Question: Anyone waiting to intro LO to other kiddos until post hospital? It's something I wouldn't necessarily mind, but that means that Grandma and Grandpa couldn't meet baby for 2 or 3 days, they will have DS. I'm thinking they'll be weird about that. Anyone in that situation and how are you handling it?
@SmashJam this baby is going to share a room with my 6 year old. I don’t have the room to put him anywhere else. Luckily my 6 year old sleeps like the dead.
@SmashJam I’m planning on keeping the baby in our room until 6mo, then she’ll share a room with DS unless we’re in a bigger house before then. Hopefully she’s as good of a sleeper as he was/is. If she’s sleeping through the night earlier I’ll reevaluate, DS started sleeping a solid 10-12 hrs once he was weaned at night.
@SmashJam I'm not 100% sure yet but I'm considering it. My parents will have DD during labor and delivery. They live a bit over an hour away and unless everything is super fast they will be taking her and staying at their place not ours. It makes no sense for them to drive the hour and a half or so with DD to visit me in the hospital then drive back to their place then back again to ours to bring DD back. Plus, I worry that it would upset DD to see me in the hospital especially if she comes to visit then leaves with my parents and sees mommy, daddy and her new sister stay behind. Now that I write it out that last part makes me super sad.
I think it might be easier to just have my parents bring her home when we get home from the hospital.
@SmashJam I plan to let DD meet the LO in the hospital. I'm probably overly worried about making her feel displaced, so I worry that having her meet him when we bring him home and he's there for good will be too much of a shock. At least if she gets to come up to the hospital a few hours for 1 or 2 days in a row first, then she'll have a couple days to get through the "baby brother is out of mommy's tummy, he's going to come home" part? I dunno, I'm obviously not an expert!
@SmashJam I've been thinking about timing of meeting LO too. I understand why being in the hospital can be scary for LO, but I don't think I can go 3 days without seeing my daughter and for some reason I feel strongly about DD meeting her brother BEFORE the in-laws. DH and I were talking about it and most of the tubes and scary stuff is gone by the time you get to the maternity ward so we think scare factor is a minimum. DD will only be with in-laws for the night before the induction, DH will not be staying with me at the hospital post birth because we don't want DD schedule upset any more than necessary and she does NOT get enough structure when she's with in-laws.
@SmashJam we’re tentatively planning on introducing at the hospital. I didn’t have any medical equipment in the PP room after DS and I’m hoping for an easy birth this time too. I was in the hospital after surgery last spring and he was really nervous and out of sorts but I think he’s matured so much since then and would handle it better now.
Thanks for the feedback guys! @acunamatada you bring up something I forgot...he came to see me in the hospital last time when I had a kidney infection and he was fine...but he was like, 15 months old. @runsomewhere I do think the leaving will be hard, leaving me behind and the baby gets to stay, especially if DH doesn't leave with them. I think I'll make DH go with them if we do the hospital so at least I don't have to watch him lose his shit having to leave me.
I tried Dr Google but couldn’t really find a clear answer. My son has never had an ear infection before but earlier this week he had a fever with no other symptoms, fever resolved and now there’s a rash/redness on his cheek but only the back of his cheek towards his ear. He’s been grabbing his ear occasionally on the same side. It’s dawning on me now that maybe he has an ear infection...so does anyone know if an ear infection can cause redness on the skin next to the ear? I’ll probably take him to the doctor tomorrow if it’s still red and he’s still grabbing at his ear, just trying to curb my mom anxiety tonight (since clearly I’ve got enough of that as it is).
@zande2016 Rashes are always hard to give advise from a photo. With that being said, it kind of looks like he's sleeping on that side of the face, which might be bc his ear hurts or he just prefers that side. Or I'm full of it and it's something completely different! FWIW, our ped said something like 70% of ear infections clear on their own. You can also instill 4-5 drops of olive oil for a few days which can help resolve a possible infection without meds.
@TalesOfASocialIntrovert the rash has been there regardless of sleeping, it’s weird how there’s a straight line cutting off where it’s red. I definitely just thought it was heat rash at first but it’s been 2 days. I’ve heard a lot of times ear infections clear up on their own without antibiotics so maybe I should wait and see how it goes. I just hate to think he might be in pain and can’t tell me.
