Curious how it went, hopefully all ok.
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Newborn Baby-GAF: Sleepless Nights Deluxe HD Remix
- Thread starter Adam Prime
- Start date
BankaiZaraki
Banned
When Owen was born, he had Jaundice pretty bad himself. Almost to the point where they wanted to keep him but ultimately he got better after a few weeks. I believe he was at a level 17 at one point.
A little story about our baby boy. In December, we got a 4D ultrasound done as a Christmas present. During the ultrasound, we found out that there was something wrong with our son. For the rest of my g/f's pregnancy she was hign risk. We found out that he has VUR and Hydroneferous(sp?). The VUR is a reflex issue with his uterer where his pee shoots back into his kidneys causing kidney infections. Hydroneferous is the one we're the most concerned about. Both his kidneys are also inflamed and hes at the highest grade you can be at for that which is a grade 5. The doctors want to wait to do surgery until hes a year old but it just seems like that since we are on state assistance, they don't really care which is really aggravating. They said theres a chance his kidneys could fail. Why wait to fix the issue then ya know? So we decided to get a 2nd opinion on the matter at Shands Hospital in Gainesville,FL. But apparently they don't have our paperwork "supposedly". So its all just a bunch of running around trying to figure out the best course of action for our son.
A little story about our baby boy. In December, we got a 4D ultrasound done as a Christmas present. During the ultrasound, we found out that there was something wrong with our son. For the rest of my g/f's pregnancy she was hign risk. We found out that he has VUR and Hydroneferous(sp?). The VUR is a reflex issue with his uterer where his pee shoots back into his kidneys causing kidney infections. Hydroneferous is the one we're the most concerned about. Both his kidneys are also inflamed and hes at the highest grade you can be at for that which is a grade 5. The doctors want to wait to do surgery until hes a year old but it just seems like that since we are on state assistance, they don't really care which is really aggravating. They said theres a chance his kidneys could fail. Why wait to fix the issue then ya know? So we decided to get a 2nd opinion on the matter at Shands Hospital in Gainesville,FL. But apparently they don't have our paperwork "supposedly". So its all just a bunch of running around trying to figure out the best course of action for our son.
Dark Octave
Banned
My baby was born 5 pounds 7 ounces. We took her home a few days later at exactly 5 pounds. 6 months later she is 14 pounds and perfectly healthy. She didn't have jaundice but that is normal to have.
Don't worry dude.
BaronLundi
Member
Jaundice is absolutely normal and is nothing to worry about.
As to losing weight it's also perfectly fine. You hear that the baby should gain 15g to 30g a day (or whatever the equivalent is in pound for you heathens) but it's an average and the weight curve is absolutely not linear. Some days the baby will gain weight, some days he will lose some. The important thing is that he/she's growing overall.
There is zero reason to think your kid is not perfectly healthy !
Then again, I'm a worrier too. We're expecting our first in november and apparently my gf has too much amniotic liquid. Also trying to not be overly anxious about it...
I hope it'll be a girl.
Congrats to all the dads and moms !
Gary Whitta
Member
It's funny how having a kid changes you. Last year I saw TAKEN, in which Liam Neeson goes on a rampage across Europe to track down the people who kidnapped his daughter, and I remember thinking at the time that a few of the things he did seemed a bit harsh and over the top. Today, however, it all seems totally reasonable.
In other news, baby started on formula last night to arrest her weight loss. After a couple of really frustrating days (for baby as much as anyone) trying to breast feed, it was SUCH a relief to watch her guzzle down some formula and then zonk out, totally sated. Hopefully over the next 24 hours we'll see her weight start to improve, and we're still very optimistic that she'll breast feed too.
In other news, baby started on formula last night to arrest her weight loss. After a couple of really frustrating days (for baby as much as anyone) trying to breast feed, it was SUCH a relief to watch her guzzle down some formula and then zonk out, totally sated. Hopefully over the next 24 hours we'll see her weight start to improve, and we're still very optimistic that she'll breast feed too.
