My first post-partum doula assignment! My sister is paying to fly me to Vegas after her baby is born. Whoo hoo!

[Nicke]

How can I help her the best? Her husband has no time off. My mom will be there the first two weeks after the baby is due. She also has a very needy two year old son. (Boy, is HE in for a shock!) I'm planning on stocking her freezer with prepared meals (she doesn't cook!), helping keep her son occupied/entertained (though he has little to do with anyone except Mommy), and just making sure she eats, drinks, and rests with her new daughter. Any other ideas?

[victoria]

Cool! I had forgotten that you were doing this... you had mentioned it here, right?

I was just on kcdoulas.org last week, are you going to get on their site?

And thirdly, do you have any JoCo birth doula friends/people you know who you can recommend for me?

Oh yeah, this wasn't supposed to be about me. I would offer to run errands for her, make sure she can get extra naps if she needs or wants them, do the laundry. Stuff like that. Maybe you can take her son on some outings if he'd be cool with that, like the library or park or something.

[mirage1]

How to help her best? DON'T be tempted by the nickel slots at Harrah's and disappear for hours at a time. :-D

I'm excited for you to get to be there with her, but I don't have any othe suggestions!

[Storymama]

Nice! I'd have loved it for you to come after my babies, I know you'll be great.

[Nicke]

...do you have any JoCo birth doula friends/people you know who you can recommend for me?

Tiffany Crabtree has a postpartum doula business called Doula Heart. I met her when I was teaching classes for Sheila. Tiffany was Sheila's counselor. She's a LCSW (I think there's another initial in there...she's a social worker) and also a certified doula. She's a VERY nice lady!

[Nicke]

How to help her best? DON'T be tempted by the nickel slots at Harrah's and disappear for hours at a time. :-D

LMAO. The last time I went out to visit her, she'd asked me if I wanted to see any shows. BIL does set construction and she was still dancing part-time so they had a few "connections". I told her I wasn't really planning on going out, that I just wanted to spend time with her and my nephew. So, she picks me up from the airport and we're driving to her house when I notice the large Prince symbol (as in The Artist Formerly Known As...). I said, "Oh, PRINCE is here?" She just looked at me with this flustered, worn-out look and said "I ASKED you if you wanted to see any shows! I could have easily had tickets for us!" D'oh.

[Kathy]

How can I help her the best? Her husband has no time off. My mom will be there the first two weeks after the baby is due. She also has a very needy two year old son. (Boy, is HE in for a shock!) I'm planning on stocking her freezer with prepared meals (she doesn't cook!), helping keep her son occupied/entertained (though he has little to do with anyone except Mommy), and just making sure she eats, drinks, and rests with her new daughter. Any other ideas?

Hey, I just did exactly that!

Cooking ahead is wonderful. Making sure she has plenty of nursing friendly snacks around and a water bottle that she drinks from every time she nurses (my sister got a wee bit dehydrated, since she was so busy with the new baby - not once I got her drinking every time the baby drank). Support during the night is really nice - my sister and BIL really appreciated me soothing the baby back down to sleep after nursing and a diaper change. Early morning seems to be the hardest - around 3-5am.

Lots of keeping her older son entertained would be wonderful, as well as helping her integrate him into the new bigger family.

All of these things were great for my sister, but the biggest thing was company and a shoulder when she needed it.