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January 2014 Moms
silentsiren11
member
January babies .... Advantages and disadvantages?
silentsiren11
member
For mobile: January babies .... Advantages and disadvantages?
I was just googling and found this:
https://www.babble.com/baby/thoughts-on-january-babies-and-why-they-get-the-shaft/
Sorry. I can't make it clicky on mobile.
However, as a January baby myself (jan. 11) and a January mommy-to-be, I am not sure I agree.
What advantages and disadvantages do you foresee?
Charlotte Lynne ~ Jan. 23, 2014
This discussion has been closed.
Re: January babies .... Advantages and disadvantages?
Read your link and as a New Years baby I can tell you that yes some of my friends growing up liked to give me one gift and say it was my birthday/christmas present, but my family always made sure my birthday was special. I have a three year old born on the 18th of January and one on the way, due on the 25th and I say meh. I say it's up to us to make it special and not worry about any of that stuff!
I always love (still) that once all the holiday stuff is over I still have my birthday to look forward so I say our babies will be lucky to have that one more special event to look forward to!
Congrats on the news!
Make a pregnancy ticker
My youngest brother is a January baby. The main problems that I see with it are
1) We live in Canada and there is a good chance that there will be snow in January lol Our stupid region is getting rid of all of the city hospitals and making one big regional one, so now I will have a bit of a drive to get there. This makes me a bit nervous.
2) With my brother, his birthday is so close to Christmas that I never know what to get him for his birthday because he just got stuff for Christmas. And then he has to go almost a whole year before he gets presents again!
ETA: I can also kind of see the point about post-Christmas burnout, but I'm not due until the end of January and all of the people who are important in our lives will not be too burned out to go to a party for my LO
Pbandj: That's how it always felt to me. I got an extra holiday two weeks later!
Also, as far as gifts, I always asked for what I didn't get for Christmas for my birthday.
I think summer birthdays are way worse than January birthdays!
Growing up, my birthday was middle of August, and my mom always waited to throw the party until September because all my friends were away at summer camp / family vacations etc.
Same thing happened with my son last year (he was born in early August) - I couldn't find a weekend that worked for everyone between all of our (and our friends') summer weddings / vacations / long weekends etc., so we ended up having a really small family get together that normally would have been 40+ people!
In January, people may not be excited to leave the house, but at least they aren't out of town...
__________________________________________________________
DS1 born 08.02.11
DS2 born 12.05.13
Having a January baby already, I can assure you that the birthday presents are NOT in short order after Christmas. If anything, it's awesome because you stock up on a lot of presents during the great holiday sales and save a few for the birthday next month. Also, a lot of people got DS gift cards so we just held them back and got him some summer toys, which was like a second birthday celebration in itself. Something DH and I talked about for when our kids are older is to do something small for their actual birthdays and then have a bigger celebration in the summer. I think as long as you as a parent go out of your way to make their birthday special, then it doesn't matter when their birthday is.
Another thing I really liked about a January baby is that DS celebrated all his 1st holidays in the same calendar year!
ETA: The only real disadvantage I can see is crappy winter weather (at least for us here in Ohio)
For me it's mainly birthday parties.
I'm a June baby and my birthday is almost exactly six months before and after Christmas. I was S P O I L E D as a child. I also always had good weather for birthday parties, especially pool parties, and most people hadn't gone on vacation yet.
DS has an August birthday, like 50% of my family members, so he'll get good weather here in Tennessee for his birthday parties and it's far enough away from Christmas.
My dad's birthday is 3 weeks before Christmas and it wasn't ever a big deal when he was a kid. Half of his Christmas presents became his birthday presents and his parties were kind of meh. This is partially due to a December birthday and partially due to him being an oops/later in life baby and my grandparents being a little apathetic. I feel bad for him.
So I guess I kind of feel bad for 2.0. Due to a RCS, 2.0 will be born around 1/6ish, so that's less than 2 weeks after Christmas. I dunno. I could always, besides the requisite birthday party, throw a big pool party in July for 2.0's half birthday with a few presents and assuage some my Mom guilt.
My DD?s due date was 01.19.2009 but came early & was born on 12.25.08.
