Visited Cairns once. The nearby rainforest was great but the humidity was awful.
Complete pot luck.
Mrs P’s one was awesome. Of the 10 ish it started with, about 9 are still in regular contact. It’s sort of split into 2 sub groups (cool kids and nerds kids - very high school!), but that’s fine.
My sister thought all of hers were jerks and only went twice. Sister in law similar.
Absolutely random.
It’s so true that you just have to do what’s right for you.
My sister was due to have her second and was opting for home birth. Everything was tracking really well, healthy scans, they loved the midwife. They’d done their research and followed every piece of advice including having a back up midwife and a plan C.
The day that she went into labour the midwife had come down sick and the backup got a flat and so she was running late. The baby was delivered over the phone while an ambulance raced to their house. They were collected and the baby was blue and unresponsive. They revived her in the ambulance. She died later that afternoon at the hospital. The coroner still hasn’t closed the case 6 years later. My sister had 2 more kids, but she’s never been the same.
You just can’t know how it’s going to go.
the best piece of advice I ever got was to buy Baby love and Save our sleep, tear them up and burn them in the backyard over a beer as you promise yourself that you’ll commit to doing what’s best for the kid.
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Man, that’s rough!
We were lucky everything went well on the day. Our back-up walked through the door as the head was coming out.
A few days later our baby ended up with an umbilical hernia. We went to the doctor and they said it was the worse one she had ever seen and that we needed to have surgery. We didn’t like the idea of surgery, even though it wouldn’t be undertaken until he was one. We did some research and brought a belt, and within a couple of weeks it was fixed, even though the doctor warned us not to use one.
We were also told he had tongue ties and he wouldn’t be able to breastfeed, bottle feed, eat solids or gain weight. We did a heap of research, talked to experts, saw the dentist that was to perform the operation for around $5k. We once again decided against it as he was feeding fine at that stage, and we weren’t prepared to risk ruining it. He’s now 7 months and tries to grab everything off of our plates.
It all comes down to following your gut instinct and doing as much research as possible. Some might say it’s wrong, but we’d rather be well informed rather than doing "what’s on trend " or because the doctor said so.
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You went through private, didn’t you.
Haha, nice thread.
Corona aside the pregnancy has been pretty cool and the wife has been excellent, barely any morning sickness if any at all. It’s really fun hearing the wife give 3rd person perspective of the baby kicking in her stomach too, almost like the baby has a personality already.
Thankfully we have everything stocked up, nappies, wipes, formula if needed…but this virus brought upon a stress that very few have had to experience in their lifetimes; my baby being born is bad enough stress wise but with a pandemic in the streets to add constant tension. Every day I find myself checking new case rates, with a deep seated fear of hospitals being overrun and no bed for my wife during birth (weather realistic or not, as I doubt they’ll turn back women giving birth).
I’m prepared for no sleep and everything, at this stage I just want the baby to be healthy and avoid this virus. One thing that is sad for my wife is she loves her mum and dad and this will be their first grandchild, and sadly it’s looking very realistic that they won’t get to meet the baby for potentially the first 6 months of it’s life, perhaps even more if this pandemic increases. This really saddens me.
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That’s sad mate about the grandparents.
Good luck with it. Sleep is for the weak!
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The upside to being so worried about things now is that you take all precautions, cover all angles, and when this thing blows over quicker than you’ve anticipated it’ll be a relief and joy to have relatives come and celebrate the new addition to the family with you.
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It is a pity about the grandparents and your wife will really miss having her mum around.
But I’ve found the grandparents get the most out of it when the baby gets a bit older.
The funniest thing about grandparents is that they do stuff with their grandkids that they would never have allowed with their own kids.
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It’s a wildly emotional time for everyone. My 6yo is bonkers some days. Especially if slightly overtired or hangry. The other night she’d been having a meltdown as I was about to head off to work. I gave her a hug and a kiss and she didn’t give much back. I was just about to walk out the front door and she chased me down for a 2nd hug. “What? I get another one?” I asked her. She replied with “Yes, because I just love you so much”.
And they’re the moments that make all the insanity worthwhile.
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If you can learn the secret art of the powernap, you are halfway to winning at parenting.
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It’s a ■■■■ time, no doubt.
My sister just had her 3rd, we can’t go meet her for who knows how long. It sucks.
A friend of Mrs P is due soon with her first… single mum, did IVF. Her parents live up the country and aren’t mobile. So she’s doing the whole thing alone. Feel terrible for her.
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Most of us think our parents, now make better grandparents.
Baby is basically due in 1 week (she’s 38 weeks but measurements say the baby is a week ahead). It’s so surreal knowing this SHI-T is about to get real.
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You’re gonna smash it mate. Best of luck.
And don’t worry about doing the wrong thing or whatever during the labour process. My best effort with our first child was to roll one of those wheely chairs over my wife’s foot (while I was sitting on it) during one of her contractions.
Even the nurses thought that display of incompetence was a bit funny. Wife didn’t find it funny however
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Looking forward to the having the baby part. It’s the birthing part that scares me!
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When you are at the birth be prepared to be sworn at. Severely and repeatedly.
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Your wife will probably do most of the work.
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Yeah but how’s she gonna cook my tea if she’s busy birthing?
That joke didn’t go well with the wife but it was worth it.
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So just another night then?
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