@vjraab, when my girls were babes I preferred to wrap. Once they're more mobile and want up and down and up and down I switch to our Ergo. I've had it since DD1 was 8 months old and still use it with DD2.
@crizz13 I just looked at their website. Cute patterns too! Maybe I will splurge on one. DH won't be thrilled since we paid almost $200 for the Chicco one and used it maybe 3 times.
@KLake42 another +1 for Lucy's list, other essentials (to me) besides what I've seen mentioned (and I just skimmed so I may have missed it): wrap, soft structured carrier, and nursing pillow (if you're planning on breastfeeding I think there are special twin ones by my brest friend)
@vjraab i have almost 10 carriers and for soft wraps I love my boba, for soft structured carrier I LOVE my Lillebaby. @crizz13 is right, if you have a baby wearing group they have awesome lending libraries and you can try a bunch out before you drop $$$.
DS1: Nov. 2013 DS2: Jan. 2016 DS3: Dec. 2017 Baby #4 on the way!
@vjraab I have a ktan that is nice for the newborn phase when they fuss but I didn't like it much past then. I picked up an ergo sport off Craigslist for $50 for my first and it's been great. My second who is over 30 lbs now and almost 2 loved riding on her dads back last night at the baseball game. Whatever you do, get a decent baby carrier and use it early and often! YouTube has great advice on safely and comfortably wearing them.
@vjraab Obviously, everyone's got their own opinion and it seems like some fit different body builds better. I definitely say to try a few out if you can. I love the Tula! Also, I wore my adopted son while doing some intense attachment therapy with him and used a Kinderpack. They are a little hard to get your hands on because of the high demand and it's a small company but me and my Kinderpack are like two peas in a pod. My SIL loves loves her ergo and has worn it like crazy through 4 kids. I definitely recommend a good one; it's worth the investment. I second to start young/right away. They seem to like it better as they get older if you do.
Not sure if the other moms disagree but when I registered at Babies R Us, they had a guide for Must-haves and Nice-to-haves that my SIL thought was pretty on target, and we stuck to the must-haves. I haven't looked at that list again now after going through year 1.
The brands to register for are a crap shoot though, I just went with what my SIL liked. I'm sure if I went with a different mom, I would have gotten different brands.
I can't figure out how to paste a link to a thread, but there is a thread on page 4 of the June 2016 birth month club called "Heroes & Zeroes: 6th Month Edition" where we all shared which products we found helpful and not so helpful through the 1st 6 months.
We have a baby bjorn which my husband used a few times and a cheap ring sling. Wraps look so complicated to me so I used the ring sling with my son to wear him while I put on makeup and did my hair to get ready for work because he'd wake up and wanted to be held for a bit before going back to sleep in the early months and I needed time to make myself look less zombiefied. I think I'll try the baby bjorn more this time and learn to figure it out since it'll come in handy for going on outings and the toddler can go in the stroller. Double strollers are $$$!
Has anyone had a "vanishing twin" before? I saw baby #1 at 7 weeks with a healthy heartbeat and there was a second empty sac. I can't shake the feeling that when I go for my twelve week appointment that there will be two babies. Am I crazy for thinking that? I feel like I'm huge for 10 weeks.
@vjraab I love my Tula, I had an Ergo before and couldn't cinch it down all the way because I'm really petite. I found this comparison chart really helpful for all the different soft structured carriers. I also plan to get a ring sling this time around for when the baby is super little.
@Cricket99 That chart is awesome. Thank you ladies for all the suggestions. I will definitely look into a lending library this time...I never even thought of that with DD.
I agree with @jakobaby on the carriers, @vjraab. Solly for infancy and Ergo for later. I'm not a huge fan of the Moby or Ktan. The fabric was too thick for me on both, but to each their own! I also have tried my sister's Becco Gemini and loved that as well. I'm a fan of the four position carriers (Ergo 360, Becco Gemini, and I think the Lillebaby?) because you can wear the baby forward facing on the front, while still being safe for the hips. DD hated facing inwards on the chest, so the Ergo 360 was a lifesaver for us!