She doesn?t get the shaft at all because she?s a Christmas baby. She gets 2 sets of gifts (I?m not talking 1 present for Christmas & 1 for her Birthday either)
Her 1st year I decorated our dining room in balloons and had a big birthday cake, we played pin the tail on the donkey and opened gifts. Before that we as a family opened all our Christmas gifts where she received plenty of too.
Same thing for her 2nd birthday since she really didn?t grasp the whole birthday thing
Her 3rd birthday we rented the recreation center and I had a bounce house set up inside, pi?ata, cake & food. Gave her her birthday gifts
Last year she had a Rollerskating party and it was just as great as the others.
I honestly think it?s what people make of it, everyone we have ever invited has attended.
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On the plus side, a lot of sports teams use January 1 as their cutoff for which year you play with. Which means your child will be one of the oldest on the team, which means he/she will do much better.
For me, I like my January due date. I'm a college professor, and my due date just 5 weeks after the fall semester ends is pretty convenient. I should be able to take the spring semester off, lose only half a year's pay, and come back in September when baby is 7 months old.
Yep, we might get blizzarded in or out around the birth, but that sort of thing happens much more often in the movies than in real life.
I have mixed emotions about another winter baby (I have a June baby and a November baby). Out of both, I really liked the summer. This is for a few reasons. And I'm sorry to be debbie the downer here, but I always said I would never have another winter baby--haha, you make your plans and God laughs.
Main Disadvantages:
Number one, I live in Chicago and so with summer baby, we were outside every day--walking to the park, drug store, to get coffee, etc. With winter baby--not so much. It's way to cold and snowy.
Number two, the illness. Seriously, I never believed this until I experienced it first hand. Summer baby did not have a cold until she was 8 months old--winter baby ended up with RSV at 10 weeks. Some of this could be due to her preschool aged sister bringing home germs, but the cold/flu season did not help.
Number three, birthday parties seem to be harder for the winter baby. With summer baby, we have been able to have fun backyard parties (we are having a "movie night under the stars" party this year, and did her 1st and 2nd parties at home too). With winter baby, unless your house can accomodate a large crowd, you have to rent a space for the party. The same was true for the baptisms--summer baby's was in August and was lots of people, and winter baby's was smaller because we had it at a restaurant.
Finally, number four, hibernation. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for winter babies. I loved having the excuse to stay in the house for about 2 weeks, but I am a pretty social person and really wanted to get back "out" and moving. So, for the next 12 weeks of my my maternity leave, I was pretty much clawing the walls. Plus, with having a colicky #2, I just wanted to get her moving as that was when she seemed to calm down. We did take walks if it was over 35 degrees, but it involved lots of bundling and shorter walks.
Main Advantages:
Something to look forward to after the holidays. Both DH and I seem to have a hard time seasonally in late Jan/Feb before the weather breaks, and so I see having this to look forward to as being really good.
Not having to worry about an overheating newborn when trying to keep their delicate skin covered.
Being able to celebrate birthdays with your school friends!
Not being the oldest/youngest kid in the class. For those late summer kids, sometimes it is a toss up if they are truly ready for school or not, and in our area the cutoff is September 1st.
Will baby #3 be another girl?
]
also, in Ohio, so ditto on the weather, but I prefer cold to heat, so I'm actually secretly somewhat happy about it. Unless its an ice storm.
Seeing as how I'm due at the end of January, I'm hoping people won't be burned out from Christmas and our LO can still get all the love and attention it deserves! Our family is more focused on time together versus spending a crazy amount of money on Christmas, so I'm not really worried about that. Plus, my family is crazy about birthdays, we usually have a collective party every month to celebrate. I guess we'll see!
December Siggy Challenge: Love Actually
That article was written by a slacking mom. If it's truly that much work after the Christmas rush, plan it in October and pull the stuff out in January to mail it. yeesh.
Having a Christmas baby already, I can tell you I was estatic to be having a January baby. Christmas baby's birthday is getting moved to share with January baby to get away from the Christmas rush.
Only negative is the weather. But that's life.
I always was upset I had to return to college on or around the 11th.
also, the deductible issue is also on our mind, but we just met ours for this year with my husband's back surgery last week, so we are down to one.
