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Weekly Chat: March 29th to April 4th

2K views 34 replies 20 participants last post by  waywornwanderer 
#1 ·
I have hung out here my last three pregnancies, but seem to stay away mostly when out of that stage, one thing I love is thee community of the ddc. And part of that is the weekly chat where nothing is off topic.

One thing I have realized is that a late November baby means I need to have Christmas all ready ahead of time. We do a pretty handmade Christmas so I need to get working.

For us it also means my husbands three weeks of paternity leave will probably end just before the Christmas slow down. Which sounds perfect to both of us.
 
#2 ·
My husband sighs the other night and says "6 months until I can take a vacation" and I just crack up. Yup. Good timing dad! Sounds about right! He's not looking forward to "vacation" consisting of a hospital stay. But I'll enjoy those extra days with him home!
 
#3 ·
We do handmade holidays here as well. I've already started figuring what to make and give. We usually do several sets of something to give our parents, my sister in law and a few friends. Last year it was flavored booze and a set of coasters. This year I'm thinking pot holders/dish towels, a copy of my cookbook and maybe vanilla extract.

I've also started planning what to feed the freezer. I'm planning to do a bit extra of the preserving I usually do in summer and hopefully have a freezer full of easy meals and yummy snacks ready before the birth. We usually host my inlaws for thanksgiving, but there is no way I'm doing that this year. I'm just going to make what can ahead of time and we'll celebrate quietly at home with our new LO.

I think we'll end up missing out on a lot of the social parts of the holiday season as well. I know people are going to want to see the baby, but between the cold weather and post-partum recovery I just don't think we're going to be up for parties and such. Plus all those people who want to hold the baby will likely be riddled with germs. No thank you.

Is anyone else adjusting their holiday plans in light of the new baby?
 
#4 ·
We normally travel for Thanksgiving to see both our families and then stay home for Christmas and my mom and siblings visit. With the baby the traveling is out. And I'm with you Turtle with the germs - it seems like every time we have other kids over ours get sick. Not something I want to deal with with a newborn. So, I'd like to enjoy the holidays at home with just us, but I'm not sure we can keep our families away.
 
#19 · (Edited by Moderator)
My kids used to get sick with everything going around. I asked my doctor for a prescription vitamin and she said my kids were growing fine and would not prescribe one. So knowing that the food we eat nowadays doesn't have nearly enough of the nutrition we need, to stay healthy,I started searching. Then my friend told me about a natural supplement line. My whole family has been healthy since we started 3 years ago and we have 4 young kids. If you give your body nutrition to work with, it can fight off the germs. The vitamins in the store are not very absorbable. I noticed a difference when we started those. :smile:
 
#5 ·
We stay home for Christmas and it's my parents turn to visit. They are my fav people post partum so I may try and get them to just stay.

O is due just before the advent cookie party we host for church so it is going to need to move or have someone else take over all the work.

Or we will move and have to give it up anyways. We had a big talk yesterday and husband it still totally on the fence.
 
#6 ·
This is my first time in a due date club. What an awesome experience so far!

I have thought a little bit about timing. I am the main orchestrator of all things Christmas at our house so thats gonna have to be different this year. I really look forward to cuddling a newborn through the holiday season though, nursing by the christmas tree, everything seems more peaceful around christmas. We'll see if a newborn in the house changes anything. lol.
 
#7 ·
we 'planned' this pregnancy for the timing, we are planning a family vacation at the end of january/beginning of feb next year and i want the baby to be at least 2 months for traveling so if i hadn't gotten prengnat we would have waited another year ... (this was a one shot thing, cause i wasn't ready for another before the cycle i got pregnant)

so i've mainly thought about that trip and haven't thought much about the holidays.. we will probably play it by ear with thanksgiving, depending on how i'm feeling and when the baby comes.. (we normally go about an hour and a half away, just for the day, but i'm due the 14th so baby could be really tiny) and i will probably, knowing me, drop the ball completely on christmas shopping and decorating and let my mom and my husband deal with it .. my husband doesn't usually take more than a couple days off work after i have a baby but i'm kind of hoping with the timing he might be able to take more ..
 
#8 · (Edited)
We visited family for Christmas this past year (they are 500-800 miles from us, but in the same state) specifically because we suspected I'd either be hugely pregnant or have a newborn at that time this year. Our plan is a super low key holiday just the three of us, full stop.

I'm thrilled that DH's time off around the birth will bump up against his normal holiday break period - he was feeling really pressured not to take off more than 2 weeks because of all his work duties, but the holidays always mean a slow down in work because everyone is on vacation at the same time, so he won't have that pressure as much! I might get him for a whole month!!

