@battleangel is Morro Bay close for you? Would you drive? I’m sure my DH would love to go to Cali for a babymoon. I wouldn’t be opposed to it but I’m a little concerned about air quality down near LA since I know that’s where he’d want to go.
@canuckbaby that sounds like an awesome trip! I haven’t been abroad in like 5 years which is super disappointing and now it feels like it will be harder! That’s why I’d like to go but I’m a little nervous about the thought of a mid-air emergency over the ocean. Maybe I’m just being a bit much with that.
@ki1244 I like the beach club a lot. It’s usually so hard to get a place there. Or to get the vacay club places. I think probably we will do south Florida to guarantee hot weather and pool time
@battleangel oh we went all out. Global series in cologne against kolner haie then against jersey in sweden. We were at the same hotel as oilers and jersey. We got our tickets the day they went on sale for sweden and a presale for cologne. It was pricey AF but worth it. Lol.
I did tell him...a full day later. I really love suspense.
I call him “Bear” a lot so I got him a “Papa Bear” shirt and a Baby Bear onesie. I put all that on a gift bag with the US and kindof just waited for him to notice it. He was asking me if I got my period for weeks so I can’t belive it took him by surprise so much but he was so overjoyed he cried. It was really cool.
When is a baby moon? We’re actually going to Paris in December but that’s really soon. I completely not opposed to another trip before June.
Question for the group - is anyone considering a baby moon? When do you think you’d do it? Where do you think you’d go?
We are planning on taking one as a babymoon/H-is-getting-out-of-the-military celebration type thing. We're not sure where we're going yet, but since we have military Space-A benefits right now, we're thinking Japan or Hawaii. Both are super extravagant, but why not if you don't have to pay for airfare?
I think the concerns with air travel and pregnancy is that if (heaven forbid) you went into labor mid-flight, there may not be medical personnel on board to assist. There's also liability issues for the airline if something goes wrong.
Many countries don't want foreign women traveling to their countries and giving birth, either, so there's that. Just gets messy paperwork and insurance wise. You may have visa issues upon arrival.
Otherwise, I think the health concerns are usually leg swelling, etc. Nothing compression socks and walks up and down the aisle couldn't help. Then again, I could be discounting specific medical issues because I'm not a doctor.... I'd double check with them of course.
@wendyann19 that's so cute! (and also a weird coincidence that my nickname for DH is Bear...)
I had a teacher friend who led a weeklong high school trip for her students to Spain (from Iowa) at 37 weeks pregnant. I still have no idea how that was allowed, and especially not how she actually DID it, and certainly wouldn't recommend it. But I know in some circumstances, at least stuff is allowed...just maybe not encouraged.
I'd love to go on a babymoon (somewhere warm so I could rock my belly in a cute suit!) but I don't think we could swing it. We are hoping to buy a house in the next 4 months. We have a timeshare in Cape Cod and will be going next fall so that will be the baby's first trip...It will be nice to have something right before I go back to work and have to build my PTO back up.
Anyone else panicking over the cost of daycare?? I've starting setting aside money for the half of my maternity leave I'll go unpaid but also think we should put away even more to have a nice stockpile for childcare.
ohheyitsb - Totally with you on panicking over daycare costs. I have no idea how we're going to come up with an extra $1200/month minimum. It's pretty much a second rent check & I'm freaking out about how the heck we're going to swing it.
@ellem29 it's INSANE, right? I'm going to talk to my boss about adjusting my hours. It is a long shot but if I can get one day off during the week, it will help.
@ohheyitsb and @ellem29 100%. It’s awful. My sister is an early childhood educator and works at a “cheaper” centre because it’s run by the region...and it’s still about 60% of my take home pay. AND the waiting lists are awful in the GTA. Like I should probably get on a couple of lists now to even be close to getting a spot at the end of my mat leave. My sis knows people who’ve been called about an available spot 2 months before they need it, and they’ve taken it and paid for it longer than they needed because the alternative was not having a daycare spot at all. It’s brutal.
My mom was a SAHM and so was DH's, so our plan has always been for me to stay home too. I work from home about half the time anyway, so my dream scenario is where I can work VERY part time (like 10-15 hours per week) from home, which I think I can still manage with a baby, unless I'm being too optimistic. But even that is such a weird thought...like, I'm 34, I have a couple degrees, and I've been earning a paycheck of some sort since I was 15. It's bizarre to think of that just ENDING. OTOH, if this basketball season goes poorly, I don't know what our job/income situation will look like -- and depending on how quickly he can get on another staff, we may need to switch to my insurance, and in that case, I have to go back full-time. And even if the season goes well, we may still wind up moving when I'm like 7.5 months pregnant, and it may be a pretty big pay cut (higher position at a smaller school) so I may have to work anyway (and then sort out childcare in a strange city). Right now everything past about mid-March is a giant question mark. Sooooo I just pretend it doesn't exist and I'll just live in the 2nd trimester forever.
