I dread middle school. My 8 yr old has a very dominant personality. I could see her being a bullying asshole while simultaneously seeing her being a loner who kicks the shit out of whoever messes with her.
Had my first holup moment or whatever driving to the park: Soon to be 6yr old randomly: " George Clooney may have had something to do with it." Me: " Where did you hear that?" Girl: "Henry Danger. I mean Kid Danger. *pause* "Kid Danger is hot." Me: "Do what? What do you mean hot?" Girl: " You know not like the temperature. Like cute and handsome and stuff." Me: "Oh."
We're having our first in January, a daughter. Is there a list somewhere or the Dad thread with all the things we'll need to buy? Wife has her list but I'd like to do some research as well.
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Your wife will probably have the big things covered so here’s some things I learned. Find a daycare now and get on the wait list. It’s better to have it and not need it than vice versa. Get 2-3 dishwasher baskets. Whoever cleans the bottles and pump stuff (probably you) will appreciate it. You’ll be doing dishes very frequently and there’s a lot of small things that need to be cleaned. Buy a few different brands/styles of bottles. Once you find one that works well, get rid of everything else and stock up. It’s so god damn annoying trying to mix and match. We settled on Phillips Avent. I found that the plastic bottles kept a seal (between the bottle and cap) much better than the glass. Something with the threading, dunno. For our next kid I’m going to buy a bottle warmer. I warmed up the milk by pouring in hot water from an electric kettle or under the sink into a large bowl. Eventually I got a sense for timing/temp but I figure a bottle warmer has to be simpler. My kid was 99% breastfed for most of newborn and infancy. My wife found this company that sells a system where you directly pump into a plastic storage bag and the bag also snaps into a plastic shell. Once the bag is in the shell you put on the nipple and feed your kid. Once you’re done you toss the bag and you just have to clean the nipple. Pretty convenient. A lot of infant and maternity stuff is approved for a medical FSA — probably HSA too but I don’t have one. Get one of those set up. If you’re financially able, setting up a 529 account is a great flexible way to save up for education costs down the road. It’s also a nice gift alternative to suggest to people like parents, grandparents, etc. Look up baby sign language. Start signing some of the basics (food, drink, hungry, more/want, etc) around 6 months. You won’t see a response for months but eventually she’ll sign back. It’s a great way of giving your kid a way to communicate and get that brain learning. My two year old still signs on occasion even though we’re all verbal comms now. Luvs diapers kinda suck IMO. If you’re not budget constrained, don’t use them. Get the self adhesive Velcro baby swaddles things and sleep sacks. Minimize the amount of clothes with snaps. Get zipper as much as you can. Having to redo 20 snaps when you’re tired as fuck and the kid is squirming sucks ass. This is kinda ridiculous but having some hue lights in your bedroom is really handy. I have a Hue clicker control thing that lets you have three preprogrammed “scenes” and an off button. I set up a scene for late night feeding that changed my wife’s bedside light to a dim red. Gave enough light to see but not glow up the whole room, and red light is very easy on the eyes at night. getting a bassinet for a stroller is kind of a waste of money. Your kid will likely outweigh the limit within the first 6 months. Mine did at least but she’s an absolute unit. this usually gets you into the more expensive models but having a car seat with built in privacy drape thing is really handy. Make sure the stroller and car seat are compatible. It’s very nice being able to move the kid between the two without undoing buckles etc.
Fuck that post was way longer than I thought. Also I’m having a daughter at that same time frame so wassup.
I will echo what Name P. Redacted said about minimizing clothes with snaps…it’s the worst. I’d also say the same thing about elaborate outfits/dresses. Aside from picture time, they’re totally worthless. It’s takes forever to get them dressed and the minute you’re done, she’ll piss/shit herself and you have to start all over. By the time Meatball came around, all we did was put him in onesies with sweatpants or shorts
Don’t tell anyone you’re having a daughter so that way people will actually get shit you want/need instead of just a bunch of girl clothes
Zip clothes are the best. When I dress my girl I don’t even use the snap clothes. If I can even figure out which snaps go where then it still takes me forever. I don’t get the whole bottle thing. We have four bottles and rinse them everytime. Every few days I use a brush and soap and clean them. I don’t use warm bottles. We didn’t want to get her used to warm milk. Of course I was extremely lucky. My little girl never fusses and has slept 12 hours since she was a month old.
