Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
VorpalBunny
May 1, 2009

Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog
However many nursing bras you are thinking of buying, double it. Especially if you leak. Nursing pads are awesome but sometimes they shift or soak through. I bought 6 bras, thinking I was overbuying, but it prevented me from having to do laundry every other day.

EDIT: Have a picture of a newborn! Here's Bruce, at 1 minute old. He's 18-months today! :toot:



(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Ben Davis
Apr 17, 2003

I'm as clumsy as I am beautiful
Our ped advised waiting a month before introducing a bottle, since I'll be at home with the baby anyways. A day before he was a month old, I pumped and my husband fed it to him, and he feeds him on Saturday mornings so I can sleep in. :) Now he loves nursing and I really do too, despite how horrible it all was earlier.

But my sister-in-law had her baby fed formula so she could sleep in the hospital after a horrible labor (regular labor+induction+prepping for c-section+water breaking so more pushing+eventual c-section), had her husband and mom feeding bottles from the start, and still breast-fed till a year. You'll find everyone has different experiences!

Spermy Smurf
Jul 2, 2004
I dont remember this being asked, but it's a pretty big thread:

We She is making a baby registry on Amazon. We have a lot of stuff from our families. We are both the youngest, so we have something like 18 neices/nephews, and a lot of stuff will be handed down.

Top shelf strollers, breast pumps, changing tables, playpens, diaper bags, diaper smell-container-tub-things.... all sorts of stuff like that. We have bottle warmers, baby carriers (front, back, cloth, wraps)...

What would/did you guys have put on your registry? What is stuff that we are going to forget?

The one thing we dont have is a crib, but we're going to order that as soon as we I get the baby room finished.

vanessa
May 21, 2006

CAUTION: This pussy is ferocious.

Spermy Smurf posted:

I dont remember this being asked, but it's a pretty big thread:

We She is making a baby registry on Amazon. We have a lot of stuff from our families. We are both the youngest, so we have something like 18 neices/nephews, and a lot of stuff will be handed down.

Top shelf strollers, breast pumps, changing tables, playpens, diaper bags, diaper smell-container-tub-things.... all sorts of stuff like that. We have bottle warmers, baby carriers (front, back, cloth, wraps)...

What would/did you guys have put on your registry? What is stuff that we are going to forget?

The one thing we dont have is a crib, but we're going to order that as soon as we I get the baby room finished.

If that were my situation, I would put a bunch of toys and books on the registry.

Other than that, these are the items I love most:
- Halo Sleep Sacks, especially the swaddle version since you can swaddle arms in or arms out easily.
- Lots O Links: We use these to adjust the height of the toys on the activity mat we have, practice his grip, make noise.
- A diaper sprayer even if you aren't going to cloth diaper. We want to transition to cloth diapers but are waiting until D starts needing fewer diaper changes per day. We still have the sprayer installed and it's such a great help for diaper blowouts or when he unexpectedly poops all over the change pad. Rinse it off into the toilet, spray on some enzyme cleaner to take care of the stain, then toss in the wash and forget there ever was a poopsplosion (until the next one happens).
- A wet bag Like the diaper sprayer, this is great to have even if you aren't cloth diapering because when we're on the road, if he needs a change of clothes, we have a place to put the dirty outfit and contain whatever wetness or odor might be on it.
- Black & White We can prop this up when he's on his activity mat so that we can interact with him and the book really easily. No words, just pictures, but great for those developing eyes.


Also, you can never have enough washcloths and burp cloths. Never.

bamzilla
Jan 13, 2005

All butt since 2012.


vanessa posted:

Also, you can never have enough washcloths and burp cloths. Never.
or bibs and receiving blankets

A boppy and some sort of swing/bouncy seat/anything you can set the baby in temporarily to get some relief is always nice. A good car seat (albeit bucket or convertible).

skeetied
Mar 10, 2011
Aden and Anais makes some of the most amazing blankets and burp cloths ever, especially if you live in a warm climate. The blankets are huge, but light and stretchy and the burp cloths are just the right size. We started out using cloth diapers as burp cloths, which are definitely fine as well, but I vastly prefer the A+A ones.

MoCookies
Apr 22, 2005

skeetied posted:

Aden and Anais makes some of the most amazing blankets and burp cloths ever, especially if you live in a warm climate. The blankets are huge, but light and stretchy and the burp cloths are just the right size. We started out using cloth diapers as burp cloths, which are definitely fine as well, but I vastly prefer the A+A ones.

