Reply With QuoteOurs (our first) is due 3 weeks today :-)
Read most this thread, all sounds a bit scary to be honest haha, so thanks.
As long as it's healthy and all goes well I'm sure I can put up with the lack of sleep and mess, I think.
Great thread.
Out girl is 2, sleeps 13 hours a night and has done since 12 weeks.
Hasn't been plain sailing, she developed a rare form of epilepsy when she was 6 months old. She is doing well but just take us to have a little more care and attention.
Ours (our first) is due 3 weeks today :-)
Read most this thread, all sounds a bit scary to be honest haha, so thanks.
As long as it's healthy and all goes well I'm sure I can put up with the lack of sleep and mess, I think.
Ive got 3 kids, 8 year old, 6 year old and 5 months.
The 8 and 6 year old were an absolute nightmare for sleeping and my eldest woke vitually every hour for 2 years !
But ive finally be gifted with a cracking sleepin, she sleeps from 8.30 until 7.30 and doesn't make a peep !
A few handy hints:
Women: to prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a beanbag down the front. Leave it there for 9 months. After 9 months, take out 10% of the beans.
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems: first buy an octopus and a string bag. Attempt to put the octopus into the string bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Go to your local supermarket. Take with you the nearest thing you can find to a pre-school child - a fully grown goat is excellent. If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goats eat or destroys.
My youngest is 10 months now and has only just started to sleep a bit better – only kicks off two or three times a night now. I’m dreaming of the day she sleeps right through! In contrast, our seven year old needs dragging out of bed every day haha
If the kids are anything like my two - it will be cheaper to buy a cow and pay some one to milk it everyday than buying the amount of milk they get through.
Also prepair for the inevitable “ I swear these tshirts / jeans/ tops fit you last week” it’s like they outgrow everything over night !
We just had my second, a girl this time. Took a couple of weeks off work, mainly looking after my four year old boy, doing housework, nappy changes for the baby and drinking beer. Much easier second time round!
Any recommendations on top products you found useful/items to avoid buying?
Muslin squaresOriginally Posted by ASD25
Don't buy more than two tiny outfits as baby may well be bigger than expected, and friends and family will buy you the smallest things that can find anyway.
Muslin squares.
The world is full of second hand strollers, many little used. Don't waste money on something new. We spent about £300 on a then fancy pram, used it twice and ebayed it for £1.20.
Muslin squares.
Baby Bjorn carriers are brilliant and baby can see where you're going.
Muslin squares
Just don't overcomplicate things
Muslin squares.
We have now doubled our store of muslin squares.
The Tommee Tippee Perfect Prep milk machine has been an absolute life saver for us. Definitely the best purchase.
Also ‘sock-ons’ are a must; you wouldnt believe how many times a day you need to put socks back on.
Buy a Doona car seat pram.
It's a car seat that turns into a pram at the click of a button. We got one for my third child and it's an absolute game changer !
Eveything Gyp said^^
Muslins for cleaning up puke, covering mummy if she's feeding in public, covering baby if they're asleep...
I never used the baby Bjorn with our first but our second lived in it, on me (although it reminds me of Master Blaster from Mad Max). The wife always used some hippy wrap thing that I could never work out.
You're going to want to spend a load of money on a pram, I tried to be clever and bought a second hand iCandy for our first. I steam cleaned and changed the wheels/tyres/handle/covers and it still cost less than half of a new one. It's also still perfect working order 6 years into our ownership! However, I had my 6 year old on the buggy board a couple of weeks ago running down some stairs, so the board is now broken lol. We had fun though and he should be walking everywhere anyway!
To be honest, the only thing we seemed to use for ages was the steamer/steriliser. That thing was on constantly!
Last edited by Paddy!; 28th February 2019 at 08:19.
I was going to say a bit more but it seems I said most of it already in post #16!
The thought I was having this morning, needn't be expensive when they're little, but we tend to spend a lot on them. They only get properly expensive as they get older.
If you ignore childcare costs and university, I'd suggest the costs of child ownership tend to rise fairly linearly from birth to leaving home.
Childcare costs can be horrendous as can topping up the university support loan (I could buy an ND Sub every year if I'd had a thicko), and whilst it it's not as fun and exciting, putting money aside for these rather than buying all the lovely newborn clothes and accessories makes a heck of a lot more sense.
Would have to advise against a baby Bjorn type carrier. The hippy type wrap as referred to above is so much better for both baby and wearer. Especially baby. My kids mammy is very into the hippy baby wearing thing, is a consultant for this and runs a local advice and hire service, and I confess to being a convert having carried all 3 in various wraps and carriers over the years. My oldest is almost 4 and a chunky boy, he still gets into the carrier on long walks.
