Pregnant with #1 in our 30s September - Page 3

[Dee-Groovy]

Congratulations Emily!

Glad to hear you and Benjamin are doing well despite the uncooperative cervix. Rest well and good luck with BFing!

[rock_dr]

somebody needs to stop me.

I just ordered a 7th - count it 7th - baby carrier. that makes:
2 ring slings, (one padded, one not), 2 hot slings (first was too small), a mei tai, a baby bjorn, and now an ergo on the way. oh and we have a frame backpack too. is that 8?

4 of these were gifts and the others not full price, but still the addiction is clear. I can't bring myself to part with any b/c what worked a month ago doesn't necessarily work now but may just work someday soon. beware of babywearing - it will drive you to obsession, especially if you are a shopper!

[PiePie]

emily, i love the name benjamin. doofus dh dinged it from our boys' list.

becky, natalia, and others who are up soon: one of you must get a short labor, because cj, emily and i did time for you! where do they get that 12 hour average?

[PiePie]

omg, emily, i just calculated -- you labored for 78 hours?!

as cj told me, bf'ing gets easier once the milk comes in.

cj, the ergo is a good choice. we haven't used ours yet (no infant insert, so must wait till november, when she will be 3 mos) but i suspect it will be comfy. what color did you get? ours is black with a yellow bug-print lining. not helping you kick the habit, am i?

[~minnow~]

You ladies have to stop with the carriers, or else I'm afraid I'll want to follow in your footsteps! I have three -- ring sling, pouch, and stretchy wrap. I told myself that was the exact right amount. PiePie, your Ergo sounds really cute.

I totally forgot that August had 31 days. Wow, Emily! You are the toughest chick ever!

[Teenytoona]

Emily, wow, what amazing work you've done! Welcome to the world little Benjamin!!!

[beckyphry]

I already have two carriers and she's not even here yet! I have a Babyhawk mei tei and a padded ring sling. I also want a pouch-type sling. And an Ergo.

No baby yet! Argh! Also, no signs of impending labor either.

[jpiper0430]

Alex - Thanks for the birth story!

Congrats Emily! Welcome Benjamin!

Welcome to all the newbies!

Stopping in to see if there is anyone else with labor signs...

I had my baby shower this weekend. It was really emotional, but very nice. My mom made a beautiful knit sweater and bootie set for the baby and when I opened it, everyone in the room cried. She finished it up just 3 days before she passed away, so it's probably the most special gift I'll ever get for my little one. I'm still processing what happened, and I'm having a hard time at work, but I am surviving. I think it's going to take a long time for my family to recover, but I'm glad we are all so close and can rely on each other for support.

Back to lurking for a while...

[hazieluna]

CONGRATULATIONS EMILY AND WELCOME BENJAMIN!!!

Arrggghhh - I lost internet access for 3 days!! Tough when I really wanted to know what was going on!

So now Becky and Plummum are up... and me too... but I'm with Becky, I haven't had a twinge or even as far as I know a BH contraction. I'm just getting bigger and bigger. My midwife said she expects my baby to be almost 9lbs. Anyway I'll take a 12 hour labor!

Welcome all the new members! I think this thread is the best, hope you enjoy it.

Anyway I'm too pooped from biking to the supermarket and coming back loaded down with stuff to do personals. Nesting now is about hoarding supplies for me. Do I have enough shampoo with 6 bottles? How about olive oil, is 4 bottles enough... my DH has mentioned that he will be around and able to go shopping so I shouldn't go crazy but it's a compulsion these days. I should mention we live in a small apartment.

CJ and PiePie what do you recommend I stock up on in terms of food - I haven't frozen a single meal and I really don't see myself doing that. So for the first few weeks what kind of food were you eating/preparing? Or should I warn DH that we will be doing take away?

Oh and btw I have 3 baby carriers... I keep wanting more but I think I will wait to see what works with the baby.

[rock_dr]

Originally Posted by PiePie

ours is black with a yellow bug-print lining. not helping you kick the habit, am i?

OMG THEY COME IN PRINTS?!?!?! (the whole neighborhood just heard me)
I got the cranberry/red one. but I now covet cute little yellow bug prints, and I haven't even seen it! anyway, we'll see how it goes. Peanut is 3 months old tomorrow, and I think her head control is good enough for this.

we are venturing out on our first road trip to lake tahoe this weekend (8-9 hours drive time, pre-baby). And Ella hates the car. so that will be interesting.

Natalia - I didn't really freeze anything, but then my mom was here doing all the work. I surprised myself by craving healthy and light foods, though. I thought I'd want greasiness but not for me. You'll need FIBER and iron. Emphasis on the fiber. Maybe Pie is a better source of ideas.

do you have friends who want to come by and see the baby (if are you going to allow that)? After the first 2 weeks I would have loved for friends to come in SMALL groups for SHORT visits and bring me food! It's funny, I had plenty of general offers but no one ever actually called and said 'I'd like to come over tonight with an awesome lasagna for you, ok?' I was thinking next time I'd take people up on that offer in advance and actually sign them up for specific days.

Did I just say 'next time'? (believe it or not, there's a very shocked mama from my ddc who just got a bfp)

[PiePie]

: omg on the bfp so soon... i think i would die.

today was the first day post-babymoon. dh went to work. i had the pp doula come and clean/organize. i just woke up from a nap. what did i accomplish today? oh, right, the kid is still alive. i should go wake her for a feed. anyway, so far i survived. but i got very few calories into my own body, which is bad. so no advice for you natalia on the food thing. we budgeted for tons of take-away but then dh cooked. i also stocked up on paper plates and plastic utensils : : but dh thought it was not green and refused to use them.

[beckyphry]

Natalia, I feel you on the hoarding thing. I'm doing the same thing. And we also haven't frozen anything. I've been buying some random frozen entrees and stuff, but nothing big. We're just incredibly lazy.

So, the u/s today went well. Fluid levels are fine, placenta looks fine, baby estimated to weigh about 7 and a half pounds. She's waaaaaaay head down, in perfect position with her spine out and on my left side. We could see her tiny little feet and toes, and she's got a hand under her chin. Her legs are on the long side, so she must have my husband's height genes - he's 6'4". The poor tech tried to get us a good profile shot, but what she printed out makes baby look like a freaky alien, so I'm not even going to scan it.

Thursday is the non stress test. My only worry about that is that this baby is totally in her own world regarding moving. Poking her doesn't work, eating/drinking doesn't work, noise doesn't work. She moves when she feels like moving. I just don't want to be there ALL DAY waiting for her to move if she's in a quiet mood. Has anyone else had an NST yet? I'd love to hear your experience if you had. Hopefully she'll be here by Thursday and I won't have to even worry about it!

[Dee-Groovy]

Omigosh Emily 78 hours of labor? You are superwoman!

Jenn it's good to hear from you. How sweet that your mom finished making your baby gifts shortly before she passed. I got teary-eyed just reading about it so I can imagine there wasn't a dry eye in the room at your baby shower. It's wonderful that you've got a supportive family to help you through this tough time.

On a lighter note, I think I'm on my way to baby-carrier obsession too. I have 2 pouches but I'm going to return one. So I ordered a wrap to replace the pouch I'm returning. Now I'm dying to order a ring sling. : Do your DHs have their own baby carriers? I'm getting a pouch for DH but he's tall so I have to special order it (can't find bigger sizes at Target or Amazon). I was considering getting a long ring sling so both of us can use it but I'm afraid all that extra fabric might be cumbersome to me. I wonder if a ring sling is too girly anyway.

Natalia stockpiling olive oil! Hormones make us do weird things, huh? In my DDC women have been freezing meals for months & reading about it makes me feel so unprepared. I get some perspective when I realize that 1) I rarely plan or cook meals anyway and 2) somehow my freezer is already full of uncooked food so there's no room for anything else.

Question for PiePie & whoever else is ahead of me on reading: when do you transition a baby out of your bed? I'm still wishy-washy on the cosleeping thing and I definitely don't want a 3 year old sleeping in my bed while I'm pregnant with her sibling! I have The Baby Sleep Book around here somewhere but I'm still trying to get through Birthing From Within, which is a little more urgent ATM. Do you usually transition babies out of the bed into a crib in your room, then to a crib in their own room? That makes sense to me but of course I don't want to rush the process.

[~minnow~]

Wow, okay, I feel better. I just made my first freezer meal today, a pumpkin mushroom lasagna. Then of course I was too tired to make dinner so I made the dude do it. Also, I washed a ton of little onesies and wipes and stuff. Our home visit with the "birth team" is Thursday, at 37 weeks... I think I'm supposed to be nominally "ready" then, just in case. But how can you ever be ready?

They were really adamant about the "post partum plan" in our birthing class, including making us write down a post-partum coordinator who would assign the days for people to bring the food. I appreciated it, but it also made me feel kind of like a loser. As a grad student, I'm in that place where a lot of my good friends have graduated, so our list of people who have offered to bring food is really short! Still... even four meals made by other people for us will be a nice thing. (CJ, they said that you can always tell second time parents because they are really good at enlisting other people's help!)

Natalia, you're funny. I love to think of you on your bike with a huge belly and six bottles of shampoo.

Dee, Have you seen the P-sling website and the Rockin Baby Sling website? They have dudes modelling the ring slings. We have an orangeish P-sling which is what I think DP will wear. I think co-sleeping and transitioning can work however you want and I also think there will be a lot of variation based on the kid's own sleep habits and yours. (Based on hearsay and reading, nothing more.)

Jenn, I'm glad also that your family can rely on each other during this time. It's incredibly special that your mom made a sweater and booties.

Becky, I'm getting excited for you. It's awesome that she's in the perfect position. It's so close!

[PiePie]

dh uses the unpadded maya wrap sling -- the same one that i do -- it's a good thing my friend chose blue denim. dd is still too small to use our other carriers -- bjorn, ergo, and filly backpack. i assume he will use everything i do. can't get over how much he loves the sling!

i am planning on transitioning dd out of our bed when i night-wean, perhaps around 13 mos?? after i wean from pumping at work, i think, because i hate pumping! there are different opinions on whether you should nightwean before, after, or at the same time as the bed move. i think having a crib in the parents' bedroom would be an ideal transition, but i am not expecting to have room for that. the gordon book (good nights) was very comforting on the "Will she ever leave our bed?" question -- i struggled with it as well. but now that she is here, we don't know that we will ever want her to leave!