It's also perfect timing for me - my client load drops way off in November and this past year I took all of December off, so I should be able to take the month before baby arrives off this year, too. :)
 
#11 ·
Husband has a job offer which would be less, but still good money, and more time at home and away from work emails. He worked all but two hours on Saturday and almost as much on Sunday in addition to working late, and then more from home last week, and really all month. He is a big law attorney,

I would be happy staying and making some modifications to make life saner, mostly on my part. And I would be happy moving. He can't decide and it is out of my hands,
 
#10 ·
We were going to travel to minnesota for xmas but now well be staying home :) I'll miss seeing my DH's aunt and sister and her family. We were in california last holiday season and I kind of prefer to have it here... Tho we've never had xmas day at our house (just bought the house last fall, did xmas at my parent's), so I guess we'll just have a nice day at home, hopefully. I like to do a bunch of holiday crafts, so probably I willhave to get most things done in November. Last year we got our tree after thanksgiving, but my DD is November 29 so we'll see what happens.

We gave a big trip coming up that we planned around, too! I didn't want to be too pregant. We're going on an insane family vacation to europe in June with my parents and brother, so 6 of us riding around in some ridiculous van my dad rented. I've been making little car activity kits for my DS like crazy, cause not only are there 2 long flights there and back with layovers, but we're driving from Brussels to Italy to prague to Germany to sweden to Norway etc etc. I am totally excited cause I scored a free zooper waltz stroller from my neighborhood to use in Europe :) it's going to be too hard to tote my son around, and we just had a real crappy umbrella stroller with no storage for him, plus baby carriers and such. The free stroller is awesome and compact and last lots of places to stash junk. We just washed all the fabric bits and gave the frame a "car wash" outside. I think it will be nice for when we have a baby, too, tho who knows, maybe I'll want a double one.
 
#12 ·
Haven't even thought about the holidays but ours are usually very low key anyway bc we are several hundred miles away from family. We are in planning mode for what we need for baby and how to arrange my work and everything without losing too much money as dh is the sahd while I work full time.
 
#13 ·
We told our immediate family last night. Didn't go the April Fools route. The news was well received though my MIL did ask permission to announce to the world on Facebook :eek Thank goodness she asked. We of course told her an adamant NO!!!!! :nono and that WE would do that when WE were ready. I was also really excited to find out that my sister still has a huge stash of cloth diapers (her son is almost 6 so I thought for sure she had passed them on by now). We thought we were done a long time ago so we of course are starting from scratch again, so man I am super stoked about this.
 
#14 · (Edited)
My 15 month old was born a week before Christmas so it was nice having that as an excuse to just stay at home and not feel obligated to visit family. This year I think we'll get out of Thanksgiving, but I imagine we'll have to do the family thing for Christmas. We're really not big into big, loud family get togethers. We'd rather just hang out at home with our kids but get the guilt thing from our families if we don't go.

I'm a little nervous already about the post partum period with this babe. We're moving back to our home town this summer, meaning our parents will only be 10 minutes away instead of 3 hours. I really don't want people coming over right away, for like the first week at least but I somehow don't see our families respecting that. I already told DH we are not telling anyone when I go into labor because I wouldn't put it past my MIL to just come over despite us telling her not to. Ah, gotta love family.


I'm a little miffed with our insurance and this whole birth plan thing. They cover 100% our naturopath and chiropractor but won't pay anything for a licensed midwife and homebirth. They'll pay 100% of pre/post natal care with an OB or CNM and 80% of a hospital birth. My midwife and homebirth will cost like 1/4 of what standard prenatal care and a hospital birth will cost, so we're paying out of pocket (which works out to be only a couple hundred more than what we'd probably pay for a hospital birth anyway.) Plus, the midwife I really wanted to see is unavailable when I'm due so I have an appointment set with a different midwife I know nothing about (but they're the only two midwives so it's my only choice.) I'd really like to UP/UC again (my 2nd was one) but last pregnancy I had some bleeding issues towards the end that sent me to the hospital. I'm really glad I was seeing a midwife at the time. Her back up OB saw me in the hospital, and was really respectful about me choosing a homebirth. I can't imagine how badly things could have gone if I'd been UPing.

I'd like to just go full hermit mode and not have to talk to or see anyone until sometime next year. :)
 
#15 ·
I hadn't thought about Christmas. Need to get an Excel spreadsheet going :) My dad's 60th is in November and my cousin is hosting it across the state. The kicker is she just found out she's due in November too. So, they're planning it in early October so her and I aren't terribly uncomfortable for the party.

Any advice for mood swings? I'm still nursing my 8.5mo old...
 
#16 ·
Ugh, last night I had a long nursing session with my 3yo. I wanted to go pee, and felt the pressure around the uterus, probably from the bladder being full. Then we finally got up (she didn't get to asleep again) and when I got to the bathroom I found some brown discharge. I feel gross because I didn't sleep well and this brown thing reminds me of miscarriage.
 
#17 ·
I'm beginning to think other women can smell my pregnancy... I haven't made it public yet but Seriously, every conversation lately with my girlfriends keeps going back to pregnancy & birth. most of them don't even have kids younger than 4yo. And I am definitely not bringing up the topic. So weird.
And Dearest Last Box of Tagalongs, I should not have opened you, I'm not sure you will last the day.
 
#21 ·
Glad to hear Loba.

We are off to a waterpark hotel that I booked months ago, before checking the date for Easter. Oh well. Kids are excited.
 
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