Shower me — with ideas!

In these last, long days before Baby arrives, I’ve had plenty of time to get organized. There are freshly-washed blankets and towels and sleepers, the cradle is assembled and waiting, the car seat is installed and ready. I have diapers, nursing pads and a new nursing pillow. I’ve run out of things to worry over, except for maybe my water breaking someplace inappropriate or not being able to get to the hospital on time. But since it’s beginning to seem like baby will never actually arrive – and yes, I know I still have more than a week until my due date! – I’m not worried too much about that just yet.

See, don’t I look like I’m ready?

38w1d

So you know what I’m worried about? I’m worried about blog! I know about newborns, I know about blogging — but I’m a little sketchy on the idea of blogging with a newborn! Writing posts these past few weeks has become increasingly difficult as the baby takes over my brain, so I can barely imagine how difficult it will be to think of things to write about after baby arrives – let alone finding the time to do it.

But I’m committed to it, my bloggy friends! I know I can do it, but I need your help. There’s a lot of reasons to celebrate in the next few weeks. In addition to Simon’s birthday on February 1 and the pending arrival of the Player to be Named Later, it’s my bloggy anniversary on February 2 — three years of blogging!!

When a baby arrives, some people give a baby bathtub full of blankets and sleepers and towels (thanks Mom!) and some people make sure you won’t starve in those first bleary days at home with baby (thanks, friends at work!) Now what I really need is some inspiration!

I can blog about just about anything, as I’m sure I’ve proven through endless drivel-filled posts during the last three years. What I need is inspiration, a direction to wander, a place to launch from. In lieu of casseroles or more baby clothes, would you consider giving an idea or two? Ask me a question – about me or about the world. Leave me a link to your favourite meme or something interesting you found online. Suggest a topic, any topic, that I can blog about in the first little while after baby arrives and save me — and yourselves — from two months of posts about sore nipples and an in-depth analysis of the contents of baby’s diapers!

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If you haven’t already done so, today is also the last day you can cast a vote for me in round one of the Canadian Blog Awards! (hint, hint)

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

21 thoughts on “Shower me — with ideas!”

  1. Ooh look at you and PTBNL! Gorgeous!

    I love the thought of giving you ideas but I must pause to consider… I was going to suggest the Top 10 Snoggable Literary Characters because I still haven’t done it yet but I see you did that right in the beginning. I’m reading the Time Traveller’s Wife right now and I know I’ll have to add Henry DeTamble to my list too (that’s why the Top 10 was in my head). I’ve been meaning to do it for ages but I haven’t yet… I have a terrible memory for books and movies so I’m severely handicapped for this meme… still I’m working on it.

  2. Hmmmm. How about some book reviews? I got so much reading done when the girls were newborn. I’d pop them on the boppy pillow and read while breastfeeding. Did you ever get around to reading The Crow Road, btw?

    Book clubs. Do you belong to one? Would you want to?

    Hmmm, kids and sports. How much is too much? Pros and cons of kids in sports. I have my girls enrolled in swimming right now, and it’s sometimes a stretch to get us all ready and there on time, and there are parents I know with kids simultaneously in gymnastics, dance, skating and brownies. Am I doing enough? Are they doing too much?

    Upcoming American election. Do you still have the bumper sticker I sent you? 🙂

    That’s all I got. Hope you’re feeling good here in the home stretch.

  3. I think things to blog about will occur to you. But then, you know me – I like blogging as an art, not an assignment. But then, I haven’t posted in two weeks because I haven’t been inspired. I just think lots of delicious photos of the newborn stuff some of us don’t get to enjoy all that often, like feet that can fit in my mouth, and squashy noses and that happy smile when he’s just fed and drops off to sleep, and itty bitty curly fingers and stuff.

  4. I love your baby belly. 🙂

    Ideas for blogging…um, how about how you manage to cope with two children and a newborn? Or how you manage to cope being the only woman in a house full of boys?

    I’m also curious to hear how the boys adjust to their new brother. Although most times I think we’re finished when it comes to expanding our family, I do have moments where I desperately want a third child. I wonder a lot about how Oliver would fare with a new sibling, and I’d be interested in hearing about the transition from your point of view.

  5. Oh, Dani, you’re beautiful! I remember feeling by the end of my pregnancy that my belly really was getting to look ridiculous and I was losing the “beautiful mama” feeling I’d had for most of 9 months – but you definitely still qualify!

    Personally, I don’t think I would object to an all-baby all-the-time format for a while, but if you insist on changing the subject…

    – do a “round up” – put out a call for weather-related posts, or easy meal-recipes, or photos of some theme word and invite readers to leave a link that relates to it. You could make the theme last a month and I’m sure get a blog post a week out of the links people send you. Which also makes for good promotion, for everyone (including you!)

    – a post on your favourite bevarage / food / time of day / holiday and why

    – a retropsective or highlights of your blogging career

    – a short history of DaniGirl

    – ideas on how to keep the older boys buys while you’re stuck on the couch breastfeeding!

    – what’s different about mommy-hood the third time ’round? I read a lot when I was BFing Jade, too, but there might not be time now…?

    Hmm, I seem to be moving back into newborn baby subject-matter. Ah well, you see that I meant it when I said I don’t mind all-baby all-the-time.

    And I hope that if you can’t post as often as pre-baby, you won’t be distressed about it, because we sure understand!

    Take care of yourself (yourselves!)

