You’re bored. And it’s just occurred to you that you have no one you can call. All your friends from your “old” life are at work right now. As for other mom friends? Well, you don’t really have any.

Sounds awful, doesn’t it? New motherhood can be wonderful, life-changing, and fascinating. Sometimes, it can also be boring as all get-out. It’s too easy to find yourself stuck at home with only soap opera heroines for friends. Unfortunately, too many moms wait until they’re walloped with the isolation that can be life as a new mother before they try to do something about it. And when the weather’s rotten, you aren’t sure where all the other moms are, you’re sleep-deprived, and maybe you have a touch of the baby blues, it’s not the best time to start the process of seeking out friends and things to do.

This six-months-from-now scenario can look quite different if you start working on setting up your post-motherhood social life while still pregnant. Maybe you’ll send a message to the moms on your local e-mail list, asking if anyone wants to meet up at the coffee shop to chat over a latte. Or perhaps you’ll call that mom you really hit it off with during your childbirth class to check in. The two of you can congratulate each other and have a nice chat. Or if you’re really organized, you’ll know when and where there are a variety of different mom’s groups happening in the area and you’ll be able to say to yourself “Oh, it’s Tuesday at noon—at two o’clock, there’s a La Leche League meeting across town! I think I’ll go.”

If you’ll be returning to work post-baby, don’t just think you’ll pick up your old social life where it left off and everything will be back to “normal.” You’re heading toward a new normal now, and you need to seek out other mom friends. Mothers in your community are a rich resource. Through them, you’ll learn about the best preschools and pediatricians. Other moms have the scoop on different put-baby-tosleep methods and will give you the unvarnished truth about teething and ear infections. If you already have a lot of mom friends at work, you may be covered here. But it can’t hurt to branch out, and it’s best to organize your efforts ahead of time to make the transition to motherhood as easy as possible.

After all, being organized doesn’t just help you find the right place to put your things. It’s also about how you keep track of information and manage your relationships. When you have a baby, your relationships will change. You won’t be able to rely on comfortable old habits for sustaining the friendships you’ve already got. And you’ll have to come up with a plan for nurturing potential friendships as new people enter your life via your child. Knowing where you put the phone number of that mom you met at the playground last week could mean the difference between a long, lonely afternoon and the beginning of a wonderful new friendship. Remembering to schedule in a twicemonthly lunch date with your oldest and dearest friend could mean the difference between a relationship that grows distant as your lives change in different ways and a relationship that weathers and even benefits from those differences and stands the test of time. The choice is yours. Put yourself on the path to strong post-pregnancy friendships now.

If you’re very friendly and outgoing, this may be no problem at all. You’re probably the type who seeks potential buddies everywhere you go, easily striking up conversations and exchanging contact information. But the less bold might crave a more formal venue for getting to know other expecting moms. Here are some ideas: