Growing a Human - Again!

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Lari

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Its funny, everyone has their own methods to predict the gender of the baby. :lol: Supposedly how you carry the baby either high or low can be a predictor. Not sure if any of that is true. But it sounds fun to wait to learn the gender.

Dont worry if you dont have everything, it will come with time. I am sure family/friends will give you so much stuff you wont know what to do with it. Try not to overly buy clothes. They grow out of them fast. My SIL always buys limited shoes as well, because they dont last long. My niece has things she never even got to use. Size up with clothes when you can, even if it fits a bit loose, it will give you time to wear the outfit longer.

if you have a walmart near you, they sometimes drop baby clothes to $1. I buy my family members leggings and shirts for their babys/toddlers. The clothes arent bad quality. If you do have a walmart, get used to scanning things as you can find random things for $1.

Carters sometimes has baby clothes that they drop to very cheap, but their prices change day to day. If you get their credit card you get extra points and free shipping.

Sorry for the long post. :blush:I love saving money and have lots of nieces and nephews. :heartshape:
Most of J's wardrobe has been supplied by my friend's hand me downs. I took the gender neutral stuff, but she has girl clothes that we have to figure out how to transfer, because I didn't take them when I had the chance. I wasn't expecting her to be so small, so I don't have much in the way of newborn, and she's already sort of swimming in them so I'm probably not going to put her in the 0-3 yet.
 

artiemom

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Oh Lari, I do not have personal experience at motherhood, but if anyone is a natural, you are...
Things will be fine.. You are hormonal..
And a bit depressed.. Did you ever hear of Post Partum depression? Your hormones are doing flip flops in our body.. You also want everything to go perfectly.. You are probably terrified of making a mistake...
I think this is all natural.. Do not expect too much from yourself.. You are doing your best..
DH is there to help you... to support you... You also have your mom, to rely on... even if it is just a phone call..
We are all here to help/love/support you...

Baby J is so fortunate to have you as her mom... (((Hugs)))

If you think there are problems nursing.. can you you call a lactation specialist at the hospital? or even your midwife... They should be checking up on you.. to see how you are doing...

And remember, babies do lose a bit of weight when they come home.. it is natural.. Then they regain it and more... pretty fast.. so do not panic..

If clothes are big, Baby J will grow into them...

Just have some faith in yourself, and your instincts ~~ We Do...

Love,
 
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Lari

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artiemom artiemom - thank you. I'm definitely aware of ppd and know I'm a strong candidate for it given my anxiety issues outside of pregnancy. We have another pediatrician appointment tomorrow and I have my first follow up with the midwife who delivered on Friday. Lactation from the hospital called either Sunday or yesterday, I don't remember. So there's support lined up.

She's starting to be able to nurse without the nipple shield, but last night she was on for an hour before I kicked her off, and sometimes ger latch isn't very good, so I may call the ones who do a home visit.

This may sound bad, but I miss being about 30 weeks pregnant. Far enough along where I knew my placenta had resolved and I could feel her regularly, but before sitting was uncomfortable. Amd Sparkle still loved me. I know I have trouble with change and I'll get to the point where I can't imagine life without J, but I'm definitely not there yet.
 

MoochNNoodles

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I did not have an instant bond with DD. That took about 6 weeks. I could easily have let my mom take DD overnight. Fortunately a friend told me she was the exact same way. It didn’t come till I started feeling recovered and more like myself. I don’t know how people go back to work quickly; although it was better with DS. DS was almost 2 before I let him go overnight with DD to my moms. She was about 5 months. The sleep was amazing. :crazy:
 

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I loved certain stages of the pregnancy too. Remember, it was easier then! Now you are tired and doing so much that the time slips away. In awhile you will look back at this stage with fondness too. Every stage will become precious as you go along. Once things settle you can relax into a routine and things get much easier. The old saying was ,” they don’t come with a manual.” Even if there is a lot online now and books about being a new family, hands on training is the best. At first it feels like they are china dolls and we might break them with the slightest move but as it goes along you become comfortable with everything! The kitties will too. In the future you will be having photo ops with BebeJ and kitties. The kitties probably pick up on the hormones too. I’d be surprised if they didn’t but this will settle too.
Yes we have Covid but, can you just set up a calm Lari spot away from everything? A spot outside if it isn’t too cold for a cup of something warm and a treat with no interruptions? Later after Sarah was born, I stayed in a warm bath with music on. Lol It’s really just about a few minutes of separation for some relaxing deep breaths. You return to the baby refreshed and calmer. For now maybe some music headphones and a corner with the kitties in the cat tree room. Whatever works for you. These will all turn into the most wonderful memories in spite of any stress or exhaustion now.
Such beautiful hair! Like Mom? Sarah had long hair from the start too. We didn’t go with bows right away because they were in the way but certainly did little ribbons around her head for photos. Later we had lots of fun with her hair and pretty little touches.
Sarah was 6lbs. 71/2 ounces and was too small for her “coming home” outfit. Lol She wore it later. She loved dressing up and new dresses were exciting later. Such fun!
n
40 weeks

According to my app, Bebe is the size of a tray of macarons, a watermelon, a beach ball, and a red panda without its tail. She supposedly should weigh about 7.5lbs, but we know that's wrong. I also had these three mini wines I'd had for this week's picture, which ended up being fairly accurate.