@zande2016 DS has had a few ear infections but never a rash with them. Have you tried Benadryl to see if the rash goes away? Or cortisone? (With Drs guidance of course).
@wildtot I haven’t, that’s a good idea though. Benadryl at bedtime never hurt anyone he might just be cursed with the same super sensitive fair skin as his parents
@MrsMiller8588 we were gifted one that hooked to the side of the crib but we never ended up using it. We had a video monitor and it blocked our visibility. Maybe if we had one that hung from the ceiling it would have worked better, but she slept fine without it
ETA: now that I’m thinking about it though, I think babies can only see a few feet from their face, at least in the beginning. So a mobile hung from the ceiling would really only work as they got older, anyways
@MrsMiller8588 I like having something strung up for baby to look at. DS had a mobile that I modified to hang Star Wars plushies, but we used the pull string musical plushie for music instead. This time I went with mosquito net canopy and a dream catcher for him to look up at, but will probably use the same plushie since DS1 loved it so darn much.
1 - For those that waxed ahead of delivery. How close to your due date did you get your last wax? I definitely can't take care of things well down there, but I also don't want to cut it so close that I get waxed and then go into labor while things are still tender from being waxed.
2 - Has anyone use the Mamma Strut postpartum support system? It seems pretty handy and I can get my insurance to cover it so I'm thinking about getting it.
@jenny2018 i waxed a week before my c section but i guess it wasn’t enough and i got a hospital shave. I’ve heard of the mamma strut but looked pricey. How is your insurance covering it? I’ve already used up all my FSA balance.
Hey mamas that have gone through labor being GBS positive, I'm assuming the antibiotics are via IV. Is this continuous? Or is it something they just administer, it gets into the system and you're done with it? Was hoping to do a saline lock and not be hooked up to an IV the whole time unless completely necessary.
@noideawhatshesdoing the abx are given every 4 hours. You can typically ask to be saline locked between doses as long as they don’t want/need you on fluids for some other reason
@noideawhatshesdoing What @comealongponds said. However, for some (like me) Penicillin burns like crazy so a slow drip was more comfortable. I can't recall how much they slowed the drip but it was probably over an hour for each dose.
@TalesOfASocialIntrovert Thanks for the heads up. I guess I'll figure it out if it burns or not when I'm in there. What's a little more discomfort for me when it means the baby gets here safely right?
@noideawhatshesdoing did you test positive? I just had my test yesterday and should find out next week. Also wanting a hep lock vs being hooked up constantly
@kissableviv they didn't actually swab me, it popped up earlier in my pregnancy with a UTI so apparently I'm one of those lucky ones with it colonized. I didn't know that until my appointment today. Would have been nice to know that earlier, but it's not the worst thing I guess.
wildtot : good to know on the wax. I think I'll ask my doc her opinion when I see her this week.
For the mamma strut, they are like $150 bucks, but I called my insurance with the codes they provide and found out they will reimburse me for the purchase. Just trying to decide if it's worth it/helpful or not.
Re: Ask a STM- May Edition
https://thecarseatlady.com/latch2014/
I think it might be easier to just have my parents bring her home when we get home from the hospital.
Edit - photo!
TTC December 2016
BFP 2/28/17 // CP 3/1/17
MFI Diagnosis: Aug 2017
BFP 11/1/17 // DS born 6/18
TTC January 2019
BFP 3/21/19 // D&C (MMC) 5/8/19
ETA TB cut me off
ETA: now that I’m thinking about it though, I think babies can only see a few feet from their face, at least in the beginning. So a mobile hung from the ceiling would really only work as they got older, anyways
1 - For those that waxed ahead of delivery. How close to your due date did you get your last wax? I definitely can't take care of things well down there, but I also don't want to cut it so close that I get waxed and then go into labor while things are still tender from being waxed.
2 - Has anyone use the Mamma Strut postpartum support system? It seems pretty handy and I can get my insurance to cover it so I'm thinking about getting it.
For the mamma strut, they are like $150 bucks, but I called my insurance with the codes they provide and found out they will reimburse me for the purchase. Just trying to decide if it's worth it/helpful or not.