So..whats your best advice on parenthood

[Mightyfire89]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Make sure you don't let them watch too much treehouse or tv though. A couple of my friend's kids who are 3 and 4 years old need glasses already, because thats all their parents did. They let their tv babysit their kids.

I let my son watch 20 minutes of tv 3 times a week. He seems to really appreciate the tv alot more and is pretty well behaved at home. now when we go out, thats another story.

lol...what? I don't think it works that way.

As for the sleeping thing, yeah, letting a baby sleep too much during the day is a disaster in the making.

Congrats. Have fun.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Krack Korn

lol...what? I don't think it works that way.

As for the sleeping thing, yeah, letting a baby sleep too much during the day is a disaster in the making.

Congrats. Have fun.

Ya I thought eye strain has nothing to do with needing corrective lenses. Perhaps I'm wrong.

I think you guys are crazy about sleeping during the day... I would have walked myself into traffic without my little guy napping 3-4 hours/day. I miss those days.

[rubecube]

This entire thread really makes me not want to have kids. No sex, no sleep, tantrums, being #### ass broke, no vacations, no fun, higher divorce rates. Where do I sign up?

[Russic]

Originally Posted by rubecube

This entire thread really makes me not want to have kids. No sex, no sleep, tantrums, being #### ass broke, no vacations, no fun, higher divorce rates. Where do I sign up?

I had this conversation with a pregnant friend who was freaking out because it all sounds so bad. The problem is before you have them it's not overly hard to grasp the negatives. It is much harder to understand the positives. Everybody has a time in their life when they can relate to somebody that isn't sleeping well or doesn't have a lot of freedom. Having a kid however is an incredibly unique experience altogether.

You know that scene in Rudy where everybody is clapping and he finally gets to play and you get that feeling? It's like that, but randomly thrown into your life.

[Yeah_Baby]

Fatherhood, like the movie Rudy, but more random.

[RedMileDJ]

I'm really digging all the advice, and humor, in this thread.

My wife and I are due in February. It'll be our first and we've decided to leave it as a surprise, as to finding out of it's a boy or girl.

So thanks again to the OP for starting the thread. I'll be sure to post a pic of the new Flames fan as soon as he or she arrives.

Cheers!

[Boblobla]

Regardless of how funny you might think it is, telling your wife the following will not end well.

"But honey, you didn't have an episiotomy on your mouth..."

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ

My wife and I are due in February. It'll be our first and we've decided to leave it as a surprise, as to finding out of it's a boy or girl.

That's what we did, and I don't regret it at all. There aren't enough surprises in life, and I didn't want a pink or blue room anyway. My wife wanted to find out for the convenience of knowing what colour of clothes to buy, but she finally gave in and we opted for the surprise route.

It was actually pretty funny when he finally came out. The doctor held him up and said "do you want to announce to your wife if it is a boy or girl", and I agreed, but when they held him up his leg was up and I couldn't see the little twig and berries right away. So there was an awkward few seconds where I was leaning in trying to get a good look and all that came out of my mouth was: "Ummm? Ahhh? Ummmm?" until I could see it. The doctors and nurses thought that was funny.

The whole "I need to know whether to buy blur or pink" argument looks even more silly when you see how quickly they grow out of things. There will be plenty of time to buy gender-specific clothing when they grow out of most of their things in a couple of months.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by rubecube

This entire thread really makes me not want to have kids. No sex, no sleep, tantrums, being #### ass broke, no vacations, no fun, higher divorce rates. Where do I sign up?

Yeah, sounds grim. Not to mention the whole 'having a baby' process sounds like hell.

[Yeah_Baby]

It's funny, growing up I kind of always assumed I'd have kids. Nowadays, I'm not so sure. It's just such a drastic life shift.

[albertGQ]

I don't understand the whole "surprise" thing of not finding out the sex of the baby.
You'll be surprised either in the delivery room or the ultrasound. But one scenario allows you to pick out clothes, colours, toys, etc. More importantly, it narrows possible names in half.

[calgarybornnraised]

Its the "suprise" thats the whole fun.Thats the Dads part...ITS A BOY..... Then the Dad cuts the cord.

Dont name the baby till you see its face.

Dont wake the baby for feedings ..if its hungry it will tell you.

[4X4]

Anyone have some tricks for keeping the baby awake? More specifically, how to get her to get on a sleep at night pattern? Our two month old has been keeping mom up all night, then she sleeps all day. It's getting very frustrating.

[The Goon]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

I don't understand the whole "surprise" thing of not finding out the sex of the baby.
You'll be surprised either in the delivery room or the ultrasound. But one scenario allows you to pick out clothes, colours, toys, etc. More importantly, it narrows possible names in half.

You're thinking practically, and I can understand that.

We waited, because we wanted the surprise. There are so few good surprises left in the world today, and with how difficult my wife's labour and delivery went down, walking up to the table and seeing I had a little guy provided a lot of relief and tears of joy after a crazy day of stress.

[red sky]

Originally Posted by The Goon

You're thinking practically, and I can understand that.

We waited, because we wanted the surprise. There are so few good surprises left in the world today, and with how difficult my wife's labour and delivery went down, walking up to the table and seeing I had a little guy provided a lot of relief and tears of joy after a crazy day of stress.

