The mummy-mafia: advice

To prepare for a child, a new life entering your life, is as easy as teaching a goldfish to use a bicycle. I found myself reading book and articles and everything I could get my hands on due to the fact that my mother would be far away and I only had few friends who had children and as they all said: "Each child is different" followed by "Parenting is learning by doing!" Still one tries to have everything ready, pack the bag around the 7 months and remember everything (bloody hard when you're just told that the hospital has everything and the father to be is clueless) I still packed all the wrong things though - wrong size of baby clothes, forgot half my toiletries and the tops I thought I could breastfeed in - no good. A Swedish friend of mine told me "No matter how hard you try and how much you think things though - you'll never be prepared for everything" She was right :P
My mother send me on the way towards motherhood with the advice: "Just make sure the baby is dry in one end and wet in the other" One of the best advice given to me and quite simple, you do not need to be a rocket-scientist to figure out which end should be what. My grandmother told me: "When the baby sleeps - you sleep"
So in total: take things as they come, get sleep when you can, try and don't give up and don't despair. And they were right, all of them - well, with the exception of the family members who insisted that I let him cry (as mentioned in other posts - it's not an option for me)
And as we're expecting another one for this summer I can say with pride that I am as little prepared as the first time, I am still clueless on what to do and have no idea how to make everything work but thank the higher powers: it's doesn't matter - everything is going to be just fine.