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Thanks for all the replies, everyone! It looks like the consensus is that a childbirth class isn't necessary, but useful for the husband. I did call a few Bradley instructors and it ranged from $300 to $400+. One lady offered to drop the price to $250 when I told her we were grad students. I really wish insurance covered these classes--it makes good sense. I will definitely make sure he's on top of the reading and we'll practice some of those pain techniques like massage and counterpressure. Starshine: I had a 1 hr oral glucose tolerance test in my first trimester and I have another next month, and I was specifically told to eat normally. They said just don't chug a soda 20 minutes prior or anything like that. I think if that if the 1 hr test is abnormal, then they'll have you come in for a fasting one.
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Feb 20, 2011 20:17
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 I'm sorry it is so expensive; our class was $150, which isn't bad considering it's 12 classes long. I really did love it, though, and recommend the class to everyone I know who is interested in husband-coached birthing.
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Feb 20, 2011 20:23
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I think this was mentioned in the old thread, but I can't seem to find it...what's the name of the FB group? I just realized I'd never joined
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Feb 20, 2011 20:35
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skibunny402 posted:I think this was mentioned in the old thread, but I can't seem to find it...what's the name of the FB group? I just realized I'd never joined It's SA Moms. I don't know if it's findable by searching though.
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Feb 20, 2011 20:47
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Apparently it is now searchable.
Fire In The Disco fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Feb 20, 2011 |
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Feb 20, 2011 20:49
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Panne posted:It's SA Moms. I don't know if it's findable by searching though. Er... It's not "Pregnancy can be Something Awful" anymore? Because that's the one that shows up for me. Unless y'all started another group.
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Feb 20, 2011 21:06
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No, that group hasn't been active in some time. Since Facebook changed the way the groups work, I believe.
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Feb 20, 2011 21:09
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I found it by searching for SA Moms, so it appears it is searchable (unless I have the wrong one  ). I requested to join too (name's Michelle).
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Feb 20, 2011 22:11
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Miss Shell posted:I found it by searching for SA Moms, so it appears it is searchable (unless I have the wrong one Awesome, then I will edit my above post.
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Feb 20, 2011 22:21
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I found it too; first name Valerie. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 20, 2011 22:23
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I think I found the group, I'm Allicia  (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2011 02:06
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I signed up for the group, first name Jade (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2011 02:08
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Requesting to join as well, first name Paige. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2011 03:47
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I requested to join too (my name is Krystal) (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2011 04:33
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Requested, too! Victoria (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2011 05:09
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Also requested! I'm Melody. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2011 06:07
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Also requested, first name is Regan. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Feb 21, 2011 11:43
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I am a Dad! We were scheduled for a c-section this morning and were supposed to be at the hospital at 7am. We had the alarm set for 6am for a quick breakfast and to carry the pre-packed bags to the car. At 5:30am I hadn't been to sleep because I was too excited and my wife woke up as well because she was too excited. We were chatting away and all of a sudden her waters broke! Mild contractions started over the next 20 minutes or so, but very light and not particularly painful. We went into the hospital about 20 minutes ahead of the old schedule, and we confirmed via ultrasound that he was still breach so went ahead with our previously arranged c-section. Everybody involved was friendly and professional, everything went smoothly and with no pain for my wife. I was able to hold her hand and she remained talkative and perfectly fine throughout. Towards the end of the...uh... extraction phase I peeked over the screen and saw that they had everything but his head out of my wife and it looked to me like a bit of a struggle to get that part out... but great success. Once his head popped out, he opened his eyes, looked around and said in baby-ese "what the gently caress is going on here?" then he regained his composure. Jake was born at 8:55am 21st Feb 2011. He only cried a little bit when they dried him off, weighed him and gave him his vitamin K shot. Other than that he has been much more chilled out than I expected for his first day. He's basically slept a lot, fed several times from both boobs, plus about 3.5ml of colostrum my wife expressed in advance and spent 11 hours straight in skin to skin contact with either my wife or myself. My total lifetime nappy changes is now 2! The first one was ok... but I suspect the second one had been in there a bit longer, and had somewhat solidified... that stuff did NOT want to come off. Question for Aagar! As a man who no doubt has much experience in getting feces off scrotums... what advice can you give? It was a long ordeal for me, and I think must have been pretty distressing for him. Question for anybody: He has long razor sharp fingernails already, and I worry about the lifespan of his face and eyes in that environment. Should one invest in some baby fingernail clippers, or is it best to just cover his hands in mittens until a certain age?