I have a post-Christmas baby (12/27) and it's difficult for us. We've actually pushed her birthday party into January both years since the times are just so crazy for everyone between Christmas and New Years. We don't have combined gifts for her just because her birthday is near Christmas. We take all of our Christmas decorations down before her birthday so we can put up birthday decorations. I always want her to feel as if her birthday is special and separate from Christmas. We also plan to do summer parties when she's older so she can have an outdoors party of her choosing with her friends and then do small family parties for her birthday.
Positives to winter babies: I can use the cold/sick time as an excuse not to go places and not to let too many people come over and handle baby. It becomes a bonding time for us without having to share it with too many people. I love celebrating "first" holidays and I love that I can celebrate them with baby in order- weird I know
DS BFP 8.29.2012 EDD 5.11.2013 born sleeping @ 17 weeks 12.1.2012
True, but this happened when my brother was born! I was so afraid that I wouldn't get to go see him in the hospital because the storm was so bad. Thankfully the hospital was close
We're due 09 January which is long enough after Christmas and NYE that we shouldn't have any combined Christmas/Bday pressies. My husband is just before Christmas so I know all about having two separate "occasions" in a very short time!!
These days, there seems to be so much going on around Christmas that a lot of friends and even work colleagues have dinners and drinks and parties into January so I don't think that's an issue either.
I'm excited for a January baby.....oldest in their class, school will be in when birthdays come around (mine is early September and we moved so much that I never felt like I knew anybody who came to my birthday parties).
Fun times ahead and there will only be downsides if you let them be downsides. It's winter and there's snow and you'll have a little bundle of joy - what more could you ask for *grin*
My DH birthday is Christmas Eve and he doesn't seem to mind. As many have mentioned, I feel it's what you make of it. His family always made sure he had a birthday cake growing up and separated bday and Christmas presents. I do the same for him now.
My DD is a July baby and I'm due 1/13 so it will be interesting. I'm just a bit worried about flu season and too much snow as DH plows in the winter (which is good and bad). I have to admit I was a bit disappointed at first with having a January baby but that feeling only lasted a second when I realized it doesn't really matter, just blessed to have #2 on the way.
I'm a January baby myself. I hated not having the option of pool parties growing up on the East Coast. However, I did like that whatever I asked for for Xmas and didn't get I knew I could just ask for again 1 month later and probably finally get
A huge plus of a January baby IMO is DH's annual bonus will arrive right around the time we have to pay off the hospital bill, as well as our tax refund.
Married 11/27/09 and TTC right away
Dx: Complete septate uterus with cervical duplication, endometrial polyps, PCOS, endometriosis, hypo thyroid, luteal phase defect
4 uterus surgeries to correct my complete septum and to remove polyps and 2 years of seeing the RE, medicated cycles and IUIs
Baby 1 and 2: BFP 3/3/11 with 2 babies EDD 11/1/11, M/C 4/6/11
Baby #3: 8/11 pregnant EDD 4/27/11 and m/c:(
Baby #4: 10/12/11 BFP! EDD 6/16/12m/c 10/26/11
Baby #5: 3/13/12 BFP! EDD 11/25/12 ANOTHER m/c
Baby #6: 2/14/13- BFP! EDD 10/24/13, CP 2/19/13
Baby #7: 3/15/13- BFP! EDD 11/27/13, another CP
Baby #8. BFP 5/19/13 EDD 1/22/14. 8 was not our lucky number
4th septum resection on 5/31/13.
Baby #9: 6/29/13 BFP. C section scheduled for March 5th!
My miracle baby was born March 5 at 9:33am. He was 8 lbs 12.5 oz and 21.25 inches long!
Baby Chugging born 12.28.13
induction due to HELLP
Are you in London???
My birthday is Christmas day and our due date is January 3. So I can forever commiserate with my child about the bummer of being born around the holidays. I think the biggest downsides to it are (1) Everyone forgets it's your birthday because they're so excited about the holidays themselves (2) It's very hard to get people together for a birthday party because everyone is so busy for the holidays.
Ahh well. Keeps me humble.