Doula > her mother ainec.

Every time the baby's heartbeat would go down after a contraction she'd read the number off the monitor and start telling my wife "blah blah blah C-section blah blah blah". I kept biting my tongue b/c the docs weren't mentioning it at all. Finally I had enough and said "What are you talking about?!" and she said "well his heartbeat keeps dropping." "I know that but please stop - you are worrying me. We don't need that OK?" and she stopped after that point. She's a mega worry wart and I'm about as docile as it gets under pressure. 2 complete opposite ends of the spectrum. But like I said it all worked out OK.

Honestly last week I thought I was >50% likely to kick her mom out of the room at some point. So I ran hot I guess.

Well it's been just over a year since Brooklyn was born and I have loved every minute of the first year. I was fortunate enough to split the paternity leave with my fiance and enjoy the last 6 months of the first year. I feel real fortunate that I got to see her first steps and hear her first word.

I do almost all of my 2+2 reading at work where my computer is blocked from imagedump and other photo storage sites or I'd post a recent pic. My avatar is from when she was 6 months or so, it's still my favorite picture of Brooklyn.

Congrats to everyone who has recently brought a little one into the world, I hope your journey is as fun as my first year has been.

We have two kids. Tried to go natural on the first. He was a week and a half late and measured huge, so we tried natural induction. OBGYN we went to is a super natural type, but not the kind to risk the health of the baby or mother, so she was a good mix for us. Wife tried for 40 hours. Baby wasn't coming, was passing meconium. He had his head turned the wrong way and had a huge head. It was time to throw in the towel. Wife had a C-Section (not emergency, but not scheduled), and baby was healthy. We went home 2 days later. Wife was sore for a long time due to all the pains of natural labor and then the surgery. Baby was 10+ lbs with >95% head size, so no way he was coming out.

She got pregnant again and we wanted to try natural, but the one thing she didn't want was what happened the first time. We had a few elective ultrasounds to measure her head size and it was always 2 weeks ahead of gestational age. We scheduled 5 days before due date. It was amazing what a difference between the two situations were. This was super relaxed and calm. We both got good nights sleep before going in. The surgery was very relaxed and smooth, got to play our own music, birthing process was very smooth. Wife was nowhere near as sore as the first one and we left in 2 days again, but this time she was MUCH better when we got home. It was a breeze.



Almost all of this is based on psuedo-science non-sense and is not true. The risk is not significantly higher. Isn't recommended by whom? It's not *much* longer. It's a bit longer. If by a while you mean a few days, then sure.

Forcing the birthdate is the biggest part of nonsense in here. There is this whole hippie BS of "baby knows best" blah blah. No. Child birth is inherently a dangerous process. Babies do not know anything. Babies die all the time in natural childbirth. Doctors are not going to schedule you when their lungs are immature. 39 weeks is standard for this, and 37 weeks is full term. Being off by 2+ weeks is virtually unheard of for modern ultrasounds, especially if you got an ultrasound early when there is little variation.

The other thing to consider is expense. Not sure what your insurance might be, but it was a decent amount more expensive for me for the C-Section. Check your insurance for this. I'd say about $10-15,000 is accurate for C-Section costs if it goes smoothly.

wil- you need to do what you guys are comfortable with. Make an educated choice, don't be guilted into it because you aren't good parents if you schedule a C-section or whatever nonsense is coming from the psuedo-science community.

Josh, I just want you to know that you, your wife, and your son are in my thoughts. Please keep us posted on how little man is doing.

sorry i havent put up any updates its been about the worst week of my life and just too depressing to tell the whole story.

so long story short, our son went in to the hospital a few days after birth because we thought he was having seizures even tho the WICU told us it was burps and hiccups.

The hospital was able to stop the seizures with anti seizure meds. when they went to taper off the meds they started up again, just as bad as when we brought him in. the diagnosis is Refractory Epilepsy. basically its a lifelong diagnosis and uncureable, but treatable. they are now testing the levels of the meds he is on the find out which control them the best. Its possible he could've developmental delays but we wont know for months until milestones are reached or not. its all really scary and my wife and i are trying to hold it together. Tayden will be 1 month old in a few days and he has been in the hospital all but 2 of them.

to top it off i had a death in the family this week and have to leave my wife and son in the hospital to fly back to the states from korea to deal with this.

its been a hell of a week, when it rains it pours

I'm so sorry, Josh. My prayers are with you all.