That's the thing, there is no right or wrong when it comes to this. It is your choice and I think it is great you left it as a surprise.

My wife and I like to be as organized as we can so we wanted to know the gender of the baby before the delivery. There was still the fear in the back of my mind that the ultrasound was wrong and that we would be dressing a baby boy in pinks and purples until he is a year old. It seems that everyone knows of a friend of a friend where this was the case.

[Ironhorse]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Anyone have some tricks for keeping the baby awake? More specifically, how to get her to get on a sleep at night pattern? Our two month old has been keeping mom up all night, then she sleeps all day. It's getting very frustrating.

This is not uncommon, our first one did this. Just stick to the routine, she'll come around.

[Boblobla]

Originally Posted by calgarybornnraised

Its the "suprise" thats the whole fun.Thats the Dads part...ITS A BOY..... Then the Dad cuts the cord.

Dont name the baby till you see its face.

Dont wake the baby for feedings ..if its hungry it will tell you.

Meh, I had no desire to cut the cord. We found out we were having a boy and it was nice because people were able to buy us clothes before we had the kid. Greens and yellows are actually pretty hard to find. Pinks and blues dominate.

One more piece of advice, there is a size smaller than 0-3 months. Make sure you have some size 'newborn' unless you want to go to Walmart on Christmas eve to buy baby clothes like we did...

[zukes]

It really is the most rewarding thing I have ever experienced...twice. You will adapt to the lack of sleep and the change in your life as long as you remember that you love the child. That's not to say it won't be hard, but in a couple years you will look back and realize it wasn't all that hard.

I can only give advice for your future, as my son will be 5 in May and my daughter will be 3 in June, and like I said, we just adapted when our kids were younger, heeding all advice that we were given, but trying our own ideas in the situations as they occurred.

My advice is just to love your children and try to steer them in the right direction. You ultimately do not control what they do in their lives, they will decide that. As a parent, you just try to show them what you perceive to be the right and wrong ways to do things.

Always make time for your kids, I find that to be the hardest thing, but it is something that I learned from my dad in a weird way. My dad barely made time for me growing up, he was too busy drinking, but the times that he did as a young kid, were so special. My dad, with all of his faults that I would learn about later in life, was still the #1 guy in the world I wantd to spend time with as a kid.

I try my hardest to spend every moment I can with my kids, even doing things like grocery shopping is a family thing, just so that we are all together. I hope to keep that going a lot longer, and far more frequently than my dad did. It means that "me time" doesn't really start until the kids go to bed. Now, obviously things come up that make that impossible, but I try my hardest to adhere to spending as much time as possible with my kids.

[northcrunk]

Our daughter has been on a good schedule since she was about 5-6 months old. She goes to bed at 7-8 every night and sleeps 12-16 hours. When she was a baby she would sleep all night and wake up once in a while for a feeding and go back to sleep. At first having a bassonette in your room next to the bed is a big help for your wife if she has to get up to feed and move the child into their own room after a month or two (whatever your most comfortable with) and get an anglecare monitor which has an alarm that goes off if they stop breathing.


It is not always easy getting them in the routine but if you start early you can just put them in the crib and let them fuss...they will fall asleep. It takes a little while putting up with the crying when they first go down to sleep at night but they will adjust soon and will be on schedule in no time. My daughter is now 2 1/2 and is still on the same routine except she only has 1 nap in the afternoon instead of a morning and afternoon nap.

EDIT: Don't worry about being super quiet when your baby is down for a nap. It is good if they can get used to the noise while they sleep so you don't have to tip-toe everytime they sleep. Getting some dark blinds for the baby's room will help them sleep longer in the mornings too (sleep in time for mom and dad before they turn 2)

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by zukes

It really is the most rewarding thing I have ever experienced...twice. You will adapt to the lack of sleep and the change in your life as long as you remember that you love the child. That's not to say it won't be hard, but in a couple years you will look back and realize it wasn't all that hard.

I can only give advice for your future, as my son will be 5 in May and my daughter will be 3 in June, and like I said, we just adapted when our kids were younger, heeding all advice that we were given, but trying our own ideas in the situations as they occurred.

My advice is just to love your children and try to steer them in the right direction. You ultimately do not control what they do in their lives, they will decide that. As a parent, you just try to show them what you perceive to be the right and wrong ways to do things.

Always make time for your kids, I find that to be the hardest thing, but it is something that I learned from my dad in a weird way. My dad barely made time for me growing up, he was too busy drinking, but the times that he did as a young kid, were so special. My dad, with all of his faults that I would learn about later in life, was still the #1 guy in the world I wantd to spend time with as a kid.

I try my hardest to spend every moment I can with my kids, even doing things like grocery shopping is a family thing, just so that we are all together. I hope to keep that going a lot longer, and far more frequently than my dad did. It means that "me time" doesn't really start until the kids go to bed. Now, obviously things come up that make that impossible, but I try my hardest to adhere to spending as much time as possible with my kids.

My dad was a complete D bag who never had time for me or any child support for my mum, my basic guideline for being a dad has always been 'what would my dad do?, now do the exact opposite.'