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Feb 21, 2011 12:26
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When they're newborn, their nails are so delicate and flimsy and small, that the nail cutters weren't able to properly cut any meaningful amount of nail off. Biting them off worked better for the first few weeks. We also used mittens a lot. In the end, he till scratched his face a whole bunch V V
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Feb 21, 2011 12:36
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Phooney posted:
Congrats!  His poop should get easier to get off as it gets more runny when the meconium has passed. Some olive oil makes the meconium easier to remove. I just used my fingers to trim baby's nails, I'm too much of a sissy to get close to his hands with scissors. What worked for me was doing it while he was eating, towards the end of a meal when he was calm and drowsy. Good luck!
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Feb 21, 2011 13:07
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Phooney posted:Question for Aagar! As a man who no doubt has much experience in getting feces off scrotums... what advice can you give? It was a long ordeal for me, and I think must have been pretty distressing for him. Congrats Phooney! Yeah, what Panne said. You only have to deal with that merconium-type poop for a few days, and then it will get softer (and more yellow-orange, I think). I also had the advantage of nurses around in the first two weeks to help out - as you can imagine they were all wiping experts. It also gets pretty routine after 20 or so.  And just as a heads up you might want to drape a baby wash-cloth over his front - I don't know if it's the fresh air but that's when the boys like to pee all over me/themselves.
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Feb 21, 2011 13:14
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LuckyDaemon posted:A couple of hospitals here offer $70 childbirth classes but my CNM doesn't think they're very useful for teaching practical information about how to get through labor--just education about "This is what happens when baby comes, these are some of the tools we use". I've gotten all of that information from my own research. Bradley classes would be awesome, but we can't afford them. We watched a dvd called Laugh and Learn about Childbirth. I think it was around $40 on Amazon. It didn't tell me anything I didn't know, but it told my husband A LOT. I would've taken a class at my hospital but they didn't offer them. I love The Birthing Partner and I'm going to force my husband to read it next time. I'll also be doing Hypnobabies next time. I used hypnosis during my first labor, I just didn't know I was doing it. I had barely started listening to the Hypnobabies tracks when we ended our last pregnancy and even that little bit was helpful. I got the cds from a friend, so I'll have to decide if I want to spend $150 just to get the workbook.
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Feb 21, 2011 16:37
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For those of you who have Flexible Spending Accounts, breast pumps/supplies are now eligible even without a "medical necessity" like they used to be. This includes both purchase and rentals. Bras aren't included and I'm not sure how far "supplies" goes. http://www.hdhpexpert.com/2011/02/10/irs-approves-breast-milk-pumps-now-hsa-and-fsa-eligible/
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Feb 21, 2011 17:41
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Congrats Phooney! For our baby boy, we invested in a packet of pee pee teepees, and it was worth every penny. I cannot even count the number of times it protected me from his spray, and they are easy to clean and very durable. We did not put mittens on him, and he did scratch himself a bit for the first few weeks, but we didn't want to keep him from learning to grab stuff and touch things. A few nurses at the hospital assured us their baby skin heals rather quickly from the scratches and they were right. He still scratches his face every once in a while (he's nearly 3 months old now) but we just try to stay on top of his fingernails and trim them while he nurses. We didn't use nail trimmers for the first few weeks, we just peeled them off with our fingers (as one of the nurses showed us to do). And make sure you wipe down every fold of his thighs and genitals when you change his poopy diaper - that stuff manages to find its way into every nook and cranny. Before you leave the hospital, make sure you have asked the nurses to show you all their tips and tricks. It was one random nurse during my recovery who mentioned you have to flare out the diapers on the kid's legs, or they will leak.
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Feb 21, 2011 20:08
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For dried or sticky poops, I find using warm water and a cloth or soft paper towel (Kleenex Viva brand is awesome) works really well, and really helped my daughter's diaper rash. PLUS, the warm water seems to keep her from peeing, unlike the cold wipes. The first time I tried to trim her nails with clippers I nicked her, so I haven't done it again. I just bite or peel. You really have to stay on top of it though, or use mittens. You haven't lived until a baby has grabbed your nipple and twisted it with their razor-sharp claws. 
