Living for the weekend

[annbuhdan]

shanny We were planning to have my BIL come over and spend the rest of the night here. We're lucky he lives only a couple blocks away. DD never wakes up at night, and H's parents would have time to get here by the time she wakes up in the morning. She is very comfortable with them.

[gratefulgirl]

shanny - with DD2 we had my mom meet us at the hospital and pick up DD1. I think we woke her up around 5 a.m. She talked about her "drive in the dark" for a straight year afterward. My mom took her back to our house. She made up the sleep pretty quickly and easily, or at least I never noticed . Plus my mom is terrible with little kid sleep anyway so I wasn't expecting a well rested older kid. It was really fine.

This time we hope my parents will be staying over the night before the scheduled c/s since them coming that morning would be nightmarish in the terrible traffic of our area. Then it'll be easy. But if for whatever reason I do need to go in at night, we'll do the same thing. The big kids are about to get thrown for a loop no matter what.

ETA: my parents are a 45 minute drive away in no traffic, hour and a half or worse in rush hour. The hospital is between us.

[thelorax]

Jul 23, 2016 11:06:31 GMT -5 shanny said:

kokopelli Yay, glad the whole family will be together.

For the STM and beyond, what are your plans for the other kids if you go into labor in the middle of the night and have to go to hospital while kids are sleeping? My parents live about an hour away and my H's parents live about 10 minutes away. I told him that I need to be able to rely that his mom will pick up her phone and come over to take care of DD. H doesn’t understand why we can’t just bring DD to his mom’s place...I tried telling him that then DD would wake up, be in a new place, not want to sleep, and make it very hard on his mom both that night and then the day after when they are both really tired. Sigh. I don't know what most people do. Thanks!

We have no one within 2k miles so we have hired a sibling doula. She is basically a babysitter on call 24/7 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after my due date. She will be at the house within an hour of me calling her. It's definitely more involved this time! Last time we just had the dogs to worry about.

[elm1214]

shanny, If I go into labor in the middle of the night, my dad or sister will be coming here while they sleep. It would be hard to wake them up and take them somewhere. I'm trying to keep their schedule as much the same as possible.

[elm1214]

I'm starting to get a little anxious about my induction on Monday evening. I've never been induced before. When the receptionist scheduled it, she said they are using gels first. Has anyone had that? Is it the same thing as cervidil?

[hashbrownnofilter]

shanny We just had a "situation" with childcare when I go into labor. H's stepmom and father have recently proven to be totally unreliable (as in, they will never watch my children), and my mom takes care of my dad full time (h's mom passed away when he was young). We were originally going to have the ILs on call, but my mom has agreed to have a relative watch my dad when the time comes and pick DS up at our house or the hospital (she lives an hour away, the hospital is five minutes from our house). It's not ideal, but it's going to have to work. I had a loooong labor with DS so I'm hoping to have some time to shuffle him around and get him settled. He adores my mom, so at least he'll be happy to hang out with her.

[hashbrownnofilter]

I'm going to be an AW. I finally finished this today! We have a daybed in the nursery in addition to the crib, so that's what the pillows are.

[coffeequeen14]

Just got home from my shower. It was fantastic:) just so nice of my neighbor ladies. My favorite gifts were some onesies that they had monogrammed. So cute.

But OMG it now feels real.

[Rogue]

EllieT, I'm waiting for kid to arrive before doing thank yous.. then writing thank yous with pics of kid using whatever gift it was and sending those with baby announcement.. I think even if you wrote "thank you for your gift of X. It is incredibly thoughtful of you to send this item. I can imagine baby using it like this..." for books you could say "i am looking forward to the many nights of reading X to baby during feedings and I know it will be a favorite as he/she gets older"

[dorkusmalorkus]

EllieT Personally, I'd be happy receiving a preprinted card that has a cute baby picture on it. I know newborn parents are busy & the last thing they should be doing is worrying about writing me a card. That said, I'd go ahead and do "real" thank you notes now, and say something about how good it was to see them & to know your baby is being born into such a great community of family and friends, and that you're really looking forward to using the book/toy/etc. after baby arrives.

[remylove1011]

EllieT I usually do a "thank you for coming to the shower" and then thank them specifically for what they gave. For a book you can say something like "Thank you so much for the Goodnight Moon book. We can't wait to read it to baby..." Not sure if that's helpful at all. They don't need to be long or anything.

[thelorax]

EllieT I just told them how I looked forward to reading or using the clothing in the future. People know you can't use everything immediately and it's easier to do the cards before the baby comes.

[shanny]

elm1214 I would imagine it's the cervidil/prostaglandins, but not sure. I hear the difficult induction stories are more likely for first time moms so I hope it will be okay! I will be induced as well, unless baby comes before induction date. I hope you are excited to meet the baby and not too anxious.

@suesposa Ahh...it really is hot in CA today. I'm sorry that your body seems so far along yet it's taking forever.

[thelorax]

I'm officially going backwards in my weight gaining. I guess it's ok, but I kinda wish I could eat more. There are only so many times when DH offers to buy me ice cream.

[joy]

Jul 23, 2016 14:19:44 GMT -5 EllieT said:

I need your help. I had a shower when we were in Canada in May. I know I need to write Thank you cards asap. But I have no idea what to write.

