@zande2016 Thanks. Maybe I'll give it a try, it's not a super expensive one so if it's not heavy duty enough I'll try something else later when LO gets bigger. DH bought himself the Deuter Kid Comfort Air, so maybe I'll just make him wear the kid all the time once he's big enough to ride in the thing. lol.
I saw the KTan mentioned - myself and a few other moms found that the sizing is off on them. We all had to go up a size or else we felt like it was way too tight. I had an XS with DD that I made work until she was about 9 months (we didn't use it super often) but I picked up a S on clearance this time to try. As a soft carrier, I preferred the Moby most of the time.
We also have a Lillebaby and loved it! My DH would never use it (said his arms were his baby carriers), but DD hated it until she was closer to 5-6 months old. I used it for sporting events and walks around - plan to use it this time for grocery trips, etc.
Question on swings! I have a Fisher Price Snugabear swing. Do you know if I can use that from birth? Do I need an insert of some sorts? It's sitting right next to me in my office and I just started wondering about it!
@kissableviv it depends, it should specify on the instructions or box, infant inserts help a newborn with minimal head control from slouching or sliding down in to a possibly dangerous position. They need to be safely reclined and strapped it to avoid slouching and positional asphyxiation.
Toddler question related, when do you transition to actual bedding (sheet, blanket, etc)? Currently we are still doi just the fitted sheet and his blanket.
@wildtot I was just reading about that yesterday! General consensus is after 1 year but in our case, I'll definitely discuss with the ped before we make any decisions. (DD will be 1 in June).
@wildtot Could you just give him a bigger blanket to start, more like a comforter? He might still toss it off at night but at least he could easily get out from under it, as opposed to being tucked under a sheet. Or if you do a sheet, just tuck the feet and not the sides to start?
@TalesOfASocialIntrovert I’ll have to try that for sure! He has special favorite blankets so he’ll probably still need those around for soothing purposes.
@wildtot we are still using the sleep sack in the crib at 18 mos., fitted sheet, no pillow or anything else. As far as I’m concerned, he sleeps soundly through The night so I see no reason to change it...if it ain’t broke and what not. When my mom pits him down for naps she never uses the sleep sack, she rocks him to sleep and then lays him on his tummmy and puts a blanket over him. He naps fine like that but I’m too scared to try that overnight. Plus I don’t rock him to sleep like my mom does. I don’t have her patience lol. I have read blanket is fine after a year safety wise, but that developmentally it takes them longer than that to be able to cover themselves up with the blanket if they get cold. Not sure when that’s supposed to happen.
@wildtot, we just transitioned DD from crib to bed and she’s 2.5. We kept her with a fitted sheet, small blanket, and small pillow while she was in her crib. Once we moved her to the big bed a few weeks ago, she got a comforter.
He uses a toddler rail now with a pillow but still doesn’t cover himself with his blankets it he’s cold. I’m wondering if it’s because they are too small and can easily be pushed off to the side. Might be time for a bigger one or a comforter.
@wildtot we started with a blanket and pillow at about 18 months. Now DS (just over 2yo) is on his crib mattress on the floor with big sister. Every time he wakes up now, he picks up his teddy, blanket, and pillow and carries them out of his room. It's freaking adorable. (and it means we have to ensure the gate at the top of the stairs are locked so he doesn't try to walk down carrying that load in his arms)
@wildtot - Sloan had blanket(s) - she’s obsessed with them. And two pillows from about 18 months until recently when we moved from toddler bed to a full sized bed. Now she has sheets and comforter. Two big pillows and a toddler pillow on her bed. She’s 4
Hey, question for FTMs that I thought of last night: Have you started looking at Pediatricians? If you can through a community FB group or friends, get some recommendations from local moms. I interviewed at one location and loved it and our doctor right off the bat and didn't look elsewhere. I think I did it at around 30-34 weeks along.
Things I asked about and looked for:
Office hours, and after-office hours for the sicknesses that come on at night an on weekends
How many doctors, NPs, and who will you regularly see
Separate sick and well-visit waiting areas
Does "your" Pedi go to the hospital to check on newborns or is there another dedicated doctor there
Patient portal
Will they do emails in addition to calls for questions
What are their policies on vaccinations for their patients
What can I expect in the first couple of months - how many appointments are there (there's a lot!), when is something an emergency, when should I just call for a question, what else should I be aware of with a newborn in the summer, what's your parenting philosophy
I would also expect to get a packet of information from them since packets seem to be so common here
I know I'm being presumptuous but I haven't seen a conversation about it yet so I thought I could get the ball rolling here. Maybe it will need its own thread?