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Feb 21, 2011 21:46
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Biting your kid's nails (like licking their spoons/pacifiers) may not be a good idea because it can transfer bacteria that cause cavities from your mouth to their mouth.
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Feb 21, 2011 22:29
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I found the easiest way to cut baby nails & kid nails is to use scissors instead of clippers. I've never accidentally cut their fingers when using scissors. I like these ones: http://www.amazon.com/Tweezerman-Yellow-Baby-Nail-Scissors/dp/B000G686X6/ref=sr_1_8?s=beauty&ie=UTF8&qid=1298324957&sr=1-8
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Feb 21, 2011 22:49
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Another suggestion would be to wait until they are sleeping. That way the squirming won't cause any problems either. I also used a very low-grit file to smooth away any rough edges. I'm already working on a file now (just take an old one and then clean it all up for baby).
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Feb 21, 2011 23:20
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fishandcandy posted:Biting your kid's nails (like licking their spoons/pacifiers) may not be a good idea because it can transfer bacteria that cause cavities from your mouth to their mouth. A public health nurse told me this too. She said we were to avoid any contact between my saliva and my daughter's mouth. This is way harder than it sounds... no testing bottles, sharing food or cups, biting their nails, etc. So for a long time I would feel guilty when it happened accidentally, then I finally decided to let it go. For what it's worth, I've never had a cavity, and my daughter's teeth are fine so far.
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Feb 22, 2011 01:23
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Phooney posted:
Not Aagar, but someone who now has experience in removing meconium from baby balls - I found that using vaseline helped. Especially if I left it on (much like you would leave on some diaper rash cream), it kept it from sticking and made it much easier to just wipe off rather than making multiple passes.
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Feb 22, 2011 01:29
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We use tiny baby nail scissors. It's hard when she's wiggling a lot but seeing the scratches on her face is worse. She's got a scar on her eyelid from when she was just a few days old. http://pigeon.info/products/item/index-240.html
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Feb 22, 2011 07:08
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We spent $25-30 on a really really good pair of german-made blunt-tipped nail scissors and they work SO much better than any clippers did for us. The clippers just bent her flexible albeit razor sharp nails - the scissors cut them cleanly and easily. I strongly recommend blunt-tipped nail scissors, and investing in a quality pair.
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Feb 22, 2011 07:15
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Points taken everybody, and thanks for the wealth of information! Little Jake Hadrian saved up a massive poo for when I arrived at the hospital. I was holding him but he was being really fidgety, then he basically did a press-up on my chest from a 45 degree angle, tensed his whole body, his eyes got really wide and I felt the impact on my hand through the nappy, then he did a massive "aaaaaahhhh!" sigh of relief and fell asleep on me. When I went to change his nappy I used a wet cloth flannel/washcloth/facecloth/whatever you want to call it, and it worked much much better than the cotton balls, baby wipes or what have you that we'd used before. With me doing the wiping and changing, my wife doing the distraction/entertainment, he hardly even cried, and it was all reasonably quick and satisfying for all concerned. I'll pick up some quality scissors on the way to visit them tomorrow. We've stuck him in mittens for now, but he already has a scratch under his eye and on his cheek, we just need to do damage minimisation now! My wife didn't get much sleep last night after I left the hospital because it seems Jake only likes to sleep while he is being cuddled. He seems to hate being swaddled and put down, and has so far struggled out of our and the midwives' best swaddling efforts and cried until he was picked up. We're really hoping that he likes his own cot (which will be attached to the side of our bed for now) better than the clear plastic cot he is currently refusing to use. We don't *want* to co-sleep any closer than the side-car style cot, but will of course cave if that is how everybody gets more sleep. Is it the consensus that some babies just don't like swaddling? Even though I've read through all the previous thread, all I seem to recall is just how much babies love being reminded of the constricted environment of the womb, but Jake just loves being frog-legged face to chest with mummy and daddy 
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Feb 22, 2011 10:57
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fishandcandy posted:Biting your kid's nails (like licking their spoons/pacifiers) may not be a good idea because it can transfer bacteria that cause cavities from your mouth to their mouth. That's a very good point, and I'm an idiot for not considering that at the time (for serious). Listen to fishandcandy.
