For you ladies out there taking a certain type of pill, may I recommend the NuvaRing. My gyn put me on it after she took me off of the patch, and it's like the most convenient thing ever. Set it and forget it!

Seconding the NuvaRing love.

I think I will run by Bed, Bath, and Beyond tomorrow, and look at laundry/shower accessory things. I should be able to find something useful and easy to pack.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

Also, The Container Store has really cute little shower totes that I now want desperately, despite the fact that I have zero need for them.

Thanks, everyone. I'm just going to call it a renta-P.C., I guess.

Were Hec and JZ's electric kettle posts a crosspost or post and follow-up?

Crosspost. I loved and revered my electric kettle and got OMG so much use out of it (my dorm also forbade toaster ovens and mini-microwaves and such, but automatic-shutoff electric kettles were permitted).

I'm with Plei on the Omega-3 pills. No one mentioned, didn't take them, kids seem just fine. Of course, I eat a lot of (low mercury) fish, but also I tend to place more value on the supplements you take to avoid known problems (helllooo folic acid!) than supplements that purport to "improve." The science for the first tends to be a lot more reliable than the science on the second.

Even with breast feeding. I mean, I am totally pro-breast feeding, but the science behind the claims that it improves intelligence? Totally weak.

The benefits of Omega-3 that I've always heard are cardiovascular, lowering triglycerides, etc. I don't know of the prenatal benefits, but I haven't been in a position to find out about those, either.

NuvaRing rocks the house -- I used to feel like total crap for the first week of pills (nausea/headaches), and with NR it's down to about 12 hours. Go go team localized hormone release!

There are types of fish that pregnant woman are supposed to avoid/eat minimally. But I am not sure what they are.

Basically anything that eats other fish -- the mercury levels can be dangerously high.

WRT the fish (since really everyone should try to avoid ingesting mercury, not just pregnant women): The important ones to avoid PERIOD are shark, swordfish, mackerel, tile fish (whatever that is). Tuna is on the eat with caution list. I wouldn't eat nearly the amounts of tuna that the FDA recommends. If you do eat canned tuna, go with chunk light, not albacore, as it has much less mercury in it.

I'm sad about the swordfish. Mackerel--I don't eat much, but it's a Jamaican staple, and I won't pass up an opportunity.

What else is on the eat with caution list?

Swordfish stocks are also in peril because we're taking younger and younger fish. Lots of good reasons to not eat swordfish.