@flockofmoosen3 lol DS did that with blankets too but now it’s his teddy bears (3 of them!). He’ll bring them over to our room and sometimes i can hear him dropping them and struggle with making sure none get left behind. Super cute lol
Same with the blankets and/or stuffed animals here! @flockofmoosen3@wildtot! DD actually started asking me to carry her down the steps for a long time because her hands were too full of stuff to walk herself. Luckily I broke her of that habit just in the last week and we're back down to 1-2 at a time so that she can still "hold on and walk like a big girl - YAY! I'm so proud of you!" She's 25 months, still in a crib but sleeps with every stuffed animal she can find (and notices if I take even 1 small one out), 3 blankets (2 for her and 1 for her baby), and a toddler pillow. She will cover herself with blankets prior to going to sleep, but not cover up in the middle of the night.
Thanks @flockofmoosen3! I actually have a meet and greet with two recommended pediatricians in May. Both are close by and recommended by my OB. I have a list of questions to ask, thanks so much for sharing these!
@flockofmoosen3 Yup, we've been looking into pediatricians already. One I didn't even like the waiting room situation so we decided not for us. And we have an appointment in a couple weeks with one that really comes highly recommended and is in a smaller private practice but he's also affiliated with the hospital we'll be delivering at and he will come to the hospital to check on the newborn. What we like is his private practice has a well entrance/ waiting area and a sick entrance/waiting area, and they have an after hours reception you can call in the middle of the night and the doc will call you back personally and will make house calls. Everyone we've talked to loves him and raves about him having a really great bedside manner, so we're hoping we really like him too.
One tip for pediatricians is to join a local mom/parent Facebook group and ask on there, or even just search for past recommendations. You can get a ton of parent feedback that way. My pediatrician's office does not have a separate sick/well waiting room, but for what it's worth, before my son was fully vaccinated they would never allow us to wait in the waiting room. They made sure we always went straight to an exam room to wait for the nurse and doctor. And even now when a kid is sick, they always bring them right back to keep the waiting room germ free as possible. So if they don't have the separate waiting rooms, you can ask if they have any protocols in place. I've found most pediatricians in my area do a meet and greet for free while you're pregnant, I definitely recommend doing that if you can.
@flockofmoosen3 when we registered at the hospital for the birth they wanted a pediatrician to be selected already. This baby will go to the same one that my DD sees as we've really liked her. We picked this doctor when I was probably like 20 something weeks with DD but I don't think we really interviewed any.
My hospital also had a form with the pediatrician name but it's not mandatory to fill out so we can go back and complete it later since it's all electronic.
@wildtot Our crib converts to a toddler bed so around 2 we did that and got a pillow, a flannel fitted crib sheet and a very nice comforter and cover from pottery barn kids and it’s super cosy!
Question for third time moms who breastfed: did you have the same adjustment period to breastfeeding the second time around? Ie nipple cracking, soreness, etc. Just trying to mentally prepare myself!
BF was surprisingly easy and pain free with DD from day 1. DS had a tongue tie for the first 5 days which was painful for me and unproductive for him until about a couple days after his tongue tie was snipped while he relearned how to latch. So, big difference for me between the two at first but I was lucky that I had a good experience with DD because I could tell what was wrong nursing with DS and get things corrected quickly.
Question for third time moms who breastfed: did you have the same adjustment period to breastfeeding the second time around? Ie nipple cracking, soreness, etc. Just trying to mentally prepare myself!
Following. I really hope it’s easier this time around.
Does anyone have the Babybjorn bouncer? I originally had it on the registry but it looks like it's $200 now! Wondering if I should get it used on Craigslist or at a resale place. Seems a bit high for a simple bouncer but lots of moms like it.
Thanks for sharing your experience @flockofmoosen3! I’m hoping that this time around will at least be a little easier since I know what I’m doing. But I’m also trying to be realistic since, as your experience shows, every baby is different.
@flockofmoosen3 so your first had tongue tie and second didn’t? I’ve read about it being genetic so I’ve already psyched myself up for having to fix that again this time. Would be amazing if that weren’t the case though. We had such a hard start to breastfeeding last time, at least some of which can be attributed to the tongue and lip tie. I plan to call the pediatric dentist who fixed my son’s from the hospital if I suspect it this time around, and hopefully get it fixed within a couple days of coming home (won’t be easy since the dentist is 2 hours away).