These blankets are awesome and so useful. I drape them over the stroller to make a "baby cave" and Nolan passes out in like 5 minutes of walking. So much more useful than the receiving blankets we have.

Can you get family members to buy you a set of cloth diapers? BumGenius 4.0 pocket diapers are pretty great and easy to use.

car dance
May 12, 2010

Ben is actually an escaped polar bear, posing as a human.

Unlikely because Polar Bears do not know how to speak.
Also it does not make any sense.
I really like the Carters receiving blankets since they're 40x30 instead of the usual 30x30 and I know they're going to fit her longer because of that. They're also nice and light and less than $20 for four of them on amazon.com and in so many prints.

I was also given, as a hand me down, some Baby JaR burp cloths which are really nice but are super expensive. Each one is $12.50 or so. For something that's really only useful as a burp cloth it's kind of too much. However, since my daughter is sleeping 8 hours through the night at only 3 months (it's been glorious) she sometimes leaks through everything and they also are thick and nice enough that they can be used in the cosleeper to prevent wetness from getting on the bed.

Alterian
Jan 28, 2003

My shoulder is still jacked up. It was slowly getting better but yesterday on my drive to work someone ran a red light and I had to slam on my brakes so I wouldn't get t-boned and re hurt it. :argh:

We got packages yesterday from both sets of parents completely coincidentally! My parents sent us some baby picture books and my husbands parents sent us some onesies. :3:

Ben Davis
Apr 17, 2003

I'm as clumsy as I am beautiful

car dance posted:


I was also given, as a hand me down, some Baby JaR burp cloths which are really nice but are super expensive. Each one is $12.50 or so. For something that's really only useful as a burp cloth it's kind of too much. However, since my daughter is sleeping 8 hours through the night at only 3 months (it's been glorious) she sometimes leaks through everything and they also are thick and nice enough that they can be used in the cosleeper to prevent wetness from getting on the bed.

My little guy's been sleeping like that too, and the Babydry diapers were a lifesaver. It's so nice to be able to let him get solid sleep.

Mnemosyne
Jun 11, 2002

There's no safe way to put a cat in a paper bag!!
I will be testing the theory that you can't have too many receiving blankets, since I ended up with an astounding 28 blankets after my shower. I had bought myself a 4 pack of the Aden and Anais blankets that skeetied mentioned, since they're 40x40 (instead of the standard 30x30), and they're muslin (good for the hot weather), and I had two 4-packs of Carter's on the registry, because as car dance said, they're also larger than average at 40x30. My sister-in-law with 3 kids also told me that she found the Carter's blankets to be softer and more absorbent than the other brands, so that's what I went with.

I would love to return some of these extra blankets, but the only ones that anyone gave me gift receipts for are the two packs that I actually registered for, and I don't want to get rid of those since they're bigger than all the others. I'm hoping that I can figure out some crafty way to repurpose some of them.

Oh, also on this topic, the Carter's blankets ARE larger, with the exception of the "Carter's - Just One You" line sold at Target, which are the standard 30x30. :iiam:

Wojtek
Oct 17, 2008
Wife being induced Sunday night and I'm starting to get really anxious :ohdear:

Incongruous
Feb 11, 2003

Now there's something you don't see every day!
Everyone told me that I would appreciate having a bunch of receiving blankets, but they're all still folded up in the closet with the exception of one Aden & Anais blanket that we use for tummy time or occasional drool mopping-up when a burp cloth isn't handy (another thing which I have too many of - my little girl just isn't a big spitter-upper). Ellie is 4 months old, and I'm guessing that if I haven't used these blankets by now that I probably never will. I guess I'm just strange.

I totally agree with the person who suggested the Halo Sleep Sacks with the swaddle option. Holy crap. So much better than having to swaddle the baby in a blanket every night, and WAY more convenient for middle of the night diaper changes!

car dance
May 12, 2010

Ben is actually an escaped polar bear, posing as a human.

Unlikely because Polar Bears do not know how to speak.
Also it does not make any sense.

Ben Davis posted:

My little guy's been sleeping like that too, and the Babydry diapers were a lifesaver. It's so nice to be able to let him get solid sleep.

Yeah I think the problem is the fact that we use cloth. Even when we double them up they still soak through. I've been thinking about just switching to some overnight disposables for that time and those look great. Thanks. :)

bamzilla
Jan 13, 2005

All butt since 2012.


