What a roller coaster the last few months have been....slowly I have been realizing that I have no idea what to expect.

After confirming that I was pregnant, excitement turned to exhaustion and barely being able to lift my head out of bed for a few weeks. Into the 2nd trimester now and things seem a bit better for sure, although...that depends what mood you catch me in.

I am so thankful for online poker, I can't imagine playing live or if I was still working full time and being in that first few weeks of pregnancy. Major props to the ladies that tough it out at a full time job...especially when they don't tell many people until a few months have gone by.

So....what other surprizes do I have in store for me? (save the gory details though...those I am well aware of...I hope)

It will be an interesting lift shift for me, finally transitioning into adulthood, mentally anyway!

Congrats!

Congrats, Adrienne!

Also, best thread title ever!

Thanks!

I would love to hear stories from other mums (and dads) about some of their adventures, or misadventures, in poker and parenting.

There have to be some gems out there!

congrats! hope it goes well!

such a great thread! hopefully Lana O. and dmoongirl will pop in and share some experiences of having babies while crushing the pokerz!!!

Congrats!!!!

First of all, congrats!!!! Such an exciting time

I feel your pain with the exhaustion. I was one of the lucky ones who never got sick, but I swear I slept 18 hours a day the first few months. In fact, my delusional state due to exhaustion was what led me to a pregnancy test in the first place. It got better for me about 18 weeks in, and I honestly felt fine the rest of the pregnancy. Hopefully you run as good as I did in that department.

When are you due? Will you find out what you're having?

I know we don't technically know one another, but seriously if you have any questions, feel free to throw them my way here or via private message. Were poker not an option, I'd seriously consider going back to school for some sort of career in obstetrics. The pregnancy process has always been fascinating and beautiful to me.

Yay babies!!!

congrats! like dgirl i didn't get sick, but like you i was exhausted first trimester. it got bad again for me third trimester, when all i wanted to do was sleep. i was also waking up almost hourly to pee, good times when the baby is resting on your bladder. third trimester was way better with my second pregnancy, but that may have been my body responding to necessity.

i played mainly live while pregnant. no fun stories, but it definitely got me noticed. dealers and random players i don't recognize still ask me about my kids, and my youngest is 8 months old!

i never conceived of having a c-section and ignored that part of my pregnancy books, then had to have an emergency one with my first. i wished i'd at least known a little bit about it, cause it was a shocker and i had no clue what to expect.

if there are any big projects you have, tv shows you want to marathon, books you want to read, etc. do it now. eventually you will have free time, but babies are pretty all consuming early on. also pick a show to watch while nursing (if you're doing that) cause during the first few weeks/months you will be doing a lot of that. i found reading tough while nursing, but that also works for some people.

not sure where you live, but i recommend finding something like baby yoga, mommy and me, breastfeeding support group, etc. in your area. it's a great resource to meet other new moms, and gets you out of the house.

i loved healthy sleep habits, happy child, which taught me a lot about sleep. i actually read about 8 baby sleep books (libraries ftw!), but thought that was the best. i also recommend watching the happiest baby on the block dvd. we didn't watch until our first was over a month old, and we wished we'd watched it his first week.

can't think of anything else, but feel free to PM w/ any questions. i'm a stay at home mom of a 2 yo and 8 mo.

I really love this thread.
3 years ago, this thread would not have been able to survive on 2+2.
I am proud. And happy. It'll prob be one of the best threads ever in this forum.

In a few years, I'll want to have kids, so I'm happy to have a great thread to refer back to! #preggopokeringftw

Congrats A!

TWSS obviously needs to start a M/F pool

Congrats!

lanaob - You forgot to mention all the "one player to a hand jokes" while you were crushing live poker while preggo

Thanks everyone! I have been pretty lucky too I think, not overly sick, just tired....has meant for some short sessions some days.

I am getting close to 16 weeks now and feel so good that I have to look at the ultrasound again to make sure! Due at the end of May into early June.

We don't think we will find out whether the baby will be a boy or a girl. When we guess, we have opposing views...so who knows!?!

Lana thanks for the reading recommendations! I haven't even opened a book as of yet, so it is good to have a starting point!

I will be playing live at PCA, but not too pregnant at that point, so I don't expect to be too challenged. I remember seeing Karina Jett (I think it was her) final table a WSOP event a couple years ago and being very very pregnant. I thought it was pretty exceptional!

I think primarily playing cash games online will be such a perfect fit while being on mat leave from work.

My yoga instructor is running a prenatal class that runs perfectly for me, probably stemmed from the fact that she is a few weeks ahead of me.

I have played poker in all sorts of interesting situations and look forward to trying to balance my laptop and diaper cream at the same time...or maybe Ryan will be on duty!

love the thread title!

congrats and gl, be sure to install a downstairs bathroom if you plan to grind through the late stages

I was working a hard full time job and even though it's been almost 23 years ago I still remember how exhausting it was. I was lucky that I didn't get sick but in my 2nd trimester she got on my scatic nerve and my left side killed me all the time. I was getting up and going to work, sitting in an uncomfortable chair all day and coming home so tired and in pain. Finally in my 3rd trimester she moved her little butt and I got some relief, of course that's when it really gets fun, no sleep, constantly having to go the bathroom and all the fun stuff.

After she was born I took the first 3 months off and then had to go back to work. Dealing with day care and all that was no fun. It would have been so nice to be able to stay home and play poker. Babies mostly sleep all the time the first several months so you should have a decent amount of time to play. Hope you play cash games or SNGs though, MTTs would be pretty rough with an unpredictable baby. Also when you get to where you have to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes those MTTs would be rough.

