The crib we want is on sale for the cheapest I've seen it yet so I'm really tempted to just get it! My friends keep acting like it's too early but too early for what? This baby is happening, I will need a crib in 5.5 months. I can just buy it now and set it up later.
@ooodalollly@kissthesky32 thanks ladies! I don't really know why I keep second guessing myself based on what my friends' "appropriate" timelines are...none of them are even thinking about getting pregnant yet!
@duchessofcambridge I price shopped with DS and got things early. With this one, I did/am doing the same with the few things that we need. It doesn't hurt to be prepared.
@DuchessOfCambridge Would you rather set up a nursery now while you are still comfortable enough to move furniture, or when you have a huge belly in the way and can't manage to get your socks on by yourself, let alone set up and arrange everything? Like I've said before, I had our nursery set up for DS1 before he was even conceived, and I was thankful that all I had to do was fill it with supplies and clothing. If what you want is super cheap RIGHT NOW, get it and don't feel bad about saving money and being on top of things.
I need to whine about my Dr's office. I mean this is a big ass hospital and they are so annoying about giving me data about me. Firstly when I asked for the NIPT they looked at me like I was crazy to send $200. No I don't think $200 is a small amount and yes I do think if it saves me from a load full of anxiety and invasive testing then its worthwhile. Then I go and ask my nurse a physical copy of my blood work they tell me they cannot release it without the Dr. Well my Dr is on vacation this week so now what? They don't know yet. I need to call him and leave a message with his secretary who will call him and then they will tell me MY blood test results. Why should it be so hard to get your own test results? The Dr already shared it with me verbally. I'd just like to see it in writing.
@DuchessOfCambridge we bought our crib with our first around 16 weeks. It was on sale, and we pulled the trigger. Who cares what people think, just buy it!
DS is on a Daniel Tiger kick and it's adorable. He now grabs my face rubs noses and says "ugga mugga" and told me his lunch was "grrriffic" he also greets people with "hi neighbor!"
@BayCamp we are in the paw patrol phase and I don't get called mommy anymore. I am Ryder...ALL THE TIME. It is adorable but I am ready for change in obsession.
@TeacherMama7 It's hard to comprehend! he's not the kind of guy who would run away. He's not the kind of guy who would be involved in anything criminal to ask for something like this. Just so sad.
I don't know where to put this, so i guess it's random!
Im reading this kind of strange book about pregnancy and childbirth, and fell in love with this phrase I've never heard before: "you should have as much sense as an old cow: eat the hay and spit out the sticks." I feel like that's an exact description of what I did with hypnobabies and what I will also do with this book!
@DuchessOfCambridge The only and I mean only reason we haven't started buying baby things is that we are moving this month and I have no address to mail stuff too since we'll be living in GA and our family is in MA. My grandma is already buying things off my registry and I'm just going to have to return it to rebuy it when we get to GA.
ETA: It explores some of the same concepts of Hypnobabies and other "crunchy" methods: that a lot of the pain is related to fear, and doesn't have to be experienced. But like my above comment, I am spitting out some sticks;)
@DuchessOfCambridge That logic makes no sense. We are getting a crib from SIL. Is there a time frame she should hold it for until it's appropriate to give it to us? The answer is no, especially since her youngest is now 10!
It's funny how it's the little things in life that mean the most...not where you live, or what you drive, or the price tag on your clothes... There's no dollar sign on a piece of mind, this I've come to know! *ZBB*
I keep having (slight) anxiety over this baby being bilingual. DH only speaks English and that's pretty much what I speak as well, but my first language actually wasn't English (though I learned English around 4/5 years so I obviously speak like it was my first language). My whole family speaks in my first language and some of them aren't great at English. I don't really know how to do this - do I just talk to the baby in my family's language and DH talks to him/her in English? I haven't even spoken my family's language in yearsss even though I understand it perfectly fine since that's how my parents speak to me. Gah. Why did I give it up.
I mean, I know exactly why. Growing up all around Americans it made me feel different and weird so I didn't want to speak it anymore. Sigh. Wish I'd been more comfortable with myself as a kid.
@DuchessOfCambridge my bilingual friends tend to speak the other language at home/when the English speaking parent isn't around. I'd say do whatever you can to foster that second language. To me that's an incredible gift you can give the baby for their future and brain development.
@DuchessOfCambridge my friend speaks only english but for her DH English is his second language but he learned English really young. His family only speaks French. He talks to his kids in both languages so they learn both. It has delayed speech a little but the older one is back on track and speaks both at age 5.
@DuchessOfCambridge my BIL's parents watch his kids and they speak only in Portuguese during the day (although they can speak English). The kids speak and understand English at home with Mom and Dad does both. I think it's great to be bilingual and start at a young age. It may help to say the same thing in each language.
