My parents bought us a stroller/car seat last week. First girl colored stroller ever because I think this is our last baby. 🤷♀️ It's purple and has flowers on it. 😍 My mother in law is pitching in for a mini crib and we're getting that today. We really have nothing big and major to get and there's still quite a bit of time left to stock up on diapers.
@seeds_of_joy that sounds adorable! And exciting to be able to lean into the girly prints after so many boys/trying to be gender-neutral to keep things usable for future babies.
We got our main nursery decor up this weekend, because my brother came and did it for us. I love how well it turned out! I’m just so thankful that we’ve got my brother to help us decorate and do visual-spatial planning. I’m just terrible at it, and my husband is somehow even worse 😂.
This is the adorable little mini crib (never knew they existed before). We still need to put new flooring in our girl room for our 10 year old and her eventual roommate. I'm hoping the upstairs remodel will be complete before our homebirth. 🙏
@seeds_of_joy thanks! It’s what happens when you have an architect on speed dial and you can pay him in cinnamon rolls 😂.
That mini crib is adorable! Fingers crossed that your remodel timeline holds up - construction timelines are always anxiety-inducing, even without external factors.
@fertile-turtle that is soooo handy to have professional connections who take food as payment! 😆
We've been under construction for a decade but this is probably the last super duper major thing. It is nerve wracking because my husband has surgery in 2 weeks and it's hopefully minor but it could be more than minor and he's the construction man and bread winner!
@fertile-turtle That nursery is absolutely adorable. It looks like it was done by an interior designer! 😍
@seeds_of_joy I’m spite of your crazy weekend, you are so blessed to have such wonderful support! I do wish your husband a smooth procedure and a speedy recovery.
Does anyone have any literature suggestions for labor and delivery? Or anything on the third/fourth trimester? I finally finished “Real Food for Pregnancy” by Lily Nichols, which I highly recommend, that really helped ease my mind about nutrition and pregnancy. Now that we’re 25 weeks deep I’m looking for more research-based literature on the next part of the pregnancy journey 🤓
@kb1322 I love Lily Nichols! She was a life saver for me with navigating my blood sugar issues!
For labor and delivery, I really love Evidence Based Birth which offers online classes. Another book I loved was Birthing Without Fear by January Harsh. She is open minded to all birthing options and plans and supports women to do their research and be prepared and clear with their choices for all scenarios.
As far as managing pregnancy and postpartum, Dr. Aviva Romm is my favorite resource which balances the natural and conventional well. She has a pregnancy book and another book for postpartum recovery. I read the pregnancy book from cover to cover but I haven’t made it to the postpartum book yet. I also have mostly read the Postnatal Depletion Cure by Dr. Oscar Serrallach
I’m still navigating and finding resources about postpartum but these are in my reading line up:
The Fourth Trimester by Kimberly Ann Johnson
The First Forty Days by Heng Ou
After the Stork by Sara Rosenquist, PhD (it’s about how to prevent postpartum depression)
What No One Tells You: A guide to your emotions from pregnancy to motherhood by Alexandra Sacks, MD and Catherine Birndorf, MD.
Curious to find out if you are gravitating to any of these. I would love to know what other people are reading as well.
@kb1322 we’ve only made so much progress on the nursery because we couldn’t agree on things like whether it was ok if the furniture didn’t match 100%, so I convinced my husband that we should start early, see it all together, and decide if it looked ok so that we had time to make exchanges if it didn’t. Fortunately, he’s now mostly convinced that the mix of furniture looks acceptable, but it took being able to see it in person to get him on board.
@ttc3y you’d shared Evidence Based Birth before, but I didn’t realize they did online classes! We’re waiting to see if our hospital offers their natural birth class at good time for us in December, but if not, I’ll have to look into that. I like their articles and their approach to the research a lot.
This is my first time posting so just a little about me first: I'm April. I'm 37 and this is my first pregnancy/baby. I'm 22 weeks 6 days and it's a girl.
Now the randoms. Let me preface this with I am extremely indecisive. lol.
I am having such a hard time with names. I seem to associate all the names we have come up with with people I know and just can't picture them for my child. I am also in a weird place where it still doesn't 100% feel real. Like I feel her moving more and more everyday now and I've had more ultrasounds than a "normal" pregnancy (not sure why because everything has been normal) so I've gotten to see her more but I can't explain why it doesn't feel real.
Also, is anyone else overwhelmed with all of the options for baby things? I am trying to narrow things down, especially the bigger items (crib, car seat, stroller, etc), but the reviews are not helping. For example, since there are some crib pictures (which are both super cute), all the cribs that I seem to like have so many reviews about them arriving damaged or the paint chipping. For something that should transition through their different life stages, I would expect the quality to be better. How do you pick!?