SillyEskimo
Member
Haha, I'm totally with you on the movies. For me, it was watching The Orphanage. That movie hit me like a ton of bricks because I had just had a baby. It is amazing how parents instantly form an unbreakable bond with a newborn. After they handed me my daughters "straight from the womb", you could have taken them out of my hands and mixed them with 100 other babies and I would've been able to walk in and pick mine out immediately. There is something very primal about the whole experience that is hard to explain to someone without kids. It was not something I expected and ranks as one of the high points of my life.
As for breast vs formula, we did 75/25 ratio from birth until about 6 months. Then we gradually increased the formula ratio when my wife started working again. Some parents really have to fight to get their babies to go from milk to formula!
My wife struggled to breast feed when my son was born so we went to formula within a week... and never looked back. Weight shot up and everything was great. I'm sure your daughter will start packin on the pounds soon enough.
I think its quite common too, I think.
edit. Also Gary, the bad thing about having kids for me now is that I cannot, absolutely cannot stand to hear stories about children being hurt. Before my son, I was immune to anything.. no news affected me emotionally. Now when I read about children being hurt, killed, abused I'm almost brought to tears every time. This change hit me like a ton of bricks, I never expected it until one day I turned on the news and nearly broke down.
Big Baybee
Member
We went through the same thing. First few nights trying to breastfeed were rough. Switched to formula and never looked back, lol. I remember my daughters first bottle. She downed that shit in like 10 seconds.
We used some formula for a top up during the same period as well, except we were told to avoid a bottle and teat, so we used a tiny little cup that was like a small shot-glass. It was a nightmare feeding with that, but it was important because at that stage baby is still learning to latch and you do not want them to fail that - it makes it harder later.
7weeks down, and we still use formula (from a bottle) and we know she has learnt to be a bit lazy at suckling. She will grizzle if the flow is not high.
Obviously, your mileage may vary. We all get so much advice and anecdotal evidence, only some of which turns out to be relevant. The best you can do is take it all in and decide what you pay heed to.
Captain Tuttle
Member
Yep, same thing here. It's a tough thing though because some people will say that you're practically poisoning the baby if you use formula.
I agree wholeheartedly. Prior to becoming a parent, when I heard people saying that the best day of their lives is when their kid was born, I was like "meh" but now I totally agree with it. :lol
Damn, wish your son gets better soon. This might be a redundant question but is there any other way to speed up in getting a second opinion?
distantmantra
Member
I'm a school psychologist and have summers off, so I'm Mr. Mom with my five month old daughter until August 27th. My parents watch her during the work year and they were not good about putting her in the pack and play for naps, so she isn't too keen on napping in her crib during the day. No problem at night (8pm to 8am without waking!) but day is another story. Just got her down, fingers crossed I get an hour to clean the bathrooms and the floors.
SystemShark
Member
At the hospital myself with the missus. We are 11 days overdue and my wife has had two applications of cervodil and there hasn't been a lot of progress.
Eight more hours and then we either start the oxytocin drip or we do a C-Section.
My wife is getting contractions so we may be seeing baby sooner rather then later.
Baby's sex is unknown and is weighing in around the 9 lbs mark!
This thread is great, by the way!
Eight more hours and then we either start the oxytocin drip or we do a C-Section.
My wife is getting contractions so we may be seeing baby sooner rather then later.
Baby's sex is unknown and is weighing in around the 9 lbs mark!
This thread is great, by the way!
BankaiZaraki
Banned
Thank you. Actually the hospital in Gainesville called my g/f today apologizing profusely for the screw up and the receptionist is supposed to call her and reschedule an appointment.
First sonogram today, and I missed it due to work complications =( We had to move the date up due to wife having a few issues that were worrisome, but apparently all is well, heartbeat, armbuds, and all.
You'd think I'd be relieved, but now it's all starting to set in for real.