Incongruous posted:

Everyone told me that I would appreciate having a bunch of receiving blankets, but they're all still folded up in the closet with the exception of one Aden & Anais blanket that we use for tummy time or occasional drool mopping-up when a burp cloth isn't handy (another thing which I have too many of - my little girl just isn't a big spitter-upper). Ellie is 4 months old, and I'm guessing that if I haven't used these blankets by now that I probably never will. I guess I'm just strange.

I totally agree with the person who suggested the Halo Sleep Sacks with the swaddle option. Holy crap. So much better than having to swaddle the baby in a blanket every night, and WAY more convenient for middle of the night diaper changes!

I had a ton with my daughter and didn't use many. I also didn't use many clothes. She didn't really start spitting up a lot until around 5+ months. Then I was glad to have them. Plus I kept a blanket everywhere. Both cars, folded up in the stroller, in the car seat, etc.

hepscat
Jan 16, 2005

Avenging Nun
I think it's because those sleepsacks have only been around for a few years. You used to have to swaddle with receiving blankets, and people who had their kids longer ago than the past decade might not realize there are better options now. Swaddle Mes and sleepsacks are so much easier to use (and work better) that they're more useful than a stack of receiving blankets. When your kid might be an age to actually use a blanket, those receiving blankets are too small and thin.

Cathis
Sep 11, 2001

Me in a hotel with a mini-bar. How's that story end?
TICKS.

I am in Maine, in the backwoods visiting mines for a week.
I already have had 2 ticks (not deer) pulled off of me.
I am basically swimming in DEET at the moment; I remember my dr said it was OK (and better than lyme) but does anyone have any informaiton otherwise? I am feeling kind of gross about everything right now; ticks are icky, deet is icky, I'm icky...
I can't look it up because this place has internet for like 5 minutes a day when the phone line works.

GoreJess
Aug 4, 2004

pretty in pink
Cathis, this is what my Mayo Clinic book says:

"DEET is generally safe as long as you follow the manufacturer's instructions... The benefits of avoiding these illnesses (West Nile & Lyme) generally exceed the risks of the small amount of DEET that might enter your bloodstream through your skin. To stay on the safe side, minimize your time outdoors, especially during the first trimester, and use the lowest concentration of DEET needed for the amount of time you'll spend outside."

Awesome Kristin
May 9, 2008

yum yum yum
This is a weird insurance question but I'm not sure where to get advice on it. I've been on Medicaid since the beginning of my pregnancy. My husband's new job just had the insurance kick in and I'm apparently on it now.

We can't really afford all the co-pays and it would be great if I could use Medicaid for the entire pregnancy/delivery but I'm worried there might be some kind of repercussions for having two insurances.

Do I just need to call and cancel my Medicaid or something? I don't really know my options at this point.

bamzilla
Jan 13, 2005

All butt since 2012.


Awesome Kristin posted:

This is a weird insurance question but I'm not sure where to get advice on it. I've been on Medicaid since the beginning of my pregnancy. My husband's new job just had the insurance kick in and I'm apparently on it now.

We can't really afford all the co-pays and it would be great if I could use Medicaid for the entire pregnancy/delivery but I'm worried there might be some kind of repercussions for having two insurances.

Do I just need to call and cancel my Medicaid or something? I don't really know my options at this point.

Assuming you still fall below the income level, you should be able to remove yourself off of your husband's insurance and resume with Medicaid. But yea if you remain on both I'm pretty sure you could be nailed with insurance fraud. However, I am not an expert.

Lolitas Alright!
Sep 15, 2007

This is your friend.
She fights for your freedom.

buttzilla posted:

Assuming you still fall below the income level, you should be able to remove yourself off of your husband's insurance and resume with Medicaid. But yea if you remain on both I'm pretty sure you could be nailed with insurance fraud. However, I am not an expert.

As long as Medicaid is called and the caseworker is told that you want Medicaid as the primary insurance, it's fine.

I had Delta and now have Kaiser through my dad because he's a teacher and I'm under 26 and unmarried, but at the time of the birth of my first son, Delta was going to be charging us ridiculous amounts of money, so I just used Medi-Cal as my primary for that pregnancy and his birth, and they covered everything.