For hikes/long walks, I lived my ERGO 360, but just wanted to chime in that make sure you get the infant insert if you buy a new one. Oh and I had a KTAN for early early days and I never fully figured it out (not exactly an engineer over here!). But by god, with a traveling husband and toddler now I am figuring it out this time!
@lauradanielle, with a previous pregnancy I had a super early u/s because of bleeding. At that time they said it was either a vanishing twin or a SCH. (It ended up being the later.)
My OB said she's encountering more vanishing twins than ever before- she believes it's because more people are ending up with super early u/s and because the u/s equipment is getting so much better. She said recent literature suggests they may be far more frequent than anyone had previously realized
Thanks ladies. My OB didn't really go into detail about it. I was kind of in shock so I didn't think of any questions to ask at the time. @BelhurstBride@trudytudy
@steph30032 We did the convertible car seat for one of our cars, it was an 8 lbs min weight but DS was born at 8 lb 7 oz so we were good. I had friends who never used an infant carseat and she said it was super easy to carry her in from the car when she fell asleep. We still have the infant seat we used in my car with DS and I think I'm going to go with that in my car this time, and then in DH truck we'll likely do a convertible in there again since we don't drive his truck too often at first.
Has anyone had a "vanishing twin" before? I saw baby #1 at 7 weeks with a healthy heartbeat and there was a second empty sac. I can't shake the feeling that when I go for my twelve week appointment that there will be two babies. Am I crazy for thinking that? I feel like I'm huge for 10 weeks.
My last pregnancy was a case of vanishing twin. I had an early US because we had been working with a fertility specialist. At 5 or 6 weeks (can't remember exactly) we saw 2 healthy heartbeats. Then at 12 weeks there was only 1 healthy heartbeat, and we could see the other sac with our teeny little bean that had stopped growing. (They estimated that development had stopped around 8 weeks.) By the time I had my anatomy scan at ~19 weeks it had completely reabsorbed. It was an emotional ride. But my DD was carried to term, and born healthy.
Joey 06.05.2010, MC Jan 2014-EDD 09.11.2014, Aurelia 08.24.2015 (lost twin ~12 weeks), Ectopic Loss Feb 2016, EDD 01.03.2018
Ok ladies... this being a STM check in... I need help. Being pregnant sucks already with morning sickness returning after being gone for two weeks... Now my 20 month old has been diagnosed with speech delay and has hit terrible twos. I'm trying not to stress. I really am. Any other moms with kiddos who are delayed? He is really smart and will follow all commands. I opted to wait until he was 2 to have him evaluated by a SLP, and I've made an appointment to have his hearing checked (though I think it is fine). He did have trouble breast feeding when he was born, so I wondered if maybe that was an issue. I sit down and play, I talk to him... He says mama, dada, and bum. Thats it, and I have no idea where he got "bum" from. But my pediatrician said he should know 50 words and be putting sentences together. I feel like he is ok and my hormones are wreaking havoc on my clear thinking process. Not to mention the screaming and the slapping when he doesn't get his way.
@girlwonder1115 try not to stress mama! (Easier said than done, I know). DS1 was in early intervention for speech from 18 mo. until almost 2.5 (he was actually done a little earlier, but I kept him in it for the consistency since it was so soon after DS2 was born). First, want to totally validate that intelligence has no bearing on the speech situation, DS1 would literally grab books from his shelf if I quoted lines from them and bring them over to me, it was nuts but he didn't have any words. For me the screening was harder than the actual speech therapy, but once we started I was so glad we did. We had a speech therapist come to our house weekly to start and then biweekly, monthly, as we started to see progress. It was exponential growth. We had months of nothing, literally no improvement, and then it was like one day a switch flipped and he learned 20 words over night and was soon using two word sentences and we basically never looked back. His preschool does two assessments for all kids during the school year, so he's been re-assessed since he graduated from the early intervention program and he's now at/above all other kids his grade level. DH and I joke that we can't get him to shut up! Anyway, speech therapy/early intervention ended up being such a great experience for us. I know how stressful it can be, and (totally irrationally) I felt like such a bad mom at the time, like I read to him! we don't do screen time! What did I do wrong. So I know a lot of the emotions you're going through. But I just want to say: don't blame yourself and early intervention really works! If you have specific questions I'm happy to share more about my experience either in this thread or via PM.