You'd think I'd be relieved, but now it's all starting to set in for real.
BankaiZaraki
Banned
We've always used Gerber Good Start. Seemed like the only formula he would eat/drink was that. But if we ever run out of that stuff, we have backups of Similac and Enfamil.Oh, here's a tip for people who aren't breast feeding. If your baby is taking the formula and crying a lot, getting really gassy. Switch to this shit:
We switched around the 1 and a half mark and it was like having a new baby. Completely calm. it was awesome.
I highly recommend visiting a breast-feeding specialist for your sanity. My daughter was 5lbs 15 oz at birth and dropped to 5lbs because she was having trouble breast-feeding. We started with formula, but were able to switch over to pumped milk fairly quickly. It took three weeks of intensive work before she had shifted over to exclusively breast-feeding. I don't know how we would have made it without the specialist we were working with. It is hard enough without questioning whether you're doing the right thing all the time.
Marty Chinn
Member
Just wanted to chime in with others that this is all normal and nothing to worry about.
We went through a pretty similar experience too. My wife didn't quite have her milk flowing yet so we had to resort to formula in the beginning till the supply was there. Don't fret over it. I think it was like two weeks before the milk was flowing well enough to keep up with her too so we had to go back and forth between breast milk and formula.
The worst part was our girl had trouble latching and as much as we tried, and as much help that we got from the newborn club at the hospital, it just became too exhausting and not working over the first few weeks. She would only latch on rare occasions and even then might not last long when she did.
We had our heart set on doing it which resulted in the best lesson we learned about taking care of a baby; don't get your heart or expectations set on anything and be flexible. If you don't, you'll get more frustrated or even heart broken over things. Babies and kids are unpredictable so it's just best to go with the flow as long as the baby is healthy. This I think is great advice for any expecting parents or new parents out there. I think you got a taste of that when it sounds like the natural birth tub didn't pan out as you guys wanted.
What we ended up doing is just simply pumping breast milk for the first six months. In many ways it helped a lot because we had a ready supply and my wife didn't have to be up for every feeding. It helped us both get longer stretches of rest and our little girl still at least got to drink breast milk. Nothing wrong with going with formula either. We always had it on hand for back up in case of a shortage of supply or who knows what unexpected thing happened and we eventually switched to it once the supply started to run out over time.
I've seen this mentioned a few times, but wasn't there an option to take a bili(sp?) blanket home to do it on your own? Our girl had it and they just gave us a blanket which I found amusing because we got to have our demon baby:
and our little glow worm:
God yes this. I've definitely been more sensitive to things relating to kids. A lot of things either remind me of my little girl or my girl and being with her mommy. It also breaks my heart more when I read certain threads on GAF. The most recent thing that got me was Brave with the relationship between the daughter and mother. It brought tears to my eyes. A lot of things pull those strings these days.
Oh on this topic, a big pro tip is to take pictures or video while being with a specialist. It will help a lot as a reference point of trying to do what you just were told to do later on at home. How to hold and position can be hard to replicate off memory sometimes, especially when you're tired or even frustrated.
Adam Prime
hates soccer, is Mexican
Hey everyone yall need to read HAPPIEST BABY ON THE BLOCK http://www.happiestbaby.com/
We rented the DVD from our local library. Now I can swaddle my baby like a pro, she loves it! It made my confidence as a dad really improve, I feel pretty confident that I can calm the baby 90% of the time when she's crying now, it's awesome.
Also, how many many here are having their second or third child? I heard that going from 1 to 2 kids was intense and a huge challenge, but 2 to 3 was a lot better and easier.
We had our second child, already have a 4 year old. It's definitely tough to divide our attention, but we're doing well. I can't imagine how parents with 3+ kids do it. The 1:1 parent to kid ratio seems ideal. Whenever my wife heads to the store she asks, 'Which baby do you want?" lol
Oh yeah my wife told me yesterday: "How have you not posted a picture of Angelina in YOUR thread on NeoGAF yet?" lol so here ya go. She's 6 weeks old tomorrow!
