Of the range of items on the list, a few stand out to me.

 3.    The lovely foot rub: Fluid retention and swollen legs are par for the course in pregnancy.  A foot rub can be as valuable as a diamond necklace to a pregnant woman, especially if it’s done with love.  Similarly, a shoulder massage or even allowing her some time off her feet will be just as welcome.

My wife loves foot massage and always feels much better after I give her one. The problem is I can’t get her to stop asking for them.

5.    Prenatal classes: Particularly if it’s your first baby, your partner will want to attend prenatal classes so that the whole pregnancy/childbirth scenario is not a shock to the system.  It’s important that you attend along with her, not just to learn the same things but also to show your support for what she will be going through physically.

You will undoubtedly learn something in these classes that you might not be able to glean from reading and general advice. They may seem boring at times, but are well worth the effort.

 7.    The nursery: Naturally, setting up the nursery is something you’ll want to discuss and do together.  Make it a priority so that it’s one less thing to think about as the pregnancy enters the final stages.  Painting should be done early on and other furnishings can be arranged as the money is available or when on sale.  Help hang curtains, install shelves and generally prepare the nursery for readiness.

Start far enough in advance is my advice for nursery renovations. At least double your time estimate. Not pregnant yet? Perfect time to start.

Check out the rest of the list at Parentwonder.

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30 Tips for new fathers

A few interesting entries were a wet load of laundry, women’s purses and playgrounds. It’s definitely quick read.

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Germs, germs, germs.

Broken out into a variety of subjects, the free PDFs fall into categories such as general parenting tips, teen parenting, breastfeeding, family finance, child education, single parents, food and nutrition and among others, being a dad!

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Free parenting ebooks

1. the toys are not from China

2. the toys are clean

While making sure that things are relatively clean is clearly important, what if the cleaning agent itself is harmful to a child? Over at GNMParents.com they’ve got a great post on cleaning kids toys naturally. In addition to these simple clean up steps, many people have the natural cleaning trifecta of lemon juice, vinegar and baking soda already in their homes.

If you’re worried about dust mites in things like stuffed animals, freeze them in a plastic bag for a week. Although this is remeniscent of Han Solo frozen in carbonite, it will reduce the number of mites in the stuffed companion.

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Cleaning toys naturally

The most graphically entertaining is the Baby ticker from babystrology.com. By simply filling in your due date, name and number of babies you’re provided with the HTML required to make this magic happen. The image (right) is how your baby ticker appears, except with the live version he or she floats around in a little viscous fluid. I find it very interesting to watch him progress over time, as the icon matures appropriately with respect to fetal age.

The second tool I use is the “My Baby This Week” email update from BabyCenter.com.You can sign up and every week during pregnancy they will send you an email detailing the progress that your baby is making. This weeks email for example contains the following info:

“He weighs a little over 3 pounds and is heading into a growth spurt. He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin.”

I love these services. I get so excited watching his avatar grow, and think they’re both a great way to take interest in your child.

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Baby Ticker

Lockdown Alert works with almost any pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, special education or vocational public school in the United States. Simply choose the school for which you want to be alerted and enter your cell phone number or email address.
You do not need to supply any personal information. Your email address is only used to send out alerts. It will never be used for any purpose that is not related to an actual school event.

After I posted about the Amber Alert text message service, I couldn’t help but think that it might heighten paranoia in some parents even though it provides a tremendous function. However, Lockdown alert is granular down to the level of the school your child attends so you won’t be worried that a bomb threat 100 miles away has anything effect on your child’s well being.

I personally like their bizarre lockdowns section which shows you a little bit of how weird this world is, as if you need reminding. My personal favorites are:

1. Student reports seeing Batman on campus.
2. Mountain lion prompts lockdown.
3. Precautionary lockdown due to a squirrel attack on three students.
4. Precautionary lockdown due to topless woman with gun near campus.

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School lockdown alerts via email and text message

“…a state-wide alert is issued when an abducted child, age 17 years or younger, is reported to a local law enforcement agency. By quickly distributing information to the public, citizens may be able to report critical information to local law enforcement.”

I was not aware that this wireless service existed, but it sounds like a great method for helping to locate missing children seeing as how just about everyone in the world has a cell phone with them at all times.

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Free wireless AMBER Alerts

That said, the last of the top ten was informative and worth mentioning:

Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.

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Fatherhood Facts?

Seeing as how the father is not the one in the midst of the biochemical tantrum, he should help calm the pregnant mother when she is in melt down mode. As I’ve mentioned before, the mere sight of Oprah will cause a woman to burst into tears. For the most part those types of episodes are usually crocodile tears, but there are times when she will truly need your reassurance, love and support.

This relatively small list of items will help you calm an upset pregnant woman by appealing to her heart her stomach and her head, all for under $9.

1. Buy her a card, appeal to her heart. $3

Women love cards. They love giving cards, they love browsing through cards, but most of all the love receiving cards. They are an inexpensive way to show that you care and condense some emotion that you might not have otherwise expressed. Having trouble writing? Just find one that has a basic message that you like and break it down into a more wordy, personalized version.

2. Buy her a candy bar, appeal to her stomach. $1

I’ve been sent out several times at night to buy candy bars, they always make a great peace offering for a crying pregnant woman. Bars of dark chocolate also make great snacks and are packed with antioxidants. If you want to spend a little bit more, get some chocolate covered raspberries, cashews or strawberries.

3. Buy her a pregnancy magazine, appeal to her head. $5

A pregnancy-related magazine will give her a distraction if she’s bored or immobile. At the same time they’re a great informational resources that may help set aside any fears that are common to many mothers. If you can’t find a good one or she’s already got a million, get her a book of crosswords or sudoku puzzles. Renting her favorite movie is another great filler in this category.

Another good alternative is a single rose or bouquet of wild flowers. Every woman is different so adjust accordingly to your pregnant mommy. Just remember, gifts don’t have to be expensive or exotic if they’re well thought out and well intentioned.

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How to calm a hormonal pregnant woman for under $9

Picasa catalogs digital images on your machine and offers file management, editing and image effects like red-eye reduction to help you spruce up your snapshots. Once you’re done getting them all finished you can upload your photos to online albums with the ease of a right-click.

Online albums may be set as public or private, which I like because I’m not keen on having my pictures out there for anyone to see. From a web album you can then send out emails to others, inviting them view your digital memories. I find this particularly handy because there is ALWAYS someone who can’t view the attachments, complains that the images are too big or your message bounces back because the file sizes are too large. With Picasa, all they receive is a link in their email to view the images on a website, not all the actual files.

Picasa has been very handy to me, as my wife and I have been receiving tons of requests for pregnant belly pictures. We’ve been able to share them very easily and can quickly accommodate additional requests; it only takes an email to share an album with another person. I can only assume photo requests will increase exponentially after the little sprout is born and am not going to want to deal with ad-hoc requests and trouble shooting email problems for those who aren’t tech or email savvy. I see Picasa as a big time and frustration saver.

Visitors to your online album can click on thumbnail images to view the full size or view them as a slide show. Even better, they can order their own prints online through Shutterfly or Photoworks, saving you the cost and effort of mailing out photos.

There are numerous other players out there in the world of managing online photos, but I give Picasa the nod for the full functionality of a desktop client with the ease and content accessibility of it’s online competitors. Again, the application itself is free and you get one gigabyte of free online storage.

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Picasa for sharing and managing family photos