The kid thread: Planning, pregnancy & parenting

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

The videos we watched weren't that graphic. It isn't like RoseMary's Baby, it's messy but it is not blood and gore everywhere.

The nurses do a good job of keeping everything as clean as possible so the area remains as sterile as possible.

Besides if he stays up by your head he isn't going to be able to see anything anyhow. Between the doctor, the nurses, your legs and your giant belly he isn't going to be able to see unless he bends down to look or you have a mirror.

[stina72]

I'm a tad worried about my husband and the videos as well (when we get to the point of having to watch them that is!). He doesn't do well with blood, vomit, etc., so I see some dizzy, queasy feelings in his future!

[moneymaven]

yes, I told him to stay right next to my ears. I want him to be alert when his son is born!

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

DH surprised me because all the way thru my pregnancy clear till the end he was insistent that he was going to only stay up by my head.

Not only did he look,but he ended up holding one of my legs and cutting the cord. Totally floored me how much he got involved once we were in the moment.

I teased him about it later asking what happened to staying near my head and he said that he got so wrapped up in what was going on that he forgot to think about the "eww" factor.

He even looked at the placenta with me and found it interesting. I really wanted to see it because it fascinates me that that tiny little sac is my baby's entire ecosystem for nine whole months.

Now he did say that looking down as they were sewing me up wasn't a good idea. He was pretty shocked at what he saw (hoo has generally don't look good after babies come thru, especially one that was cut and tore. lol). So he would advise any dudes to make sure you keep your curiousity to yourself after the baby is out.

[kristi28]

I ended up with a c-section, and DH did really well with that. The anesthesiologist asked me if she needed to watch him for fainting (I guess some number of dads actually do that). As it turned out, he was like DQs husband - watched them cut me open and did great. He ended up going out of the room with baby girl while they sewed (and stapled) me back together.

Unfortunately, for the rest of my life, I will have this mental picture of my husband in the operating room giving my doctor a hard time about the performance of her alma mater (a rival of his) at football that weekend. Sigh.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

LOL, that is funny kristi.

[econstudent]

Jan 4, 2011 9:34:59 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

I also think she is having night terrors, can 6 month old babies have those? Sometimes she will let out the most distressed little wail but will still be asleep or she will start crying hysterically but not be hungry, she'll fall asleep and smile as soon as one of us picks her up to comfort her. I told DH it is almost like she is having nightmares.

My baby is only 3 1/2 weeks old, and she does this too. It's so sad to watch. She'll be sleeping hard, and suddenly she screams as hard as she can and her face turns bright red. A few seconds later she is sleeping completely calmly again.

[boosmom]

That's why I got the video monitor. Babies did not sleep in the room with us, and I got tired of dragging my tired a$$ into the next room only to find out the babies were asleep.

[ladyki]

Jan 3, 2011 21:27:54 GMT -5 @kristi28 said:

ladyki: I don't remember the times exactly, but we were done with all of the canned baby food by about a year. Baby girl was good with her hands and loved to self feed, so we did lots of finger foods and mashed up adult food after that.

I am thinking that Kiani will be the same way she already reached for the sppon everytime that I am giving her baby food.

[ladyki]

Jan 4, 2011 9:34:59 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

She's back to getting up 3 times a night. Midnight, two and four. It's exhausting me and I have no idea why if it is because she is really hungry or if it is habit, she can't tell me.

Kiani has never slept through the night and she is only a week younger than Gwen. She alwayw gets up at least twice at night. I think it has only been a couple of times when she has one woken once. It has been about three weeks since she started on cereal and baby food ans she still wakes up. It might just be a habit of hers but I just can't do the CIO.

[ladyki]

Jan 4, 2011 13:26:49 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

DH surprised me because all the way thru my pregnancy clear till the end he was insistent that he was going to only stay up by my head.

Mine too, lol. He was not even sure that he wanted to cut the umbilical cord. But that day he was actually looking at everything and was even telling me what was going on whenever the nurses would ask him to take a look.

[eternal sunshine]

I posted this yesterday on the old board, but I remembered today that a lot of people have already made the move over here So, I thought I would repost for anyone interested.

We had another u/s to check Cole's kidneys....NO MORE FLUID!!!! The issue has completely resolved itself so that means there is practically no chance that it was caused to a blockage or deformity with his urinary track. Cole has a head FULL of hair and based on u/s estimates is weighing in at 3lbs 10oz right now. The last time we had an u/s his head was measuring 2 weeks ahead.....now it is measuring 3 weeks ahead. She measured it twice to be sure. His head is in the 97th percentile for size!

My fundus height is at 35cm which is big, but baby is presenting breech right now, so that sometimes causes the measurement to show larger.

insurance - hope your childbirth class goes/went well today!! DH and I start ours tomorrow. It is 4 Wednesday night classes from 6:30 - 9:30. I have a Baby 101 class the first Wednesday in February and the only breastfeeding class that was open was the last Sunday in February. I signed up for it, but I am not 100% sure I'll be able to go since I'll be pretty darn uncomfortable by then if I haven't gone already.