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Feb 22, 2011 13:35
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Phooney posted:Is it the consensus that some babies just don't like swaddling? Even though I've read through all the previous thread, all I seem to recall is just how much babies love being reminded of the constricted environment of the womb, but Jake just loves being frog-legged face to chest with mummy and daddy On the nails thing though...I never used mittens, but I loved the little sleepers that have bits you can fold over their hands. Don't worry about them not learning to use their fingers--only flip them over his hands when he's sleeping (and nursing if need be for Mom's sake) and when he's awake, someone will be attentive to him to keep him from getting his face too badly anyway. By the time he's really grabbing at toys and trying to use his hands, he'll have the motor control to be past the 'Oh God these things attached to me just randomly flap around and sometimes get me in the face, why?!' phase. Swaddling...You don't have to if he doesn't dig it, just stop trying and see if he settles down better that way. I never swaddled Midget (don't plan on swaddling Baby Wham either), and he never seemed to care. He'd sleep with his arms straight up above his head. Your little Jake is brand new, so don't sweat his sleep 'preferences' at this point. Just cuddle that baby! Once you get him home, everything will be tons better. Just lay him down where you want him to sleep--he'll be fine. Not swaddling might be the trick anyway. And, get a seahorse! They're cheaper at your local Walmart or Target. Use it just like Pavlov's dogs and the bell. Soon, it'll be his sleepy time trigger, and soon after that, he'll be able to turn it on himself if he needs it. Many, many goon Moms and Dads will attest to the Power of the Seahorse.
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Feb 22, 2011 20:19
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My kids all hated to be swaddled. I didn't do it. They also never cared for the seahorse.
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Feb 22, 2011 20:36
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I'm pretty sure I'm going to be a dad in about 8 months! After two pregnancy tests on separate days we've more or less confirmed that my wife is pregnant with our first child. We hadn't actually been trying very hard, but she went off the pill because a lot of people we know have been trying for years. And we didn't want to have to wait that long. Our goal was to get pregnant within the first two years of being married (we got married last July). So a bit early, but we are mostly relieved that we're actually able to have children. So far, I purchase three books that have helped immensely in the one day of reading. Having 10 nieces and nephews, I know a bit more about raising children than my wife who has no experience so it's helping her more than me. So first question: Can anyone recommend to me the best prenatal vitamin for my wife to take? Preferably something I can buy at the store, or if online I guess we can wait. We don't need a doctor to recommend one, right?
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Feb 22, 2011 20:52
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Phooney, I agree that it's a good idea not to sweat sleeping preferences early on. Some babies really have a hard time sleeping not snuggled up, especially early. It doesn't mean that it will always be like that. The way things go in those first three months of infancy don't necessarily dictate later habits. Some babies do better with a slow transition as well-- my own daughter went from taking all of her naps on me to slowly sleeping alright in a swing around 4 months to sleeping really well in a swing until 8 months, when I transitioned her to a bed (with no problem). I don't think she would have done well being abruptly pushed into a different way of sleeping earlier. The Wormy Guy, unless she finds she's sensitive to the ingredients in regular prenatals, getting the generic from Target or Walgreens or whatever should be fine. If they make her feel sick, though, she can talk to her doctor about other options.
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Feb 22, 2011 20:53
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The Wormy Guy posted:So first question: Can anyone recommend to me the best prenatal vitamin for my wife to take? Preferably something I can buy at the store, or if online I guess we can wait. We don't need a doctor to recommend one, right? I can't rave about them enough, but I love to take the gummy prenatals. It's the only way that I can remember to take them because it's like my last treat before bed time. My OB said they were fine as long as I was getting 1000mcg of folic acid.
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Feb 22, 2011 21:11
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Phooney posted:
Ryan only slept on or very near me for the first three months or so. He hated being swaddled sometimes, sometimes it helped him sleep. I just kind of learned to roll with whatever was working at the moment. He's much better now, but if he hasn't napped all day and keeps waking up when put in the crib, I'll just hold him. It's easier to give up an hour and hold him than deal with cranky and overtired baby fallout.
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Feb 22, 2011 21:13
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