[Gary Whitta]

Reporting in to this thread, we have a baby girl due July 4!

[Badgerst3]

Strangely, one of the few places our daughter would nap/sleep well in the first 4-6 months was in her portable carseat in restaurants.

Was great- she would sleep through a dinner meal about 7-8 pm and my wife and I would have some quiet moments together. That went sideways at about 6 months but by then she slept better in bed.

Call us cold, but we never let our daughter sleep in our bed with us. She has her own room now and goes down by 830p, up by 7a. Consistently. We had about 3 nights around age 2 when she wanted to come in our room. Bit the bullet and kept returning her to her bed. Lots of crying. By night 4- handled.

For us, it looked like this:
First 3 months- swaddled in crib next to our bed. Up every 3-4 hours to eat.
4 months, moved crib to her own room, removed swaddle. Kinda tough. Video monitor. Began with baby food, some milk. Started sleeping through night.
Went from 2 naps a day to 1 around 130p at age 2.

[Ivan A Nguyen]

Strangely, one of the few places our daughter would nap/sleep well in the first 4-6 months was in her portable carseat in restaurants. Was great- she would sleep through a dinner meal about 7-8 pm and my wife and I would have some quiet moments together. That went sideways at about 6 months but by then she slept better in bed. Call us cold, but we never let our daughter sleep in our bed with us. She has her own room now and goes down by 830p, up by 7a. Consistently. We had about 3 nights around age 2 when she wanted to come in our room. Bit the bullet and kept returning her to her bed. Lots of crying. By night 4- handled.

Mine had a phase where he would sleep in an automated swing while swaddled. It had to be playing music or white noise. This went on for months and I was killing myself to stay in a study supply of D cell batteries.

A word to the wise. If you have something that is important to your child's sleep, then get 2 of them. You don't want to be in a situation where you have no replacement when one breaks, and babies break everything.

For us, it looked like this: First 3 months- swaddled in crib next to our bed. Up every 3-4 hours to eat. 4 months, moved crib to her own room, removed swaddle. Kinda tough. Video monitor. Began with baby food, some milk. Started sleeping through night. Went from 2 naps a day to 1 around 130p at age 2.

I was not happy when mine went from 2 naps to 1 nap. It felt like I had so much time. I'd use the 2nd nap to clean up around the house. Those were good days.

[Ronok]

The day my daughter was born is hard to put into words really. It's only then that you really realise just how fragile a baby is, that this child is going to be your life from now on, and that at least for a long while, you're what she's going to be relying on for almost everything. I mean obviously you know this anyway, but when your child is put into in your arms for the first time, there is that moment, where you really feel it. It was probably the best moment of my life.

The first few weeks me and my daughters mum took turns sleeping. I had the night shift, and her the day. This worked out pretty well and I got some time catching up on tv shows I had missed. lol

After a while, she started sleeping through the night, but at about 6 months, she started waking up screaming and wouldn't stop. Colic. Hell on earth. For that period she would end up asleep on our bed a lot of the time. But that meant I could never really sleep, worried I'd roll on top or something.

Anyway, this subsided and things have been pretty good since. Despite time in hospital for open heart surgery (hole in heart), and the struggles of being a single father (seperated with her mother a few weeks after my daughters 3rd birthday, I took her).

Anyway, she's 5 now, and an awesome little girl. Wouldn't trade her for anything.

[Adam Prime]

Man so many good posts in this thread, I wanna respond to all of them! Subscribe and let's stay supporting each other new dads and moms!

Yeah SIDS freaks me out. The first few hours after the baby came home (she was only about 5 hours old) she was sleeping in the bassanet, and she was barley moving and I couldn't hear her breathing. It scared the hell out of me, she was sleeping of course, and I woke her up - and held her in my arms for the next three hours while my wife slept. I sat there crying just thinking about losing her. It's truly amazing to experience that "Love at first sight" the first time you see and hold your child.

Good stuff!

[Gary Whitta]

Anyone else here have or is planning a home birth?

[Adam Prime]

Anyone else here have or is planning a home birth?

We had ours at a birthing center, which was basically a home converted with bedrooms setup for birth (large birthing tub, materials close-by, etc.)

