[♥Ashley♥]

you know ALOT more about the general public about ttc/pregnancy/babies? I was watching Deliver me yesterday and there was a couple that didnt know ANYTHING! The dr said something about inducing and she said "what is that?" and then the dr mentioned pitocin and had to explain what that was. Then while she was in labor she asked "I have to get to 10 cm right?" Its just nuts what some people dont know! Like apparantly alot of people dont know that you can test before your period and know your pregnant before you miss your period, dont know about implantation and that you can bleed from it, dont know that you can actually take you temperature and know about your cycle, know that you can check your cm and moniter it and it can actually tell you about where you are in your cycle, know that not everyone gets an epidural, and know that there are reasons for it...not just to "be a hero" as they normally put it, know about cloth diapering...etc I could go on and on. I am SOOO thankful for JM, it honestly has changed my life. Not in a sappy "OMG this place has changed my life" but honestly it has changed my life because of all the things I do differently and all the things I know about BEFORE going into pregnancy and delivery now. Seriously if I never came across JM I would have an epidural without thinking twice, never cloth diaper, never temp and know about my cycle, not think twice about being induced...etc!

Its crazy all the knowledge we have from JM, and I love it!!

[midnight_starr]

Yeah its crazy how much I know from being a member here for the past two years.. If I would have never found JM I would probably still be really naive about a lot of things!!! I think sometimes my friends think I'm weird when I seem to know so much about pregnancy already

[*Amy*]

In a word, yes. My SIL knew nothing about pregnancy when she got got pregnant (at 21). She knew nothing about babies, vaccinations, the benefits of breastfeeding etc. when she had her son. She gave him a dessert that contained oreo cookies (among many other not-baby friendly ingredients) when he was just under 5 months old. I could go on and on.

On top of that, I got my BFP the day we got back from our Vegas trip and do you know how many times I heard "what happened in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas?" Ugh! I'm like you idiots, I didn't get pregnant in Vegas!! I already had a hunch I was pregnant on our trip but didn't have a chance to test until we got home (the day my period was due).

And finally, I got confirmation that I know too much when my DH called me last week because the baby of a girl he works with had a weird rash and he wondered if I had any ideas on what it could be

I'm really glad I'm educated on everything so I don't look like an idiot when it comes to really obvious things regarding pregnancy and childbirth.

[*Anna*]

Awww jm is so wonderful. I feel the same way. I learned about bfing and co sleeping. And baby wearing from here. And I couldn't imagine not doing all these things. And about things like delaying vax and decline some newborn procedures and avoiding interventions and achieving my ncb!!!!

I also feel like family and friends irl don't know anything and I sometimes want to ask why they wouldn't eeductate themselves before having a baby.

[ShannonMVT]

Originally Posted by ♥Ashley♥

but honestly it has changed my life because of all the things I do differently and all the things I know about BEFORE going into pregnancy and delivery now. Seriously if I never came across JM I would have an epidural without thinking twice, never cloth diaper, never temp and know about my cycle, not think twice about being induced...etc!

I've learned so much and I'm glad I had the knowledge I did before I made my choices.

[♥Ashley♥]

Aimee, my friends are the same way!!! Thats another thing that made me post this! My best friend had NO CLUE you could know your pregnant when your only 3w5d when i told her i was pregnant and she asked far along she about died when i told her (I tell her EVERYTHING so she knows about all m/c's).

Amy, OMG! Im not even pregnant yet and my DH is the same way. I watch baby shows alot and sometimes he'll watch them with me and if he doesnt know what something is that they say or do hell ask me. Its weird but alot of times I feel like i know more than even the nurses on those shows! I yell at the tv alot when those shows are on!

Originally Posted by *Anna*

Awww jm is so wonderful. I feel the same way. I learned about bfing and co sleeping. And baby wearing from here. And I couldn't imagine not doing all these things. And about things like delaying vax and decline some newborn procedures and avoiding interventions and achieving my ncb!!!!

I also feel like family and friends irl don't know anything and I sometimes want to ask why they wouldn't eeductate themselves before having a baby.

Yep! I completely forgot to mention those things, but I already know im delaying vax and there are a few newborn procedures i am declining!

[*krista*]

Oh goodness yes. I belonged to another forum similar to JM but smaller before I came here, and I still knew nothing about charting, the mechanics of getting pregnant, cloth diapering, and I would have never concidered my choices for birth and probably would have bottle fed without thinking twice about it too. There are a lot of things I can thank JM for! I probably would not have been prenant by now if it weren't for JM because I wouldn't have known what the heck I was doing while ttc!

ETA: Although I still know NOTHING about babies... which is scary. I'm sure I'll have plenty of panicked "Help me!" posts when the baby comes.

[ShannonMVT]

Originally Posted by *krista*

ETA: Although I still know NOTHING about babies... which is scary. I'm sure I'll have plenty of panicked "Help me!" posts when the baby comes.

I was the same way I knew a lot about pregnancy but not much about baby care. I actually wish I had focused a little less on NCB and such and read more about BFing and things like that.