I have a breastfeeding question for you guys. I had a HIDEOUS time trying to breastfeed my first son because my breasts were literally too big for him to latch on properly. I pumped as much as I could and tried my best to nurse, but I ended up drying up after 2 months. I managed to feed him formula-supplemented breastmilk for another month, but by 3 months he was on formula exclusively.

I REALLY don't want this to happen again, and I want to get my second son to at LEAST 6 months of breastfeeding... or whenever he cuts teeth (the first one got his first two at 5 months). I've done everything that the lactation specialists told me to: switching sides, switching positions, switching the way I'm holding the baby, etc. I'd like to know if anybody in here had that sort of a problem, and if so, were you able to get through it, and how?

dreamcatcherkwe
Apr 14, 2005
Dreamcatcher

Lolitas Alright! posted:

I have a breastfeeding question for you guys. I had a HIDEOUS time trying to breastfeed my first son because my breasts were literally too big for him to latch on properly. I pumped as much as I could and tried my best to nurse, but I ended up drying up after 2 months. I managed to feed him formula-supplemented breastmilk for another month, but by 3 months he was on formula exclusively.

I REALLY don't want this to happen again, and I want to get my second son to at LEAST 6 months of breastfeeding... or whenever he cuts teeth (the first one got his first two at 5 months). I've done everything that the lactation specialists told me to: switching sides, switching positions, switching the way I'm holding the baby, etc. I'd like to know if anybody in here had that sort of a problem, and if so, were you able to get through it, and how?

I would contact La Leche League in your area now and talk to the people there. They are more experienced than a lot of the lactation consultants at hospitals. Good luck.

Ben Davis
Apr 17, 2003

I'm as clumsy as I am beautiful

Lolitas Alright! posted:

I'd like to know if anybody in here had that sort of a problem, and if so, were you able to get through it, and how?
I had that same problem. Hurts like hell, doesn't it? My hospital's lactation consultant gave me a prescription for a cream to help with the resulting blisters and pain. I was lucky that he grew fast; the pain was gone by around 4 weeks because of the cream, constant airing out (and dripping...), and globs of lanolin. By then his mouth was big enough that it didn't hurt badly, and now he's 16 weeks and for a while now it's just been a really pleasant experience. I think figuring out how to heal from pain is key, but that's just me assuming that you had the same issue there.

At the hospital the LC tried to get me to nurse with him on top of me so the boobs didn't overpower him, but I'll be honest: I never got it to work after that one time. When he was tiny, I'd squeeze him in next to me in our rocker and feed him sitting up. He'd be facing me, head leaning slightly over. That did help a lot more than holding him in cradle position.

I really hope it goes better for you this time! I wanted to hurl every pregnancy book that said "If it hurts, you're latched wrong" into the fire. That's totally true later, but I think sometimes their mouths are just too small, and you just need to wait for them to grow.

Susan B. Antimony
Aug 25, 2008

Lolitas Alright! posted:

I have a breastfeeding question for you guys.

I spend the first couple of months or so of nursing smooshing my breast between my fingers--sandwiched so that the nipple stuck out quite a bit from the rest of the breast--and that was enough for us. My hands hurt, but as he got bigger, things got easier.

Ceridwen
Dec 11, 2004
Of course... If the Jell-O gets moldy, the whole thing should be set aflame.

Has anyone had experience with a subchorionic hemorrhage/hematoma? I'm about 6 1/2 weeks and was diagnosed with one in the ER last night after having some bleeding and cramping.

Ben Davis
Apr 17, 2003

I'm as clumsy as I am beautiful
I had one at 8.5 weeks-- if you look at my posts in this thread, you can see me freaking out over it a while ago. I'm sorry you're going through that--it's really visually scary poo poo. This is how mine progressed: weekly ultrasounds until around 14 weeks (roughly, I don't remember the dates too well now), then every two weeks, and finally monthly. In between ultrasounds, we had a doctor's visit, so you get pretty constant indications that things are or aren't ok. I know the worst part is the uncertainty. :sympathy:

The thing my doctor kept telling me that was impossible to absorb was that even if I keep bleeding bright red blood, it CAN still be ok. The old blood can reliquify and be bright red (where before it was brown) before you pass it, and that's normal. He put me on bedrest for a little while, then just "take it easy" rest. Studies aren't really conclusive on whether or not it really helps, as far as I recall, but it doesn't hurt at all. I bled up until around 20 or 24 weeks, if I'm remembering right. It wasn't heavy scary bleeding that whole time; at the beginning it would be a GUSH then taper off, then scary gush, then taper. By the end it had just been like the tail end of a period for a while. That's pretty much exactly when my doc said it was likely to stop, too. It's possible to bleed all the way up to your due date too, without your baby being harmed. I tried to concentrate on those positives.

