Gonna have a girl! (need help)

First and foremost...Congrats!!! Our triplets will be 1yr old in a few weeks. Everybody buys too much stuff and worries entirely too much over their first kid. And its ok. 1) Dad ( and I mean you.... sounds funny doesnt it?? ) needs to get as much rest as possible. Mommy and baby will need you alot from here on out. 2) Prepare, but also be flexible. Being flexible means less stress. Less stress makes for a happier baby. 3) Be sure to take alot of pics and enjoy this time. Our 4yr olds first few weeks were alot diff than the triplets. And you will forget things. 4) The first few months will be a blur later. And thats ok. Refer to #3. 5) Everybody is going to have advice and an opinion on how to raise your baby. Yours is really the only one that matter. Take everything that you hear w/ a grain of salt. 6) A Sound Machine( w/ some kind of light) in the baby's room serves as background noise to help them sleep and as a light for those late night diaper changes. 7) Find a good consignment sale and become a frequent shopper and seller, if possible. 8) Enjoy this new phase in you and mommy's life. Having kids is the hardest and scariest thing that Ive ever done and I dont regret it at all. 9) And remember, every baby is diff. My wife had an easy pregnancy w/ my 4yr old and was in labor w/ him almost 24hrs. My triplets' pregnacy was somewhat easy and delivery took all of 30min for all three( w/ a vaginal birth, I might add ). My 4yr old was in the hospital for 3days, the triplets -- 3months total. Point is, every baby/situation/etc is diff. Find out what works for you guys and do that. And ask alot of questions whenever u need to. Doctors, pediatrician( you do have one right?? ), nurses( oh, bring indiv wrapped candy for the room nurses. It helps to butter them up... ), etc are all there to help you.

Take care..... and let us know when she drops her load!!!

What should you do the last few weeks? Rest. Seriously. From your description, all is well and you've already done as much planning as you can. Just get some sleep, enjoy the time and relax. Even the pre-warming of the car is a nice thought, but not absolutely necessary. Unless you're bringing the baby out naked she'll be bundled up anyway. A few minutes of cold in the car until the heater kicks in won't do any harm.

No matter what any of us say, I'm sure you'll still overthink it, overpack, and just overdo it in general. It's normal for first time parents and part of a right of passage into parenthood. My wife and I were guilty big time. We were so different with our first child than we were with our subsequent twins.

Enjoy and congrats!!!

Thanks for the congrats!

Yeah I guess i'm going to overthink it no matter what. The due date isn't for a month (and a little more) and I already installed a car seat base in my RX8, which I probably won't drive anyway until the spring... I found out the seat in front of it is barely large enough for me, which means my wife will have plenty of room. A friend from church gave us their old baby seat that has a couple years before expiring, and we got a not so complicated stroller/other car seat with some great features, including not costing a fortune, not being too heavy for my wife to lift, and folding flat enough to fit into my wife's trunk. some of those things were crazy heavy and very large when folded up...

I'm probably going to be pre-warming my wife's car unless this whole polar vortex thing goes away, I don't even like getting in a car that cold. Leather seats suck. WAY ice cold when it's below 0, and WAY screeching hot when it's 90+. The cloth in my van is never like that, though the chrome door handles are extremely painful to the touch when it's below 0, it's like instant frostbite. One time when I was still in Wisconsin I had slightly sweaty hands from them being in my pockets, and my hand stuck to the handle like a tongue to a light pole. That was crazy painful.

I asked one of the class teaching nurses about our child seats which appear to have a feature where I don't need a base, just a seat belt. She said it does work in a pinch, but that the base is the best option (duh). I'm still unsure about that, I don't see how it would hold the seat in very firmly, but I suppose it's better than nothing if you get caught without... Any of you try it?

Also, how do you guys deal with older vehicles lacking modern safety/emissions equipment? Like, say, an old van. I really only use mine for personal transport, preferring SWMBO's car for it's better A/C, heated seats, mileage, and manual transmission when doing family things like shopping or going to dinner. Do I wait until the kid is older before subjecting her to the dangers of a 1980's vehicle? Yes, I realize the humor in calling an 80's vehicle old on this forum. It's still probably far safer than the stuff my parents rode in (and raced/crashed in) growing up and most of them made it to adulthood, and my parents drove me in around in this exact van when I was growing up. I guess it's not a huge deal since i'm the only one who uses it 99% of the time. It probably won't come up.

