4/5/13

Planning for life's great events... I need your help!


Are you a planner or a procrastinator?  Did you have your wedding planned out beforeyou met your mate? Was your nursery painted and polished before the end ofyour first trimester? Or like me, are you a procrastinator that believes in lettingthings just kind of work themselves out? 

For both my wedding and my son's nursery I just kind of letthings work themselves out.  Andthankfully in both situations, things worked themselves out perfectly.  My sister and FTD planned the wedding, rightdown to my dress, and as most of you know, FTD completely designed Oliver’ssuper Star Wars themed nursery.  However,now that both are said and done, I regret not having more of a hand in them.Lucky for me, I may get a chance to redo both!




For starters, when FTD and I were married not only were mypersonal touches missing from the wedding, FTD’s family was missing too.  At the time it was just too expensive to flyhis family over, so we promised to have a second wedding in Australia, more or lessrenew our vows and have a grand reception. 

This next time around I am going to be aplanner and not a procrastinator!  Rightdown to deciding on the venue, dress and details.  Will wechoose a beautiful grand reception hall like Ballara Receptions  or just do a laid-back beach thing?  I realize now that for my wedding I was sooverwhelmed by the zillions of details, I was ready to take the easy way outand elope.  Fail… I learned that it is worth the planning to create memorable and perfect.

As for the fail on the nursery, I was freaking about thewhole becoming a mom thing.  I was happyto sit back and let FTD create his dream Star Wars Nursery.  Well, if/when we have baby number two, I amgoing to create my dream nursery, complete with sweet baby things… no DeathStars or R2D2s!

Why am I telling you all of this you ask? Because there is one more thing you may not know about me. I am also a public speaking Queen. I love public speaking.  I alwayshave. I can stand up in front of a crowd a 500 and talk about anything you askme to.  I am pretty sure this hassomething to do with my entitlement issues I am always telling you about.  If I have something to say, I am sure someonewants to hear about it! 

In May I am attending a Maternity Fair where I will be theKeynote Speaker.  I have been asked totalk about Planning for Pregnancy-TheGood, The Bad and The Ugly.  Thanks to my 'Tired of being Pregnant' blogging days I can do that for sure! However,when I start to plan my speech, I can’t help but think back to how I did not planat all… Hell,  I had no idea what to plan for! So the one thing I want to make sure I do at this event is to guarantee Ilet these poor unsuspecting women (and men), know the most important things toplan for, namely some of the things I wish I had planned for. 

So this is where you come in… Any things you wish you wouldhave better planned for?  Any things youwish someone would have told you?  Or,for those of you who read my pregnancy blog, Tired of Being Pregnant, what weresome of the things that helped you the most?


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Two confused parents=One amused baby Hopelessly we are trying raise a baby who is clearly smarter than both of us. April is an award-winning writer and blogger. Her work has been published in over ten countries and four languages. From books to newspapers, to print/online magazines and everything in between, you can find her work. For more on April, Visit AprilMcCormick.com

8 comments:

foodpixie said...

Here is a blog post I wrote about what I wish I had planned for, The Postpartum Period. I would recommend these things to any expecting Mommy or Daddy in a heartbeat.

http://lifewithbabyandme.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-would-make-postpartum-period-easier.html

Kristy J said...

I was prepared for everything :-) JUST KIDDIN!!!!! Seriously there are a few things.
I wish I would have read more about the circumcision(not what they do but how the baby reacts, what to look for, what to do when the Lidocaine wore off, etc..) We were going to be the "no pacifier" parents that lasted until the Lidocaine wore off, we were scrambling. AJ didn't sleep for EIGHT hours. I was so exhausted and it was only our second day together.
The other part I wish I would have been more prepared for was breastfeeding. It was so painful and took the whole 8 weeks before I didn't want to off myself every time the kiddo wanted to eat. I never knew if the latch was right. I never knew if it was ok just because there was a little mishape to the nipple. It was question after question.
I think maybe in the states there are more resources and options available, just throwing my 2 cents in there.

Unknown said...

Okay, things I wish I'd planned for/ things I'm glad I planned for. Firstly, things I'm glad I planned for;
*for the big event itself, a bag with handcream, lipbalm and warm socks in it
*having a dummy (pacifier) ready
*having the cot ready to go even though we used a hammock at first
*massive stock of baby nappies, wipes, washing powder, dishwashing supplies
*soft tissues, super soft toilet paper and...erm... plenty of maternity driptrays. Gross, but SO good to have it ready to go.

Things I WISH I’d planned for;
*medicine! Gripe water for the first gassy tummy, pamol (painkiller) for the first fever, bonjela teething gel for the first teething pains
*reading material/audiobooks for the long nights up with hungry baby
*mama neurosis while driving – a well placed mirror hanging over the headrest solves this one
*warm slippers for the endless trips up the hall at night time, either to feed baby, change baby, or just watch baby sleep
*a kneepad for bathing baby in the big tub

Favourite TOBP posts:
*Hate my husband
*Mommy fails
*All the preggie symptom ones – gas, bloating, cravings, morning sickness, tiredness, crankiness
*Oh, and to get all touchy feeling, the one when you first had Ollie.

FirstTimeMomandDad.com said...

This Post is Awesome! Thank you!!

FirstTimeMomandDad.com said...

LOVE your Two Cents! SO SO SO true. Nursing was SO hard for me too. I was worried about all of the same things and never sure if Ollie was getting enough milk. So stressful!

FirstTimeMomandDad.com said...

OMG!! SHAY!!! KISSES!! Thank you so much for this comment. SUCH a big help. you. you. I love you. xx

Ned said...

Hmmm.. I don;t have much help to offer her but I would definitely like to say that you are going to kick ass that the Maternity Fair.. I know you are!!
and I would love to see the revamped nursery and the wedding pictures when that happens..

FirstTimeMomandDad.com said...

Thanks a lot Ned. I really appreciate the encouragement!