And our 4year old
We rented the DVD from our local library. Now I can swaddle my baby like a pro, she loves it! It made my confidence as a dad really improve, I feel pretty confident that I can calm the baby 90% of the time when she's crying now, it's awesome.
Also, how many many here are having their second or third child? I heard that going from 1 to 2 kids was intense and a huge challenge, but 2 to 3 was a lot better and easier.
We had our second child, already have a 4 year old. It's definitely tough to divide our attention, but we're doing well. I can't imagine how parents with 3+ kids do it. The 1:1 parent to kid ratio seems ideal. Whenever my wife heads to the store she asks, 'Which baby do you want?" lol
Oh yeah my wife told me yesterday: "How have you not posted a picture of Angelina in YOUR thread on NeoGAF yet?" lol so here ya go. She's 6 weeks old tomorrow!
And our 4year old
SillyEskimo
Member
Going from 1 to 2 kids was cake for us because we had them 16 months apart. The second kid was a breeze. I always heard that any number of kids over 3 and it's always the same! I'm glad we stopped at 2 for logistical reasons alone. We have 2 laps, hotel rooms sleep 4 comfortably, 2 back seats, ect. If you have three, you might as well have 5 or 6 because you'll keep running into the same issues on anything over 2, lol. (I have friends with 4-5 kids. The "we only have 2 laps" is a constant issue when all the kids are young and they all seem to want/need a parent's attention!)
Full discolsure: If I had met my wife earlier in life and we had both gotten our careers started eariler, I would have had at least 4 kids, possibly more. However, 2 at our age (37 with a 3 and 5yr old) has been wonderful. We enjoy a level of financial, relationship, and personal strength that I never enjoyed in my 20's. For us, it paid to wait to have children and our family is reaping the benefits of our planning and foresight. So gar, so good that is.
Full discolsure: If I had met my wife earlier in life and we had both gotten our careers started eariler, I would have had at least 4 kids, possibly more. However, 2 at our age (37 with a 3 and 5yr old) has been wonderful. We enjoy a level of financial, relationship, and personal strength that I never enjoyed in my 20's. For us, it paid to wait to have children and our family is reaping the benefits of our planning and foresight. So gar, so good that is.
Lol my bubs hates being swaddled! Even if she was calm, I'd swaddle her for bed and she'd crack the shits and struggle until her arms were free then she'd relax and go to sleep. She still sleeps with her arms above her head today.
distantmantra
Member
My wife bought the book and the video was part of our parenting class. We only swaddled Addie for the first month, but she started getting frustrated by not being able to move her arms. Really glad we stopped, we've heard horror stories from friends who are now trying and failing at weaning their kids off swaddling.
That's how I know she's 100% down the count.
That's how I know she's 100% down the count.
SystemShark
Member
It's a boy! 8 lbs 9 oz and 22 inches. Long wait for the eventual c-section but it happened at 6:19 this morning.
Baby and mommy are doing great!
Baby and mommy are doing great!
Congrats!
Marty Chinn
Member
So based on reading stuff here, hearing experiences from friends and family, and going through our own experience, I'm starting to wonder if babies get a bad/false reputation. It seems like more often than not, babies are easy. It's the stories of the rare and few ones that seem to become lore though of how hard they are. I've found having my first girl to be a really easy experience. She rarely cried and was a good and happy baby. Super easy to handle. I'm not saying there aren't some instances where babies are more difficult, and I hear having a colic baby is probably the worst, but it seems like that's not what your average normal baby is like. Anyone else feel that babies get a bad rep from the stories people hear?
Babies are easy; if anything, it's toddlers that are much harder.
Babies are easy; if anything, it's toddlers that are much harder.
No.
Babies are hard. Or can be. In MY experience, babies cover the whole spectrum pretty evenly and no consensus is reached.