I thank them for the gift then talk about how nice it was to see them then talk about when I hope to see them again with the new baby.

So... examples!

1. My good friend gave us foam tiles for the floor downstairs in the baby's area.

"Dear Friend, Thank you so much for the foam flooring!  As we have hardwood floors, these will be invaluable to keeping our kid from knocking himself out while learning to crawl.  It was so nice of you to take the afternoon to come to the shower - I know showers aren't the best way to pass an afternoon, but both my husband and I feel like our kid is so loved!  I can't wait for you to come meet our peanut after he's born!  Let's get together soon! Love, Joy."

2. My mom's friend who I barely know gave us a nursing scarf and some receiving blankets.

"Dear Mom's Friend, Thank you so much for the nursing scarf.  I'm hoping this will be a useful necessity in the months to come with our new child!  Also, thank you for the receiving blankets - you can never have too many of those, right?  Thank you for coming to the shower and spending the afternoon celebrating my mother's new grandchild.  Everyone was so generous; my mother has wonderful friends.  I'm sure she will be sharing many pictures with you and that you have a chance to meet our child soon! Love, Joy."

[joy]

Jul 23, 2016 14:49:42 GMT -5 @suesposa said:

As a thank you sender, I definitely wouldn't want to carve out the time to take pictures of a newborn with each gift. That seems...ambitious.

I also think birth announcements are a separate thing all together. Thats where I would send a photo of baby.

::nodding:: to both of these thoughts.

Also: I'm just being honest, but if I got no thank you note or a pre-printed thank you card with no hand written note, I'd cringe so hard.

[joy]

EllieT, if you get stuck - come tell us who gave the gift and what it was; we'll help you write it!

[venyia]

My temper is getting shorter lately and I am starting to feel like a bad mom because of course my toddler I spend all my time with keeps getting the short end of it. She is pushing boundaries and having defiance issues (all totally normal for the age group of course) but I get frustrated with her and she feeds off my moods, I think, so by the end of the day I am feeling angry and frayed. Hell, it is only midday and I am over today already.

[steph]

Well floating was a fail. My 90 minutes started at 5:30. Within a few minutes of laying down I felt lightheaded and sick. Tried a few times and gave up. I showered and I'm heading home. Definitely going to cry the entire way there. I just want to relax

[shanny]

steph oh no! I'm sorry that floating didn't work this time. Did they refund you?

[steph]

No I didn't ask though. I felt like I couldn't breathe and just needed to get out. I bought a pregnancy package of 3. I'm going to email them later and see if they'll either refund me for one or let me use the one after the baby gets here.

[joy]

Oh, I'm sorry, steph!!

[dorkusmalorkus]

Jul 23, 2016 17:01:11 GMT -5 venyia said:

My temper is getting shorter lately and I am starting to feel like a bad mom because of course my toddler I spend all my time with keeps getting the short end of it. She is pushing boundaries and having defiance issues (all totally normal for the age group of course) but I get frustrated with her and she feeds off my moods, I think, so by the end of the day I am feeling angry and frayed. Hell, it is only midday and I am over today already.

Yep, here too! My 4-year old has suddenly gotten really defiant, and I have not been dealing with it well at all. Plus our time has been especially unstructured, and the heat index is around 116 lately. We're just a mess.

[dorkusmalorkus]

steph I'm sorry that didn't give you the break you needed; how disappointing! Hopefully they'll let you use it later.

[coffeequeen14]

venyia tit for commiseration.

steph oh no. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy your float.

I am not always on time with thank you cards (I have taken a month before:( but I always send one. I think you can never go wrong showing appreciation. Just something simple to mark your appreciation.

[steph]

Okay weird question- looking at the sonic menu and I don't see "malts". Is that the same as the milkshakes I get?

[coffeequeen14]

bocaburger has been absent from today's thread. Are we on BocaBaby watch?!?

[steph]

Jul 23, 2016 18:47:58 GMT -5 @suesposa said:

Jul 23, 2016 18:39:15 GMT -5 steph said:

Okay weird question- looking at the sonic menu and I don't see "malts". Is that the same as the milkshakes I get?

Yes. They just add malt powder to it. I always ask for extra malt because I'm excessive like that.

Gotcha.

[gratefulgirl]

Jul 23, 2016 17:01:11 GMT -5 venyia said:

My temper is getting shorter lately and I am starting to feel like a bad mom because of course my toddler I spend all my time with keeps getting the short end of it. She is pushing boundaries and having defiance issues (all totally normal for the age group of course) but I get frustrated with her and she feeds off my moods, I think, so by the end of the day I am feeling angry and frayed. Hell, it is only midday and I am over today already.

I have struggled with this a lot. H is pretty upset about it because he never ever takes anything out on the kids - he always is that model parent who thinks of them as having a hard time instead of being hard and it works for him. We have had a ton of talks about it lately. Not fun. I feel like I have to try so hard to be kind, and so guilty. Ugh. Although I am glad I have someone to keep me accountable, I also sort of wish I could get some sympathy. This stuff is hard!

[hashbrownnofilter]

venyia same here. He is definitely in a defiant phase (at home only - he's great when we're out). So I've been dragging myself out so he's more tolerable, but consequently I'm hot and in pain and generally miserable.