Edited: words are hard
DS1: Nov. 2013 DS2: Jan. 2016 DS3: Dec. 2017 Baby #4 on the way!
@girlwonder1115 I can understand the stress your feeling. My son is 21 months old, and doesn't have any words. When he was 12 months old he was saying mama and then a month later he stoped saying mama and would only say dada. Then about three months after that he stoped talking all together, so when our pediatrician recommended we have him evaluated at 18 months, we did. He had a few sign language words when the evaluation happened and because of this, the therapist considered the signs to be a form of language/communication and decided that he did not qualify for early intervention. Since then he has remained non-verbal and has lost all his signs. He has perfect hearing and vision (we had him tested). He's a super smart boy and is so good at figuring out how things work. He just doesn't talk. It's a scary thing when I see kids that are soooo much younger talking and making sentences, but I try to just focus on what he can do. When he's ready he'll talk, and until then I need to just be patient and keep practing with him. I know it's not the same situation since he's not diagnosed and isn't qualified to get help right now, but I understand the stress.
@girlwonder1115 my brother didn't talk till after his 4th birthday and my cousin's baby didn't talk till she went to preschool (after 3 yrs of age).... And they are both completely normal! Well, as normal as a dorky brother can be
Hi there, I can totally connect with this. Dd2 was not speaking much till 3yrs just regular 15 words of her basic requirement... But by 4 , 4.6 yr she just started to speak so much that we have to stop her ....so plzz don't worry..every child is different, they might start to talk a bit latter than the rest of children.
@girlwonder1115 My son (now 8) was in speech therapy for two years, and didn't speak in full sentences until he was over 4. It was a weird flip, from dropping syllables and one-to-two-word sentences, until something clicked a year and a half into speech therapy.
He had good vision and hearing, no other delays, and is well above his grade level in most aspects. Perfectly smart kid who, for whatever reason, just didn't figure out how to verbalize well.
So I wouldn't worry outright about the speech delay by itself.
(Edited to add: I also find it totally odd to hear young toddlers speaking in coherent sentences, when at that age my son basically still needed his dad or I to translate for him.)
I think @dani0329 is a speech pathologist? She might have some advice for you. (If not, or I got the wrong person - so sorry!)
My oldest DS (adopted with delays) has literally done years of speech. We have had awesome, amazing therapists who have helped me work with him but at the same time we never saw huge leaps and bounds like I had hoped for. More steady progress and I couldn't tell much difference in or out of therapy. ((NOT that it doesn't have a super important place or help out some kids dramatically, this was just our experience.))
My advice to you, is follow your gut. When my youngest (bio, healthy, normal development) hardly said anything at 2yrs, I decided not to worry about it. My Dr said he wasn't worried but he could put in a referral if I wanted one. We never did and at 4yrs, he talks constantly.
I did take a class offered locally with my oldest called It Takes Two To Talk. I really liked it!
I'm sure you'll do the right thing. There are so many difficult decisions as a parent!
At my NT scan baby measured 7 days ahead of my ovulation date ( 11 days ahead of LMP which I knew wasn't the right date anyway). The tech and doctor both said I must have my dates wrong but there is 0% chance I did as my husband was in the hospital in April for a week and we literally only had sex the day before and the day of O. They both dismissed me and insisted my dates were wrong. Well since I KNOW my dates are right, has anyone had a baby measure almost a week ahead this early? All testing and scans looks great but I just worry that a big baby this early could mean something is up. Fwiw, I got my first BFP at 8 dpo so I know the baby implanted kind of early, but I have no idea if that has something to do with it or not. Thanks for any insight you might have.