It was AWESOME. The two-mid wives were great. They just kinda stood off to the side and let my wife do her thing, until it was time for the baby to come.

Highly recommend birthing center or at-home (honestly, our home was way too small, that's why we did a center).

[Like the hat?]

Son number 2 is two weeks old here. I miss sleep.

He won't latch so my wife is pumping while I bottle feed. Same thing happened with our two year old at first, but we weren't also chasing after a two year old all day, heh.

We had wanted to do a home birth but our insurance wouldn't cover it, so we did the hospital thing.

[Captain Tuttle]

If anyone is freaked out about SIDS (we were) get a Angel Care Monitor. It's got a sensor pad that you put under the crib mattress and it'll set an alarm off if it doesn't detect movement. It's really sensitive, you can get false positives, especially once the baby can roll but it really helped with our SIDS anxiety in the first month or two.

The peace of mind is worth every penny.

Also get a couple of these sheets. Those little straps connect to the bars on the crib and one side of the sheet is some kind of latex material or something, basically waterproof. We used to put a couple of them on over the regular crib sheet. If the baby's diaper leaked in the middle of the night we'd just unsnap the wet sheet and there would be a dry one underneath, no need to fumble in the dark changing sheets.

[crazy monkey]

My wife had our baby girl without pain killers too. Its been almost 8 months now and I still have sleepless nights. Mainly because we havent tried to get rid of the 3-4 hr feeding routine and my wife suffered from PPD, hence I tend to my angel during the nights. Still the best time of life <3

my god irfan i thought you are a kid. Grow up :P

[Rei no Otaku]

Have a baby boy coming on Aug 6th! Can't wait. Hardest part right now is trying to figure out a name.

[Gary Whitta]

Have a baby boy coming on Aug 6th! Can't wait. Hardest part right now is trying to figure out a name.

Yeah we have a similar issue looking for a girl name we both like. We have it down to a shortlist but I keep holding out for that elusive perfect name we haven't found yet. Kara Zor-El got shot down pretty fast.

[DarkFlow]

Yeah we have a similar issue looking for a girl name we both like. We have it down to a shortlist but I keep holding out for that elusive perfect name we haven't found yet. Kara Zor-El got shot down pretty fast.

My GF was going to name our baby Amelia after Dr Who Amelia Pond if it was a girl. We went with Brandon for the boy name, Rory just seemed kinda wimpy and she said just naming him the doctor was a no go.

[Rei no Otaku]

We had a ton of girl names, and then we found out it was a boy which screwed up that plan. We're leaning towards Logan so far, but it's far from definite.

[GTI Guy]

My wife is 6.5 months pregnant with our first child (boy). Will watch this thread for tips! :)

Been trying to figure out what sort of baby monitor I want to get.

Was thinking about video camera that broadcasts onto the net so I can view things on my laptop, ipad, phone....

Reading the thread seems like I should maybe think about the angelcare monitor than worrying about video.

[artist]

my god irfan i thought you are a kid. Grow up :P

I'm still a kid, you know .. :P

How is your little guy doing?

[Ronok]

Have a baby boy coming on Aug 6th! Can't wait. Hardest part right now is trying to figure out a name.

Actually, we didn't have a name for my daughter until after she was born. We were having a lot of trouble choosing, so we decided to pick a name that we thought suited her after we actually saw her. :)

[prettyvacant77]

Loving this thread, so many great stories!

My daughter Isobel is 6 1/2 months old now, can't really remember what my life was like before she showed up :)

First couple of weeks was just a blur of 2 hour blocks - feed/sleep/feed/sleep/feed/sleep...

She had major issues with reflux, would vomit constantly during feeding, wouldn't sleep on her back. We ended up having her sleep in her cot in her own room from about 2 months old. Gradually got her sleeping better, now she sleeps through the night from about 9pm to 7am.

[Ivan A Nguyen]

Actually, we didn't have a name for my daughter until after she was born. We were having a lot of trouble choosing, so we decided to pick a name that we thought suited her after we actually saw her. :)

My wife and I had trouble nailing down a name because we had a nickname for him first. We called him Goat, short for zygote, and it was hard to think of him as anything else.