Sorry if this is a lot or not the right place for this and thank you for reading.
@kamays54 Welcome! I completely understand the not feeling real. This is my second baby and it doesn’t feel real to me yet either. I know it is, I’ve seen her, I feel her, but for some reason I’m not connecting yet. I think it’s part fear, part being busy with so many other things. I’m just ready to hold her and make it real!
On the other hand, I wouldn’t stress too much about items. My son slept in our room in a pack n play for months, so the crib was useless until much later. If paint is chipped some, it’s not a big deal. As long as baby can sleep safely. If it makes you feel better about it possibly being damaged, order it early and return it if it’s broken or go pick one up in store. As for car seats and strollers, I’ve loved Graco and Britax. Never had an issue with either!
@amccurls Thanks! I wasn't sure if it was because this is our first one and we had no idea what it would be like or what to expect. I feel better knowing I'm not the only one feeling that way.
I also appreciate the advice on the baby items. I have always been really laid back and like to deal with things as they happen so I think just reading all the negative reviews got to me. And it could also be the extra hormones lol.
@kamays54 Welcome! I’m also a FTM, and clearly the opposite in that I over plan way in advance. Nobody without at least a low level of anxiety would have their nursery assembled 4 months in advance 😅. That anxiety about damaged nursery furniture based on reviews was also a part of the motivation to get it done sooner for me, because then we could return and exchange if we needed. I also try to remind myself that for basics, like a crib and a car seat, people don’t really leave reviews for items that arrived intact and were perfectly functional. For what it’s worth, the crib we got was DaVinci Charlie, and in spite of reviews about chipped paint and things, it came in perfect condition, was easy to assemble, and we had a friend’s baby stay in it a few weeks ago so we had to lower the mattress and raise it again, which wasn’t hard to do at all.
Strollers and baby carriers and things seem to have much more useful reviews, but we didn’t feel good about deciding on anything until we got to see and mess with a few in person, because some features are cooler in person and some are more underwhelming (like adjustable handle height seemed good in concept for my 6’6” husband, but we realized that none of them really made him uncomfortable so we crossed it off our “ideal features” list). We’re lucky enough to have a Buy Buy Baby near us which made it easy, but if you don’t, anywhere that has even a few set up could be helpful just to compare the written features with how they actually function. Otherwise, all the specifications and reviews just feel like word salad to me.
@fertile-turtle we are still trying to clean out the room we are using for the nursery. It became a storage room over the years. I wish we were closer to it being done.
I'm glad to hear the crib you ordered arrived in perfect condition. One of the cribs I like is a DaVinci so it's also good to hear that it was easy to put together. We're both pretty handy so I wasn't too worried but again the reviews lol. I usually take reviews with a grain of salt but I know that post Covid I have experienced issues with items arriving damaged from shipping. You should see how some boxes have arrived 🙄.
There is a pretty big height difference between my husband and I so I was considering a stroller with an adjustable handle but I'm not sure how much we will even be using a stroller. My husband is 6' 2" so he shouldn't have any comfort issues either which is good. Luckily we do have a Buy Buy Baby by us but the last time we went in there we didn't have much time to really look. We'll have to make time to do it so he can try some out. Thanks for all your feedback!
@kamays54 Welcome to our community! I’m also a first time mom and I think we have the same due date!
I can relate with the names issue. I won’t name my child with names associated with certain horrible personalities or encounters. And my husband and I are no where close to even having any names that we might like and agree on. Instead, we have played name games to think of the worst possible names for a baby. 😂 At least it got us thinking about names!
I’m also overwhelmed with the buying baby stuff world and I have found the Baby Bargains book by Denise and Alan Fields as a helpful guide. They also have a website. They are an independent entity and they don’t take any samples directly from product companies.
I hope that helps and happy you are part of our community!
@fertile-turtle I’m glad you like Evidence Based Birth! You might want to check to see if you have an EBB instructor near you too. They have some in person instructors in major cities as well. If I wasn’t already booked with taking so many other classes (currently doing the Bradley method), I would seriously consider taking the EBB class. I’m skeptical that the hospital ones will be as supportive and as thorough as other types of classes I’ve seen around the block. I’ll be taking a one day hospital course in December that I signed up out of curiosity and more importantly, doing the hospital tour. I’m probably going overboard with classes but it’s research not just for my pregnancy but also to have a better idea on how to guide my patients in the future even though OB is not my specialty.
@ttc3y that is too funny about the names. We have a small white board on a shelf in our living room that we have been writing names on. I'm leaving them all up but there are some that I used to like but then something happens that ruins it. I'm hoping that maybe I'll like them again.