I get that. I came into my sons life when he was 15 months so this is my only experience with babies. I forget that it’s extremely uncommon.
High Cotton a few more things Get at least 20 high quality burp cloths and stash them everywhere. Get the baby wise sleep training book and follow it. If you don't already, get your meal prep down. My favs have been overnight oats, cold brew coffee, and freezer meals. If you can swing it, get a snoo. Especially if you may have another kid. They have a sale 1 or 2 times per year or you may be able to find one used.
Having a daughter late September and my wife just had a baby shower. Between the hand me downs we got before then and the new shit we just got I have no idea what we will ever do with the clothes. Grateful of course but it seems like overkill.
I bought all the diapers I expect to need in bulk up through size 3 while I was in the US with the boat. Saved almost half compared to buying them here. Got Pampers so considering I have a metric ton of them I hope they are good.
Pampers have served my family well. hope you didn't go heavy on the newborn diapers though. my kids grew out of them quick. my middle was onto 1s before we even left the hospital. also I recommend switching to night-time diapers for bed as soon as you can (I think size 3). no waking up for diaper changes or kids springing a leak through the diaper overnight.
At this point whenever I find something fun to buy or a good contractor or something, my wife knows I probably got tipped off by the football board
Yeah everyone told me go light on newborn and I don't have a lot of those. I found a chart online and kinda went by that. It was a rude awakening when I looked up how many of each to get and realized this child will be shitting/pissing it's pants 10+ times a day for a while.
Big fan of the magnetic baby clothes. No snaps or zippers. Not sure what “high quality” burp cloths means but the expensive “nice” ones suck IMO. We’ve always used just the plain white cotton ones that are similar to the cloth diapers. I’ll 2nd the advice to stash those suckers all over the house. You’ll want some in quick reach of wherever you are.
I found the diaper gene to be worth it. If your wife will be breast feeding my wife loved the Haakaa to go with her regular pump. Also 2nd the Velcro sleep sacks and swaddles. Fucking trying to just use a blanket.
We got thicker ones that are more absorbant that the thinner ones. We are still using them on kid #2 2.5 years later
Yeah that’s good. Honestly I think someone actually did get us some cloth diapers which we weren’t going to use as diapers so we used them as burp clothes and they were the best ones we had.
Also get some adult diapers to bring to the hospital. It will make your wife’s post partum life much more comfortable.
Our hospital always provided all that. Big ole mesh panties. makes me think of Todd Bonzales , those always made him horny.
One more - don't rush home, as much as you'll want to get out of that hospital room. My wife had c-sections both times. We were there for 4 days on kid one and less than 48 hours on the 2nd. The support you get at the hospital is priceless (lactation advice, trips to the nursery so you can nap, pain meds for mom, etc.). At least in our hospital, it seemed like covid had accelerated everything
I’d hold off on getting a snoo until you find out if your kid is a challenge. They’re fucking $800 lol.
we were lucky to have good sleepers and we had a fisher price baby stow-n-go that cost like $150 and survived 3 kids and many trips. I actually think they were recalled at some point though. so was the rock-n-play and we used that on 3 kids too.
TIL Name P. Redacted is gonna ditch his electrical engineer grift (or whatever he does) and start writing & selling baby-raising books.
My son is almost 11 and my daughter is due in November. If anything the baby sitting situation should at least be pretty sweet in a few years.
My daughter turned 2 a couple weeks ago and has still never slept through the night. I hate this kid so much
Just helping out da boys My kid has been a terror to get to sleep the last week. Told my wife that I kinda want to slip the kid some Benadryl to ease our lives. She immediately got pissed and said that’s immoral. Feels bad.
In my own way, I was saying that was bullet-listed, concise, and extremely factual post (or chapter) you made and I would not change a word.
Mine just turned 11 months on Thursday. Took her first steps Sunday. Am so proud and terrified at the same time. She has one tooth already in and another on its way. Sleep has regressed over the last few weeks, but luckily my wife is a teacher and isn't working at the moment so she handles that and breastfeeds her to help get her back down. We have a standard baby monitor to listen to her while she sleeps/naps, and we use the Wyze cameras (and app) for her nursery camera. Only costs about $30 for one. We have two, one for her nursery and one to take when traveling or staying with family. I think there are combination ones out there, but the wife and I live on a tighter budget.
Im a swaddle master. Every now and then my 8year old girls will ask me to wrap them up again and they try to break free as a game.