Wow. November 17th is our due date. I can't imagine if baby came right now. Congrats!
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Newborn Baby-GAF: Sleepless Nights Deluxe HD Remix
- Thread starter Adam Prime
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Wow. November 17th is our due date. I can't imagine if baby came right now. Congrats!
AstroNut325
Member
These are a great way to introduce solid fruits to kids. We put apples and banana chunks in one of these for Addie and she absolutely loves it. They're messy, but it really helps her get the hang of eating on her own.
What are these? Where can I get these?
First-time father, first-time newborn baby-gaf poster -
Wife's water broke Saturday morning.
Contractions start two hours later.
Baby boy born Saturday night!
Sine he was four weeks early our stay at the hospital went on until Monday afternoon. Tuesday afternoon we're asked back to the hospital because his bilirubin levels are too high. We were told that he was showing signs of neonatal jaundice before we left the hospital the first time but that with a home phototherapy treatment he would be fine. Apparently not. He's going to be fine now but the hospital is almost an hour away and as first time parents we freak out over everything. We should be out of here Thursday morning since his bilirubin levels are getting much better. If he tests normal tomorrow we will be happy and ready to go home.
But enough of that, here a picture of my firstborn:
Hopefully this shows up alright, I'm not accustomed to posting from a mobile phone and I don't see a preview button anywhere.
Wife's water broke Saturday morning.
Contractions start two hours later.
Baby boy born Saturday night!
Sine he was four weeks early our stay at the hospital went on until Monday afternoon. Tuesday afternoon we're asked back to the hospital because his bilirubin levels are too high. We were told that he was showing signs of neonatal jaundice before we left the hospital the first time but that with a home phototherapy treatment he would be fine. Apparently not. He's going to be fine now but the hospital is almost an hour away and as first time parents we freak out over everything. We should be out of here Thursday morning since his bilirubin levels are getting much better. If he tests normal tomorrow we will be happy and ready to go home.
But enough of that, here a picture of my firstborn:
Hopefully this shows up alright, I'm not accustomed to posting from a mobile phone and I don't see a preview button anywhere.
Brolic Gaoler
formerly Alienshogun
Dahellisdat
Member
my wife is about 12 weeks pregnant with our first baby. We're both excited as all hell. It's been a huge inspiration for us to get off our asses and get our house organized, do a bunch of work to the room we're going to make into a nursery and generally start eating healthier and what not. Her last ultrasound was about 2 weeks ago. Being able to see it for the first time brought tears to my eyes. Its heart was beating and you could see it kind of squirming around every once in awhile. Just amazing...
We've decided to try and keep finding out the gender until the birth. I feel like it will ad a whole other element to the experience. I feel I'll be amazed either way. How did most of you guys go about this? Is it hard not to just notice it during later ultrasounds?
Another question....my open enrollment starts in a couple weeks and we're trying to figure out what level of health insurance will be best and if we should do one of those health pretax flexible spending accounts in 2013 or something. Any advice on this? How much does one of these things run you with health insurance?
We've decided to try and keep finding out the gender until the birth. I feel like it will ad a whole other element to the experience. I feel I'll be amazed either way. How did most of you guys go about this? Is it hard not to just notice it during later ultrasounds?
Another question....my open enrollment starts in a couple weeks and we're trying to figure out what level of health insurance will be best and if we should do one of those health pretax flexible spending accounts in 2013 or something. Any advice on this? How much does one of these things run you with health insurance?
Brianemone
Member
My drama started yesterday for baby #4 (final one as well as I have since had a vasectomy)
Wife's water broke, she's 32 weeks so they are trying to delay the birth for at least two weeks and she'll be in hospital till the delivery. I'm juggling kids in the mean time around anyone that can help while I'm at work. I think I have a shite load of washing to do tonight when I get home. Three kids to wrangle and 13 hour days, yay.
Wife's water broke, she's 32 weeks so they are trying to delay the birth for at least two weeks and she'll be in hospital till the delivery. I'm juggling kids in the mean time around anyone that can help while I'm at work. I think I have a shite load of washing to do tonight when I get home. Three kids to wrangle and 13 hour days, yay.
BaronLundi
Member
And here is our baby girl. 5 weeks early. 1 day old.
Hmmm... This last picture reminds me of something.
Hmmm... This last picture reminds me of something.
