Baby Registry & Mommy-to-Be Group

A great way to get to know other moms in your position is by taking a childbirth education class. Not only will you get valuable information to prepare you for birth and newborn care, you make great friendships as well! I am a childbirth educator, and love to see when my clients form strong relationships, built around their commonality of being pregnant. Many of my classes go on to form play date groups and/or have reunions once all the babies are born.

My childbirth method is different because I am not only a childbirth educator, I am a doula and a music therapist. I combine all that I know to offer the most well rounded class available. As a therapist, I help couples deal with issues before the baby is born to help fight against post partum depression and marital stress. I use music therapy to help you relax, emotionally prepare, and bond with your baby. Feel free to contact me with any questions. I would love to help you! My website is http://musicbirth.googlepages.com

You can also find me under member perks. Good luck!
M.

Since I too am a first time mommy to be, I am not going to be too much help with your first question. However, I might have an answer to your 2nd question. For the past couple of months I have been participating in prenatal water aerobics held at the Elks Rehabilitation Hospital located on Fort, near St. Luke’s Hospital. The classes are filled will first time moms as well as women with more than one child. Although not a mommy to be group per se, it is a great way to meet women who are in the same stage as you are. It is also a great and fun way to get low impact exercise designed especially for pregnant women. In case you are interested you can contact St. Luke’s at ###-###-#### to find further information and register for the class. If water aerobics in not your thing they also offer prenatal yoga classes.

Another option is to start a mommy to be group. It could be a lot of fun and I would be interested in participating, so I am sure that there are other women who would love to get involved in something like this too.

Welcome to Boise!

The whole registry thing is so tricky. There are thousands of products in various price ranges. It's a fine line between wanting the best and wanting what's practical and affordable. Start off by creating a registry at Babies R Us. First, the are located all around the country and it'll be easy for your family and friends to shop there or online. Their products are all reasonably priced and you can find just about everything there. Most importantly, they give you the ultimate checklist of things you might possibly need.

When you're going through the list, ask yourself whether or not the item seems practical for long-term use (more than 1 month) or if you could find it combined with another item for a 2-in-1 or 3-in-1 product (like a play yard that starts off as a mat, converts to an exersaucer, then a play table). Then read read read all of the reviews on products that you can find. Babies R Us has user reviews as does Amazon. Use common sense when buying baby products - what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. For instance, how practical does a wipe warmer really sound?

I will suggest a couple of indispensible items that I wish I had before - a stylish nursing cover that didn't slip off of my shoulders and a baby sling. I'm 21 weeks pregnant with baby #3 and I've purchased a nursing cover that is just like a poncho and I've got 3 different slings requested on my wish list for the shower.

As far as the Mommy-to-be groups, I'm not aware of any in the Boise area, but I can suggest the new moms group that St. Lukes offers at both their Meridian and Boise locations. It's a great way to meet brand new moms going through all of the same issues as you. Heck, you can always email me too - I'm a SAHM in Meridian and I don't know anyone in my circle of friends that's expecting (although now that I'm pregnant, they are all talking about having another).

Cheers!

The best thing I found was the pregnancy swimming class and yoga class and Idaho Elks center. Just call them and tell them you are interested in this (I think it might have been through St. Lukes, I honestly don't remember) This was a great class to keep me feeling good during the pregnancy and meet women going through the same things as me. As the class progresses (mainly swimming) you get advice from the experienced moms and get to know people who have due dates close to yours. This was how we found the people for our first play group. If you can only do one the swimming is much more social. (the one at the elks was better for me then the one at the Y because of the heated pool and it was less hectic.)
I registered at Target and BabysRus and that worked for us.