A post where the admittedly clueless, pregnant lady gives advice...

If I only knew then what I know now.

I mentioned this before, but finding a reputable day care in Dallas is a nightmare. Correction: finding a reputable day care in Dallas that doesn't have a ridiculous waiting list is a nightmare.

What they don't tell you when you go in for your first prenatal visit is that you really need to start getting on the day care thing STAT. Like, you probably should have already called a few centers around town the second you got that positive on your first at home pregnancy test.

I was a blissfully ignorant first time mom-to-be whose biggest concern last spring had nothing to do with day care. I was more concerned with getting through the first trimester, and was terrified that I would miscarry. As a result, the subject of day care didn't even cross my mind until I started the second trimester and the blood test results came back with the news that The Fetus was healthy and developing normally. And even then I was of the let's-research-everything-and-weigh-my-options mentality. By the time I actually started calling and emailing various centers, it was mid to late July and (no joke) PEOPLE LAUGHED AT ME.

By August, I was concerned and - now that we've hit September - I am pretty much a walking basket case. I am on five or six waiting lists, and the earliest any of them can take THOR is sometime next summer. Well, except for this new day care that just opened. They have room in March and April, but when I called them I was discouraged when the man answering the phone slipped up and said something about how short staffed they were. This immediately conjured up the mental image of my son crying unnoticed for hours on end all hungry, cold and suffering in a dirty diaper. But since I don't feel like I can afford to rule the short staffed day care out completely, I still have them on my radar.

All this distress in regards to day care also has me looking into options for Thor when he is a toddler and of pre school age. I might have already applied if the applications for the Episcopalian schools in the area hadn't asked me questions regarding my son's personality. Because all I really know at this point is that my child is active and dislikes flashlights. Additionally, they all want the kid's name and, well, we haven't decided on one of those yet. If you know Trevor's last name than you are aware of the problem. It is like Monica on Friends. Nothing goes well with "Bing".

But I digress. The real issue here is day care. So, if you just discovered you are pregnant, do yourself a favor and start calling around town tomorrow. You will save yourself a lot of time, stress and panic in your late second trimester. Which will leave you plenty of time to focus on the other important things, like, I dunno, baby socks and lamaze.