Best Place to Go After You've Had a Baby

Your new baby has finally arrived. You're excited, anxious, sleep-deprived, and frankly a little concerned that medical professionals have let you leave the hospital with this newborn. You've forgotten everything you learned in parenting classes, and nothing you were told in childbirth class has happened the way they said it would. In short, you need support, reassurance, help, something... and not from your mother-in-law. Look no more. Strap the little bundle into a carrier and get yourself to the knowledgeable, calm, and compassionate folks at Day One. As a business, the center is an odd mix: a retailer of higher-end baby tools and accessories, a lending library of books and tapes, the home of parenting classes, and a kind of lounge to hang out and nurse, chat, change diapers, or just get the heck out of your living room. As if all of that were not enough, Day One has medical scales to monitor your baby's weight and lactation consultants to help mother and baby get the hang of nursing. An annual membership is only $99, which also gets you a 5 percent discount on merchandise. The center is open seven days a week to fulfill its mission: "to provide new and expectant parents with a single-source, time-efficient solution for the essentials needed during this special and often challenging time of life." A brilliant idea that we're glad has finally arrived.