[IamMom]

I love JM but more for the comradrie than the information.....sometimes I feel like its info overload and goes a little too far.....I mean we gotta live a little right! I always love talking to my mom cause she's like - man we didn't do any of this stuff and all you kids turned out fine...and I do try to live more in the moment and not dwell on every little finicky thing with the kids...but this is just my personal opinion of course.

I didn't know anything about charting and all that when I got pregnant with Harrison and honestly I kinda liked the ignorance is bliss stage .....and although I didn't go hog wild educating myself with both of the kids I felt like I knew the options and havel made good choices..my kids are happy and healthy. I will say JM taught me alot about car seat safety and I think that is really important and can make a huge difference in a childs life.....extended rear facing all the way!!!!

[alicenwonderland]

lol people seem to look at me like i'm nuts whenever i open my mouth. I get the "wow, you have too much time on your hands" or "geez you are obsessed" So what if i want to be educated!

[*JenJen*]

I get a lot of strange looks knowing about this crap. Sometimes I do wish I could go back to the ignorance is bliss stage though!

[LisanAndy]

^ I agree with Jen! I get lots of comments even though people seem to be impressed.

[~*sierra*~]

i agree, JM opened my eyes to a lot of options that i wouldnt have explored if i was relying on info just from my mom.

[Resi]

Yes I feel that way. For me I wanted to "research" and learn about all my options when it came to getting pregnant, L&D, and raising a baby. I think a lot of people go with the flow and follow the main stream way of things. I'm not one to do something because it's what most people do. I like to learn and then decide what feels right for me.

[Resi]

Originally Posted by I Love Harrison Boo

I love JM but more for the comradrie than the information.....sometimes I feel like its info overload and goes a little too far.....I mean we gotta live a little right! I always love talking to my mom cause she's like - man we didn't do any of this stuff and all you kids turned out fine...and I do try to live more in the moment and not dwell on every little finicky thing with the kids...but this is just my personal opinion of course.

I didn't know anything about charting and all that when I got pregnant with Harrison and honestly I kinda liked the ignorance is bliss stage .....and although I didn't go hog wild educating myself with both of the kids I felt like I knew the options and havel made good choices..my kids are happy and healthy. I will say JM taught me alot about car seat safety and I think that is really important and can make a huge difference in a childs life.....extended rear facing all the way!!!!

About the extended rear facing... I don't understand why more people don't know about this. I learned from JM too that it's best to rear face for as long as possible. My SIL and MIL looked at me like I was crazy and doing something bad when they found out Oliver still rides rear facing. This past weekend my SIL asked if he was still facing the rear and I said "Yes, and I plan to keep it that way as long as possible." They aren't mean about it.. just don't know the benefits. My MIL said.. what about his legs? I said he can cross them or find a way to be comfy because it's better than a broken neck. I get the feeling that some people think I'm the one who is uneducated with my choices but I don't let it get to me.

[sara~b]

I'm more go-with-the-flow but I'm glad I knew about charting and temping and NFP. I probably wouldn't be pregnant or have found out so early if I didn't know about that stuff (and had you girls to talk me into testing!). I'm going to try BF'ing and cloth diapering this time thanks to JM. I *might* go for NCB. I don't know for sure just yet. But I'm still getting vaxed on schedule and such. I got all the regularly scheduled stuff for Gem and she's healthy as a horse so why mess with what worked? The only other thing I want to change is getting an episiotomy. I do NOT want another one no matter how badly I am tearing!

[*vi]

it's crazy how much people don't know! and assume that I don't know it either LOL I'm so glad for everything I've learned here. so much I wouldn't know when my time comes.

[Alison81]

Yes, people are usually like, how do you know that? Most of my friends don't even know when you can get pregnant, as in, when the ideal timing is. You definitely learn a lot here.

[Chelnae6]

I totally agree. I know more about TTC than most people can imagine. And I've never actively TTCed. Its all thanks to you ladies.

Many women thinks that women who want to do NCB are "new age mom". but they dont realize that we just actually know more about how to go about it than they know. People look at me crazy when I talk about how I'm goign to attempt to get thru contractions via tub or various methods. They look at me like "Yeah right, wait til u actually go thru it". In which they're probably right. I might just scream for an epi, but I'm not going to do it at the 1st sign of pain. I'm going to attempt to do this the natural way b/c I've read and seen from many of you ladies that it CAN be done purposely.

I'm still learning about child birth though. But I didnt know anything about temping, charting, ovulation, etc before then. I remember when a friend of mine got pregnant last year, I asked her how far along she was, she said 1 week. I laughed and asked her when was her last period she was like almost 2 months ago. I told her that she's about 6-8 weeks. She was like "WOW!" and she was actually TTC (she was young andk new nothing about it but to have sex). Sure enough she was 7 weeks.

People looked at me like I was crazy when I told her that she could still sleep on her stomach for as long as she wanted until it got uncomfortable (this was b4 I got prego). A co-worker was like "You cant sleep on your stomach while pregnant". Clearly I slept on mine until about 18 weeks.

[Mars]

Had I not found JM, I would have been totally clueless and I'm one of the older ones here. I learnt so much here and I share it will all my friends. They always say, "when I need to find ot something, I'm coming to you!" I like being able to share my knowledge with them. JM put so many things related to the whole notion of pregnancy into perspective for me.