Congrats!
It's identical to that baby meme, something like 'not sure if serious' or something.
MrMephistoX
Member
So I had to share, this photoshop I did after unsuccessfully burping the 1 month old over my knee 
Dahellisdat
Member
Anyone able to comment on this that's already been through it? I'm having a hell of a time trying to figure out thebest way to line up my benefits for next year at work. I was thnking it would be good to switch to the high tier for our health coverage and possibly take advantage of a healthcare pretax flex spending account for 2013 since thats when the baby will come and we're anticipating all kinds of medical bills. Thoughts?
Congrats : ) We are expecting our first child...due in March 2013. I didn't know the thread existed, but its awesome to see people sharing some experiences.
I'll be going thru the same. My choices are premium buy up plan or HDHC plan with HSA. I'm going to do buy up until I know my kid is healthy. The HDHC thankfully has max limits on what you'll have to pay out of pocket but at that point the plans are a wash so I went for the premium this year to cover my child birth.
My company provided me a health care calculator to come to this decision. Ask your HR if they have something similar.
AstroNut325
Member
I was in that boat. Then it blew by so fast and everything went well and I realized I was sh!tting bricks for no reason!
Marty Chinn
Member
Don't worry about it. You have very little reason to worry until they turn into a toddler. Then you can start stressing =)
Dark Octave
Banned
Tell me about it. Mine just started full on crawling about three weeks ago and I find myself getting up every 30 seconds to redirect her away from my stuff. I think we need to invest in baby gates and shelving now.
Marty Chinn
Member
Ya, crawling is only the beginning. Once they're mobile, you have to watch them like a hawk and can't just go and do something really quick anymore without securing them. It gets even worse when they walk because suddenly their hands are available and they have reach. This is why I laugh at people saying babies are hard; they're easy. Toddlers are when they start to become hard.
Quick heads up, once you get the gates up, be prepared for your kid to get separation anxiety....
Dark Octave
Banned
What do you do then? Pick them up or just wait for the anxiety to die down?
Marty Chinn
Member
Well from everything we heard, it just a phase and there wasn't too much harm with responding to them up and it helps reassure them that you're there. We would of course let her cry a bit if we had to do something, but we typically would respond to her and just enter the area. That was usually good enough to know we were there. The odd thing is she had been going to daycare for a long time and never had any issue of being dropped off and left so it was weird when it was simply in our own house and just moving to the next room she'd get super upset.
What helped for us was simply expanding the enclosed area to be bigger and bigger over periods of time helped take away that because it gave her more freedom and she could start following us. Other tips that people give that didn't work for us is to talk to them from the other room or from a distance so they can hear you as a way of letting them know you're still there. Another was to gradually grow your distance from them so they get used to you being a bit away. Neither of that worked for us but every kid is different. I can't recall how long it lasted but she's definitely past it now, but it was I think a 3 month period. Somewhere around 10 to 13 months of age.
On a different note, with regards to the things in reach, someone I know put it best that you suddenly have this imaginary line where you see your stuff is placed above and it keeps rising over time as they get older. That was definitely true for us.
So some of you know my son had that surgery back in June due to the skull fusing too soon...
We just had his first birthday on Saturday:
He's all good now. But in lieu of presents, we had everyone bring cash donations for http://craniocarebears.org, a small charity that sends care packages to the hospital for children going through the surgery. Just small things like blankets, toiletries, little things but it's a great support group and it's all funded through donations.
We raised $500 for the group and are really excited to send them the check today! I hope that it makes a lot of little kids and their families have a better experience, because while not life threatening, it's still incredibly traumatic.
We just had his first birthday on Saturday:
He's all good now. But in lieu of presents, we had everyone bring cash donations for http://craniocarebears.org, a small charity that sends care packages to the hospital for children going through the surgery. Just small things like blankets, toiletries, little things but it's a great support group and it's all funded through donations.
We raised $500 for the group and are really excited to send them the check today! I hope that it makes a lot of little kids and their families have a better experience, because while not life threatening, it's still incredibly traumatic.
Glad to hear he is doing well!
My little guy, 17 months now.
Getting ready for Halloween
I have no doubts I'm totally unprepared, and that it does get tougher (kinda like how education feels - at the time it feels like it's the hardest most important thing ever, but each successive year you look back and wonder what the fuss was about).