I certainly hope BF will be easier this time. I had pump within a week because i bled so much my nipples had no time to heal. One side produced less than the other. The one with good production has a fast let down and DS couldn’t deal with it. I tried BF again around 3/4 months and I was successful and no pain at all! Not sure what was the difference but i hope this time will be easier and i at least know the tricks to prevent some of the cracking and bleeding. I felt so bad seeing so much blood in DSs spit ups.
Breastfeeding was a hard start both times for me. My son had a tongue tie and other difficulties, but while the start was hard for my DD it was better overall. Then she got like all her teeth at the same time and I couldn’t handle nursing with so many teeth.
@kissableviv I definitely used the bouncer constantly for many months. If that is your style and not having bright and loud bouncers is a priority, that's a good one if you wanna spend the money. However, I had a hand me down fisher price bouncer, about $30 at walmart/amazon, and while they are a lot more character focused and busy I can't imagine that there is something more it could have done for $130 more!
@zande2016 my 2nd baby (DS) had the tongue tie, not my first. I think my BIL also had a tongue tie that wasn't corrected at all. I hadn't thought it could be genetic. My pediatrician was surprised and disappointed that the hospital staff didn't identify DS's tongue tie as his trouble with nursing and take care of it while we were still there. We had to go to an ENT to get it snipped when he was 5 days old. It really was impeding his ability to nurse and get enough milk from me. He wasn't gaining enough at first so we were syringe feeding him. Once he relearned how to latch it was smooth from there.
@flockofmoosen3 it is actually considered highly genetic from what I've researched and been told, so the fact that only one of your kids had it gives me a little hope. I think he got it from me, my mom never had any trouble nursing me or any of my siblings, but I can see that I am likely tongue tied. When my son was born, he would barely even open his mouth in the hospital, let alone latch. I saw sooo many on duty lactation consultants and nurses, one of them realized he had little to no suck reflex, but through all of that, nobody ever looked inside his mouth. I had no idea what a tongue tie was or that it even existed. My pediatrician also never looked in his mouth even though they knew I was pumping and syringe feeding because he wouldn't latch. He eventually nursed with a nipple shield but I finally figured it out completely on my own just from researching latching issues and then looking inside his mouth when he was a few weeks old. I had a lactation consultant come over, and she confirmed it. His lip tie was CLEAR AS DAY, and the tongue tie was pretty apparent too. We drove 2 hours upstate to a pediatric dentist who specializes in laser correction, he pioneered the method and is one of the best in the country, so we will probably see him again this time if needed, but much more quickly this time. By the time my son's was fixed, he was completely dependent on the nipple shield, needed a ton of chiropractor visits and cranial sacral therapy, and it took until he was around 5 months old to learn to latch without the nipple shield.
Cracked, sore, bleeding nipples is usually caused by incorrect or shallow latch, which CAN be a result of lip and/or tongue tie. Sometimes the baby just improves as their mouth gets bigger and that's that, but if there's a tie issue, it doesn't usually just improve on its own. I really wish I had known that when my son was born.
@tarheelgirl8@comealongponds I feel like it was an "easier" adjustment because I knew what to expect. I still had sore nipples in the beginning, but no mastitis and other things I had the first time. I personally have an issue with nursing so I have to use a nipple shield, but since I knew it from the first time, it was a better start the second time.
@zande2016 very interesting! That's upsetting that it took so many people before YOU had to figure it out.
And I agree that painful nipples is generally the result of poor/shallow latching, as I have experience with both sides of it. A good latch is deep, and baby is sucking on your entire areola, not just the nipple.
Question for boy moms who chose circumcision: Did you have your ped perform or the hospital? Our ped no longer has privileges at our delivery hospital... I know nothing and like anything else I've heard horror stories more than good stories...
Re: Ask a STM+ (April Edition!)
We also have a Lillebaby and loved it! My DH would never use it (said his arms were his baby carriers), but DD hated it until she was closer to 5-6 months old. I used it for sporting events and walks around - plan to use it this time for grocery trips, etc.
Things I asked about and looked for:
I know I'm being presumptuous but I haven't seen a conversation about it yet so I thought I could get the ball rolling here. Maybe it will need its own thread?
ETA: remove words about baby size
Cracked, sore, bleeding nipples is usually caused by incorrect or shallow latch, which CAN be a result of lip and/or tongue tie. Sometimes the baby just improves as their mouth gets bigger and that's that, but if there's a tie issue, it doesn't usually just improve on its own. I really wish I had known that when my son was born.
And I agree that painful nipples is generally the result of poor/shallow latching, as I have experience with both sides of it. A good latch is deep, and baby is sucking on your entire areola, not just the nipple.