Two o'clock! I hurriedly slipped a pinkie between the lips of my newborn son, Henry, to break the suction from his feeding, buttoned up my blouse, grabbed the diaper bag, and we headed out the door. I didn't want to miss one minute of my afternoon rendezvous with my new best friends, Nancy and Rosemary, and their babies.
I was almost frantic in my eagerness to see these fellow moms, neighbors I'd met when we each gave birth the same year. All we did on our outings was push our strollers up and down the street discussing spitup, sleep deprivation, and the relative merits of kimono-style T-shirts versus snap-bottom ones. But it was the high point of my day.
More things change when you become pregnant than the tidiness of your house and the number of hours you sleep per 24. Your friendships undergo dramatic transformations too. That's because the kind of support and socializing you need evolves along with your baby, as does the amount of free time you have and how you want to spend it.
Sound unnerving? There are plenty of silver linings, as this guide to mommy mates proves.
Contributing editor Paula Spencer is the author of the Parenting Guide to Positive Discipline (Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc.).
