When your new arrival arrives, everything will change--and I do mean everything. Consider incorporating the baby into an existing schedule as much as possible as opposed to creating a rigid one centered around their care.

I remember fixating near the close of my second pregnancy on whether or not I would be able to love  both our children 'equally'.

Blessed with relatively uncomplicated birth events and healthy babies I was released from the hospital within 48 hours of both of our daughters' births.

The transition from being a couple to becoming parents--and a family--can be as daunting as it is rewarding. Some obvious but gigantic shifts have to do with basic personal time, like the care of your own body, which quickly becomes a thing of your distant past--ha ha!

Kids always want the boxes big things come in.  This is a universal truth. Where ever things get delivered in cardboard cartons, there is a child—or children, who will make convincing arguments for the keeping of said box that was destined for the alley on the side of the house where the recycling waits to be picked-up.

When your baby arrives, where are they going to sleep--in the bed with you, or in a bassinet or crib? Co-sleeping is a highly personal issue, around which there is a great deal of debate.

Where did  the last 18 years go? I've paid close attention to my role all these years as a parent, so thankfully I have no regrets of wishing I had been more present. And yet, on driving our first born up to college for her first semester, the sense of this day having snuck-up on me still manifested.

We've had more smooth sailing on the sibling relationship front than stormy, but there certainly have been times when our daughters have clashed.  When our second was born, our oldest was 6--a difficult age to accept the whole mommy-and-daddy-are-busy-with-the-baby-right-now thing.