  6. When in doubt, visit The Daily Meme. My favourites are Wordless Wednesday and Thursday Thirteen – lists don’t require punctuation the way paragraphs do. Write us a Valentine’s post on the Player’s behalf as though he were appearing on the Dating Game; you could stretch this one out for each of your boys. Tell us what you’re missing from being pregnant (though I’m sure you wouldn’t think of anything to miss today). Tell us about the beauty of dawns and the lovely starry nights that we might be missing with older kids – it’ll help to appreciate them if you are awake with the Player when you’d rather be sleeping. Tell us you’re hanging in, even if that’s all you post on Day 5 (the day most common to be awful for me and my IRL friends) so that we won’t worry too much.

    Beautiful belly, by the way.

  7. First off, you’re gorgeous with that belly. To answer your question: Wordless Wednesday is always a get out of jail free card when you have a newborn. Everyone wants to see pictures, afterall.

  8. Holy. You really ARE twelve months pregnant. See, if you’d kept working til your water broke, you wouldn’t be stressing. Right? Right? :o) I really miss you Dani. I had to crack and go to the food court and then I ate poutine because you weren’t there to nag.

    Food courts though, lead me to my blog post suggestion: best fast food and why you love it. All the gory details, please! Then, how about a nostalgia post on your favourite pastimes as a kid? Your favourite childhood memories? An explanation of who your friends are and who they comment as on your blog?

  9. How wondeful YOU LOOK!
    Now for Blog Idea’s.
    Details of arrival but I’m sure that is a given.
    The boys reaction to seeing the new Player the first time.
    How things have changed in the baby stuff department since Simon was born and since Tristan too.
    A blog on your favorite bands or what’s on your ipod.
    What you would do different if you could do one thing all over again (I would stay in school and not whimp out)
    OK now I’m out of idea’s.

  10. My ideas are mostly all baby related but here goes…

    Jumping off from what Kerry said, how about a post on places where you and your family like to eat or grown-up places you like to (or would like to) go to without the preschool and under crowd? You’ve talked a little about health and fitness, how about your body image now that the PTBNL is on the outside – are you anxious for the weight to come off, do you struggle, do you care when it comes off, is it different this time than the other times?

    How does having 3 live children affect your views on your “subfertility” diagnosis? I remember you wrote a post about Trying and it Not Working so, when you were TTC for the PTBNL, did any of the “infertile” feelings come back up? How often? Was the despair the same? I’m not articulating this one very well. Feel free to ignore it.

    Add my name to the chorus suggesting pictures, too!

    Hmmm… what esle?

    Product reviews of whatever products you happen to be using.

    You could talk about the minivan…Are you still ambivalent about it?

    Your views on post-baby visitors? What’s your policy? How soon do you receive guests after you come home? How long should a visitor stay? How often is too often? Call first vs wait for an invite? Do you make them wash their hands before touching the baby?

    Oooh, I love me a good birth story, too.

    How were the midwives different from your OB? You also mentioned that the midwives have protocols for a potentially “big” baby? What were they?

    I can hardly wait!

  11. *rubbing your belleh*

    Sorry, can’t help myself. You are so beautiful!!!

    I like the Mad Hatter’s idea of Wordless Wednesday. That works. Otherwise, I suspect you will continue to be a brilliant blogger of any subject that you choose.

  12. I’m with Lynn…the birth story would be excellent! And lots of pics of the Player, please. You could do a follow-up to your name post from a month ago and let us know his name and how you and Beloved came to the final decision.

    I would also love to hear your opinions on: living in the suburbs; children participating (or not) in organized sport; how to deal with birth control when you are done having children (I know a lot of men with two or three children who are getting vasectomies right now…); the transition for your older boys to having a new baby in the house; how to deal with sleep deprivation during the newborn months; and anything else that inspires you.

    Love the pic, you look amazing!

  13. What Marla and everyone else said!

    I love the belly photo. If I close my eyes and concentrate, I can feel tPtbNL kick! How exciting!

    (I can’t get enough about newborns.)

  14. How about raising 3 boys, just like me! I’d like to know you plan on raising 3 boys in this day and age. Aren’t ya scared?

  15. Question to answer after the new Player arrives:
    What had you forgotten about newborns, or half-forgotten, that you are enjoying now?
    What are you doing differently this time around? Got any new baby-gear?
    What old favourites are you using for your third child, that can’t be improved on?
    What songs do you sing to him/her? Also what music do the big boys enjoy listening to?
    What silly nicknames do you call him/her?
    Quotes from the big brothers, please!
    And what do the big boys do for fun these days?
    Knowing how fast these newborn days will pass, what do you like to pay attention to, and what are you trying to enjoy and appreciate?

    As one whose babies will turn 8 in 2008, I envy you the chance to do it all again – yes, even the diapers and the sleepless nights. I wish you some peaceful times of just sitting on the couch and holding the baby while he sleeps, so you can reflect on how perfect he is and how lucky you all are. And I wish you some good long naps too!

  16. Post about the Best and the Worst things about newborns. Make predictions about what the newbie will be like when he gets older and see later if they’re true. Post about hoe much you can do one-handed.

    Hey maybe I should use theses ideas myself…

  17. you are gorgeous! and don’t worry about the blog because a) mothering a newborn offers loads of blog fodder and b) you won’t have much time to blog. at least, you’ll have less time, so all those great newborn/new family dynamic posts will have a chance to pile up. and up. and up.

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