth diaper brand is best for nursing babies, but I can certainly point you to the women who can - and I know I'll be knocking down their doors one day with questions and looking for hand-me-downs!

What a gift to have such great fellowship and to have the luxury of so many of them going first!

Oh, and another benefit: I just received a great stash of gender neutral baby gift bags from a pregnant friend - it will save us some money for a while, but I bet you $20 I'll run out by the fall!