I'll have to check out that book and website. Thanks!
@ttc3y I’m also a little skeptical of the hospital class, and was hoping to get into one earlier so I had time to supplement my knowledge with other classes if I felt I needed it. It’s also hard to schedule anything with a rigid schedule and weekly classes between my work schedule, generally being busy this time of year, and my husband’s out of town work schedule. Online sounds like a great middle ground, especially if I can get the in-person hospital class as well.
And our hospital does have a natural birthing class in addition to a conventional birthing class and an express birthing class, so if I can’t take the natural one I can try the others just to have more information about the hospital and their policies and what’s available, and use the online EBB to be more generally knowledgeable and prepared.
amccurls
member
Re: Weekly Randoms - 10/24
That mini crib is adorable! Fingers crossed that your remodel timeline holds up - construction timelines are always anxiety-inducing, even without external factors.
We've been under construction for a decade but this is probably the last super duper major thing. It is nerve wracking because my husband has surgery in 2 weeks and it's hopefully minor but it could be more than minor and he's the construction man and bread winner!
@seeds_of_joy I’m spite of your crazy weekend, you are so blessed to have such wonderful support! I do wish your husband a smooth procedure and a speedy recovery.
For labor and delivery, I really love Evidence Based Birth which offers online classes. Another book I loved was Birthing Without Fear by January Harsh. She is open minded to all birthing options and plans and supports women to do their research and be prepared and clear with their choices for all scenarios.
The Fourth Trimester by Kimberly Ann Johnson
The First Forty Days by Heng Ou
After the Stork by Sara Rosenquist, PhD (it’s about how to prevent postpartum depression)
What No One Tells You: A guide to your emotions from pregnancy to motherhood by Alexandra Sacks, MD and Catherine Birndorf, MD.
@ttc3y you’d shared Evidence Based Birth before, but I didn’t realize they did online classes! We’re waiting to see if our hospital offers their natural birth class at good time for us in December, but if not, I’ll have to look into that. I like their articles and their approach to the research a lot.
Now the randoms. Let me preface this with I am extremely indecisive. lol.
I am having such a hard time with names. I seem to associate all the names we have come up with with people I know and just can't picture them for my child. I am also in a weird place where it still doesn't 100% feel real. Like I feel her moving more and more everyday now and I've had more ultrasounds than a "normal" pregnancy (not sure why because everything has been normal) so I've gotten to see her more but I can't explain why it doesn't feel real.
Also, is anyone else overwhelmed with all of the options for baby things? I am trying to narrow things down, especially the bigger items (crib, car seat, stroller, etc), but the reviews are not helping. For example, since there are some crib pictures (which are both super cute), all the cribs that I seem to like have so many reviews about them arriving damaged or the paint chipping. For something that should transition through their different life stages, I would expect the quality to be better. How do you pick!?
Sorry if this is a lot or not the right place for this and thank you for reading.
I also appreciate the advice on the baby items. I have always been really laid back and like to deal with things as they happen so I think just reading all the negative reviews got to me. And it could also be the extra hormones lol.
I'm glad to hear the crib you ordered arrived in perfect condition. One of the cribs I like is a DaVinci so it's also good to hear that it was easy to put together. We're both pretty handy so I wasn't too worried but again the reviews lol. I usually take reviews with a grain of salt but I know that post Covid I have experienced issues with items arriving damaged from shipping. You should see how some boxes have arrived 🙄.
There is a pretty big height difference between my husband and I so I was considering a stroller with an adjustable handle but I'm not sure how much we will even be using a stroller. My husband is 6' 2" so he shouldn't have any comfort issues either which is good. Luckily we do have a Buy Buy Baby by us but the last time we went in there we didn't have much time to really look. We'll have to make time to do it so he can try some out. Thanks for all your feedback!
I’m also overwhelmed with the buying baby stuff world and I have found the Baby Bargains book by Denise and Alan Fields as a helpful guide. They also have a website. They are an independent entity and they don’t take any samples directly from product companies.
@fertile-turtle I’m glad you like Evidence Based Birth! You might want to check to see if you have an EBB instructor near you too. They have some in person instructors in major cities as well. If I wasn’t already booked with taking so many other classes (currently doing the Bradley method), I would seriously consider taking the EBB class. I’m skeptical that the hospital ones will be as supportive and as thorough as other types of classes I’ve seen around the block. I’ll be taking a one day hospital course in December that I signed up out of curiosity and more importantly, doing the hospital tour. I’m probably going overboard with classes but it’s research not just for my pregnancy but also to have a better idea on how to guide my patients in the future even though OB is not my specialty.
I'll have to check out that book and website. Thanks!