I would be panicking about daycare but I’m just trying to focus on getting through the 1st trimester. PGAL brain here. I’ll start making a game plan when I’m out of the danger zone. The good thing is my mom lives a block and a half away. She has said that she would be willing to help out but she doesn’t want to do it every day. The daycare I really want my baby to go to doesn’t take kids until 4 months but I’m not sure I can take 4 months off.
I'm really thankful that we're in a position that being a SAHM is possible. I really love having the first year at least home with baby. After that I'll probably go back part time to preserve my sanity but I do like to minimize time they spend in childcare.
@chrssyms Morro Bay is about four hours north of me. LA... can be terrible air quality wise, but it’s also a lot better than people would have you believe unless the entire bleeping state is on fire again. As a California resident I strongly suggest finding out what you’re into (theme parks? Beaches? Museums?) and finding the city that works for that.
@battleangel I was just worried specifically if LA was *still* on fire. But I think we'd probably go much further south to Newport Beach or Laguna so we could hang out at the beach. We also really like staying in Hermosa/Manhattan Beach, too. So I'm not sure what we'd do, but we might just do Florida. It's a little closer for us being on the East Coast.
Edit to include daycare comment: Ha, I don't know if I can even worry about daycare. Near our house, most daycare places are like $2k/month. We don't have much choice and I really want to go back to work so it's just going to be what it is I guess.
My mom was a SAHM and so was DH's, so our plan has always been for me to stay home too. I work from home about half the time anyway, so my dream scenario is where I can work VERY part time (like 10-15 hours per week) from home, which I think I can still manage with a baby, unless I'm being too optimistic. But even that is such a weird thought...like, I'm 34, I have a couple degrees, and I've been earning a paycheck of some sort since I was 15. It's bizarre to think of that just ENDING. OTOH, if this basketball season goes poorly, I don't know what our job/income situation will look like -- and depending on how quickly he can get on another staff, we may need to switch to my insurance, and in that case, I have to go back full-time. And even if the season goes well, we may still wind up moving when I'm like 7.5 months pregnant, and it may be a pretty big pay cut (higher position at a smaller school) so I may have to work anyway (and then sort out childcare in a strange city). Right now everything past about mid-March is a giant question mark. Sooooo I just pretend it doesn't exist and I'll just live in the 2nd trimester forever.
STM here! Just a piece of advice on working from home with a baby -- in the newborn phase, it's a total dream with all the naps but as they start staying awake longer and longer, and nap times reduce, it gets MUCH harder. 10-15 hours is still small enough that you can probably get away with working during naptimes, but anything outside of that gets really difficult as they get older and demand more of your attention. I'm full time, but work from home on occasion and there's not a chance I can get anything done with my little guy around. Just my two cents!
Good stuff in here. I'm building my own at-home business and have been very worried about how it will mix with baby. I'm terrified, actually.
Otherwise, I moved my next OB appt to two days before the in-laws come into town on Dec. 1st (it was originally Dec. 4th). We plan to break the news to them then and I wanted to see the baby's heartbeat one more time before we did. I'm letting MH decide how he wants to tell them. He's getting excited.
Any Appointments Coming Up? Questions?: Nov. 21 is my NT screening test, and I'm also having the cell-free DNA testing done. The results of the latter test will also tell us the gender, so I'm super excited about that No questions right now...
How are you feeling?: Exhausted. I was moody all last week and over the weekend. I'm hoping that if I take it a bit easier, I can be calm and more even tempered.
Are you doing anything to capture/journal your pregnancy?: I have a precious baby book from Anthropologie that I'm looking forward to using. It'll probably be all that I use to document this journey
I work at home as well and was hoping to keep going as baby comes, getting a bit nervous about that as well. We own our own company so hubby works out and about and I do stuff from home. I guess we’ll try to continue for some months after baby gets here and see how that goes, might hire someone for help part time if needed later on.
About baby-moon we have a Miami vacay planned for February! (We live in Peru). Last time we went to LA last year hubby went crazy with the shopping lol since we dont really have outlets here and everything is more expensive. So our plan is to get everything for baby there! Please, any tips on where to go would be great! And then we will spend a couple of days relaxing by the beach as well.
We are going to announce on Dec 1st and hubby is in charge of that. He wants to do a video but I dont think we will have enough time for that.
@wearyfuzzball I live in Baltimore! If you are flying tomorrow don't worry. There's no snow anymore. It was beautiful and snowy this morning and now it's just rainy. It's supposed to stay in the high 30s and low 40s, so I don't think freezing will be much of an issue either.
@echoesofangels very interested if you are in the Balto-Wash area!