We are home, and she just ate so I'm going to try to sleep again. I'm hoping my husband wakes up and orders us pizza like he'd planned. But it's okay if he doesn't. It's already late. More later.

I had to laugh at the mini bottles. BABY Bottles! Hello BebeJ! I love your little warm outfit and send you lots of snuggles and purrs with love.
View attachment 364635View attachment 364636View attachment 364637
 

AbbysMom

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How's it going, Lari?

My nephew and his wife had a baby December 12th, 2019. We visited them right after the new year. He was exhausted and complaining that the baby was an eating, pooping and crying machine. While we were there he was actually googling to see when the baby would get a personality. :lol: Thankfully the baby got by this stage after a little bit and he's a sweet guy full of personality. Of course I don't know this personally, because Covid. :rolleyes2:

My other nephew and his wife had a baby in August. They are dealing with teething right now. She posted this on FAcebook a month after giving birth wondering why no one warned her:

21 tips on how to prepare for a baby:
1. Set an alarm for every two hours. The alarm has to be loud enough for your neighbour to hear and it has to be high pitch and repetitive.
2. Let the alarm go off for one hour and run around your house hysterical. If at night, make sure to fall asleep 10 minutes before the alarm goes off again.
3. Wake up at 4am.
4. Dress yourself, then pour milk on yourself
5. Soak your bed in milk
6. Spray milk on your chest in two patches
7. Don't shower
8. Shower once after 8 days and turn off and on the water. Get out once you have put shampoo in your hair
9. Stop brushing your teeth
10. Go to bed at 8, but stay awake until 1am, if anyone asks tell them you're trying to have some me time.
11. Eat food one handed
12. Make sure it's cold
13. Make 20 cups of coffee. Don't drink any of them.
14. Go for a walk with a pram, pretend you're invisible and encourage people to only talk about and to your pram.
15. When someone asks you "how's things?" Just talk about poo and sleep.
16. Cry. A lot.
17. Get wireless internet so you can google everything, practice googling "reflux, colic, why isn't my baby sleeping, why does my baby hate me, how do I put my baby back in my uterus?"
18. Eat cake, nothing but cake
19. Ask people for advice on everything, tell them to get really extensive with it and condescending.
20. Wake up in the middle of the night confused and scream "where's the baby?"
21. Watch your partner sleep and imagine shoving a stick into his snoring mouth. Hate him. Tell him he's an asshole who doesn't get it and ignore him. The more you ignore or yell the better it'll be for him when the baby comes - if he looks confused... you are ready.
Good luck! And enjoy future mamas!


Hang in there. :hugs:
 
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Lari

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How's it going, Lari?
Honestly, been having a pretty rough time. Heading quickly into ppd territory, I think, but I met with the midwife who delivered yesterday, and she's really encouraged me to reach out to the hospital's ppd progran and a lactation consultant who can come to our house and assess the tongue tie, which I've been avoiding because of covid. So hopefully things will start looking better soon and I'm really going to try and get more sleep.
 

neely

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I'm so sorry you are having some difficulty right now but glad you met with your midwife and she encouraged you to reach out to the hospital ppd program as well as a lactation consultant. :hugs: Your heart is in the right place and I know you will get through this with the help of the right professionals and support. We are always here to listen and offer comfort. :grouphug:
 

susanm9006

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Oh, I do understand. When I cared for my newborn as a 17 year old mom living on my own , I felt like I was going through the motions, caring for him but not feeling that love and bonding you are supposed to feel. It took me maybe a month or six weeks to get there. And he ate every 2 1/2 hours round the clock and getting used to getting sleep in little bits is so so difficult. Use whatever resources are available to you, pump and have your husband do a night bottle so you can rest and have faith it is going to get better
 

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This phase is hard but it does pass!! I’m glad there are resources for you. They can help so much. Sometimes i felt like other people must forget with time what its like; and time does soften the memories some. But mostly I think once its past you realize the different difficult parts DO pass. Like its been a nice long time since I had a kid meltdown in a photo studio because they saw a *gasp* snowman! Or because the photographer told them to smile; because by smile they obviously meant cry. :lol: Every stage has parts you miss and parts you sure don’t! 😅
 

Mia6

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Honestly, been having a pretty rough time. Heading quickly into ppd territory, I think, but I met with the midwife who delivered yesterday, and she's really encouraged me to reach out to the hospital's ppd progran and a lactation consultant who can come to our house and assess the tongue tie, which I've been avoiding because of covid. So hopefully things will start looking better soon and I'm really going to try and get more sleep.
Can someone come over and stay with J while you sleep? COVID19 precautions of course.💖
 

denice

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This too shall pass. I do think that this part fades in our memory, we kind of have to work at remembering it. That is how memory works the bad parts fade and the good parts remain vivid. You are not doing anything wrong and there is nothing wrong as far as you bonding with your baby. Do reach out for help as you are doing.
 
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