[T-0800]

I have 3 kids and they all slept throught the night 7pm to 7am from about 6 weeks. That the entire night without waking up. Not so stealth brag.

[Adam Prime]

Night 2:

She slept great! She woke up every 2-3 hours to eat, but no fussing or crying. It's amazing what a simple difference it makes when the baby isn't crying or fusing during the night! It was a lot less stressful, we were able to go back to sleep easily and wake up easily as well.

She's doing awesome, hasn't really cried since night 1, and has just been eating and sleeping well consistently. :)

I have 3 kids and they all slept throught the night 7pm to 7am from about 6 weeks. That the entire night without waking up. Not so stealth brag.

Spoiler tag your secret method, because some people may want to figure out how to do that on their own lol!!

[teruterubozu]

Just remember Baby Law #1 - Just when you think a "routine" has been established and you're high-fiving your wife, it all falls apart.

Get sleep when you can!

[OneMoreQuestion]

We had a ton of girl names, and then we found out it was a boy which screwed up that plan. We're leaning towards Logan so far, but it's far from definite.

How about... Otacon?

[Badgerst3]

My wife is 6.5 months pregnant with our first child (boy). Will watch this thread for tips! :) Been trying to figure out what sort of baby monitor I want to get. Was thinking about video camera that broadcasts onto the net so I can view things on my laptop, ipad, phone.... Reading the thread seems like I should maybe think about the angelcare monitor than worrying about video.

We loved our summer video monitor. Day/night, portable, plus sound. Would link if knew how.

[crazy monkey]

I'm still a kid, you know .. :P How is your little guy doing?

He is being awesome. 6 Month now. Everyday is a new experience and I love it. I try to capture somethings as I know moment go by very fast. He is very cute. Laughs at the simplest things. I try to spend as much time as possible with him. Everything else seems secondary for now.

[DarkFlow]

Well we took him home today. Took a extra day because he was a little slow getting the breast feeding down. Now he's doing it like a champ and he's much happier:D Now the real fun begins .

[Marty Chinn]

Have a baby boy coming on Aug 6th! Can't wait. Hardest part right now is trying to figure out a name.

I hear you on that. We kept the sex of our baby surprise so we had to have both names ready. Girls were easy; in fact too many to choose from that sounded great so it was hard just picking one where as boys was a lot harder to find a name that we liked let alone a couple to choose from. We were sure it was a boy too for several reasons such as how easy the pregnancy went which some say is a sign of a boy because there are more hormones with a girl plus the fact that I really wanted a girl. So we worked really hard on a boys name. Turned out we had a girl.

Might as well contribute my story now. So we have a girl who just turned 13 months. She has been quite the easy baby so generally when people ask me about baby advice, the first thing I tell them is I probably don't know because she was so easy. She rarely cried and was happy all the time. She'd go to sleep without a fuss, and wake up and just wait for us. Never cried over her diaper. It was all too easy. She slept through the night a week before she turned three months which is really early and amazing but apparently been beat by some people here who had it right away. The one thing we did have trouble with was breast feeding as she had trouble latching. As much as we wanted that to take place, it just wasn't going to happen and I have to say it probably made things a lot easier in the long run. It allowed us to do shifts instead since I stayed up late and my wife liked to wake up early. Because she was pumping, it allowed us to have long stretches of sleep while the other took care of the baby with feeding.

The first year has been super easy; so easy that it's now starting to get harder since she's walking now. She's got a lot more personality now and a lot more demands and desires so it's certainly more challenging than it used to be. Even as it has become harder I'm sure we still have it way easier than most so it's hard for us to complain when we know we're lucky to have an easy going girl. But ya, I'm going to have to go against the grain and say year two is harder than year one for us.

[Rei no Otaku]

How about... Otacon?

So many reasons why that's a bad idea...

[GraveRobberX]

Had a new born niece come into the world late April, I'm an Uncle, Hooray!

This is God-Tier:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gripe_water

CVS/Rite Aid/Walgreens carry them

Try to get Canadian brand for super potency + different flavors too

[Gary Whitta]

Picked up one of these, apparently they're very handy! Target has them on sale for $45 right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-D...8305905&sr=8-5

[artist]

He is being awesome. 6 Month now. Everyday is a new experience and I love it. I try to capture somethings as I know moment go by very fast. He is very cute. Laughs at the simplest things. I try to spend as much time as possible with him. Everything else seems secondary for now.

