I'll add my congrats to the others... I'm so happy for you!
Advice:
Drink ginger ale if you're sick; the ginger and the carbonation can both help.
Sleep on a waterbed. If you don't have one, when you're pretty far along, see if you can rent one
'cause they support you better than a flat mattress.
Do childbirth classes of some sort -- my labor with my second baby came on quick and I ended up going through transition while on the way to the hospital. The point of the breathing is to help you relax; when you're relaxed it really doesn't hurt as much. Honest. I also learned exercises to do when things ached, and it's good to get to know other mommies-to-be.
Your body knows what it's doing. So don't worry too much if you feel like you don't.
When you're 8 or 9 months along, it can be pretty entertaining to watch your bare belly while the baby shifts and creates moving lumps on the surface.
It will feel like forever, but honestly, you'll only be pregnant for a very small percentage of your lifetime, so try to enjoy it.
After the baby's born, try nursing. If you don't like it or it doesn't work out for whatever reason, you can quit, but if you never try you'll never know. Mother's milk is better for babies than formula. Plus when you go out you don't have to pack bottles
Although you do have to watch what you eat; my son reacted badly if I ate onions, and my daughter reacted very badly when I ate chocolate. And one time the contents of the diaper smelled distinctly garlicky
Most important -- if at all possible, plan to sleep with your baby for the first six weeks or so; both of you will sleep better that way. To avoid the worry of rolling over on her, I slept on a recliner with my daughter. She woke up every few hours; I'd wake up just enough to nurse her and change her diaper, and then we'd both go back to sleep. I had supplies at hand so I didn't have to get up at all. That was *so* much better than when my son was in the bassinet and I had to get up out of bed three-four times a night, and then wait and try to get him back to sleep before setting him back in the bassinet (at which point he'd often wake up again) and then finally crawling back into my bed. That was exhausting and crazy-making; avoid it if you can.
PJ
