in this thread you give me all your newborn baby advice

[mmmbeans]

family medical leave act only guarantees unpaid leave...  

 

 

that doesn't help very much if one needs the money.

[Bronn]

obviously the only solution is selling the newborn!

[dos poptarts]

quick reminders: Ins companies now will cover breast pumps. (Obamacare).

 

Work out a schedule with your wife. Our Dr wanted us to feed our baby every 2 hrs until he started gaining weight and got rid of his jaundice. Took about 4 days to really stabilize his weight after leaving the hospital. I would take 4 hr shifts so she could get some sleep and not have to breast feed every two hours.

 

Make sure someone else cooks and cleans. Your wife will need to recover the first few weeks.

 

Try multiple diaper brands. Cheapass Whitecloud from Walmart fits/works better than Huggies for my kid. Deal sites (slickdeals, amazon mom, fatwallet) for trying to find diaper deals.

 

Everybody's got an opinion and will offer it on what you should do in every situation. In the end it's your child, enjoy all this time. It goes fast. Take lots of pictures/video.

 

And if you want to get some professional photos, between 7-10 days after birth is a great time to get shots. Baby will sleep posed while the photographer can get their shots ready. Zod may be able to expand on this.

 

Get him this: (heh, mine, 7 monther, just grew out of his)

 

Serious note: Talk to wife alot about how she is feeling (for months). Post-partum is a real issue with lots of women. I personally would look into counseling over drugs if she is feeling depressed or 'off'. Don't just assume she's tired.

[Kettle]

If you are looking to save money I can recommend two things.

The first should be a no brainer and that's making baby food yourself. You can find instruction on the Internet easily, but it's as simple as steaming veggies and then putting them in the food processor. Scoop into ice trays and freeze. Pop them out and bag till you want to warm them for eating. We started doing this at about 6 months old along with some teet and she was all solid food at about 10 months on her own. Savings is probably a dollar or two per meal.

Second thing is more time consuming and more money saving. Cloth diapers. Wait until about two months old though due to nasty poops in the beginning. The time comes with laundry. You would be washing a load of cloth diapers about every two days. Sounds like a bitch cuz it is, but here's the savings breakdown. We have about $700 in cloth diapers and accessories. They are adjustable so we have been using the same ones from two months to two years when we switched to pull ups for potty training. So ~88 weeks. I know some water cost has to be factored in, but how many weeks of disposables will you get for that cost. I'm thinking about 20-24 if that. We are looking to get rid of ours now actually. PM me if interested. They are a mix of some girly and some solid prints as well as some that are unisex. I'm in kernersville.

[PhillyB]

really? i used to live off of piney grove road for years.

 

and as much as i'd love to take you up on that offer, the fact that i am mortified of changing diapers makes it impossible. i can't handle poop smells and i would mother fuging die if i had to wash loads of poo-smeared cloths. it's worth it to me to spend some extra cake on disposable diapers and just drop them in the diaper pail instead of suppressing my gag reflex (or trying to) while scrubbing tread marks. *shudder*

[Kettle]

That's why you wait until two months old. At that point the poo will become more normal and flop out if the diaper into the toilet. I was as you describe at first. It took me a while to stop gagging but I eventually learned to tolerate the smell. And Charlie's soap does all the actual cleaning. The wife did it all for me, but I think the process was a cold wash followed by a warm wash and dried normally most of the time. Occasionally she would put them on the clothes line to sun bleach any stains. Or hang things that couldn't be dried in the laundry room.

And yeah, I'm off sedge garden.

[CRA]

Swaddling is key...

We actually transitioned to those sleep sacks. They have velcro swaddled wings which make the swaddle tighter and more efficient. If you swaddled my son in a regular blanket he would work out of it in 3 hrs...and once his arms where out that meant sleep was over.

Some of the classes you attend call this lazy. Well there job is to teach you how to burrito up the baby...so buying a super swaddle blanket kinda makes there lesson moot.

[Kurb]

really? i used to live off of piney grove road for years.

 

and as much as i'd love to take you up on that offer, the fact that i am mortified of changing diapers makes it impossible. i can't handle poop smells and i would mother fuging die if i had to wash loads of poo-smeared cloths. it's worth it to me to spend some extra cake on disposable diapers and just drop them in the diaper pail instead of suppressing my gag reflex (or trying to) while scrubbing tread marks. *shudder*

 

Poop is going to transition a good bit over the next 6 months.

 

Tar poop.

 

Green/Yellow seedy poop

 

Brownish/Greenish/Yellowish milk poop.

 

Color of whatever babyfood she ate poop.

 

Then when food it introduced several months from now, Poop with chunks.

 

 

 

You will also get pooped on and/or she will poop in your hand at least once.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breath through your mouth...

[Darth Biscuit]

I do not miss the poop.

I took care of our oldest from about 3 weeks until about 1 yr everyday while I worked evenings and she worked days. Those were some long ass days, I'm not gonna lie. I learned how to catch 30 minute naps all day.

[Kevin Greene]

Poop is going to transition a good bit over the next 6 months.

 

Tar poop.

 

Green/Yellow seedy poop

 

Brownish/Greenish/Yellowish milk poop.

 

Color of whatever babyfood she ate poop.

 

Then when food it introduced several months from now, Poop with chunks.

 

 

 

You will also get pooped on and/or she will poop in your hand at least once.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breath through your mouth...

 

Don' forget projectile poop.

 

Up the back, or all over as my daughter once did as I raised her up to slide a new diaper under her. Good times, lol.

[Kurb]

Don' forget projectile poop.

 

Up the back, or all over as my daughter once did as I raised her up to slide a new diaper under her. Good times, lol.

 

Missed out on that fun.

[PhillyB]

Breath through your mouth...

 

even worse, it triggers the gag reflex even faster

[Chimera]

really? i used to live off of piney grove road for years.

and as much as i'd love to take you up on that offer, the fact that i am mortified of changing diapers makes it impossible. i can't handle poop smells and i would mother fuging die if i had to wash loads of poo-smeared cloths. it's worth it to me to spend some extra cake on disposable diapers and just drop them in the diaper pail instead of suppressing my gag reflex (or trying to) while scrubbing tread marks. *shudder*

meh, the smell is minimal until she starts eating solid foods. after that, her backside will become toxic.

I used a nonrebreather mask and a little vicks vapo-rub right below my nose. women, however, have evolved some sort of immunity to airborne venom

[Kevin Greene]

A real man sucks it up and changes diapers.