@BabyMC517 I used to work in a day care. I know laws vary by state, but ours was infant diapers had to be changed at least every two hours. So, in a 730-530 day, baby will need 5 diapers, plus a couple extra for between times poopy diapers. About 35 diapers/week? Most places will let you store extras there, a lot of people would just bring a huge amount (Costco box) and we would let them know when they were running low.
This is a pretty random question, but what do you do with all of your maternity clothes? Or, during maternity time, what do you do with all of your regular clothes?
I literally cannot fit into anything nonmaternity, so now I have two wardrobes. I do not have room for two wardrobes. There are clothes everywhere, in piles, and it's terrible.
Ideas?
I got those vacuum storage bags for my non-maternity clothes. You put all the clothes in and close the bagz. It has a place to hook up the vacuum and you just turn it on and it shrinks down. Ziplock makes some and you can buy them at target. Then the bags fit under the bed or stack in a closet or something similar. It helped me feel less overwhelmed with the mess!
@jayandaplus I've done the same as a lot of others. I put all my non maternity clothes in storage bins. I know last time I came home from the hospital expecting to just magically fit in all my clothes and it was upsetting. So this time I put them away to not try to stress myself about them.
@jayandaplus I've done the same as a lot of others. I put all my non maternity clothes in storage bins. I know last time I came home from the hospital expecting to just magically fit in all my clothes and it was upsetting. So this time I put them away to not try to stress myself about them.
I read recently (can't cite it) that most women, after childbirth, return to the state they were at, at the 5th/6th month mark, so that's right about now for most of us. The clothes you're wearing now will be (most likely) what you wear in June, July, Aug... then we can drag out those boxes of "before" clothes and take stock.
I know advice has been given from moms who already have two about how to introduce the babes and other things, but what about planning who they will stay with? Did your husband stay with you in the hospital or home with the baby? What if your baby has never been away from you for more than a few hours?!? I'm having a csection and freaking out a little about being away from her for three nights. My mom is the only one who has ever babysat her and my mom has too many health problems to watch her for that extended period of time. My husband only gets 5 work days off, and last time they were eaten up by our hospital stay, so I scheduled my csection for a tuesday, which he will obviously take off, but then I'm sending him back to work until Friday so that he can have the weekend, the full next week, and the following weekend to bond with the babies and have time a a family of five! I plan to utilize the nurses and my mom/MIL in the hospital for help with the twins but am at a loss of how to keep DD happy. With all we've been through with her, I worry any time I'm not around her and I'm trying because I know it's good for us to be apart sometimes(I've started going out once a month for DH to put her to sleep) and we've tried the nursery at church for 5 months now (with no success) but this is going to suck. Tentatively, I'm thinking my SIL will have her for the actual delivery and recovery time so our parents can be there at the hospital, then my mom will have her for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon my MIL can play and by 5 my husband will be home so she will stay with MIL and DH that night. I guess Thursday morning MIL and my mom can switch back off and MIL can have time at the hospital? I just hate to leave her with MIL when they've never been alone (DD FREAKS out and is completely inconsolable unless it's DH, me, or my mom) and I know I'm going to be so worried the whole time.
@BeachMommy2B Great point! I actually need to go shopping for a cooler wardrobe that can get me through the next few months and then into nursing/summer.
@Jkp7749: I suggest to start NOW with acclimating your daughter to new people, to help (1) build her trust in them and (2) start to relieve the anxiety you feel now, and what you'll be feeling in the future.
You said you go out once a month at bedtime. Start doing it weekly: Go to a mall and walk around, hit up the library for some quiet time, or find a cafe and have a snack. Then make it twice weekly. You need to start finding a comfortable distance, in order for you to be able to focus on the task at hand during the delivery.
Start having your mom/MIL over more often to spend time with your daughter. Keep going out in the afternoons and evenings. This is a problem that can be overcome, but you have to put your fears on hold and do the difficult work now to make it work later.
@SKZW thanks for your response! I know I should be doing more to get her used to others, she's just going through a sleep regression or something and I don't feel right about passing that on to someone else. I do think I should be away more at bedtime though... and MIL lives 3 hours away but they definitely need alone time before they're expected to spend that much time alone.
