Get sleep.

Babies are more resilient that you think.

The baby will come out blue and look dead. NOBODY told me this and it freak the living **** out of me.

 

I've got a ten month old girl now and I've just been through all of this. I would kindly disagree with OneManArmy's video baby monitor recommendation though. We looked at them ALL and ended up with this one:



Graco Mini Monitor

It's tiny as hell and has been the single most useful thing we've bought. It vibrates, flashes light and is just awesome. The video stuff all looked too pixelated to be of much use and she's just sleeping so the video doesn't really help much IMO.

Congrats and good luck!

-Brian

 

Do you guys get static at all? We have one, and though are kids are nearly too old to need one, my wife likes to be able to hear when they wake up from naps. Our monitor sucks *** and is like 7 years old.

 

+1! I am a new dad myself... just listen to your kid and pay attention to every move and sound she'll make. That's all she knows how to communicate with you in the beginning. Once you learn all those little noises, you are golden... for a while anyway...

 

No static at all. This monitor is perfect if you're active and want to carry the monitor around (it comes with a lanyard so you can carry it around the neck).

-Brian

 

nice danyo! now you can pway house fo weal!

 

Perfect example of everyone has different opinions. I read TONS of bad reviews on the madela pump. We went with the ameda. Cheaper. Cleaner system. More consistent Good reviews. More hospitals use it. Etc. Wife digs it.

The video monitor that Justin has is awesome. If you get a standard one I'd get one with a temp sensor. Our nursery can be a completely different temp than rest of house. Even with the fan going.

Listen to music you like with your wifes bellie. My kid loves metal. Puts her to sleep.

Socialize your baby.

Don't feel crazy if you find yourself standing over your baby at 4am to make sure she's breething. Don't feel inadequate if you start getting emotional or worry about failing and things like that. No one tells us as men what we'll go through mentally and emotionally.

That little sea horse with the yellow belly that lights up and plays music... get it. Buy a variety if bottles to find out what your kid likes best. Buying a bunch of one you like coulda leave you with 20 bottles your kid hates. Ours settled on tommee tippee.

 

Cool info.. Will be useful to me as well. It's really nice hearing some things that may seem obvious, but are not, from someone who has been through this already or is in the midst right now.

 

Congrats bro and welcome to the Daddy club!!! I have a 11 year old boy and a 4 year old little girl myself... Oh and dont worry to much bro you will do great it will all come natural... The one thing I say is spend as much time as you can with her because they grow up so fast I really miss when my babies were little. Oh and it also depends on your baby if she will sleep through the nigh. Both my kids would sleep through the night with no problems. I guess me and the wife got lucky on that one. Congrats again to you and your wife!!!

 

For what it's worth. My wife breast fed both kids using the same Medela pump. She eventually sold it and still got a good return.

I have no opinions about Ameda. Just don't try to go cheap. Both the Medela and Ameda are close in price ($200 to $250 range)... avoid the cheap $80 crap from Babies R Us.

Read the fine print on return policies for these baby items.

 

Oh and Congratulations!!!!

I wouldn't buy a pump. You can rent them from the hospital. I'd only buy if you plan on using it for a while. If your wife decides to breastfeed, be there for support. You may have a baby that's very difficult to feed or won't feed at all. My boy, now 6 months, had trouble with it. If for some reason your wife has to have a C-section, the breast milk may not come in right away and you may have to supplement the baby with formula to prevent Jaudice. My wife's milk took about a week and half, by that point my boy became a much lazier eater. And the shape of his mouth didn't work well for breastfeeding. So if this happens your wife could become frustrated and upset so you'll need to be there for support and let her know it's not her fault. Go to a lactation consultant. They are great at what they do when it comes to breastfeeding.

I agree with Ray (onemanarmy), the seahorse is awesome. They sell them at Target. The video monitor is a great tool, but you can never rely fully on it. We bought the $250 Safety first that gives the temp of the room and has night vision and isn't pixalated at all. But we ran into a problem where something is causing interference and preventing the sound from working but the video works fine. Ended up buying a Sony multi-channel sound monitor which works ok.

Patience, tons and tons of patience. Babies can be very frustrating if you let them. Everyone says how lucky I am to have such a good baby and he is, but he can still be very frustrating.

Compromise with your wife, if she's not breastfeeding, try to work out a schedule of feedings you'll each take. That way you each are able to get some sleep and not relying on one person to do everything.

I agree with everyone on the clothing, its ridiculous. Wait till after your baby showers to buy clothes cause everyone will buy you clothes and you don't want duplicates. Also I'll tell you right now, Gerber clothing runs SMALL!!!!! Their 3 month size is really newborn and their 6 month is more like 3 months. My son is wearing 12 month gerber t-shirts and they are barely fitting him. Carter's clothes are close to size, worst case check the weight on the clothes. If your child has a big head like my son (94th percentile) some of the clothes won't fit over the head despite being the right size.

There's a ton else that are just hard to put into words. What helped my wife during labor was telling her when a contraction was coming, when it was peaking and when it was coming down. They put a monitor on to measure the strength of the contraction which you can see when standing beside her. Watch the numbers and you can see when a contraction is building even before she really feels it. Also be careful about eating around her if she's having a long labor, she will not want to see or smell you eating food when she can't have any.

 

my sister had a baby boy about 9 months ago. They don't let him watch tv, but if the tv's on, he'll do his best to try and watch it lol. You could have him face the opposite way and he'll turn his neck all the way just to try and watch tv hahaha

as for clothes, check out Costco right now. They have quite a few selections at the moment. Pants and Shirt together is like $8

 

My son will be in his walker and will occasionally run up to the TV and watch it. He watched a full inning of baseball before getting bored and tried running over the dog.

My wife, as she gets ready for work, turns on Chuggington, some cartoon. My son loves and pays attention. Even made the connection between the monkey blowing raspberries on the TV to the monkey decoration on his wall.

 

You can find them a lot cheaper than that. Especially if you hit up Old Navy or Gap baby during sales. You can buy some clothes for $1.50, brand new, never been worn. Even Target has matching top and bottom sets for like $3. I've noticed that girls clothes tend to run a little higher than boy's clothes. When you start looking at the little dresses for like $12 and I can get shorts and a shirt for my boy for $6.

 

Word. Look at weights with clothes not months. My wife has bought more clothes than I can think of that didn't fit.