It's funny how it's the little things in life that mean the most...not where you live, or what you drive, or the price tag on your clothes... There's no dollar sign on a piece of mind, this I've come to know! *ZBB*
@DuchessOfCambridge they say that the best thing to do is have one parent speak only English. And one parent speak only the other language. But "they" say a lot of shit about parenting that isn't nessicary realistic. I think the important thing is being exposed to different languages from a young age. I have friends who used this method and ended up giving up because the father (who was speaking German not english) was feeling a disconnect from their daughter because she was surrounded by English more often and didn't ever really try to communicate with him in German. So he switched to English. I suspect if the person spending the majority of time with their daughter was the one not speaking English it would have benefitted them. That being said, I speak very basic conversational greek and so do all the kids I used to nanny, simply because I got in the habit of speaking grenglish to them at all times. I dint think this was confusing for them (which apparently is the concern with one person speaking two languages to a child) I would say in my experience being exposed to many languages is in general beneficial to children but in a fully bilingual home/lifestyle children often begin speaking at an older age, so don't be alarmed if you choose this route and your child isn't talking as early as some other kids the same age. My step children speak little to no greek and I learned it as an adult ( which was really rough) but my husband is fluent and his parents communicate with each other only in Greek. It is really important to me that my child is multi lingual. We will be speaking English, greek, sign language, and our child will likely attend a French immersion school. Also studies have shown that children who are exposed to more than one language from a young age have their brains wired in a way that makes it easier to learn languages when they are older. This is our main reason for deciding to raise our child with so many languages. Plus I really think kids are are lot smarter than people give them credit for.
Sorry thus is way longer than I had intended I get really excited about child development
Between DH and I we have 5 languages. We only spoke to my son in English earlier until he was 3 as we wanted him to have depth of vocabulary. We now have mother tongue weekends so on Sat and Sun we only speak in Hindi and my son is catching on pretty well. I will be starting him on French or Spanish once a week when he is about 4 and if I feel he's got a decent basic grasp on Hindi. We shall see. He certainly has a flair for language than art or anything like that. I think it depends on each child too. Some children enjoy learning language and some rather learn other things.
Ah thanks for the input everyone! It just keeps seeming weird to me to speak to my baby in one language that DH can't understand while he speaks to him/her in English and then DH and I communicate in English. I did read about delayed speech or moreso that proper sentence structure comes a little later which I'm fine with, especially since the poor kid is being bombarded with two languages that have completely different sentence structure. One of my worries is also that the baby will realize English is the dominant language since that's what Dad speaks and how Mom and Dad will communicate to each other, and end up giving up the non-English language.
But DH and I really really want this baby to be bilingual so I'm going to suck it up buttercup and do my best I suppose! This would be so much easier if my parents lived closer, my mom would totally retire to watch baby and would talk to him/her all day long.
DH and I were actually just discussing starting to teach DS Spanish. Neither one of us are native speakers, but living in Florida it's a constant and we're both conversationally decent. We speak VERY different Spanish though, mine is more proper. The product of 8 years of Spanish classes. His is super slangy, his high school sweetheart and (really brief) first marriage was to a Puerto Rican girl, and now all his coworkers are from a blend of Central/South American countries. His Spanish is a hot mess! But I think we might start to introduce the language soon. I'm just not sure how yet.
@DuchessOfCambridge We aren't a bilingual family, however I worked at the school on base here in Korea. There are plenty of Korean children who attend. I see 4 and 5 year olds (and older) who primarily speak Korean, that's what they speak at home and with other Korean children in class, but they do just fine in the English only classes. Teachers do have to remind the young ones to talk in English, but I think that's to increase their abilities in English and to promote engagement with their non-Korean classmates. Some military families also send their preschoolers to Korean preschools which are actually English immersion schools, since there is no preschool on base, and their children start learning Korean that way at the age of 2 or 3.
@DuchessOfCambridge I forgot to add that most of my students are bilingual. They speak English in school and have Spanish once a week. Most speak their other language (Hindi, Gujarati, Mandarin Chinese, etc.) at home. Some also go to classes to learn their parents' native language. They are not as strong in reading and writing as math, but I think that's more due to less effort / practices in those areas at home than being an effect of being bi/multilingual. I say certain things in Spanish (I'm conversational) when I want them to really pay attention because they sometimes ignore the English.
It's funny how it's the little things in life that mean the most...not where you live, or what you drive, or the price tag on your clothes... There's no dollar sign on a piece of mind, this I've come to know! *ZBB*
@duchessofcambridge SO is bilingual and, while his family also speaks English, they speak Spanish frequently. SO will speak both English and Spanish to the baby. It's his heritage, so it's important for him to pass that on. I have a friend from Peru who spoke Spanish to her daughter when her husband wasn't home and then English otherwise. Her 6 yr old is bilingual as a result. I don't think it needs to be awkward...just a familiarity with it when it's just you two or when your husband can understand context.
I think it's awesome that there are so many in here that are bilingual or multilingual.
Re: Weekly Randoms 6/5
DS1 is 7. DD is 1. DS2 is coming in late April.
so so much cuter than the Paw Patrol phase!