@wearyfuzzball yeah, sorry. You're going to probably miss the snow. There might be remnants if you are ultimately headed out to the west or more rural areas. But if you are going to a city, most likely it'll all be gone from the rain.
Hi FTMs! I just wanted to bump this thread and see if anyone would be interested in a FTM discussion board rather than monthly check ins? I don’t know about anyone else but I know I feel like I get lost in the shuffle of moms who already have kids and have been on this website for a looong time. I think it would be nice to have a space for us. Anyone interested in that idea?
Well, @honeybeemarie@Bababatty I actually just reread the guidelines for this group (thankfully) and I believe it states FTM discussions must stay a monthly discussion *sigh* I’d love a free for all check in but it looks like we may have to stay in our lane here on the monthly thread. Do either of you know if that’s true? Or can we start a new thread where FTM can talk freely?
If you read a lot of the comments in the intro thread, most of the women on this board are okay with new threads that are relevant and beneficial to multiple people. I really don’t think anyone would have a problem with us FTMs creating weekly check ins or something like that, even if it wasn’t originally established that way 😊
Looks like I offended the gal who opened this thread. For that I’m sorry @chrssyms. Between a few girls here and some on the into thread calling for an open forum I just thought I’d give it a shot. Totally okay to stay here too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
... from what I read, it didn't seem like you offended anyone. It looks like she was just providing some guidance on how to label the thread. I think a new thread can be created for FTM December next week. I personally like the templates to start so people are generally checking in with a similar narrative and then from there it can move to more freeform discussion which is exactly what happened with this month's FTM.
Re: FTM Check-In November
@canuckbaby that sounds like an awesome trip! I haven’t been abroad in like 5 years which is super disappointing and now it feels like it will be harder! That’s why I’d like to go but I’m a little nervous about the thought of a mid-air emergency over the ocean. Maybe I’m just being a bit much with that.
@ki1244 I like the beach club a lot. It’s usually so hard to get a place there. Or to get the vacay club places. I think probably we will do south Florida to guarantee hot weather and pool time
When is a baby moon? We’re actually going to Paris in December but that’s really soon. I completely not opposed to another trip before June.
We're thinking January/early February.
Many countries don't want foreign women traveling to their countries and giving birth, either, so there's that. Just gets messy paperwork and insurance wise. You may have visa issues upon arrival.
Otherwise, I think the health concerns are usually leg swelling, etc. Nothing compression socks and walks up and down the aisle couldn't help. Then again, I could be discounting specific medical issues because I'm not a doctor.... I'd double check with them of course.
I had a teacher friend who led a weeklong high school trip for her students to Spain (from Iowa) at 37 weeks pregnant. I still have no idea how that was allowed, and especially not how she actually DID it, and certainly wouldn't recommend it. But I know in some circumstances, at least stuff is allowed...just maybe not encouraged.
I’m with you, though, @antera23 PGAL brain has had me not even really thinking about all that yet.
Edit to include daycare comment: Ha, I don't know if I can even worry about daycare. Near our house, most daycare places are like $2k/month. We don't have much choice and I really want to go back to work so it's just going to be what it is I guess.
STM here! Just a piece of advice on working from home with a baby -- in the newborn phase, it's a total dream with all the naps but as they start staying awake longer and longer, and nap times reduce, it gets MUCH harder. 10-15 hours is still small enough that you can probably get away with working during naptimes, but anything outside of that gets really difficult as they get older and demand more of your attention. I'm full time, but work from home on occasion and there's not a chance I can get anything done with my little guy around. Just my two cents!
Otherwise, I moved my next OB appt to two days before the in-laws come into town on Dec. 1st (it was originally Dec. 4th). We plan to break the news to them then and I wanted to see the baby's heartbeat one more time before we did. I'm letting MH decide how he wants to tell them. He's getting excited.
Due Date/W+D: June 16/9+4
Any Appointments Coming Up? Questions?: Nov. 21 is my NT screening test, and I'm also having the cell-free DNA testing done. The results of the latter test will also tell us the gender, so I'm super excited about that
How are you feeling?: Exhausted. I was moody all last week and over the weekend. I'm hoping that if I take it a bit easier, I can be calm and more even tempered.
Are you doing anything to capture/journal your pregnancy?: I have a precious baby book from Anthropologie that I'm looking forward to using. It'll probably be all that I use to document this journey
GTKY: Where are you from?: Maryland
About baby-moon we have a Miami vacay planned for February! (We live in Peru). Last time we went to LA last year hubby went crazy with the shopping lol since we dont really have outlets here and everything is more expensive. So our plan is to get everything for baby there! Please, any tips on where to go would be great! And then we will spend a couple of days relaxing by the beach as well.
We are going to announce on Dec 1st and hubby is in charge of that. He wants to do a video but I dont think we will have enough time for that.
@echoesofangels very interested if you are in the Balto-Wash area!