Luck is Where Preparation Meets Opportunity
Luck isn’t something beyond your control. The idea that luck is where preparation meets opportunity goes all the way back to Seneca of Rome. When you first realize a baby is growing inside you, you’ve got less than a year to prepare.
As we grow more mature, the way time works changes. Where before a day felt like an eternity, now a week feels like a day, and a month feels like a week. Just wait until the kids are out of the house; suddenly a year will feel like a month.
The key to preparation is realizing time is short, and you need to take steps now, or you won’t do anything. Following we’ll briefly explore a few preparatory steps to help you as a new mom, and as you acclimate to your new role as a parent going forward. If you’re prepared in advance, when the opportunity to use that prep comes, you’ll feel lucky.
Get Help From Friends, Family, and Parental Support Groups
You don’t know what you don’t know. Friends and family who have been parents before know what you’re about to deal with, and how a little advice would have helped them. They’ll be happy to extend their knowledge to you. Lean on them; and find parental support groups for when they’re not available.
Learn to Live Beneath Your Means Before the Child is Born
You don’t need to eat fast food every day; at $10 per McDonald’s visit for you and your spouse, that’s $280 to $310 a month; or $3,650 a year, if you ate out every day. Meanwhile, if you cook at home, you can feed you and your spouse for $200 or less a month. This is an easy way to save $1k a year or more. Learn to live beneath your means.
Secure Medical Help in Advance
You’ll want a pediatrician available in advance. Another good idea is finding eye doctors, bone doctors, ENT specialist in Plano, and others for the child’s development over time. Injuries and illnesses will likely result in a pediatrician recommending certain specialists, know who they are and have them available in advance to save yourself time and money.
On that note, for yourself, you’ll want gynecological professionals as you carry the child to term, and afterward. Also, you may want to find a lactation specialist if you’re dealing with breastfeeding issues that lead to inflammation. You could have mastitis, and for that you’ll want mastitis treatment. Breastfeeding should be straightforward, but sometimes it’s not.
Establishing a Healthy Foundation for You and Your New Child
Securing medical professionals in advance of your need for them, learning to live beneath your means, and finding help from friends, family, or support groups represent several key preparatory tactics any mother would do well to adopt. Such options will help your child get started out on the right foot from the time they’re young until they grow up.