[Grace24]

Am I the only one not stockpiling carriers? I actually have an overflow of them by default...people keep giving them to me! I have neck/back issues and am really worried just about picking up the baby without pulling something, much less the babywearing. It makes me sad cuz I love and agree with the concept but I just know I physically won't be able to do it. I've been given four carriers, all of them very nice and cute and I won't be able to use any of them because they go over one shoulder and those are going to be harder on my neck... anything that pulls just on one side can strain me and keep me up nights in pain. So we registered for the Baby Bjorn with lumbar support, and I think that'll be what I use when I walk the dogs. I saw a woman in the dog park with one and she said (I think?) that I'll be able to use it sooner than three months, which is great. I don't know how I'd walk two big dogs AND a stroller! Other than that, I'm afraid babywearing just isn't in the cards for me.

Becky.... baby's in position, yay!

Lane, I'm getting excited for you! 37 weeks, wow. Your lasagna sounds really yummy. Recipe? I haven't done any cooking and freezing and I doubt we will... we never cook as it is so I'm not thinking that's gonna change any time soon. Honestly I'm not sure how we feed ourselves!

Jenn, It's so great that you checked in with us. What a beautiful shower gift from your mom... I was teary reading about it too! Hang in there darling, and thanks for saying hi. I've been thinking about ya.

Dee, how do you like the BFW book? I got a lot out of it but skipped all the art (my Bradley teacher said I could ) I'm not much into art therapy type stuff ... strange that I'm not more artistic when I work in "the arts"... but my artistic talent is limited to music! So the art section got skipped... I think that book seems geared towards women who have a lot of fear of birth, or who have had traumatic first births and are hoping for different this time. There's a lot of good info in it though. (I read it during all those performances of Phantom of the Opera! : )

[cmu204]

Oh, Jenn. That's the sweetest story ever. I got choked up reading it.
I may be hyperemotional preggo lady, but still: how wonderful that your mom was able to do that for you.

Originally Posted by Grace24

Dee, how do you like the BFW book? <snip> (I read it during all those performances of Phantom of the Opera! : )

Holy smoke - you can read during a show? Isn't it insanely loud?
I'm so sensitive: I want almost total quiet when I'm working/reading/thinking.
We are working on getting the kids to appreciate quiet time with a book, but it's hard b/c the smallest one doesn't read yet. So he gets hilarious picture books and giggles and wants to talk about them.

Just read a really cool book on sleep (sorry, I forgot who wanted this: CJ?) It's called "Sleepless in America" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. Lots of excellent info on sleep needs for everyone, from infants to grownups, and techniques for transitioning the kids from your bed to their own. I may have mentioned that the nephew boy is a relentlessly cheerful early riser, and the rest of us are not. So my goal is for everyone involved to get more sleep.
Speaking of which... bonne soir, ladies.

Cher
Expecting biokid #1; loving aunt to N (8) and T (6)

[Grace24]

Cher, how cool teaching the kids the value of reading. We were big readers in my family... sometimes I'm afraid our kid (s?) will become as addicted to tv as I currently am! Yes, the show is loud but I wore earplugs to save myself, and mostly read during dialog... after hearing the same thing night after night I was able to block it out! But normally I can't concentrate if ANYthing is going on around me, music included.

We spent almost $2K on gliders the other day at Buy Buy Baby! We loved the Dutailier we found so much we got two, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Ouch, financially, but I know we won't be sorry. These chairs will last for years... and if we ever want to, we can change the cushions down the road and keep the chairs. I've heard such good things about this brand. Man, why does furniture have to be so pricey! It's a good thing so much of what we needed for baby is being given to us, cuz now we're feeling tapped out!

Today my midwife is coming over for my appointment (I love saying that!) and I'm taking the GTT test. I get to drink juice instead of the glucola nasty stuff. Wish me luck! My doula is coming over too, to meet her.

[Grace24]

Oh, yeah, and I go back to work today. Slightly nervous about the bladder situation... we break every 50 minutes during reading rehearsals like this morning, but during the others they can keep us sitting for up to 90 minutes without a break (or warning!). Without baby squishing my bladder this is no big deal, but I'm wondering how long it will be before I end up wearing Depends to work. Or if I can even bring myself to do it. I'm glad to be busy again though... we're doing La Boheme, with one of my favorite music directors. Great way to start the season, and hey, I'll just work as long as I can.

[rock_dr]

Originally Posted by Grace24

So we registered for the Baby Bjorn with lumbar support, and I think that'll be what I use when I walk the dogs.

that's exactly what we use the BB for - ella's been happy in it since about 2 months, it supports her and me quite well. much more practical for active walking/hiking as opposed to 'strolling' with babe. it is a little bit challenging to pick up the poop while holding dog and her, but it's doable.

Jenn - what an absolutely beautiful and special gift from your mom.