lillielil - cross post.
I heard the inserts are super hot and had a store employee encourage me not to buy one She just said to frog leg the babe until their hips were ready. But still, crappy that it wasn't what you expected. As an NGP I appreciated hearing my DW say that she would support me in any bonding I wanted to do. I came up with many ways that were meaningful to me. Maybe you don't need to come up with it, but just tell her to and that you will support her? Is she having challenges with bonding? is babe?
Some things I loved in the early weeks - bathing with babe, skin time, comfort nursing/nursing with SNS, time alone with babe (going for a walk alone, nap time, etc...), wearing her for sure, putting to sleep/wearing to sleep, co sleeping...
My DW who is NGP liked different things in those weeks - she liked putting to sleep, rocking, wearing also. She liked alone time alot. Sage got used to it, and I got comfortable with leaving the house for longer and longer times as Sage adjusted. I was worried about her crying while I was gone for milk so would go short stints and now taht she is eating solids, she can be without me for many hours at a time easily.
I saw a joke on FB last week that said "how do you know if a mom cloth diapers? Don't worry- she'll tell you!" Lol. We bought a wide variety of cloth in size small, mostly used from diaperswappers.com. Then a week or so before she was born I panicked that we didn't have enough and bought 2 dozen more prefolds. The result us we not only have way too many diapers, we also have too many options. I do t think I'd do it that way again. My favorites are prefolds trifolded in a thirstiest cover. I also have all-in-ones (bum Genius freestyle and Elemental) which my wife prefers because she's a somewhat reluctant cloth diaperer. Someone gave us some x-small Fuzzibunz after she was born and we loved them! They were so trim, like disposables. A lot of this is based on her body type and habits though- she has always only pooped once a day, so we don't need pins or snappies and can just use the same cover all day- sometimes for 2 days! We do use disposables overnight bc she's a great sleeper and nurses sleepily with no need for diaper change. My experiments using cloth overnight have all ended with me in a puddle since she cosleeps right up against me.
if you have a chance to rent the hospital grade pump, they work really well. I use nipple cream after every pumping and before showering. It's not that bad, you will get used to it.
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