Here's a picture of my little guy back then. Baby, meet hematoma.



Edit: they said the amount of bleeding can also vary depending on the placement of the hematoma. Mine was right over the cervix, so a lot of blood came out. If it had been placed differently, I apparently might not have known until my next scheduled ultrasound and not worried at all.

Ben Davis fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Jun 4, 2012

Ceridwen
Dec 11, 2004
Of course... If the Jell-O gets moldy, the whole thing should be set aflame.

Thanks. The uncertainty definitely sucks. The ER doc seemed a little uncertain of what the actual prognosis was beyond "it could go fine, it could be the start of a miscarriage" and the standard "about 50% of women with bleeding in early pregnancy will go to term" (from what I can gather with a small SCH my odds may actually be quite a bit better than that). He also wasn't very specific about how large the bleed was or where it was placed, and it was midnight and we were honestly too tired and dazed to ask.

I think I'm lucky in that it wasn't actually a big, scary bleed (so far). Just 2 days of very light brown spotting followed all the sudden by some cramping and a small amount of bright red blood. I almost felt silly going to the ER but I hadn't done a drat thing to lead to the cramping and bleeding (I was sitting on the couch watching TV and the most strenuous thing I'd done that day was a ~1 mile walk at a very lazy pace) so it was enough to freak me out.

Baby is measuring pretty much on time and we saw a heartbeat, so that was at least reassuring. I'm hoping we will get more specifics about the prognosis when I follow up with my OB this week. For now the ER doc told me to take it easy, no heavy lifting, and no sex. And also to stay hydrated since I've apparently been doing a lovely job at that since the morning sickness kicked in.

Ben Davis
Apr 17, 2003

I'm as clumsy as I am beautiful

Ceridwen posted:

the most strenuous thing I'd done that day was a ~1 mile walk at a very lazy pace) so it was enough to freak me out.
They don't know why it happens, but my doc said it was nothing I did or didn't do. I definitely wasn't doing anything exciting at all :)
Your OB will be way more experienced in this specific thing than the ER doc too--ours told us rough dimensions and gave us a timeline of when things should be better by, if they improve. I told myself that each day that passed was another day that he was bigger and stronger--because as the baby gets bigger, even if the hematoma remains the same size, it's less of a threat. And the odds are WAY better than fify-fifty for a SCH! My doc said the same thing, that he didn't know which way it would go--which is true, because you can't tell until you see it start to diminish and that can take months--but they are good odds. I won't post them in case you don't want to hear it, but it's in the wiki for Chorionic Hematoma.

Ceridwen
Dec 11, 2004
Of course... If the Jell-O gets moldy, the whole thing should be set aflame.

Ben Davis posted:

They don't know why it happens, but my doc said it was nothing I did or didn't do. I definitely wasn't doing anything exciting at all :)
Your OB will be way more experienced in this specific thing than the ER doc too--ours told us rough dimensions and gave us a timeline of when things should be better by, if they improve. I told myself that each day that passed was another day that he was bigger and stronger--because as the baby gets bigger, even if the hematoma remains the same size, it's less of a threat. And the odds are WAY better than fify-fifty for a SCH! My doc said the same thing, that he didn't know which way it would go--which is true, because you can't tell until you see it start to diminish and that can take months--but they are good odds. I won't post them in case you don't want to hear it, but it's in the wiki for Chorionic Hematoma.

I did check wiki. Also read a few papers on the topic (I'm a science PhD student so reading the research actually calms me down). Helps to be able to talk to someone who has been through it though, since the papers can't really respond to my questions.

I heard from the doctor's office and it sounds like they are following the plan you outlined. They want to see me on Thursday for a follow up ultrasound and probably weekly for a while after that. Which sucks because it means we have to skip a planned trip to see my family. But I'm glad we will get to have frequent updates and know what is going on. They did say that mine is very tiny (which is good...because the baby is really tiny right now too) so that is helping to calm me down a bit.