Great to hear that. Best wishes man.

[ced]

If anyone is freaked out about SIDS (we were) get a Angel Care Monitor. It's got a sensor pad that you put under the crib mattress and it'll set an alarm off if it doesn't detect movement. It's really sensitive, you can get false positives, especially once the baby can roll but it really helped with our SIDS anxiety in the first month or two.

I picked up one of these and it was a life saver. I was so paranoid the first week home, and with this I actually slept. We have had it go off two times, both of which our baby girl was just lying there breathing, maybe she stopped and the alarm got her going again, maybe it was a false alarm, who knows. I bumped up the sensitivity and have not had any alarms since then.

We're at 3 months now, she is still fussy here and there during the day, but nights are great. She does have to sleep in a swaddle though, and I'm sure it's going to be a tough habit to break, but it's that or her waking herself up 20 times a night. She still sleeps in a bassinet next to our bed, I'm working on convincing my wife to move her to her crib in the other room, but that's not going so well. She is out at 4 months at the latest.

First couple weeks were hell, I think I'm now starting to forget how bad it was and can see how people can have more than one.

[bionic77]

My twins are 15 months now and are sleeping through the night, but the first 6 months were pure hell. Especially the first 3 months. I think I slept like 2-4 hours a night most nights. Somehow you will get used it to and it will pass. Remember that if you have one kid you and your wife/husband/whatever can take turns through the night which makes things easier.

My one piece of advice is to get the kids used to sleeping in the crib as soon as possible. If they get used to sleeping in the bed then forget it. Your life will be soooo much better on later on if the kid(s) can sleep through the night in another room. Some parents want their kids to sleep with them, but I would hate that at this point.

Also, if your wife is breast feeding, make sure you are helping her get enough food because it seemed to require a lot of calories from my wife to keep her sane.

Enjoy the first 3 months as much as you can. It gets much harder!

[bionic77]

http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-.../dp/B001NAATW0
We used a variant of these monitor to watch the kids.

They are pricey but they work really well and give your wife peace of mind in the middle of the night (she will be checking on the kids a lot at first).

[DJ_Lae]

Picked up one of these, apparently they're very handy! Target has them on sale for $45 right now.

Anything like that can be a godsend. We had one of these:

and we'd have gone insane without it due to how damn fussy our daughter was with sleeping. I hope our second (due June 28th) actually develops some sleep habits.

[Dude Abides]

If the pregnancy goes ok I'll have a newborn early next year. Subscribed.

[artist]

Yeah, if you are going with one of the infant swings, get one that has an AC option as those D/C batteries can be really expensive and wont last much.

[Flo_Evans]

Anything like that can be a godsend. We had one of these: and we'd have gone insane without it due to how damn fussy our daughter was with sleeping. I hope our second (due June 28th) actually develops some sleep habits.

We bought one of these, but we never really used it.

Unless you are loaded, and love a ton of shit cluttering up your house, I would avoid buying allot of baby rockers and swings and shit until you actually need it. Borrow as much as possible from friends, because allot of stuff you will only use for a month.

http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Infant-.../dp/B001NAATW0 We used a variant of these monitor to watch the kids. They are pricey but they work really well and give your wife peace of mind in the middle of the night (she will be checking on the kids a lot at first).

Also have this, works ok, but it totally interferes with my wifi router. Mostly seems to effect apple stuff (ipad, iphones) get tons of errors and get kicked off the network when its on...

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Ok here's a weird one, that thankfully I learned before my son was born. Do NOT buy a Diaper Genie. It's junk and will break on you in a matter of months. If you can find one get an old style Diaper Champ. Even if it is used it's a great product. It uses regular trash bags and not propitiatory bags and isn't mechanically complicated so it won't break. (It's just a weighted plunger that pushes the diaper to the pail when you flip the lid) I am still using the pail and my son just turned 3.

I say get the older version because they did a redesign a year or so ago and they made it worse. Here's the new version So stay away from this one.:


I took a quick look and found a seller on Ebay selling the old style for half than the Amazon link I posted.