That said, I still wouldn't say a baby is easy. And i wouldnt generalise that most babies are. Every time someone says so it feels like we're doing something wrong. We have our ups and downs. The toughest part is that babies change so suddenly.
Marty Chinn
Member
I still would say on average a baby is easier than the stigma that they get. It's not even a looking back thing. It was going through the experience thing that I realized this. By no means is every baby easy, but having gone through it myself and looking back to everyone I know who has babies and talking about the experience, and being around their baby, almost all of them state how good their kid was and how easy things are going. I find that to be way more the case than knowing someone who is completely burnt out, stressed, tired and their baby crying all the time. That said I do know people who have gone through this and I don't think it's a reflection on their ability to be a parent or that they're doing something wrong. Some babies are harder than others. I've never said otherwise. I just think they get a bad reputation on how difficult they are. Once you get past the initial shock of birth and you get in a routine, it gets pretty easy. As a co-worker/friend once told me before having a baby, the first six months they're pretty much luggage that you take everywhere. You may be having a more difficult time and that could be a combination of having a more difficult baby and worrying more about things, but by no means do I think you're a bad parent or doing it wrong.
my daughter was born today, after six days of boredom and anxiety in the maternity ward, waiting for labour to start (waters broke on Friday morning).
We are absolutely knackered. I'm very pissed off at the hospital, but I'll explain later along with photos of my girl.
Feels good man
We are absolutely knackered. I'm very pissed off at the hospital, but I'll explain later along with photos of my girl.
Feels good man
That's a good way of putting it.
My bub can pull herself up to standing now using the furniture and I have a small heart attack every time she lets go and trys to stand on her own, she stresses me out big time.
And congrats richisawesome, welcome to the jungle!
Marty Chinn
Member
Well, I didn't really do much. I spent most of my stay in the ward browsing GAF whilst my girlfriend slept!
Was extremely distressing seeing her in so much pain. Yesterday was a shock, as her contractions started for real at lunchtime and I became a back-rubbing machine and punching bag.
Marty Chinn
Member
This is a pretty good way of putting it. It must have been especially hard on you after what you had to go through. I'm really glad to see how your kid is doing and that everything went great.
Congrats!
To change the topic just slightly....
Apparently my kid has reached the age where she can apparently hold a grudge. That's fascinating to me.
freenudemacusers
Member
Oh man I miss the days where I could set him somewhere and he would still be there 10 seconds later.
I just mean being a parent in general.
Thanks Marty! It was tough, half of his life so far has been kind of tainted...I guess. But I think as a familial unit, we're all stronger now.
Eh maybe you're right. From babies around us though, it seems that toughness in latching, sleeping etc was more the norm. Then again, it's possible the stress stories tend to get spread around more.
I guess it's true that our daughter isn't all cries. It's mostly relegated to nights now.
Funny you mention child grudges - child development and psychology is fascinating. Found a textbook on child psychology - could be interesting.
Nice pics - you took them? We paid a professional photographer in the thousands for a handful of shots. Seems expensive in hindsight, but the experience was educational.
Excellent way of putting it. Great to hear you guys are doing well. Your previous posts ha me all squirming. Babies are so ... Innocent it's heart breaking to think of them suffering.
Did anyone choose to do natural childbirth?
We are currently going through classes for the Bradley Method, which is basically a comprehensive education of everything that happens in pregnancy and labor, so as to remove the irrational fears a mother might have during delivery.
I'm finding it all very interesting, but I do have my concerns about my wife screaming at me for drugs and me having to be the brick wall that denies her.
Just curious if anyone else has had similar experiences.
We are currently going through classes for the Bradley Method, which is basically a comprehensive education of everything that happens in pregnancy and labor, so as to remove the irrational fears a mother might have during delivery.
I'm finding it all very interesting, but I do have my concerns about my wife screaming at me for drugs and me having to be the brick wall that denies her.
Just curious if anyone else has had similar experiences.
DJ_Lae
Member
Yup. And when you combine the two (we've got a three and a half month old and a two and a half year old) both your mind and body are always on the edge.
Especially when the older one thinks it's hilarious to poke her sister in the face when she's sleeping and wake her up.
