Having my first child...

[richardycc]

don't hold the baby too much, or your baby will want to be held 24/7.

 

[Elbryn]

cool.. other people in my shoes!!

My wife had pre-eclampsia too. They admitted her to the hospital a month out and that was quite fun.



This is one of the things I took from the experience of child birth. They're giving them Magnesium for the blood pressure. Which also has a side effect of weakening contractions. Then they're giving you pitosin to give them contractions.

They had to re-do the epidural at some point and a few minutes later my wife was asking if her hands should be numb, then 30 seconds after that she was asking if she should be having trouble breathing so they layed her back, THEN... maybe 30 more seconds and she started shaking uncontrollably! This was at 20+ hours into the overnight ordeal. But.. don't fear!! They have another drug to give you to take care of the side effects of the other drugs!

The non epidural pain option was also a double whammy. one drug for pain, and another to combat whatever side effects it has...

It all just seemed ridiculous to me the amount of drugs involved. Having been through that, you find a complete respect for the birthing process. I would not want to have to go through the mental and physical ordeal my wife went through.

And then after all of that, 26+ hours labor?

C section!

heh nice, our first one was a 17 hour ordeal with epidural, preclamsia, and induced delivery. second one was over in 2.5 hours from start to finish. sitting around at home, getting ready to go to the library with the first kid. wife takes a seat and says hang on, 15 minutes later she says, yup- take me in. we get in the hospital, they do their normal we'll do a baseline check, and come back in about an hour. 2mm dialation, 45 min later wife in pain with fast contractions, i ask to get rechecked. yup 8mm, time to move her. by the time we get moved to a birthing room, 10mm. doc on call comes in says we now have a chance at not being able to do an epidural but should be ok as long as your water doesnt break. as she's saying, there goes the water. in at 1:00, delivered by 4:20pm. no epidural.

best part of the delivery? son is supposed to go with grandma and grandpa(live in town) while wife is delivering. not reachable. so we delivered with the boy in the room watching wonderpets in the background. one hand on my boy to keep him busy, one hand on my wife to support in whatever way i can. she's getting yelled at to push and there's this undercurrent of "Whats gonna work?!? TEAAAMWORK!" and "This is serious!"

turns out the grandparents were in a all your can bowl bowl-a-thon and left their cell in the car. at least we got done soon enough that i got to watch most of the superbowl later that day.

 

[vi edit]

best part of the delivery? son is supposed to go with grandma and grandpa(live in town) while wife is delivering. not reachable. so we delivered with the boy in the room watching wonderpets in the background. one hand on my boy to keep him busy, one hand on my wife to support in whatever way i can. she's getting yelled at to push and there's this undercurrent of "Whats gonna work?!? TEAAAMWORK!" and "This is serious!"

Awesome. I should start a books of delivery stories from the father's perspective. They are usually so candid and colorful.

 

[Elbryn]

Post any advice or things I should expect. My wife is 6 months in now...

Everything seems to be arriving quickly and I honestly can't believe I'm going to be a father. We're fine financially and I feel like we have been 'preparing', but I don't feel ready at all (is this normal?)

i'd just say life has a way of working you in slowly. the first few months are pretty easy. feed the baby, change the diapers is about all you gotta do. they'll sleep alot the first week or three.

i'd also say that while you're in the hospital, let them watch the kid overnight so ya'll can get some rest and recover. you'll have plenty of time to be up overnight when you get home so take advantage of those first few days in the hospital. Those little 2 oz premixed simulac bottles, take when you go home. save them for the diaper bag. they make great emergency need type of things.

kid's gonna grow fast so you dont really need a lot of newborn diapers. use what the hospital gives you then use size 1's. you can fold the diaper top so the umbilical cord isnt covered. for whatever reason size nb is more expensive than size 1.

use amazon subscribe and save for 30% large boxes of diapers. you'll need them. that first year, they go through lots of diapers because they drink their food. after the first year, when the mix shifts more towards regular food, wet diaper counts went down for us. first year we were changing every time we fed.

each kid's different, the books are just guidelines. some kids like bouncing, others like swinging, you'll find what works.

 

[RKS]

when your baby wakes up crying at 3:00 AM from his nightly colic and you need your sleep for an important meeting at work but the baby won't stop wailing; it's okay to put the baby in its crib, go in another room and yell.