Caveat- I haven't personally scrutinized the methods or design in detail yet.
Im reading this kind of strange book about pregnancy and childbirth, and fell in love with this phrase I've never heard before: "you should have as much sense as an old cow: eat the hay and spit out the sticks."
@kissthesky32 can't say I hate it...
TTC since August 2018
ETA: It explores some of the same concepts of Hypnobabies and other "crunchy" methods: that a lot of the pain is related to fear, and doesn't have to be experienced. But like my above comment, I am spitting out some sticks;)
TTC 9/2016 BFP 12/9/16 EDD 8/21/17 NMC 1/8/16 at 7w6d
TTC 2/2017 BFP 3/6/17 EDD 11/17/17 DS born 11/25/17 via ECS
TTC 12/2018 BFP 6/2/19 EDD 2/12/20 NMC / BO at 7 weeks, low progesterone
TTC 7/2019 BFP 8/21/19 EDD 4/22/20 CP at 5 weeks
TTC 8/19 IUI #1 w/ Clomid + Ovidrel + progesterone BFN, IUI 2 and 3 w/ Letrozole + Ovidrel + progesterone,
IUI 4 Follistim + Ovidrel + progesterone BFP 1/9/20 EDD 9/18/20
AMA, ITP in pregnancy, vWD type II - low Factor VIII, unexplained RPL and secondary infertility
I mean, I know exactly why. Growing up all around Americans it made me feel different and weird so I didn't want to speak it anymore. Sigh. Wish I'd been more comfortable with myself as a kid.
ETA Sorry this turned into a long rant.
TTC 9/2016 BFP 12/9/16 EDD 8/21/17 NMC 1/8/16 at 7w6d
TTC 2/2017 BFP 3/6/17 EDD 11/17/17 DS born 11/25/17 via ECS
TTC 12/2018 BFP 6/2/19 EDD 2/12/20 NMC / BO at 7 weeks, low progesterone
TTC 7/2019 BFP 8/21/19 EDD 4/22/20 CP at 5 weeks
TTC 8/19 IUI #1 w/ Clomid + Ovidrel + progesterone BFN, IUI 2 and 3 w/ Letrozole + Ovidrel + progesterone,
IUI 4 Follistim + Ovidrel + progesterone BFP 1/9/20 EDD 9/18/20
AMA, ITP in pregnancy, vWD type II - low Factor VIII, unexplained RPL and secondary infertility
That being said, I speak very basic conversational greek and so do all the kids I used to nanny, simply because I got in the habit of speaking grenglish to them at all times. I dint think this was confusing for them (which apparently is the concern with one person speaking two languages to a child)
I would say in my experience being exposed to many languages is in general beneficial to children but in a fully bilingual home/lifestyle children often begin speaking at an older age, so don't be alarmed if you choose this route and your child isn't talking as early as some other kids the same age.
My step children speak little to no greek and I learned it as an adult ( which was really rough) but my husband is fluent and his parents communicate with each other only in Greek. It is really important to me that my child is multi lingual. We will be speaking English, greek, sign language, and our child will likely attend a French immersion school.
Also studies have shown that children who are exposed to more than one language from a young age have their brains wired in a way that makes it easier to learn languages when they are older. This is our main reason for deciding to raise our child with so many languages.
Plus I really think kids are are lot smarter than people give them credit for.
Sorry thus is way longer than I had intended I get really excited about child development
But DH and I really really want this baby to be bilingual so I'm going to suck it up buttercup and do my best I suppose! This would be so much easier if my parents lived closer, my mom would totally retire to watch baby and would talk to him/her all day long.
TTC since August 2018
TTC 9/2016 BFP 12/9/16 EDD 8/21/17 NMC 1/8/16 at 7w6d
TTC 2/2017 BFP 3/6/17 EDD 11/17/17 DS born 11/25/17 via ECS
TTC 12/2018 BFP 6/2/19 EDD 2/12/20 NMC / BO at 7 weeks, low progesterone
TTC 7/2019 BFP 8/21/19 EDD 4/22/20 CP at 5 weeks
TTC 8/19 IUI #1 w/ Clomid + Ovidrel + progesterone BFN, IUI 2 and 3 w/ Letrozole + Ovidrel + progesterone,
IUI 4 Follistim + Ovidrel + progesterone BFP 1/9/20 EDD 9/18/20
AMA, ITP in pregnancy, vWD type II - low Factor VIII, unexplained RPL and secondary infertility
@duchessofcambridge SO is bilingual and, while his family also speaks English, they speak Spanish frequently. SO will speak both English and Spanish to the baby. It's his heritage, so it's important for him to pass that on. I have a friend from Peru who spoke Spanish to her daughter when her husband wasn't home and then English otherwise. Her 6 yr old is bilingual as a result. I don't think it needs to be awkward...just a familiarity with it when it's just you two or when your husband can understand context.
I think it's awesome that there are so many in here that are bilingual or multilingual.
DS1 is 7. DD is 1. DS2 is coming in late April.