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Hey Mom-to-be, It's Back to School Time

Get Kids Ready and Keep Your Stress Level Down While Pregnant

By Shannon McKelden

Immunization updates, haircuts and seemingly endless school supply scouting trips. Back-to-school time is enough to make the most energetic mom cringe. But when you're pregnant, putting one foot in front of the other is often tough, let alone hiking the mall for that perfect outfit for your preschooler or the exact 24-color, washable markers on your third-grader's supply list.

How can you make it easier on yourself? Take the advice of some experts and moms who have been there, done that.

Preparation is half the battle. Once you have a game plan, accomplishing it is easier. This means lists.

Margie Warrell, a certified life coach and author of Find Your Courage! Unleash Your Full Potential and Live the Life You Really Want (Synergy Books, 2007), believes in planning ahead. "[Write] things down and [don't try] to keep it all in your head," she says. "I recall many times thinking my brain had turned to complete mush leading up to the birth of my four children and in the months (dare I say years?) that followed their birth."

Once you have a list, set deadlines for each item, leaving buffer time for the unexpected. "Schedule time aside to get it all done," Warrell says. "Don't wait for a day when you have nothing else on. It never comes."

Warrell also warns against becoming a multitasking queen. "Study after study shows that you are actually less efficient when you are trying to do 17 things at once," she says.

Tricia Canavan Crone, a Portsmouth, R.I., mother of three boys, followed that advice. "I made a list at the beginning of the summer that included all of the tasks that needed to be completed before school started," she says. "I tried to get one task completed per day."

Want to see more?

• Back-to-school
  Morning Mayhem: Help for Frazzled Moms-to-be
• Breakfast for Two: How Important Is That
  First Meal of the Day When You're Expecting?
• Lifestyle Changes for Family Health: 10 Easy Back-to-school Tips
• Check out our Article Library.
• Talk about it!