[regina24601]

Jan 4, 2011 15:40:55 GMT -5 econstudent said:

My baby is only 3 1/2 weeks old, and she does this too. It's so sad to watch. She'll be sleeping hard, and suddenly she screams as hard as she can and her face turns bright red. A few seconds later she is sleeping completely calmly again.

Econ - I can't believe Maggie is 3 1/2 weeks old already! It seems like just yesterday you were telling us your birth story!! Holy cow...so weird how these past few weeks have gone so slowly for me, but when I think about your little one, the time has flown! I guess that's how parenthood will be, eh?

[Deleted]

I guess since the pregnancy boards are going, I'll join in here. I'm almost 10 weeks pregnant and it's our first.

[econstudent]

Jan 4, 2011 19:42:44 GMT -5 regina24601 said:

Econ - I can't believe Maggie is 3 1/2 weeks old already! It seems like just yesterday you were telling us your birth story!! Holy cow...so weird how these past few weeks have gone so slowly for me, but when I think about your little one, the time has flown! I guess that's how parenthood will be, eh?

I know! I still can't believe that she is actually here, and she is barely a newborn anymore! Time really does fly by. It's so weird that she's already passed through so many "newborn" stages. I know it's a little crazy, but I was kind of sad when she stopped having meconium poops and started real baby poop. I just wish I could slow time down.

You and Gusita are SO close! I can't wait to hear how your births go!

[gardenergirl]

moneyjenny - Congrats! I bet you are super excited. Feel free to post anything and everything you have questions on. The ladies on this board are wonderful about offering help.

[gardenergirl]

Gusita and Regina - have either of you tried eating Eggplant Parmesan? I don't know but I've just heard from so many people that it works to put women in labor!! Thai food happened to work for me!

[gardenergirl]

All - I emailed kgb yesterday to see how her new job is going. She says HI to everyone! She's busy but says she will try to check in on the board soon!!

[Sam_2.0]

MoneyJenny - welcome!! I am 11wks with our first, and Taz (if she comes over here) is about 10wks.

There are some great coupon deals out this week. I am going to get 3 boxes of diapers to start stocking up. I figure if I can get them for a total cost of about $3 each, than its worth it to buy them up. IF the brand just does not work for us, then I can always exchange unopened boxes. Anything that's opened can just be given to SIL - with four babies I think the odds are good that something will work for one of them I know every kid is different, but I found a good diaper stockpiling guideline on one of the coupon forums, so I am just going to roughly follow that.

We went through the stuff we have been given, and so far we need: bottles, infant carseat & bases, breast pump, burp cloths, and some clothes. I am pretty sure we will have a shower, so maybe we can get everything that way If not, at least it wont be too expensive. We started our savings goal for funding maternity leave - as long as we reach it I can take the full 12 weeks. I should at least get to take 8, so that makes me happy. I got a giant calendar from work (poster-board sized), and brought it home. I penciled in my 12 weeks starting with my due date. I can't believe how real that makes it seem, when I can see it right on the side of the fridge!!

We get to go next Thursday to have a sonogram I am so excited, but part of me is so nervous that something will be wrong. Ughgh, I guess this just never goes away....

[boosmom]

jenny - congrats & welcome!

sam - worrying pretty much lasted the whole pg for me. I hope you'll be a bit more reassured after the u/s next week.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Looks like we are going to be supplementing. I only got 4-4.5 oz out yesterday per session and I had to do it four times. I got 16 oz so that would be two 8 oz bottles, but it is a lot of work to keep up with Gwen.

DH is hoping maybe she will start sleeping better thru the night since she will be less hungry. She was down to once a night and has been back up to three for the past couple of weeks. I know she is gaining weight because the car seat is getting HEAVY with her in it.

DH thinks I might not be producing 6-8 oz at home either and she's compensating for the rapid weight gain by continuing to cluster feed, he might be right.

So we are going to try it this weekend. DH will have to give her the bottle and I will probably have to leave the room. If she sees me she WILL NOT take a bottle. We may have to even leave the house because she associates our home with boobs. She will take a bottle from anyone else and anywhere else, but not from us while at home.

We're also going ot do it around midday because I don't want to fight with her in the morning when she is really hungry or at night when we want her to go back to sleep. Midday seems a good time to introduce something new.

I discussed it with the daycare ladies because once we start this weekend I am going to give them a can and have them do one supplemented bottle a day too. I am thinking it might go smoother since she associates daycare with bottles. Plus it keeps her new routine consistent.

[Deleted]

Wow. I didn't realize that so much activity was already happening over here!

I've read back the full 4 pages, but can't remember (preggo brain is LOVELY) everything...

*Welcome to the new ladies!* -- I'm 25 weeks (tomorrow -WOW!) and we are having a boy.

*Eternal*: I posted on the MSN board too, but just wanted to say how great it is to hear that Cole's kindney's are fluid free! I'm going to talk to my reg Dr. when I go on the 18th about having a re-check, the Dr who told me about Asher's fluid was not my regular Dr.


*drama*: I hope your pumping/supplementing/waking up improves!