Jeez, stay strong. Thoughts are with you and your family.

Sorry for the death in the family.

Hope for the best. It is very possible his condition can be treated effectively and he can live a happier life than any of us.

Stay strong.

Belated Congratulations!!



I'm worried about who will be in the room. His mother has no sense of boundaries whatsoever...eg: she actually come over to our house, let herself in, and opened and read our mail/snooped through our stuff...and then had the balls to question us and be angry about what she found.

I'm not certain that the nurses have the grit to fight her out of the LDR room.

Edit: BTW for non 4lifers official 'pregnant wife' status as of 10 days ago.

Best Wishes, Kristy!

I don't know if I posted this here before. By the time we got to actual delivery, I no longer cared who was in the room. (Twenty interns came for the show? What's a couple more?) As result, my MIL and Dad both saw their granddaughter born.

I never would have chosen that route on purpose. I don't regret it though. I do know that my Dad considers it one of the greatest moments of his life.

Man.. total scare today. Wife went in for a "stress test" whatever the hell that is. Wife texts me (I was sleeping this morning, just got done working a week of night shifts) that the stress tests weren't good and the baby's heart rate was going down after contractions. Due date is 6 weeks away. Anyway, they take her over for monitoring. I think nothing of it.

Wife calls 1 hour later says I better get down there. I shower, drive down, and then they start explaining theres a possibility the baby isn't getting oxygen and something may be wrong in the womb/uterus. Now I start getting a bit worried. So we have this paper coming out of of the monitor and we're looking at it like two idiots, because, well, we're not doctors. So now I'm like "Damn it, I should have packed a bag", and worried about the baby and my wife and trying to stay calm. Nurse comes in and we're looking at this piece of paper for an hour being nervous.. she comes in, explains the paper seems fine, goes to see the doctor and 15 minutes later we're released.

Everything good so far, but still had me worried. Going to set up the baby seat in the car and pack a bag. I didn't like that experience too much. Stress tests are 2 a week now, so we'll see what happens. Heh. Little bit of a scare there.

That does sound scary. I know my baby's heart rate was dropping down to like 55bpm after wife would push during delivery, then it would rocket back up to 140+ while she was resting. They said it wasn't exactly a normal range of swing but they just monitored it and it never got worse so everything worked out.

Kristy, thanks. Our hospital allowed only 2 "helpers" during delivery, so my wife picked me and her mom (the only 2 she wanted seeing her business anyway). They also told her she could fill out a "birthing plan" or something prior to delivery, in which she specifies who is in the room and who is not allowed. As well as some other specifications. We didn't end up doing a birthing plan, but I told my wife if her mom drove me nuts I would just get her out of there somehow. lol. You may want to look into that plan if you want to keep some kind of rules on your MIL. No idea how well the nurses will be able to enforce them but anyway just wanted to let you know of that possibility.

It's another benefit of a Doula imo. They can be the enforcer of you have to leave. Still, better to set the expectation ahead of time than tell them last minute they're out.

heading to the hospital tonight most likely it seems... i'm nervous as ****

Good luck! Your adrenaline will kick in and you'll do just fine. Don't forget your daddy bag - snacks, sodas, comfy clothes, etc. Expect to be up there at least 2 days. Reading material for those times when you NEED sleep but still can't fall asleep. Digital camera w/ batteries.

This was my son's 2nd day at home. Tomorrow is his 2nd week being a live human. We've already noticed him getting bigger and his face developing a bit. That is our 5 year old dog, Sasha, who has adapted quite well to her new brother.

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A-Rod --

Fantastic!

The minicores just had their two month checkup; both have gained just under 5 lbs so far and their height/length/whatever is already up to 50th percentile. Hopefully they'll keep fattening up, but they're doing fantastically so far.

Good luck to all of the soon-to-be Dads!

Ricky Gervais ITT.

She was of course over the line, but how terrible could your mail of been?

My son - two days old

Awesome, congratulations! Look at all that hair!

thx! it was rough spending ~3 days in the hospital on a small couch "bed." felt great to get home and take a shower and rest in our own bed, but we still haven't had more than a couple hours of of sleep, haha.

wil- you won't care about the poopie diapers once your kid gets here

I'm down to needing only 23 wet wipes to change a dirty diaper. Progress.

I'm using about 4 wipes. Both grandmas giving me crap for using so many but its what the nurse taught me