DD1: 2/28/12 DD2: 9/12/13 Baby #3: Due January 2018
I had an IUI so I know the date and I am also measuring a full week ahead already (I'm 11w 3d today). The midwife said they would check again at my NT scan next week and possibly adjust my due date but she didn't seem concerned.
@PhillymommaX2 All babies develop differently and I don't think that measuring a week head is any big deal. Some babies measure ahead, some measure behind. That's so frustrating that they dismissed you. That really irritates me. I also got my BFP at 8dpo, which is in the range of normal (implantation usually occurs between 6-12dpo, and you can usually get a BFP about 2 days afterward). So my point is don't worry!
@PhillymommaX2 I measured 5 days ahead at my latest scan and my Dr wasn't concerned. I don't think 1 week makes a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. With my first the measurements fluctuated quite a bit throughout my pregnancy within a week range. 2 weeks would be more concerning but 1 week really isn't much in my nonprofessional opinion. And I wouldn't put much stalk in the theory of assuming you'll have a large baby- my son was born at 41 weeks and was 6lbs 13oz and everyone scared me into thinking he'd be 8-9lbs because he was born late.
I am a SLP and work a ton with early intervention! The hardest part of speech therapy is the evaluation but you will be amazed at the progress these kids make with early intervention (once they get in the groove), especially when their comprehension is good! Feel free to fire any questions at me and when I get back from vacation I can gather some materials for y'all to work on at home, if you want! ❤️
@BkBaby118@missblaze@sbishop426. Thank you for your replies. Maybe the doctor was dismissive bc it's not a big deal one way or another. Either way, I won't worry about it. Thanks again!
DD1: 2/28/12 DD2: 9/12/13 Baby #3: Due January 2018
I have a question that feels selfish and shameful, even though I know it's just part of life...I find myself about once or twice a week crying over the thought of all the changes coming. Don't get me wrong, we are both beyond excited for this new bit of love to enter our lives, but for instance, hubby and I were watching Netflix with a box of pizza last night and I looked around the house and had the overarching feeling of sadness that this will all be changing and it will never be like this again, and the tears started to flow. Please tell me I'm not alone, any similar stories would be greatly appreciated!
@TInman87 I felt like this when I was pregnant with DD. I had moments where I questioned if we had made the right decision to have a child (at that time), and other moments where I wondered whether I wanted to be a mother at all (hello, hormones!). It's TOTALLY normal. There's definitely an adjustment period, but you and DH will find your "new" normal and it will be great
@Dani0329 when is a good time for a child to be evaluated for speech issues? My daughter just turned 1 and isn't saying any real words and the dr said she should be saying a few. I think it's early now to be concerned, but I'm curious to know at what point I should be taking action. Thanks!
@TInman87 I've had the same thoughts, so you're not alone Especially when people keep telling me "your life will never be the same, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into" and then they do some stupid laugh, like I'm in for a world of hurt. It really pisses me off actually. I know it'll be harder and different than what I'm used to, but it's not like I'm going to be in misery for the rest of my life. I've found most people just like being dramatic. Of course you're going to have new and different priorities, like when you moved from college to a full time job. Life changes, but that doesn't mean you can't do the things you loved to do before, you just might have to cut back or compromise a little. It'll be fine, you can always get a babysitter to keep pizza and netflix night alive and well
@TInman87 You are definitely not alone - Especially after TTC for 3 years and then going through fertility treatments for us to have twins on the way is very overwhelming at moments. However, everyone I talk to talks about how you find your new normal and while the Netflix and pizza may not be as frequent you will make time for those things once your LO goes down for the night.
Re: Questions for STMs 6/28
We had a k'tan when DD was an infant but she was never thrilled with being in it.
I would suggest seeing if your local babywearing group has a lending library. I found that I had to find the one that was the right fit for me.