*Sam*: How are you stock piling? Also, are you just matching manufacturer's coupons with store sales? I've never been a really big couponer but I need to try and learn for the diapers. I mean I use Q's at the grocery, but I don't match them to the sale circulars or anything. Are you ordering online- like Amazon or Diapers.com-- or just regular store?

*Ladies in ATLANTA* who suggested restaurants: Thank YOU! We are eating at Veni Vidi Vicci and I am excited! I LOVE Italian food and pasta. The second night we decided to just eat at the restaurant in the hotel BC I think I will be exhausted from hitting the mall and other stores ALL day that day! We go next Friday-Sunday so I will let you know how it goes!

QUESTION: When did/is everyone having their baby shower? I'm thinking March 12th, I would be about 34 weeks then. I don't want to be so big and uncomfortable I can't enjoy it but, I don't want to have to too soon either.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Be careful with stocking diapers. Yeah you can always donate, but not all brands work for all babies. We found Pampers to be too big AND they give Gwen horrid diaper rash. We switched to Huggies and have not had any problems since.

I would have hated to have several piles of Pampers in the house when we discovered we could not use them. We only had 2 packages from the shower that we used so if we ran out before buying more we didn't have to make a midnight run.

Plus you don't know what size baby will be. We ended up using newborn clear to three months and just now got into size 2's. While they will grow into bigger sizes you don't want to buy a bunch of the smaller sizes only to have kiddo outgrow them faster than you can use them.

[regina24601]

Aw, man...the MSN board feels like an old ghost town now. It's so sad that all of that content is going to disappear. It was always kind of fun re-reading the old posts in the pregnancy thread. Oh well...onward and upward!

Drama - I'm glad you're able to pump enough to keep up for now, but don't wear yourself out! You've done 6 months, and that's great! It won't be the end of the world if you need to supplement with formula.

gardenergirl - Thanks for the tip! I'm open to any suggestions for induction of labor - we've been doing spicy food, but maybe I'll try some eggplant parmesan!

palmetto - My shower was thrown for me when I was 30 weeks along. It was good timing for me (it would have probably been later, but 30 weeks put us in early November. Any later and we would have had the minefield of holidays to deal with.) I had a nice round belly to show off, but I was not ginormous. Plus by that point we had everything set up for the most part (crib, nursery, etc.) so we really knew what we needed to register for.

jenny - Welcome!! I <3 this board, so hopefully you do, too! ;D

[Deleted]

drama - if you are nursing, baby's do not increase the amount of ounces they take as they get bigger, unlike formula fed babies. Your breastmilk adjusts to be more concentrated in fat and calories so that the baby would drink the same amount as 2 months as they do at 6 months. I never sent more than 4 ounce bottles for my babies when they were nursing.

[nasagreen]

omg - i'm 25 weeks and i am living with my in-laws. my parents have a second house that we are planning on moving into 3/1...but i just talked to my mom and she thinks she told the current renters to be out by 4/1...that is only 3 weeks before my due date. i need to try not to break down and freak out until i know for sure what the renters were told, but still...that would mean an extra 4 weeks of living with in-laws, 3 weeks to set up the entire house for the baby, and moving in between.....

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Palmetto I had my shower in June which made me 7 months. I had a belly to show off for people, but I wasn't so big that I was horribly uncomfortable and miserable. That came in July! lol.

Only downside was Gwen was big enough that I had to pee every five minutes, I spent a lot of my time in the bathroom. It was funny because I'd hear "Where is DQ?" "In the bathroom".

Regina I know I got six months out of it but like I told DH it is frustrating because I have been doing everything they say you are supposed to and then some and I am STILL not catching up with Gwen.

DH said that logically the advice is not going to work for every woman and I know that, but I can't explain to him how disheartening it is and frustrating to be doing so much work and still be stuck.

It's far better that I get sleep and not have to devote so much of my day to pumping, it's just hard to let go of my goal of exclusively breastfeeding for a year.

Especially since I started out oversupplying. I told DH I traded one problem for another. I got one month where everything worked great and I was starting to enjoy it and now I am dropping. Boo!

I am hoping with supplementing I could still EBF in the morning and most of the evening and then I can go back to only three pumping sessions a day.

Eventually it'll become less as she grows and starts eating even more, there is no way at my current production level I could get 28 oz.

Well I COULD but it would take seven pumping sessions a day and be enough for ONE bottle. That is unreasonable.

Then I want to put my foot thru the screen if I see the recommendation one more time that you should EBF for a year. You know what CDC, YOU work and have to pump 6 times a day to even get 4 oz out of each sitting! Then we will see if you are able to go a year!

[Deleted]

drama - one other thing....you may be sabotaging (sp?) yourself by pumping so much. Do you pump on one side while she's eating on the other?

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

No. I EBF at home. I pump three times a day at work and once at home. Every 3-4 hours approx.

[Deleted]

I would feed on one side and pump on the other and see how that works for you. I would also cut down to 2 pumping sessions at work. Of course, if you're been told otherwise by an IBCLC, ignore me