Getting close now, due date is in 9 days. Car seats are in the cars, crib is assembled along with everything else. Any last minute tips?

Rufledt wrote: Getting close now, due date is in 9 days. Car seats are in the cars, crib is assembled along with everything else. Any last minute tips?

Buy a new car? It's the male equivalent of nesting.

On that note, we are looking at replacing SWMBO's G20t this summer, preferably for a car with the child seat Latch system and much less body damage and structural rust. My brother is some kind of manager at a large car dealer group and has access to 8-900 used cars. I'm open to suggestions, but I suppose I should wait until the time comes, see what's available and then start a what car thread.

There is currently a mazdaspeed 3 available, though Hatchback space, manual transmission, turbo, Latch system (Think of the children!)

Her car currently has 140k boston city miles, has been hit numerous times (before and after purchase), rust forming everywhere, and to top it all off I don't think the limited slip diff limits any slip anymore! The horror!

Do you have plenty of supplies at the house? Diapers, etc... When you get home, you're not going to want to run out and do any errands. Yes, family and friends will bring things, but still best to have a nice supply of things at home. Including food for you and your wife. Maybe talk to your wife about what you can do to support her in the first few weeks. She's going to be tired and sore, so if you can help with laundry, whatever, big plus.

Now go to bed and sleep.

We have diapers and stuff, but i'm not sure if we have enough. I don't even know what is enough. We have some disposables and a few kinds of cloth diapers which I can't seem to figure out. I guess that'll have to be trial by fire. Or poop. trial by poop.

Get some sleep, make sure you have an unlimited supply of diapers, wipes and garbage bags. Figure one diaper change per hour or so at first.

Good news! UPS just showed up with a package of more diapers! we now have a lot of cloth ones, but also I just remembered there's a CVS 300 yards or so from my house, and they carry baby stuff. I feel less worried now.

Rufledt wrote: On that note, we are looking at replacing SWMBO's G20t this summer, preferably for a car with the child seat Latch system and much less body damage and structural rust. My brother is some kind of manager at a large car dealer group and has access to 8-900 used cars. I'm open to suggestions, but I suppose I should wait until the time comes, see what's available and then start a what car thread. There is currently a mazdaspeed 3 available, though Hatchback space, manual transmission, turbo, Latch system (Think of the children!) Her car currently has 140k boston city miles, has been hit numerous times (before and after purchase), rust forming everywhere, and to top it all off I don't think the limited slip diff limits any slip anymore! The horror!

How tall are the two of you? I'm 5'8 or so, the wife is 5'5...we made a Focus sedan work all the way up until kiddo #2 arrived. If you're sufficiently short, a 3 will do fine. If you're taller, you may want to look for a 5MT Mazda5 - the middle row is fore/aft adjustable, and you have the option of hauling a lot of stuff or one set of grandparents in the wayback.

I'm about 5'11", wifey is 5'2". I can't imagine the 3 being any more cramped than my RX8, and I don't mind being in a small enclosed space, so i'm guessing it will work. To be honest, though, i've never been in a mazda 3 so I don't know for sure. I'm also hoping the hatch plus fold down rear seats will have enough room for stroller/luggage in case we had do travel somewhere.

Ultimate size isn't a problem because I do have an Econoline if I need to haul anything huge like lumber, but I don't feel totally safe putting an infant in a car that's older than me with no safety features, no emissions equipment, 1 single shear bolt holding the front 4 seats in place, etc... That thing's only safety feature is the fact that in any major wreck I will die quickly and won't have to suffer...

My Advice: Don't hold your breath. All of mine have been several weeks late.

That's not something SWMBO wants to hear. She's sick of being preggers and last march her mom passed away, tainting her view of the month as a whole. I know she may end up not having a choice in the matter, but I'm just hoping she doesn't read this thread.

