From the editor
Certain life-changing events seem to go in cycles—in my life, the past couple of years have been dominated by marriage, both my own and my friends’. As the saying goes,"first comes love, then comes marriage…” so now it’s all about baby talk in my group of married friends. Over the past six months I’ve heard about all of my friends’ baby plans—one wants to start trying to get pregnant next summer, one is waiting until after she finishes going to school for her second degree and another can’t get pregnant and is already looking into adoption.
While editing this edition of Chicago Baby, I couldn’t help but tuck away bits of knowledge for my friends’ future pregnancies (and, obviously, my own at some point). Thanks to Jill Browning, I have great ideas for a nontraditional baby shower that I know my friends will love. And my mind is full of great baby gifts courtesy of CosmoTot, which is now also a blog at www.chicagoparent.com. I can even hold a conversation with my friend who is studying to be a midwife thanks to Michelle Sussman’s article on birth options.
With soon-to-be parents surfacing all around me, I wanted to include more of your voices in the magazine. With that in mind, Chicago Baby now includes its own Gallery page full of snapshots of your bouncing bundles of joy. There’s also a feature on a group of moms who raised money to rebuild their neighborhood playground. Along with that story you’ll find local parents talking about the most unusual item in their diaper bags.
Obviously there’s more to having a baby than showers, gifts and taking photos. Even in the best situations bringing home baby involves a lot of stress and sleepless nights, but for some moms it’s even more than that. Postpartum depression affects up to 20 percent of new moms and many don’t know where to turn when the feelings of hopelessness hit. Liz DeCarlo offers tips for dealing with PPD, warning signs and stories of moms who have dealt with PPD. And, on our Web site, we feature a list of resources where you can go for help.
As always, we want to hear your thoughts, so send us an e-mail or post a message on one of our discussion boards. We always want to make the next issue better than the one before.