The thing that some babies are fine with but lots of babies completely loathe and will flail and kick and holler at, drawing ten times more attention to the attempt at public nursing than quietly unbuttoning the top two blouse buttons and popping open the nursing bra ever would have.

Ah, I was going to say that my friend with a 4-month old has a super cute one that she uses all the time. But her baby is pretty chilled out. You just never know!

She thinks she'll have time to steam and re-sterilize all her bottles and nipples after every single use! Ah ha ha.

Oh, sterilization. How I laugh at my new mom self when I think back to those naive first days. (Then: ZOMG STERILIZE EVERYTHING! DISTILLED WATER ONLY! Now: Wait, how long was that on the floor? Eh, I mopped last week, it's fine.)

I'd suggest getting her some really cute receiving blankets - they can double as nursing covers, but won't be totally useless if the baby decides that being covered while nursing is EVIL.

Ah ha ha.

seconding that. And thirding.

lots of babies completely loathe and will flail and kick

if I were a baby, and I was covered up by something branded a "Hootie Hider," I too would flail and kick. I understand the need, and think that whatever works for a mom and baby to feel comfortable is the absolute best thing. But the name. Flail. Kick.

Lisah. you rock like a rocking thing. Thank you for the emails.

I have an appointment with the nurse practitioner at my mom's doctor, 30 minutes away, next Friday. I will now call my new/former doctor and tell them to bite me.

You know, we've talked about registries before - I think baby registries are the one situation where you can 100% ignore them when shopping for a first-time parent. Because I don't know ANYONE who registered for the right things the first time around. Half the things I registered for? Completely useless. You just have no idea what you'll actually use.

I always try to buy clothes. And an extra pack or two of onesies, preferably in a larger size.

The one totally, unbelievably useful and wonderful thing I did manage to register for was a portable changing pad, which SailAweigh kindly sent in a beautiful hand-decorated bag that we still have in the back nook behind the nerd hole. That thing? So wonderful. So very wonderful. I will always, always get one, or maybe two or three, for every new parent forever, whether they register for one or not.

My friend T says that the one thing that she would NOT have bought for herself that proved to be extremely useful were baby washcloths.

Are the plastic baby bath tubs useful? I usually try to buy that off of the registry and fill it with baby powder, baby shampoo, onesies, cloth diapers, rattles, etc that I think will be useful.

pfft. It's called "Bitches" for multiple reasons. Friends are here to help with the woes, and celebrated the yays.

Well, its called "Bitches" because of a Spike quote it really has nothing to do with complaining. But, yeah, this is where the peeps are.

Happy Birthday to the lovely Matilda!

I'd probably suggest starting with the book ADD-Friendly Ways To Organize Your Life -- with the disclaimer that you don't have to be ADD to benefit, and that I'm not trying to diagnose anyone, but it's got a lot of quick and digestible tips without getting into a big you-must-be-a-productivity-ninja thing.

This is an EXCELLENT book. As someone without ADD, I've gotten a lot of helpful stuff from it. (You would never know that from looking at the house, but it's true.)

ION, it's my Friday off, and I have stuff to do (notably, re-attach the clothesline that the windstorm detached, go to the gym, get oil changed), but my guts are giving me massive grief.

However, Lyle Lovett just came on the radio, so I'm okay with staying put for at least 5 more minutes.