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About 20 yrs ago a (then) colleague of mine married a well-to-do lady and they got two kids. He told me that the Child Benefit money he received, was put in a special fund with the remark: "When they're 18 y/o, I'll start handing it over on a monthly basis. However... when it turns out that they've become nasty kids (he used stronger language, not suited for the G&D), I'll keep the money and buy myself a small yacht!"
I thought that this was brilliant, so we did the same for our kids (however... the boat has been bought already). 18 yrs ago, my wife opened a long-term savings account @6.5 % fixed (!) interest rate. With what we know now, a brilliant move! My oldest is nearly 18 and he's already studying - next year he'll be off to other premises as well. So, we will start paying his rent for the next 3 yrs - that's how long his study-program will take.
Back to younger kids... We bought a pram from the Dutch company Bugaboo. Back then, the best and most expensive pram on the market. We had one of the first production runs. My dad used to say that the cost of a pram/per km is higher than the cost of a Ferrari! I suppose, truthful words... Luckily for us, we were able to sell the pram a few years later to a British couple who had come over to The Netherlands to look for a (second hand) Bugaboo. In the end, the depreciation wasn't as bad as I'd thought.
Then there's the matter of bottle feeding... We had good results using a type of bottle with a membrane at the bottom. So-called 'Anti-collic' bottles. Difrax was the brand of those bottles. Feeding became a lot easier when we changed to that type of bottles.
Coincidentally, my wife and I did a 'trip down memory lane' yesterday. When my oldest was bottle-fed, he always woke up during the night. Then a more seasoned mom(...) suggested putting a tablespoon of oatmeal into the bottle with the milk powder. That way he had to digest more and stay asleep. It worked. Nowadays, my son is seriously busy gaining weight for his sailing ambitions. So he's off to the gym 5 or 6 days/week for weights and cardio. His last shake of the day, after his evening session in the gym, is a protein shake with added oatmeal. We're back where we started...
I must second this! My wife loves them 4 out of our 5 have been carried in this type of sling/carrier. They are awesome!
Also. Speaking from experience just this week in fact. Having a busy day with a toddler/baby that results in said toddler putting himself in the pram at 18:30 at night and sleeping straight away is not a good thing! Me and the wife had a great evening as a lovely nights sleep until 4am when toddler is now in morning mode and wanting peppa pig!!!
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My boy (now almost 11) didn’t sleep through the night until he was over 2!
My ex didn’t cope very well either and I was the one that got up the majority of the time (despite the fact I’d often be up at 4am for work). I can remember going through a stage of feeling quite annoyed about it and then after a while that just drifted away and I coped well with it.
Was a bit of a shocker for me as suddenly my weekends went completely too (she had horses and of course I was left holding the baby). We split up about 6 years ago and I have him every weekend/bank holiday and as much as I can through the school holidays too. So even now my free time is with my lad. Could count on one hand the amount of weekends I’ve done something either by myself or with mates in the last 11 years! But that’s how responsible you’ve got to be prepared to be with children.
If you haven't got one, get a dog. Firstly most things that hit the floor & there will be lots, will get cleaned up before you notice them. Secondly, we were told by our GP that kids who grow up with animals tend to be less prone to the problems associated with our recent obsession with 100% germ free homes.
Time and Money - there is never enough. watches.bikes, shiny kit - if you have it then it may not get used or you may end up selling it because you aren't using it. Parenting is easy....if you dont give #*#* as a wander round many shopping outlets will demonstrate. However, putting in vast amounts your of time helping with reading/maths/exercise/going to the library/patiently explaining things works wonders for your child.
What a story. My boys were in an around the house until they were 12, 13. My wife is often abroad and I had to spend a lot of time with them during weekends and holidays. But, at the age of 12, 13, things start to change: new school, new mates. Soccer on Saturdays etc. Slowly but surely, the boys are getting more and more their own life. Your days of 'freedom' will return - just around the corner.
Menno
hahah - but yes very true
Thanks for your help and comments guys - heading to a baby show with the wife and the bump this weekend, will try and use the above advice.
Well, that's your first mistake there!
I hear you... but strong willpower I will be fine
.... could be a different story on Sunday after the show
Mum will be increasingly hormonal and her nesting instinct will be strong.I hear you... but strong willpower I will be fine
.... could be a different story on Sunday after the show
Any suggestion that you're not fully committed to the £3,000 mummy nipple warming system shows that you are not committed to this baby and not committed to this relationship.
You bastard. No don't. Don't touch me. Don't come near me. I can't even bear to be in the same room as you.
Then once you see what their body goes through, you go out and buy all the stuff that you managed to wriggle out of before.
Good luck!
Hahaha
Thanks pal
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