Exactly what @SKZW said is what I would suggest, @Jkp7749
Going out occasionally is a good start by consistency and frequency will help a lot. When my husband came home from deployment we didn't let my son (15 months at the time) call the shots. My husband and I alternate who does bedtime every night and that is that. After a couple of weeks it all clicked and we became much more interchangeable to him.
@WombThereItIs did you do sleep training? We tried having him put her down while i'm here and she FLIPS out. I'm wondering if we need to let him do the same sleep training with her for a few nights?? Do you go in the room or stay away? Now that she's not in a crib, would you go back and put her back in her bed or leave her on the floor if she gets up?
ETA: When I'm out apparently she lets him lay her down but we've tried me being home and not going to her room with them and that hasn't worked either
@Jkp7749 it's going to be tough to get her to go down without you if she knows you're there. My girlfriends come over Monday nights for The Bachelor and MH does bedtime all on his own. He has started closing the bathroom door when brushing her teeth and doing bathroom duties and closing her bedroom door when he is reading her a story. In the beginning, she would cling to me and come out of her room a few times. Now she goes down fine.
As for her getting out of bed, one of you should just go in and out her back in bed and say "good night, I'll see you in the morning". Eventually she will get the idea that she will not be allowed out of bed. We have had nights where DD has gotten up constantly for an hour, so don't get discouraged, just stick to your guns.
As others mentioned, I store my normal wardrobe in a HUGE bin and that is where maternity clothes go when I am done with them. I do not want to dig through clothes that don't fit every morning.
@SKZW My anecdotal experience lined up with that last time. 1 week postpartum weight being on par with 23 weeks pregnant and 2 weeks pp lined up with 20 weeks. (I may keep a spreadsheet with graphs, because I love excel) It was surprising at the time how pregnant I still looked after having DS.
@WombThereItIs did you do sleep training? We tried having him put her down while i'm here and she FLIPS out. I'm wondering if we need to let him do the same sleep training with her for a few nights?? Do you go in the room or stay away? Now that she's not in a crib, would you go back and put her back in her bed or leave her on the floor if she gets up?
ETA: When I'm out apparently she lets him lay her down but we've tried me being home and not going to her room with them and that hasn't worked either
Yes we did sleep training. How old is your daughter? We did check ins at increasing intervals initially at 6 months and that worked for getting him down initially. By 13 months when he still wasn't sleeping through the night I just stopped going in entirely. He would go down initially but wake 2-4 times a night. After 3 nights of putting him down and saying "I'll see you tomorrow morning" and letting him work it out we were all set.
She's 18 months. We couldn't do sleep training until a year due to health issues, and it quickly worked. We did the increasing intervals too and it was a life saver for us. She hadn't been waking so much at night but suddenly she is again- she has 3 more teeth coming and is constipated, plus has either allergies or a cold this week, so I'm assuming that's the deal for this week, but in general I did the sleep training and I'm thinking I may need to let DH do it a few nights and that may fix him not being able to put her to bed
Oh and I really think this deserves its own thread but I understand I'm in the minority.
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS PHOTO? I am of the UO that maternity pictures are universally awful and I think this is definitive proof. If Beyoncé can't pull it off maybe you can't either, lol.
@WombThereItIs I totally agree! My sister just sent me this and told me I had to do it (sarcastically). I can't even figure out what she's going for here...none of it matches. Ruffles on her bottoms??? and why the veil?
Eta: of course she and any other person could equally criticize my HDBD pics and I am well aware of that but at least I am not trying to look all sexy-like
Definitely agree with others that one week PP you'll be around 20-25 weeks. As an example, I found this picture of me at three days PP on Thanksgiving, holding up 8-pound DS to compare to our 15-pound turkey.
Full disclosure: You can see my belly and get an idea of what I looked like 3 days after birth, but I'm mostly sharing this because I love this picture.
@RainyDays86 Love that photo! And I think that's a pretty accurate representation of your belly PP. I think the biggest issue I had fitting into regular clothes was the hips! Your hips are definitely wider PP so your regular pants are going to take awhile to fit.
Married 03.09.09 Sweet Baby H 12.21.11 Sassy Baby P 03.26.14 Little Brother Due 05.22.17
@WombThereItIs Ugh x1000! I dislike Beyonce (UO?) and don't get why people fan girl all over her. That picture is gross but I think the reason she posted something like that is because there was such a hubbub over her possibly having a surrogate for Blue Ivy. So I think she's posting this belly pic to say, SEE! I carried these babies. And because duh, she loves the attention.