A baby is a creature of habit so if you get him or her on a schedule that works with your play it shouldn't be too bad, just remember you're the boss not the baby. Stick them in the crib and let them go to sleep on their own or you'll have trouble for years.

Anyway congratulations, it was the most wonderful time of my life, guess that's why I only did it once

Congrats! We are on our 3rd baby so I got lots of tips and tricks.

My wife got a sore back quite often. Hot showers and tubs helped a bit. She also would get killer heartburn so we had a healthy supply of tums on hand at all times. She'd also randomly start hating certain smells (Like chicken being cooked) so I'd adjust for that. Or deal with her wrath. She'd also get a bit emotional over small things and I'd be like wtf but then remind myself to cut her slack since she's going through a big change.

Before our first born we did a baby moon which was a quick trip to Palm Springs when she was about 5 or 6 months along just to relax and have one last holiday alone before the baby came. The place we stayed offered special pregnancy massages so she had one of those and loved it. If you do this check with your doctor to make sure it's cool. If you have signs of going into early labor they won't let you fly. Speaking of early labor that due date is not in stone obviously. I remember our first one we had nothing packed for the hospital since I thought we had more time and he came 6 weeks early. Make sure you have your car seat installed around then so you aren't doing it last minute like me. I had no clue how to install it and drove to a fire station and they helped me out lol.

We didn't find out the sex of any of ours but that's totally up to you. I just felt it would have been like opening a present early and wanted the surprise. I can see the reasoning behinds knowing but we just went with soft colors that would've worked either way.

SUPER IMPORTANT TIP COMING: Stick to zippers. You will be changing this baby over and over and you will be very tired for the first couple of months until it settles down and you find your routine. Nothing worse than being half asleep and trying to button up all those buttons. I got them wrong so often and if you are doing it on a synch break you only got so much time. So yeah stick to zippers and you and your man will be much happier.

TV in the bedroom-My wife never wanted to have a tv in our bedroom before kids. But that changed quickly. Since the baby will be likely sleeping in a bassinet for the first few months in your room you will be in your bed a lot. So if you don't already, get a tv in there. It will be much easier and make sure you have a pvr hooked up since you will be watching shows at random hours.

Pumps/Breast feeding-This may seem awkward coming from a guy but whatever it's what we learned. On the first baby we were told to buy a pump because in between feeds you will have to pump to keep your milk flowing. This also comes in handy because if you can bottle it your man can feed the baby and allow you to sleep. If you don't do this you will be up all the time and getting mad at your guy while he sleeps and you go a bit crazy. The mistake we made was in the pump. We wasted a couple hundred buying a pump we thought was good but it really wasn't. We found out later on that places like Safeway rent super pumps that work miles better. They make you buy new attachments for it for about $20 so nothing is contaminated and they work much better. I think it was about $100 to rent it and it smoked the pump we bought. So look into that if you will be breast feeding.

Routine-like the above post a routine is key. For the first month or two the baby will be up through out the night most likely for feedings. They don't really do much but eat, sleep and fill the diapers. For me the fun part is about 5-6 months in once they get some personality and start laughing, sitting etc. At that stage try to have a routine established and stick to it. For all 3 of our boys we will eat supper, have a bath, go to our bed to relax and watch some shows together, feed baby a bottle and then he goes to the crib for the night. If you allow him to stay in your bed all night he will never want to leave so make sure you get him or her used to a bassinette at first and then later on the crib.

I could probably go on for hours so will leave it at that for now lol. Also I never expected this but I got way more action from her when she was pregnant! She wanted it all the time a few months in. So that was an unexpected bonus!!! GL

Pay little attention to that 16 week blood test, ESPECIALLY if it will not affect your thoughts re: carrying to term. The results are often incorrect, and why give yourself unneeded worry. If we had it to do over again, the wife and I would not have even bothered.

Oh, and "borrow" as many of those swaddling blankets as you can get your hands on from the Hospital. they are the perfect size and most babies LOVE them.

There is a long pregnancy thread in the lounge, take a look

Mrscrashjr played live low stakes quite a bit until our first was born - went into labor about 2.5 hours after playing a live session - and hasn't played much since. Priorities and life just got in the way. Our oldest is 8 now, her first book:



Congrats!

Congrats lady!

Found a pitfall....spa at PCA won't give me a manicure or a pedicure because of pregnancy!

Saving money on this trip between spa exile and no drinking!

Have played two tournaments while here, the triple stud and the Big O. Was surprized at how distracted I was during the triple stud, played awful and was really uncomfortable despite only being 20 weeks or so. Was much better in the Big O; however, the end result wasn't any different.

Have the Ladies Event this afternoon, am looking forward to it for sure! Feeling great and ready to smash some rivers!

Thanks for the congrats!

What?! Is this common?! If I were there, I'd give you a mani pedi myself!

Good luck today!

Need to work on a blog post shortly....but overall I wouldn't recommend pregnancy as a strategy to improve poker performance!!

Especially for you tournament aficionados out there!!!

Am grinding out another few days worth of VPPs then will be on hiatus until this child arrives, it has been an interesting run!

Gl gl gl, hope we can see pics

I was recently reminded of this thread!

Carrick was born 8 weeks ago today and it has been a lot of fun but also a ton of work to start to adapt.

Just in the last couple weeks and moreso in the last few days have I worked to get back to the poker tables.

I am sure many of you ladies (and men) have a plethora more experience that I have with playing online - but I am always willing to answer some questions about the transition and 'live forum' my ever changing experience.

The biggest struggles for me right now are around guilt, focus and time.

Any parents out there want to weigh in on strategies to get work (or play) done?