On a semi-related note: Does anyone have any tips for me to keep myself hydrated? I'm not actually throwing up from the morning sickness but my appetite is so far gone and the nausea is so bad much of the time that I can barely manage to eat or drink anything (and the anxiety from the SCH certainly hasn't helped). I've already got Zofran but it only helps a bit. I tried ginger but it turns out that if you can't stand the taste of it pre-pregnancy it's not very good for nausea during pregnancy.

skeetied
Mar 10, 2011
I found that sparkling water with a lemon or a lime went down easier than plain water for some reason.

bamzilla
Jan 13, 2005

All butt since 2012.


Anyone have any recommendations on maternity belts? I've been told to acquire one and insurance won't cover it anyway so I figured I'd ask here.

rangergirl
Jun 3, 2004
A shark on whiskey is mighty risky, but a shark on beer is a beer engineer

Ceridwen posted:

On a semi-related note: Does anyone have any tips for me to keep myself hydrated? I'm not actually throwing up from the morning sickness but my appetite is so far gone and the nausea is so bad much of the time that I can barely manage to eat or drink anything (and the anxiety from the SCH certainly hasn't helped). I've already got Zofran but it only helps a bit. I tried ginger but it turns out that if you can't stand the taste of it pre-pregnancy it's not very good for nausea during pregnancy.

Hot tea was about the only thing I could drink for a few weeks. I went for mint, lemon or a mint/chamomile blend.

Axiem
Oct 19, 2005

I want to leave my mind blank, but I'm terrified of what will happen if I do
Arnold Schwarzenegger? Bruce Willis? Jet Li?

None of them have anything on my wife. When we got to the hospital, the nurse told her that her contractions were already at one every three minutes (but my wife couldn't feel them). Pitocin drip in at 11, she's 4cm at 2am, and then at a little after 4, they check, and she's complete. No epidurals, no narcotics--all natural (aside from the Pitocin jump-start)

And then at 4:53am, the most wonderful thing in our life happened:



(picture from a few days later, when we took her home)

So far life with baby has been pretty good, though I associate that more with my mother in law being in town than anything on our part.

Though I have seen 2am more times since the baby's been born than since I graduated college. That's a bit rough.

I am feeling a bit of the "new daddy" blues, where it's like, all of the baby's time is either sleeping or being with mom, and it doesn't always feel like I have much to give. Any other dads out there have good advice on how to handle that?

Chickalicious
Apr 13, 2005

We are the ones we've been waiting for.
Congrats! That outfit rules. Not a dad (obviously) but my husband took over all diapers (just during the newbon phase) and baths. I'd nurse, Nate would crap his pants, and dad would whisk him away. And baby can sleep on your chest while you do some internettin'. Skin to skin contact is good for them. If your wife is feeling up to it, maybe you could take some short walks? My husband got to stay home for over a month and we really had a lovely time together just hanging out and going to parks and bbq festivals and such. He also still does all the baths. They get to splash in the water and I get a mini-break. I can count on one hand the number of baths I've given in 20 months.

deviledseraphim
Jan 22, 2002
me gusta besar el pollo desnudo!!
When I was extremely nauseous, my midwife suggested alternating taking small bites of pretzels with small sips of lemonade. Something about the sour-sweet-salty combo just worked.. It kept me out of the hospital on more than a few occasions!

Ceridwen
Dec 11, 2004
Of course... If the Jell-O gets moldy, the whole thing should be set aflame.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've started taking the Zofran on a schedule instead of waiting for the nausea to get bad and it seems to be helping more. I'm able to eat and drink semi-normal amounts. Still losing weight but at least it should be slower and I'm not constantly dehydrated.

Will be trying a few of your suggestions out over the next few days. I can barely stand water (not surprising since I mostly hate it even when I'm not pregnant) and even the tea I normally love is not working well for me.

Chicken McNobody
Aug 7, 2009

Chickalicious posted:

Congrats! That outfit rules. Not a dad (obviously) but my husband took over all diapers (just during the newbon phase) and baths. I'd nurse, Nate would crap his pants, and dad would whisk him away. And baby can sleep on your chest while you do some internettin'. Skin to skin contact is good for them. If your wife is feeling up to it, maybe you could take some short walks? My husband got to stay home for over a month and we really had a lovely time together just hanging out and going to parks and bbq festivals and such. He also still does all the baths. They get to splash in the water and I get a mini-break. I can count on one hand the number of baths I've given in 20 months.

Seconding daddy bathtime...Arthur loves his baths with Daddy. I've given him maybe 3 baths in the 5 months he's been here; the latest was last night, and although we did all the same things he does with Daddy, he was definitely not thrilled to be bathing with me! Plus, frankly, I enjoy having those few minutes to myself at the end of the day to shower or bathe and relax by myself.