@RainyDays86 , that pic is adorable and hilarious and I would say looks pretty similar to how I looked PP. I wore a lot of high waisted leggings and jogger-type sweat pants (so that I didn't feel like I was in PJs all day). And I kept wearing my maternity jeans for a while.
I don't mind maternity pictures the are clothed, like @nda_roxybabe shared. However, I'm not going to great efforts to have fancy ones done. I have a photographer friend who's going to do them for $60, and we're going to be a lot more casual than that couple. I'm hoping we can catch some snow in late Feb and do a quick outdoor shoot. I just want pictures for us to remember this time. I literally don't have a single picture of me noticably pregnant other than the bump pics I've taken.
@Kipperoo - yep, I lived in my yoga pants. You can tell from the picture I posted that my belly is kind of pushed in where the top of the yoga pants are, so for FTMs I would say that is one caveat. You may look like you're 20-25 weeks pregnant but your belly won't be firm so you can definitely squish yourself into yoga pants or other stretchy pants which was a big plus for me.
Oh man I agree on the mid tri belly size comparison but for me the shape/ consistency was freaky and harder to dress. It just deflated and sagged like an old balloon. The bottom more or less flopped over where my cesarean scar was like a saggy flap. Be prepared it might look crazy but it will get better with time!
I was just complaining to a friend of mine that I have to do the 1 hour glucose test again next week and she recommended bringing a straw. I don't know how I've never thought of that (since I've done this 4 times across 2 pregnancies already), but figured I would pass along the tip because it seems to make a lot of sense. That drink is nasty, especially if you don't like sweet drinks!
I was just complaining to a friend of mine that I have to do the 1 hour glucose test again next week and she recommended bringing a straw. I don't know how I've never thought of that (since I've done this 4 times across 2 pregnancies already), but figured I would pass along the tip because it seems to make a lot of sense. That drink is nasty, especially if you don't like sweet drinks!
I have mine next Friday and I should probably read the paperwork... I thought you just chugged the thing then went to the Dr. an hour later?
I was just complaining to a friend of mine that I have to do the 1 hour glucose test again next week and she recommended bringing a straw. I don't know how I've never thought of that (since I've done this 4 times across 2 pregnancies already), but figured I would pass along the tip because it seems to make a lot of sense. That drink is nasty, especially if you don't like sweet drinks!
So smart! I never though of this either, but anything is easier to down with a straw!
I was just complaining to a friend of mine that I have to do the 1 hour glucose test again next week and she recommended bringing a straw. I don't know how I've never thought of that (since I've done this 4 times across 2 pregnancies already), but figured I would pass along the tip because it seems to make a lot of sense. That drink is nasty, especially if you don't like sweet drinks!
I have mine next Friday and I should probably read the paperwork... I thought you just chugged the thing then went to the Dr. an hour later?
Depends on your doctor, but that is how mine did it last time. They sent it home with me at 24 weeks and I had to drink it an hour before my appointment and mark the time and then just tell them when I drank it when I went in.
I was just complaining to a friend of mine that I have to do the 1 hour glucose test again next week and she recommended bringing a straw. I don't know how I've never thought of that (since I've done this 4 times across 2 pregnancies already), but figured I would pass along the tip because it seems to make a lot of sense. That drink is nasty, especially if you don't like sweet drinks!
I have mine next Friday and I should probably read the paperwork... I thought you just chugged the thing then went to the Dr. an hour later?
I always had to drink it AT the lab. Because they give you the drink and then time you, I think you only have 5 minutes to finish it and THEN your 1 hour starts. And your not supposed to really get up and walk around for the 1 hour.
Married 03.09.09 Sweet Baby H 12.21.11 Sassy Baby P 03.26.14 Little Brother Due 05.22.17
@nda_roxybabe , yeah that's typically how it goes, but it is SUPER sweet and not in a good way (IMO). It tastes like gatorade with a cup of sugar added to it. You can chug it, but it tends to leave a lasting, nasty taste in your mouth and you can't eat anything until after the blood draw an hour later.