DD2 8.22.13
MMC 1.4.17 at 16w
Expecting #3, EDD 1.29.18
@vjraab i have almost 10 carriers and for soft wraps I love my boba, for soft structured carrier I LOVE my Lillebaby. @crizz13 is right, if you have a baby wearing group they have awesome lending libraries and you can try a bunch out before you drop $$$.
DS2: Jan. 2016
DS3: Dec. 2017
Baby #4 on the way!
I definitely recommend a good one; it's worth the investment. I second to start young/right away. They seem to like it better as they get older if you do.
The brands to register for are a crap shoot though, I just went with what my SIL liked. I'm sure if I went with a different mom, I would have gotten different brands.
I can't figure out how to paste a link to a thread, but there is a thread on page 4 of the June 2016 birth month club called "Heroes & Zeroes: 6th Month Edition" where we all shared which products we found helpful and not so helpful through the 1st 6 months.
https://www.carrymeaway.com/learncenter/choosing-the-best-buckle-carrier-for-your-child-a-comparison-chart/
DD1 EDD 9/29/2015, Born 9/24/2015
DS1 EDD 1/3/2018, Born 12/26/2017
BFP #3 3/21/2019, EDD 11/29/2019, MMC/D&C 5/7/2019
BFP #4 6/28/2019, EDD 3/12/2020
My OB said she's encountering more vanishing twins than ever before- she believes it's because more people are ending up with super early u/s and because the u/s equipment is getting so much better. She said recent literature suggests they may be far more frequent than anyone had previously realized
DD2 8.22.13
MMC 1.4.17 at 16w
Expecting #3, EDD 1.29.18
J18 December Siggy Challenge: Christmas Movies
Edited: words are hard
DS2: Jan. 2016
DS3: Dec. 2017
Baby #4 on the way!
He had good vision and hearing, no other delays, and is well above his grade level in most aspects. Perfectly smart kid who, for whatever reason, just didn't figure out how to verbalize well.
So I wouldn't worry outright about the speech delay by itself.
(Edited to add: I also find it totally odd to hear young toddlers speaking in coherent sentences, when at that age my son basically still needed his dad or I to translate for him.)
I think @dani0329 is a speech pathologist? She might have some advice for you. (If not, or I got the wrong person - so sorry!)
My oldest DS (adopted with delays) has literally done years of speech. We have had awesome, amazing therapists who have helped me work with him but at the same time we never saw huge leaps and bounds like I had hoped for. More steady progress and I couldn't tell much difference in or out of therapy. ((NOT that it doesn't have a super important place or help out some kids dramatically, this was just our experience.))
My advice to you, is follow your gut. When my youngest (bio, healthy, normal development) hardly said anything at 2yrs, I decided not to worry about it. My Dr said he wasn't worried but he could put in a referral if I wanted one. We never did and at 4yrs, he talks constantly.
I did take a class offered locally with my oldest called It Takes Two To Talk. I really liked it!
I'm sure you'll do the right thing. There are so many difficult decisions as a parent!
Eta: words
DD2: 9/12/13
Baby #3: Due January 2018
I use Hypnobabies! http://www.hypnobabies-store.com/link.cgi?affiliateID=472
J18 December Siggy Challenge: Christmas Movies!
EDD: 1/6/2018
Eva Jane: 7/23/2014
I am a SLP and work a ton with early intervention! The hardest part of speech therapy is the evaluation but you will be amazed at the progress these kids make with early intervention (once they get in the groove), especially when their comprehension is good! Feel free to fire any questions at me and when I get back from vacation I can gather some materials for y'all to work on at home, if you want! ❤️
DD2: 9/12/13
Baby #3: Due January 2018
I use Hypnobabies! http://www.hypnobabies-store.com/link.cgi?affiliateID=472
J18 December Siggy Challenge: Christmas Movies!
EDD: 1/6/2018
Eva Jane: 7/23/2014