Plus babies in my family are huge. I was 5 week premature and almost 7lbs, I had one cousin over 12 lbs, both of my nephews were C-section because the first one had too fat of a head and got jammed.

Rufledt wrote: That's not something SWMBO wants to hear. She's sick of being preggers and last march her mom passed away, tainting her view of the month as a whole. I know she may end up not having a choice in the matter, but I'm just hoping she doesn't read this thread. Plus babies in my family are huge. I was 5 week premature and almost 7lbs, I had one cousin over 12 lbs, both of my nephews were C-section because the first one had too fat of a head and got jammed.

Have more sex.

Seriously, it can make contractions start. When mine were close, uhhh, nevermind.

If you don't already, get an Amazon Prime subscription. It's a life-saver having the option of two day shipping on just about every item you could ever need (including diapers, wipes, etc.). We spent a lot of time running to Sam's Club and Costsco with our first child to buy cheap diapers, with the second and third it was much easier to just order online and have them show up. Amazon's Subscribe and Save is another great program, and you can get another 15-20% off items that you order on a regular basis (think paper towels, diapers, wipes, toilet paper, baby food, etc.).

Other than that, it sounds like you're in good shape! Best of luck!

We never even tried the cloth diapers. Disposables + diaper genie = easy. As tuna said, figure one per hour. It'll probably be less than that, but it's good to be on the safe side.

Don't worry about family history and due dates. Each woman is different. It's common for 1st time mothers to be late, but it's not the "rule". My wife was in the common group. She went 41.5 weeks with our first son and then had to be induced. She went near 40 weeks with our twins before having a c section.

Congrats! We are about 2 months into being parents for the first time. He came 6 1/2 weeks early all of a sudden and spent 12 days in the NICU. Yes, you will overthink things like I did. You will also not be as prepared as you think you are. Finding a formula that works for him has been our hardest part. I think we have nailed it. Super pricey hypoallergenic stuff. Don't sweat or argue about all the bills and new costs, it will work out. You will have much less time on your hands and won't be able to do what you want because now your wife and baby need help. Feedings and diaper change every 2-3 hours is normal for us. Oh, and when you get them changed, they sometimes poop again right after Fisher Price Rock and Play helped his acid reflux some and helped him rest since its at an angle. Your wife may seem to hate you, but really she's just tired...help her out. With all that being said, it's AWESOME! Can't put it onto words. You will find out soon. Best wishes!

In reply to tuna55:

Yes, Sir!

I got an amazon student thing, it's prime for free for 6 months and then half price which is cool. i don't think it does the video streaming thing, but I have netflix anyway.

fletch said: You will also not be as prepared as you think you are

I don't feel prepared at all, what does that mean? In all honesty I still feel like a college kid, in part because I'm a graduate student so i'm still at a university all the time. The only difference is I have a house to pay for now and my back hurts from shoveling snow...

Ok now we're overdue and nothing is happening, so tomorrow night we go in and the inducing process begins. By thursday, we'll have a baby! Hooray!

Rufledt wrote: Ok now we're overdue and nothing is happening, so tomorrow night we go in and the inducing process begins. By thursday, we'll have a baby! Hooray!

My tip didn't work? Oh well, we were there with kid #2 and ended up C-section. We'll be praying!

Thanks! We'll need all the prayer we can get.

Nothing worked so far, she even tried certain wive's tale kind of things, like 'labor cake'. Supposedly this cake starts labor, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's thinly veiled justification for eating this cake, and here's why. It's essentially chocolate cake mix, plus more chocolate, plus some chocolate fudge I think, plus chocolate chips, plus chocolate icing, and I suspect it should be eaten from a chocolate spoon with chocolate milk to wash it down.

I don't mean to stereotype genders, but something tells me women don't need much of an excuse to down their weight in chocolate. She read that a mix of the sugar and mild caffiene in all of that chocolate is what does it, but I said if that were true she could down a cup of Mt. Dew for the same effect.

She didn't buy my logic, and ate a piece of cake anyway. So did I, it was awesome. Neither of us went into labor.

Shes 9 months+ pregnant. Let her do what she wants. Trust me, this is wise.

They seem to go into labor the night before induction. Good luck!