Also, a large part of it is how the parents approach it, how well they are prepared (lol, like you can be prepared... Perhaps I should say 'reasonable expectation'). How well the parents work as a team, how well they adapt and take to 'breaking' their plan. How well they handle lack of sleep, it's one thing to consider 3-hourly feeds, it's another entirely to live it day in and out. A lot of people say second babies are a lot easier, and this is partiallyyourbodybeing adapted, but also that your expectations are way more realistic. But it,s important to realise that the notion of 'babies' can't be separated from parenting, so it's all relevant.
That said, there might be a small part where people will tell you it's hard, because it's better to go in prepared for the worst, and get it nice rather than the other way around. But I don't think you can make a judgement and say that it's easy overall. And yes, I understand you aren't undermining the difficulties of those that have them.
Lastly, i think theres a nature to people to forget what it's like if you've finished it and look back (just as it can be easy to escalate how bad it is at the time). It's like labour - looking back this may seem routine and straightforward, even if it was tough, but it was super scary at the time. When you're on either side of the event, it's not really the same as living it.
Gary Whitta
Member
YAY! Congratulations
I,ve heard this a lot too, again, agreeing withthenotion 'anything goes, there're no rules'.
But i'vedefinitely heard the second is easier in regards to labour, which I think I was more referring to I regards to that statement. Maybe.
Like the hat?
Banned
cool to see some other baby wearers in the thread. My wife is really into the whole AP thing (my parenting take is more the "do the opposite of what my stepfather did" thing) and she is really in to baby wearing. The kids love it.
oktarb
Member
Eczema. Our baby has a pretty rough bout with Eczema. Nothing horrific, the doctor just prescribed cortisone cream but it didn't seem to help at all.
This may sound damn crazy but by the old and new gods I swear it worked for us. In a bathtub filled to maybe 4-5 inches of water add a half a cup of bleach. I know, I know Bleach!?! Bleach on my babies skin? You're wacko.
Why wife got this from her sister. I was extremely concerned, wary and actually put up a fight. Needless to say I lost that argument.
It worked(s) wonders. within a day her skin looked better. It was quite amazing. We only do the bleach bath if we see it starting up again. Now a days we rarely ever do it at all because her skin seems to be better in general. Of course I only say this from my own experience. I'm not a doctor and I'm not recommending you run out and dunk your child in bleach. Every kid is different. Read up on it. If you don't feel good about it don't do it!
This may sound damn crazy but by the old and new gods I swear it worked for us. In a bathtub filled to maybe 4-5 inches of water add a half a cup of bleach. I know, I know Bleach!?! Bleach on my babies skin? You're wacko.
Why wife got this from her sister. I was extremely concerned, wary and actually put up a fight. Needless to say I lost that argument.
It worked(s) wonders. within a day her skin looked better. It was quite amazing. We only do the bleach bath if we see it starting up again. Now a days we rarely ever do it at all because her skin seems to be better in general. Of course I only say this from my own experience. I'm not a doctor and I'm not recommending you run out and dunk your child in bleach. Every kid is different. Read up on it. If you don't feel good about it don't do it!
Marty Chinn
Member
I think babies are a lot of work no doubt, but none of it is really hard work. I don't doubt some babies are harder to deal with than others, but it just feels to me that there are probably more easy to deal with babies out there than there are hard ones.
It's not even about looking back at it because I remember thinking the whole time that this is a lot easier than I was lead to believe. Heck I played and beat more games in the early months than I do now. Being off from work and the baby sleeping 20 hours a day gives you plenty of time to do stuff on your own even if the baby is waking up every 2 to 3 hours.
Maybe I'm naive about it, but just reading stories here, hearing about others, and from personal experience, it seems most people have an easier time than a hard one. I know a few people who do have a tougher time because of one thing or another, so I'm not trying to trivialize it or think nobody has a reasonable difficult time though. I used to think I was lucky because I had the easiest baby in the world, but looking at other people's experience it really feels like it's just more normal than not.