(though I shouldn't feel too bad, my cousin's kid - four - somehow figured out that he loved picking up his ten month old brother and throwing him)
DJ_Lae
Member
We had one of each, though the second natural birth was due to timing and not choice (we were both open to whatever, each time). Labour lasted maybe eight hours, was much milder than the first time, so we went to the hospital quite late and she gave birth maybe 20 minutes after arriving, too soon to get anything other than an IV. It was so quick we weren't able to get someone to watch our daughter, so both of us got to witness the entire birth. Hopefully she doesn't remember much of that experience, though she was very helpful and patting her mom on the forehead during contractions.
The first birth involved pretty much everything that wasn't a C-section, due to it taking about 32 hours of labour.
Marty Chinn
Member
So here's a question for any parent with a toddler; how do you handle changing diapers? For us it seems to be harder and harder to get our girl to change her diaper. She's almost 18 months now and getting her to lay down for a change is almost impossible now. She just wants to get up and do things rather than lay there. Even if we get her down, not long after she'll try to roll, struggle, twist, whatever to get away and man is she a strong kid. It used to be easy to distract her with a toy or something, but not so much anymore. She actively tells us "no" or shakes her head when we tell her it's time to change her diaper. It's starting to become a two person job where one tries to hold her in place while the other changes and even that's difficult sometimes. So what have you guys done to try and keep your toddler in place or at bay during a diaper change?
We decided to go natural but one of the key things we learned early on was not to get your heart set on any specific thing during child birth. You need to be flexible in case things happen that don't go your way. Thankfully we had that in mind because we had to move away from going natural. Our girl was a week late so my wife was induced. After about 10 to 12 hours and it being late at night, she just felt discomfort. Like extreme constipation and pressure down bellow that she had trouble getting any type of rest and was miserable. She wasn't even in pain or anything yet at that point so it was just a constant uncomfortable feeling without any sign of relief. Eventually late at night, I think it was like 2 or 3 in the morning, she caved and went with getting an epidural and after that she was able to sleep and get some rest and was glad she did. We had no plan to do it going into this.
So my advice is, if you really have your heart set on it, talk it through and make sure you understand how important it is to your wife about staying firm on this or what the point where you actually cave is. Even if you try to stand firm, be prepared in your mind that you may just end up going with the drugs based on how things play out during labor. There's nothing wrong with going that route either as I believe most births go that route and babies turn out fine. Whatever it is, make sure it's your wife's decision though because she's the one going through it. You have some right to give input and feelings on it, but ultimately it's on her.
We decided to go natural but one of the key things we learned early on was not to get your heart set on any specific thing during child birth. You need to be flexible in case things happen that don't go your way. Thankfully we had that in mind because we had to move away from going natural. Our girl was a week late so my wife was induced. After about 10 to 12 hours and it being late at night, she just felt discomfort. Like extreme constipation and pressure down bellow that she had trouble getting any type of rest and was miserable. She wasn't even in pain or anything yet at that point so it was just a constant uncomfortable feeling without any sign of relief. Eventually late at night, I think it was like 2 or 3 in the morning, she caved and went with getting an epidural and after that she was able to sleep and get some rest and was glad she did. We had no plan to do it going into this.
So my advice is, if you really have your heart set on it, talk it through and make sure you understand how important it is to your wife about staying firm on this or what the point where you actually cave is. Even if you try to stand firm, be prepared in your mind that you may just end up going with the drugs based on how things play out during labor. There's nothing wrong with going that route either as I believe most births go that route and babies turn out fine. Whatever it is, make sure it's your wife's decision though because she's the one going through it. You have some right to give input and feelings on it, but ultimately it's on her.
distantmantra
Member
My wife went natural, it was very important to her. We had a birth plan that we wrote up and gave to the nurse and doctor on staff. My wife was really calm and determined to go natural, but we ended up with a nurse who kept bringing up petosin, c-sections, etc. She was basically pressuring us to go with drugs to make her job easier, even though she didn't do anything (I did kick counts, doula and I helped her work through everything). We stayed adamant about my wife's wishes the entire time, and we also had our good friend as our Doula, which helped immensely. We did a lot of walking and moving around, she got in the bathtub, etc. If medical intervention was necessary, we were all for it, but it wasn't so there was no need. If everything is progressing along smoothly and you want to go natural, don't get bullied into speeding things up and making their job easier. At the same time, if there is a medical need for intervention, don't ignore those concerns.
