Monica Kass Rogers
Special to the Sentinel

The glittery-pink Stardust banquet room in Chicago buzzes with baby-shower clatter. Girlfriends dish. Aunts snap photos. And first-time parents Ewa and Michael Lichodziejewski say thanks again and again.

The very pregnant woman at the front of the room isn't Ewa, though. It's Karah Janssen, the baby's gestational surrogate. And as Ewa and Michael unwrap stacks of
booties, blankets and baby gear, Janssen opens boxes of soothing bath treatments and certificates for spa services and weekend getaways.

The high point? A diamond ring Ewa tearfully presents to Karah, along with the announcement that the baby's middle name will be Karah.

"This is a big moment for all of us," says Janssen, who also is Michael's sister. "A day when I get to celebrate nearing the end of my role and see them celebrate the beginning of theirs."

Read the whole article on Baby Parties.

Monica Kass Rogers wrote this for the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.

Finding out I was pregnant was one of the most exciting experiences of my life! I will never forget how long the 3 minutes seemed when doing the home pregnancy test. And then when it showed two pink lines instead of just one – elation!

The next few months seemed to be just getting used to the idea of being pregnant. Coming to terms with the fact that you are carrying another life inside of your body is overwhelming to say the least. Once it finally started to sink in – step two for me was dreaming about the baby’s nursery.

I love decorating anyway, so I had tons of ideas of what I could do in the nursery. I wanted something unique and tasteful and I had very specific colors in mind. For some people though, it may not be so easy to come up with an idea.

When I’m struggling for a decorating idea, I try to find one thing to center the plan around. Artwork is a very good place to start. If you have a painting that you love, you can pull all the colors in the room from that painting. Even better is to have a custom piece of artwork that you use for your plan. This will give you something completely unique.

Custom artwork can be very expensive, but Susan’s Baby Store offers some wonderful pieces at a very affordable price. This extremely affordable piece titled “Lavender Sophie” would make a great choice for designing a baby theme around. I would use a pale yellow color for the walls and the brighter purple shade for accents. Select butterfly themed items to accent the room. One idea that I used in my daughter’s room was to use wallpaper cutouts of flowers sprinkled across the center of one wall. In the center of the same wall, I mounted a quilt rack and hung a flower-themed baby quilt.

Once I had my idea in mind, I couldn’t wait to get started. I worked feverishly over the next couple of months and completed a gorgeous room for baby. One flaw in that plan – I then had months to wait for baby to arrive!

Finally, my beautiful daughter arrived! We had two weeks of bliss and then for the next three months – COLIC! She cried day and night and I slept holding her in my arms every night just to get any rest at all! So much for my beautiful nursery getting any use whatsoever!

We did finally get to use the nursery. After she turned four months old, the colic finally went away and I got to put her in her crib. All the hard work was worth it after all! She is a perfect angel now – guess she got the bad stuff over with early!

Whatever you choose for your baby’s nursery – remember to take the time to enjoy yourself! They are only little once and they grow up so quickly. Before you know it, a new design will be in order!

Perhaps you already have decided how you wish to bring your baby into the world. If you have not considered a birth plan and you are expecting a new baby, now may be the time to do so. There are so many options for you to consider and if you wait until the last minute you may be disappointed that you did not have some sort of plan in writing. When you go into labor, things are easily forgotten, such as the choices you had considered in the previous 9 months. Everything from methods of pain relief, the environment of the room the baby will first be welcomed into, and who you wish to be in attendance with you. There are also many things you may have never thought about. Your birth plan can also help to prepare you psychologically, by giving you something to review prior to your birth. When you read your own birth plan, you may wish to highlight points you feel more strongly about. Below is a sample birth plan. While there are many things that you may wish to include or some that you may opt to remove from this plan, it is a good starting point and will help to give you some ideas as to how you will present your plan to your doctor or midwife. You may wish to add additional sections or remove those that do not apply.

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