Yep, did this plenty of times. The worst is when they start sleeping longer and if they don't cry when they wake up, you'll wake up wondering why you haven't heard anything yet.
oktarb
Member
My god yes. "One the back is best" had me paranoid to no end. Glurbales, snorts and even crying made me feel ten times better. All the books and stories get you so worried, it;s natural of course.
Haha, thank god I'm not alone. My group of friends (dads) are either lying or just too laid back I suppose.
Gary Whitta
Member
We are finally going home today!
Gary Whitta
Member
Only about ten times per hour.
Congrats on winning the baby lottery. My wife would seriously attack you right now if you said that to her. We're currently going through sleep regression with our four month old. She's up every two hours at night and she doesn't nap during the day much. Overall she is a good baby, but sleep deprivation will do terrible things to you. Most people saying it wasn't that bad are not remembering how bad it sucks going without sleep for extended periods of time. Based on the percentages from my wife's online friends it is definitely a minority that have great sleeping habits.
It has also completely killed my productivity outside of work hours. I'm way behind on things I was hoping to accomplish this summer while off from school.
I'm not denying there are easy babies. I'm just not saying that there are necessarily more easy babies than there are harder ones. Nor vice versa. I think there's a broad spectrum.
MY work is generally pretty easy and straight forward. But waking every 2-3 hours during the night and then going to work EVERY day (well, weekends, you just deal with 2-3 hours every day) is still killer. I don't play games at all. And that's just me. My wife deals with it every day. Day in. Day out.
Now, I personally think the parent and their style plays a huge part. Some people shrug off lack of sleep. I'm more that kind generally (but the same thing after 6 weeks and so on will wear you down), but my wife isn't. Also, how the parents approach issues and worry makes a big difference. For example, some people insist on making their own lives tougher to have the baby fit a certain life style. That's fine.
I know their are different babies, and different parents. I'm just not ready to generalise all baby/parenting experiences. Again, no denying that babies can be easy! I have friends with easy babies! But I also have friends with tough babies. And easy/tough toddlers.
edit: just realise I quoted you, when I'm more directing at Marty.
Clever Pun
Member
I definitely recommend a movement monitor as well, if for nothing else than being able to rest a little more soundly when opportunities for sleep do roll around.
Marty Chinn
Member
For people saying a lack of sleep, do you mean consecutive sleep or just sleep? I can understand consecutive sleep, like someone needs their 8 hours in a row, but I never found a lack of overall sleep. You just sleep when the baby sleeps is the best advice. I actually got more sleep in the first month than I did normally before I had the baby because I would take naps throughout the day. If you're open to feeding the baby outside of being on the actual breast, like bottled breast milk or bottled formula, you can easily get longer stretches of sleep too if you take shifts.
Dark Octave
Banned
Every little noise. I remember one night I went from a full sleep to standing and at her crib in what seemed like half a second, trying to peer through the darness to see if her tummy was moving.
Both.
Our first couple of weeks was particullarly tough. 3-hourly feeds with feeds taking 1.5-2 hours. That's roughly 1 hour breaks. Occasionally a feed would run into the next with no break.
The first couple of weeks were consecutive nights of 2-3 hours of sleep per night.
A lot of of it was because my wife's milk hadn't come through to a significant level, so we topped on formula. And when they're little they discourage bottle feeding. So you're feeding with a frigging cup, which takes 30 minuts for like 10 mls.
It's a little better now, but we're still on formula. A bottle makes it easier, but because of the bottle, our baby only wants milk when it can be shot out like a jet, which makes breast feeding evermore difficult.
I'm back to maybe 5-6 hours (broken) sleep, which is fine, because that's what I'm used to, but my wife is not.
Our biggest aim is to get the milk flowing to match baby's appetite. We KNOW it's a lot easier when you only have to deal with breast feeding and not a top up after. Here's hoping.
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