Everyone at the hospital was great, except for that nurse. What a bitch.
Marty Chinn
Member
That sucks that your nurse kept doing that. Our experience was our hospital respected our wishes and followed the form they had us filled out. No pressure at all to change any of it. Going with the drugs was only suggested as a way to handle the extreme constipation feeling was after we asked what our options were and then they left us to decide with no pressure. We even held off for awhile after being told.
distantmantra
Member
Everyone else (doctors, nurses, etc.) respected our wishes, we just had an old school nurse who didn't want to come in and do regular monitoring checks, so she started bringing up drugs. The other nurses who came in and filled for her during breaks were great and very supportive, offering suggestions to move labor along. At some point in the process, we just started blocking her out and did our own thing.
Dark Octave
Banned
This sounds like us. My wife was the same as yours. We planned to use a birthing center but her water had been broke for 24 hours so they wouldn't take us anymore. My wife had white coat syndrome to where her blood pressure would spike from anxiety so they thought she had preeclampsia. One nurse didn't believe in white coat hypertension and insited that we do a test. Did some painful tests that came up negative and the doctors still wanted to give her drugs. She declined and the doctors said that she made the right choice. We were confused by that because they seemed pretty strong about giving drugs.
The cervix wasn't opened as much as the doctors would have liked so they offered epidural which makes contractions stronger. The down side to that is that often women can't take it and need pitocin to calm it down. That leads to the baby's heart rate dropping and then it's c-section time. My wife really wanted it naturally but she was afraid of the doctors using the 24 hour water breakage as a reason to do a c-section so she agreed with the epidural and that was pretty painful to watch but she hung in there and never allowed them to give her the pitocin.
Oh and we had two doulas who were amazing. I highly recommend doulas for anyone having a baby.
Brian Griffin
Member
Hey fellow new parents. I have a heavy story to tell. I haven't read the whole thread so maybe people have posted worse but for us this was terrible.
Three weeks ago today my daughter was born and it was the scariest moment of our lives. My wife was in labor for 23 hours before she started pushing and then 4 more hours later it was over.
She was completely blue and lifeless. They immediately got her to the portable NICU they had brought into the room and 4-5 people starting working on her. Her Apgar score was a 2 because she at least had a pulse but it was racing over 200 which is way high. It probably took about 30 seconds before she made her first sounds (best thing I've ever heard) and in those 30 seconds I couldn't help but start considering the possibility that we'd lose her and what that would mean for our future. I don't know exactly how bad it was, maybe the staff deals with this stuff a lot and it's not that serious to them, but to us it was awful. What your baby looks like dead is a haunting image to possess.
Scary times...
Ok happy stuff. She's perfectly fine now and is a pretty good baby. When she's awake she is "quiet alert" most of the time so even on late nights when she won't sleep you can watch TV or play games and just be chill with her. We watched the League of Legends World Championships together which was really cool.
Some advice I have: get earplugs. When you have to change a diaper or whatever late at night and you're barely awake, your baby's screaming can be head splitting and painful. Pop in some earplugs and you can focus on stopping the crying instead of getting frustrated at it.
Three weeks ago today my daughter was born and it was the scariest moment of our lives. My wife was in labor for 23 hours before she started pushing and then 4 more hours later it was over.
She was completely blue and lifeless. They immediately got her to the portable NICU they had brought into the room and 4-5 people starting working on her. Her Apgar score was a 2 because she at least had a pulse but it was racing over 200 which is way high. It probably took about 30 seconds before she made her first sounds (best thing I've ever heard) and in those 30 seconds I couldn't help but start considering the possibility that we'd lose her and what that would mean for our future. I don't know exactly how bad it was, maybe the staff deals with this stuff a lot and it's not that serious to them, but to us it was awful. What your baby looks like dead is a haunting image to possess.
Scary times...
Ok happy stuff. She's perfectly fine now and is a pretty good baby. When she's awake she is "quiet alert" most of the time so even on late nights when she won't sleep you can watch TV or play games and just be chill with her. We watched the League of Legends World Championships together which was really cool.
Some advice I have: get earplugs. When you have to change a diaper or whatever late at night and you're barely awake, your baby's screaming can be head splitting and painful. Pop in some earplugs and you can focus on stopping the crying instead of getting frustrated at it.
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