What Happens When Your Family Grows
For parents welcoming new additions: from preparing older siblings to finding balance and budgeting when your family grows.
What’s New This Week 👩🍼
What to Expect When You’re Expecting Baby #2: We cover everything from emotional shifts and preparing your firstborn to newborn logistics, sleep schedules for two kids, budgeting for a bigger family, changes in parenting roles, and the long-term household changes after a second child.
Relieving Pregnancy Aches and Pains (What Actually Helps): Pregnancy is exciting, but also comes with its own challenges, one of which is new aches and pains. Here’s what we recommend to help.
The Real Cost of Pregnancy, From Prenatals to Delivery Bills: What are the real numbers when it comes to pregnancy in 2025?
What We’re Reading This Week 📖
Parents Worry as WIC Funding Dwindles During the Government Shutdown: With recent government shutdowns, there is a threat to the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which supports more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children in the U.S. Check out the details on how the ongoing federal budget impasse could disrupt access to nutrition, lactation support and early-childhood services, and how families are coping with the uncertainty.
How Gen Z’s Lifestyle Shift Could Change U.S. Housing Market: An interesting look that explains how younger generations’ preferences for smaller living spaces and alternative ownership models are influencing home building trends and what this means for families eyeing more space for kids or future growth.
What’s New in Parental Leave in 2025: A useful update on how employer parental-leave policies are evolving this year, especially relevant for dual-career couples preparing for children or transitioning work roles!
How We’re Feeling This Week: 🕯️🍵🐻
As we welcome November, I feel there’s something extra special about this moment in between seasons. The pause before the year turns, when everything starts to feel a little softer and slower. After spending the last couple of weeks surrounded by family and friends celebrating my marriage, my heart feels full in the best way! There’s a sense of peace that comes from collecting all the important people from your life in one place, and I feel lingering gratitude that everyone seemed to get along so well!
As we move toward winter, I’m leaning into all the cozy feels: slower days, warm drinks, fuzzy socks, and quiet nights in with my new little family. 2026 is just around the corner (how did that happen?!), and I can already sense good things waiting—new adventures, new memories, and continued joy. I have a feeling that Jenn and especially Kim, with a new addition to her family, can relate! We hope you can, too!
Signing off,
Your Team at MomBrains