ETA--my doc practice requires the drinking to be done in person at the lab, but I've heard of others getting to do theirs at home. You would obviously have to pick it up ahead of time.
@nda_roxybabe: someone else can tell me if I'm wrong but the gist is: 1, blood draw at zero hour, 2, drink the orange drink (a specific amount of glucose in it), and you have to finish it in 5 minutes, 3, wait exactly 1 hour (they time it), 4, another blood draw. The lab results calculate exactly how efficient your body is at handling the sugar.
@SKZW, I've only had to do the zero hour blood draw during my 3 hour tests. The rest of your timeline looks spot on with how I've had to do the 1 hour tests.
Catching up and hopefully I'm reading things correctly (horrible headache)...you have 5 minutes to drink that stuff?!?! I haven't had mine yet, I'm guessing they'll schedule it for my next appointment at my visit tomorrow. Not looking forward to it...I always use a straw, so that's a great idea that I will definitely try to remember to do!
"A day without laughter is a day wasted." ~Charlie Chaplin
@SKZW I don't remember ever having to do the 0hour blood draw. It's so strange to me that different OBs/labs have different policies. I've always had to fast for my 1 hour and this time my OB mentioned it was non-fasting?!
Married 03.09.09 Sweet Baby H 12.21.11 Sassy Baby P 03.26.14 Little Brother Due 05.22.17
Re: Randoms and Questions 1.30 - 2.5
"A day without laughter is a day wasted." ~Charlie Chaplin
1st Baby 5/12/17, Henry
You said you go out once a month at bedtime. Start doing it weekly: Go to a mall and walk around, hit up the library for some quiet time, or find a cafe and have a snack. Then make it twice weekly. You need to start finding a comfortable distance, in order for you to be able to focus on the task at hand during the delivery.
Start having your mom/MIL over more often to spend time with your daughter. Keep going out in the afternoons and evenings. This is a problem that can be overcome, but you have to put your fears on hold and do the difficult work now to make it work later.
Going out occasionally is a good start by consistency and frequency will help a lot. When my husband came home from deployment we didn't let my son (15 months at the time) call the shots. My husband and I alternate who does bedtime every night and that is that. After a couple of weeks it all clicked and we became much more interchangeable to him.
May '17 labor memes
ETA: When I'm out apparently she lets him lay her down but we've tried me being home and not going to her room with them and that hasn't worked either
As for her getting out of bed, one of you should just go in and out her back in bed and say "good night, I'll see you in the morning". Eventually she will get the idea that she will not be allowed out of bed. We have had nights where DD has gotten up constantly for an hour, so don't get discouraged, just stick to your guns.
@SKZW My anecdotal experience lined up with that last time. 1 week postpartum weight being on par with 23 weeks pregnant and 2 weeks pp lined up with 20 weeks. (I may keep a spreadsheet with graphs, because I love excel) It was surprising at the time how pregnant I still looked after having DS.
DS2 5/17
#3 Due 9/20
May '17 labor memes
CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS PHOTO? I am of the UO that maternity pictures are universally awful
May '17 labor memes
Eta: of course she and any other person could equally criticize my HDBD pics and I am well aware of that but at least I am not trying to look all sexy-like
Full disclosure: You can see my belly and get an idea of what I looked like 3 days after birth, but I'm mostly sharing this because I love this picture.
1st Baby 5/12/17, Henry
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17
I think someone should recreate that beyonce photo for their HDBD!
@RainyDays86 That picture, however, is adorable!
I don't mind maternity pictures the are clothed, like @nda_roxybabe shared. However, I'm not going to great efforts to have fancy ones done. I have a photographer friend who's going to do them for $60, and we're going to be a lot more casual than that couple. I'm hoping we can catch some snow in late Feb and do a quick outdoor shoot. I just want pictures for us to remember this time. I literally don't have a single picture of me noticably pregnant other than the bump pics I've taken.
I already posted mine..
not it!
May '17 labor memes
1st Baby 5/12/17, Henry
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17
ETA--my doc practice requires the drinking to be done in person at the lab, but I've heard of others getting to do theirs at home. You would obviously have to pick it up ahead of time.
A lot of places make you wait in the lab because too much walking or exercise can affect the results leading to false negatives.
May '17 labor memes
"A day without laughter is a day wasted." ~Charlie Chaplin
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17