Chat thread: 4/3-4/9

[StephandOwen]

I hope everyone has a fantastic week! I know some of us are starting to begin our second trimester so I wanted to say CONGRATS to all those that are meeting that milestone!

We were up in Michigan this weekend and are getting ready to pack up and head home (to Kentucky) for a few days before we come back up here. Not thrilled with all this traveling, but there's not much I can do about it.

[AKChix0r]

Well, I made the mistake of starting out my morning with this article:

http://www.ktnv.com/story/14338042/2011/03/28/baby

But I'm going to try to distract myself with browsing the awesome baby sales at Target and Babies R Us today to kill some time and perk me up.

13 weeks today and feeling awesome! Different reference materials list different weeks marking the start of the 2nd trimester. I've seen 12-14. I'm considering it today though, just to help me mentally! Still having kind of intense pain/cramps randomly. I think it is digestive and just related to all the new pressure down there.

[livacreature]

Guess what?!?!?!?!

Weekend without vomit!

I've started looking at Babies R Us.  I am all about green, brown, and monkeys!

Safe travels, Steph!

[AKChix0r]

I'm doing green, brown, and almost any animals!

I want to get the Graco Snugride 35 in Lowery (currently on sale at Target) but I'd like to check the safety ratings/consumer reports more. Anyone have a good resource?

[saoirse2007]

Originally Posted by AKChix0r 

I'm doing green, brown, and almost any animals!

I want to get the Graco Snugride 35 in Lowery (currently on sale at Target) but I'd like to check the safety ratings/consumer reports more. Anyone have a good resource?

http://www.car-seat.org/

that is where I go when I need any caseat info.

I will be 11 weeks tomorrow and still feel like crap!!!

I am just going to get the kids dressed to play outside....It is 14 and should go to 17 with thundershowers in a couple of hours...we will see how wet we get...
 

[livacreature]

Thanks for the link!

[AKChix0r]

Ooh, there's an iPhone app, too!

Thanks!

[AKislandgirl]

A note about buying carseats.... they have expiration dates so if you think you'll have more kids and want to use the same seat wait till closer to your due date to purchase. You won't wan't it to expire before your 2nd kid can use it. I can't remember how long the expiration dates are though....

I go with week 13 starting your 2nd trimester. It feels good to be here!! I'm feeling loads more energy these days and its awesome.  I can't remember the last day I felt morning sickness either. :)

[nicolian]

Car seats usually expire within 6-7 years, I think.

[Leiahs]

For anyone who has access to Costco, I just wanted to share that my Costco in Colorado (as well as a friend's Costco in the Seattle area, so probably most Costco's) has a great deal on a carseat.  They're selling the Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite convertible carseat for about $85 (retails at $160).   This is a WAY better car seat than I can typically afford, and it does it all!  Rear-facing from infancy to 35lbs, forward facing harness to either 50 lbs/43 in., and then a belt-positioning booster seat after that.  It has an 8 year expiration date, AND you don't have to re-thread the straps to adjust them!  I'm not a car seat guru, but I'm happy enough with what I've read on this model that I plan on purchasing it.  In fact, I would have, a few days ago, but they had run out of them in-stock.  They're getting more in this week, and I'm thrilled.  My first big baby purchase!! 

In other news.... I'm totally stumped these days about what to have for dinner.  Sigh.  How have I functioned as a wife and mother for the past 11 years?  I had to have cooked so many meals, and suddenly I can't think of any!!

[AlexisT]

14 weeks today! Maybe I'll start being more awake now. Yawn.

I went for my NT scan on Thursday but baby did NOT want to cooperate. And, baby was measuring 13w6d, which is as big as you can get for an NT scan, so I won't be getting one. If I want to do screening I'll have to wait for the quad. Perky bean, though; got into every position except the one the sonographer needed.

[AKChix0r]

I got a text from the CDC's pregnancy program that the new law says kids have to be rear facing until they are two, otherwise I might want to pick up that Costco seat!

Edit: Excuse me, correction - the American Academy of Pediatrics changed their recommendations. It was not a law.

[Leiahs]

I was under the impression that 35lbs rear facing was plenty of "wiggle" room for a 2yo.  My just-turned-3yo is somewhere around 35 or 40lbs.  Of course, I can't remember at all what he was at 2 years old, but I have to think the average 2yo isn't heavier than my 3yo?  I do remember that I ended up turning him forward at about 18 months, but that he still had room to grow according to the guidelines of his carseat then, which is not as nice as this one being sold at Costco.

AlexisT - congrats on 14 weeks!!!  :D  Sorry your scan didn't go as planned, but good to know there's a healthy baby wiggling around in there, huh?

[nicolian]

My 2yo is probably about 35 pounds now. And he's still RFing, but in a Graco MyRide65.. so we have ABOUT 5 more pounds until we need to turn him. We had a Alpha Omega for my older son and freaking hated that thing. It was so hard to tighten the straps. BUT I don't think it's the same that Leiahs mentioned as that one didn't have the easy strap adjustment.

