A few days after my first grandchild was born at home, I sat down on the couch beside my daughter with tears in my eyes. I told her how proud I was. She had researched and prepared, ordered exactly what she needed, and when the time came she simply did it, with a confidence I didn't have when I became a mother.
She looked at me, crying too, and told me she had questioned almost all of it. She had thought about the money. She had wondered if she was doing too much.
She did it so well, and she still wondered the whole time if she should.
I had five babies, and one of them at home, back when hardly anyone was doing that. But I didn't have what my daughter had. I didn't know I was allowed to prepare like that. I didn't know the tools existed.
All through her pregnancy, birth and those first months, she ordered what she needed almost daily. It became a family joke, but underneath it I kept noticing that every order had a reason. Nothing was random. Her list was a whole library of honest recommendations, and I knew other women deserved to have it.
So that's what you'll find here. The things my daughter used and why, the things I've researched with the same care, and what I've learned in a lifetime of mothering. It's for the mamas without a strong village around them, and for anyone shopping for one.
With love, Donna