[distantmantra]

My daughter is 3 1/2 months old now, she's been sleeping 8-9 hours straight at night for the last couple months.

Your wife gave birth without the use of any drugs? The pain....it....I can't...

My wife went all natural. She did a fantastic job, really proud of her.

[Impeccable]

Do NOT buy a Diaper Genie.

My daughter is almost 10 months and our Diaper Genie is perfectly fine.

[artist]

We bought one of these, but we never really used it. Unless you are loaded, and love a ton of shit cluttering up your house, I would avoid buying allot of baby rockers and swings and shit until you actually need it. Borrow as much as possible from friends, because allot of stuff you will only use for a month.

If you read what he was saying then he probably need it, just like we did. Our baby slept the best and for longer periods in a swing.

Also some babies sleep better with a white noise. There are sleep bears, bunnies that serve this purpose while a few mommies use a laptop to play this 12 hour loop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KaOrSuWZeM

:p

[Flo_Evans]

If you read what he was saying then he probably need it, just like we did. Our baby slept the best and for longer periods in a swing. Also some babies sleep better with a white noise. There are sleep bears, bunnies that serve this purpose while a few mommies use a laptop to play this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KaOrSuWZeM :p

It can be very helpful, but IMHO you are going to have enough expenses coming. I wouldn't recommend getting one unless your baby has trouble sleeping, and then I would try things like gripe water or burping better 1st. You don't want the baby to become dependent on the swing for sleep can only cause problems later.

[bionic77]

We bought one of these, but we never really used it. Unless you are loaded, and love a ton of shit cluttering up your house, I would avoid buying allot of baby rockers and swings and shit until you actually need it. Borrow as much as possible from friends, because allot of stuff you will only use for a month. Also have this, works ok, but it totally interferes with my wifi router. Mostly seems to effect apple stuff (ipad, iphones) get tons of errors and get kicked off the network when its on...

Yeah it did interfere with 2.4 GHZ signals.

My laptop and network is dual band so a lot of my stuff worked anyways but I can see this being a problem and I do remember people complaining about it in reviews.

[artist]

It can be very helpful, but IMHO you are going to have enough expenses coming. I wouldn't recommend getting one unless your baby has trouble sleeping, and then I would try things like gripe water or burping better 1st. You don't want the baby to become dependent on the swing for sleep can only cause problems later.

This is true but it really comes down to the initial issues with the sleeping habits. I said upstream that my wife went through PPD so it was a life saver for us. We got rid of the swing habit within a week, wasnt easy but the swing was worth it in the end.

[artist]

Also is anyone here cloth diapering? My wife took to it and loves it over disposables.

It is also good on the environment and is apparently (1/3rd) cheaper in the long run too. Obviously more work required.

http://lilhelper.ca/pages/Comparison.html

[crpav]

My wife is due in August.....SO EXCITED....SO SCARED!!!!

[SRG01]

So apparently my nephew is very different than the experiences here. He barely cried at all when he was under six months. He usually wakes up and just lies there for a while until his dad wakes up for work at around 5am. Then he falls back asleep.

If he needs food, he just calls a little bit and quiets down once he sees people getting milk or food for him. In fact, the only time I've seen him cry was when he was up too late with family and wanted to go to bed!

[Marty Chinn]

So apparently my nephew is very different than the experiences here. He barely cried at all when he was under six months. He usually wakes up and just lies there for a while until his dad wakes up for work at around 5am. Then he falls back asleep. If he needs food, he just calls a little bit and quiets down once he sees people getting milk or food for him. In fact, the only time I've seen him cry was when he was up too late with family and wanted to go to bed!

That was my girl in a nutshell. We used to say to her, it's ok to cry to call for us cuz she never would. We'd get at most a little yelp which is more like, "hi, anyone there? no, ok".

[poppabk]

My son is going on 1 year in June and up until very recently he was great at sleeping, rocked to sleep in 5 minutes and then usually 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Just recently though he has become really difficult to get to sleep, he is still wide awake at midnight and does not want to fall asleep for anything. I think that now he is crawling and climbing everywhere he is too excited to just give up and go to sleep.