[AlexisT]

We had a Britax Boulevard for DD, but we had to replace it after a crash (otherwise, we would have just bought a new seat--she was at max shoulder height). Her original bucket is European so we can't use it again.

We'll probably buy another bucket to start off with, because I'll like having it during the winter.

[StephandOwen]

Originally Posted by Leiahs 

For anyone who has access to Costco, I just wanted to share that my Costco in Colorado (as well as a friend's Costco in the Seattle area, so probably most Costco's) has a great deal on a carseat.  They're selling the Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite convertible carseat for about $85 (retails at $160).   This is a WAY better car seat than I can typically afford, and it does it all!  Rear-facing from infancy to 35lbs, forward facing harness to either 50 lbs/43 in., and then a belt-positioning booster seat after that.  It has an 8 year expiration date, AND you don't have to re-thread the straps to adjust them!

The ladies in the family safety forum can give you more detailed info, but from what I've read this really isn't that great of a carseat, unless they've changed it recently. It doesn't make a very good infant carseat (some babies are born too small to safely fit in this for a few months), doesn't keep kids harnessed long enough (they outgrow it by height before they do weight) and then isn't that great of a booster either. In addition, most children are not ready to be out of a booster by 7 or 8 years (if it expires in 8 years and it's already on the shelves now then it likely only has around 7 years left when the baby is born). My ds is 7 1/2 and still harnessed. He will be in a booster for a long time after that.

Like I said though, it's been awhile since I've looked into this carseat so things may have changed!

With ds he's had a ton of carseats, but I'm kinda a carseat freak He started out in a Graco Snugride bucket, then he had a Graco Comfortsport (I would not recommend this, though at the time it was a decent carseat for what I needed it to do), A Britax Marathon (loved it), a Britax Regent (LOVE LOVE LOVE this carseat though they no longer make it. His expires this fall and we're so sad ), Graco Nautilus (love it) and finally, as a backup he has a Graco TurboBooster.

[Leiahs]

Originally Posted by StephandOwen 

The ladies in the family safety forum can give you more detailed info, but from what I've read this really isn't that great of a carseat, unless they've changed it recently. It doesn't make a very good infant carseat (some babies are born too small to safely fit in this for a few months), doesn't keep kids harnessed long enough (they outgrow it by height before they do weight) and then isn't that great of a booster either. In addition, most children are not ready to be out of a booster by 7 or 8 years (if it expires in 8 years and it's already on the shelves now then it likely only has around 7 years left when the baby is born). My ds is 7 1/2 and still harnessed. He will be in a booster for a long time after that.

Like I said though, it's been awhile since I've looked into this carseat so things may have changed!

I had forgotten there was a forum like that here.  I will have to look into it more!  I wouldn't be concerned about the infant size - I have big babies... but the other things are worth looking into.  Still... a part of me keeps going back to the fact that this one is better than any other car seat I've owned, even if it's not the best one out there.  And I don't want to start with a bucket.  I hate them.  Finally got rid of the bucket seat from our first baby less than 2 years ago, and I don't want to replace it!

[Carolyn R]

I have to say it makes me feel really old to read through this thread and realize that I've been having babies for long enough that some of our original carseats are expired! Eeek! Guess I'll be doing some shopping this summer!

I'm 11 weeks today, and can't believe how fast the time has gone already! I'm starting to pull out maternity clothes; I can still squeeze into my regulars but they're getting too uncomfortable. Our first appointment is Friday; I am so excited to talk with our family doc again and hopefully hear a heartbeat. I posted on another thread that I am already starting to feel some fluttery movements, which is so amazing and cool.

On a somewhat unrelated note, dh built a chicken tractor for the pasture, and we picked up our first-ever laying hens today! We already raise our own beef and have a huge garden, so I'm super excited to add 'eggs' to the list of homegrown, healthy foods I will be nourishing the baby with.

Blessings to everyone!

[lifeguard]

Carolyn - that is SO exciting! Where did you get the design for chicken tractor? We are moving to 88 acres in one month! We won't be getting chickens this year (my Mom got them last year for the first time so I've been helping with hers) but probably next year. Fresh eggs are so awesome.

I thought my exhaustion was improving but today kicked me in the butt. The weather didn't help - cold, rainy/snowy & overcast. Blah!!!

[~pi]

Carolyn, that's wonderful! I really want chickens someday. (Someday = when I am not traveling so much.) Though we would likely have city chickens.

Re: car seats, it bugs me that we won't be able to use DS' Marathon for this babe for more than a year. We will replace it, but I admit that I would like to see the engineering documents about the expiry date. It just doesn't wash for me that every single seat out there has the same limit. They aren't all made of the same type of foam.