Helanna
Feb 1, 2007

Well... I had my baby! Nothing went as planned, and it was fairly traumatic, but still worth it. I keep staring at her, can't believe I grew a human!

It all kicked off on Monday evening; I had been up almost all of Sunday night due to disruption from the neighbours, and realised by Monday evening that baby had been unusually quiet; I wasn't even sure I'd felt 10 movements all day. So I went off to the emergency room to get checked out, expecting to be told she was fine and sent home. I was 40w6d at that point.

Monitoring and ultrasound confirmed little movements, and lowered fluid, so they admitted me and kept monitoring me for a few hours. Baby heart rate went high for quite a while, and the decision was made to go ahead and induce labour by 1pm on Tuesday. Prostaglandin gel was given, and all ticked along nicely for a few hours, contractions got going early evening, though nothing strong. The plan was to break my waters at 6am if I didn't progress overnight myself.

Went to bed around 10:30pm with some paracetemol, and woke less than an hour later, experiencing some quite intensely painful contractions. Wasn't worried, just told nearest midwife that I'd like to have some pethidine to reduce pain and help me sleep for a while. They put me back on the monitor, and weren't happy with baby's heartrate being too high again. Waited, watching, while my contractions got worse fast, and were soon on top of each other. Almost constant pain, which I was coping very badly with.

Doctor was called, who confirmed that I was only dilated to 2cm but my uterus was "hyperstimulated", and he decided to "wait and see" how things went, refusing to give me the pethidine. I was allowed the gas and air, which helped a little but I was soon incoherent with pain. Eventually he broke my waters, and the stress and pain triggered my seizures (reflex anoxic shock). For the first time in my life, I had chain seizures; literally every 10-30 seconds, I had an "absent episode" whereby I went limp, then seized, but could hear everything around me. The doctor high-tailed it out of there fast, and the midwives were left to cope with me.

Thankfully the midwives were far more interested in getting me pain relief and I got an epidural pretty fast. My husband and mother arrived at the hospital at that point, and things calmed down. The epidural allowed me to function, and I progressed to 9cm by 5:30am. Unfortunately then I stalled, and was still 9cm at 7am. Doctor was called because my temperature went up, as did baby's heart rate. Another check at 7:30am showed my cervix closed to 5cm again, and baby moved back up and in some distress, so I was whisked off for a C section.

I had desperately wanted to avoid surgery, but by that point I was exhausted and just grateful that it would soon be over. Isobel Fiona was delivered at 8:11am, a whopping 9lb 1oz! Doctors had assured me she would be "maybe 8lb, very average sized". I promptly seized some more on the operating table (I'm helpful like that!) so it took a while to get stitched up, but was soon in recovery with baby breastfeeding like a champ!





One of the midwives told me that I shouldn't give her a dummy until 1 month old, or I will ruin breast feeding. That can't be true, surely? She was sucking her fingers as soon as she was born (as in first pic!) so I thought a dummy would be better for the times that she's not feeding. So far she's happily sucked dummy to soothe herself to sleep in her crib, and is feeding great when I offer (every 3h, or whenever she demands it herself!).

Mnemosyne
Jun 11, 2002

There's no safe way to put a cat in a paper bag!!
There are a whole lot of schools of thought about pacifiers (that's what we call them over here), and some people claim it's bad, those people seem to be in the minority. I know a lot of the hospitals here will routinely give them to all babies if they're in the nursery, and you would have to specifically ask them not to if you didn't want your baby to have one.

My personal feeling is that no matter how you feel about it, if the baby is sucking their fingers or thumbs, you should probably just give them a pacifier. I've known WAYYYY too many people who sucked their thumbs for a ludicrously long time (like, still sucking their thumb at 15). Better to make the pacifier the go-to suck-on item so that you can find ways to discontinue as they get older. Trying to break a kid of thumbsucking is way harder.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Andrias Scheuchzeri
Mar 6, 2010

They're very good and intelligent, these tapa-boys...
My daughter was in the NICU for her first week, getting fed mostly by bottle and having a pacifier. She breastfed just fine, and ended up not being big on pacifiers or thumb-sucking at all. :shobon:

e. And more importantly, congratulations! Sounds like a scary interlude for sure, but she sure is a cutie.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply