Chaz Moms and Moms-to-Be Chat (everyone welcome)

[milos_mommy]

AWWW can't wait til Falon updates! We have lots of pregnancies again but it seems like it's been a while since a brand new LO came to Chaz.

I saw the chiro and he said my muscles in that area were very tight/spasmodic, and he wouldn't be surprised if the pain Im describing was strictly muscular/nerves being affected by muscle inflammation, but I should probably get checked for any internal/digestive issues since it seems to be diet-related. Also, it's my left shoulder, so he said gallbladder diseases usually causes right side pain and mine is higher up than would indicate gallbladder issues.

The horrific shooting pain is gone but I'm having a lot of abdominal pain still (since eating mainly). Could be not drinking enough water . Plus I had diastisis recti after I had lillian (not during pregnancy, oddly). SO is super worried about all this but I'm pretty sure it's not really serious, just a huge pain in the butt.

 

[Torch]

I'm friends with Falon on fb and I know she has had her baby. Everyone is doing well and I'm sure she'll come and update officially when she can, I won't spoil the fun of sharing details.

MM have you seen the chiro yet? Sounds super unpleasant for sure.

We found out our baby is a little boy this week. DH is suuuuper excited and it's adorable.

Can't wait to see updates from Falon.

And congrats on gender reveal! I'm secretly hoping for a boy. I'm 20 weeks now and it's getting harder and harder not knowing. We do have enough neutral outfits to get our wardrobe started, so I'm making myself wait.

 

[milos_mommy]

I kind of wish I didn't find out. I mean I didn't want and told dad he could decide. But next one I definitely don't want to find out. Knowing is ok and has a few perks but finding out in the delivery room was about 1000x more exciting, and tbh not knowing gave me a ton of motivation late-pregnancy and in labor/delivery the first time and I'm a little worried about not having that.

I've purchased two "girl" clothing items so far (out of like 25), and one of them is a blue onesie with a tiny pink flower on the collar. The other is a grey sweater. I'll never understand the "what will I shop for?!?" Reason for finding out

 

[stardogs]

I'll never understand the "what will I shop for?!?" Reason for finding out

Same! Neutral is pretty easy these days!

We found out because ti felt weird calling the baby an it all the time and because I wanted to guidance on where to put my energy for naming. LOL

 

[Torch]

I kind of wish I didn't find out. I mean I didn't want and told dad he could decide. But next one I definitely don't want to find out. Knowing is ok and has a few perks but finding out in the delivery room was about 1000x more exciting, and tbh not knowing gave me a ton of motivation late-pregnancy and in labor/delivery the first time and I'm a little worried about not having that.

I've purchased two "girl" clothing items so far (out of like 25), and one of them is a blue onesie with a tiny pink flower on the collar. The other is a grey sweater. I'll never understand the "what will I shop for?!?" Reason for finding out

I have found a pretty good amount of neutral clothing. I've bought about a dozen outfits and I'm content with that for now. Obviously we don't know gender, plus my husband and I were totally different sized babies- he was over 10 pounds and I was barely 6. What we did instead was start a small savings account just for baby clothes; once the baby is born we can buy a couple dozen outfits and call it a day. Whatever we don't spend on clothes will go towards other necessary purchases. My theory behind that being that we can plan all we want and we will still forget stuff that we will need.

What we are focusing on purchasing instead is bedding, blankets, diapers, and other supplies.

 

[sparks19]

I loved not finding out with Hannah. We just called her Peanut all through my pregnancy lol. Still do from time to time

At my baby shower, one of my friends bought a boy outfit and a girl outfit and then gave me the receipt to return which ever one I wouldn't be needing :rofl1: I thought that was clever

 

[milos_mommy]

I just called Lillian "the baby" and tbh I probably almost never used her name for like 5 months after she was born, we ALWAYS just called her Baby. I always think it would be awkward to not name the baby for a week or more after they're born but after having her and only calling her Baby I guess I get it.

I'm curious to see if we do the same thing for this LO or if we call her more by her name, since tbh we still call Lillian The Baby once in a while (and Baby as a pet name all the time).

 

[Dizzy]

I want to see the new babies!!!!!!!

We are loving life here. I can't believe I managed to produce such a happy, content little girl. I literally can't take a photo of her when she doesn't have a smile on her face. She's SO MUCH FUN. She smiles constantly, and is pretty chilled out. Feel very lucky. And in love, all the love. She has a sense of humour, makes us laugh, is starting to copy us now, and is into everything. Gets better every day.

 

[Dizzy]

Oh and not finding out the sex was amazing. The one thing I wanted was for my partner to tell me the sex of the baby, which he did. And it's one of my favourite memories! And you get all that excitement of telling people. I don't know, feels more special to me. I've friends who found out, announced the sex, the name, then when it was born it was kind of an anti climax LOL

 

[Torch]

I want my hubby to tell me too! I know sometimes he feels left out with me being the one to experience everything; this will be something only he can do

Had a great 21 week check up. Every time they've checked the baby the midwife has commented on how active it is! Pretty funny. Not surprising lol. Seeing my husband's face every time we hear the heartbeat is really awesome. We have our first ultrasound next week and cannot wait.

 

[stardogs]

Had a great 21 week check up. Every time they've checked the baby the midwife has commented on how active it is! Pretty funny. Not surprising lol. Seeing my husband's face every time we hear the heartbeat is really awesome. We have our first ultrasound next week and cannot wait.

I don't think I realized that we're only 2 weeks apart! We had our third and probably final ultrasound at my 18 week appointment. It is really cool!

And this little one is crazy active, too - felt the first kicks around 15 weeks, DH felt the first one from the outside last week, and he's reliably active after I eat. Today he's been flipping all over almost all day! It's crazy.

 

[milos_mommy]

Erin, does that mean you're 19 or 23 weeks? I'm 26! So they'll all be born close!

Hahahahaha my first was super active in utero and never stopped, ya'll are in for it. It's fun though. But Lil crawled at 5.5 months, stood at 6, was surfing furniture at 7. Today she fell hard tripping over a chair as I yelled USE YOUR WALKING FEET and tried to catch her.

This baby is way less squirmy.

 

[stardogs]

19.5 weeks.

I read a neat study on the correlation of in utero activity vs. child behavior in the first two years.

"individuals who were more active in utero displayed less distress to frustration and restraint at the first age and were more likely to interact with toys and the experimenter independently from their mothers at the
later age."

First age = 1yo, Second age = 2yo.

http://www.jhsph.edu/research/cente...project/_materials/_publications/movement.pdf

 

[Torch]

Yes, we are all very close!!

I don't feel a lot of distinctive movement yet-mostly lots of pressure changes from the baby changing positions. Thankfully he/she has been considerate and not kicked or elbowed the crap out of me lol. Instead really enjoys pushing on stuff.

My midwife said that she can tell I have a lot of amniotic fluid, so that's what's cushioning the movements. She also suspects that I have a good sized placenta. I'm really curious to get an idea of how big this baby is.

Our ultrasound is finally scheduled for next week-I'll be 22 weeks by then.

 

[stardogs]

We had our first doula interview tonight and I really like her - going to be hard to find one we both like better I think. She has an aussie, has helped with aussie rescue in the past, nerded out about our Atari glasses and some of Scott's references, and seems really cool otherwise.

 

[Torch]

I was talking to Roy last night about things we could do to get the dogs ready for a baby. I came up with all kinds of ideas and how I would work with the dogs based on their reactions.

Today I started my master plan by playing 2 minutes of a baby's cries at a lowish volume.

They slept through it. Lol.

 

[Dizzy]

Issue with the baby cries. Baby cries sound vastly different from one another. Like totally different. You don't realise this till your brain turns mummy. So the cry you're playing won't sound anything like your baby's cry, and to dogs, who have even better hearing than us, it'll just be totally alien. We didn't do anything if I'm honest. Newborns don't DO anything. There's just a static sleeping lump that cries on occasion. So you actually have lots of time to adjust and praise and evaluate reactions. Our dogs are only really noticing her now, at 6 months. Bodhi didn't like her newborn cry at first, but that's as far as it got, and lots of comfort and praise and she totally isn't interested at all in her.

I think the issues will arise, if they do arise, when babies become mobile. Personally I also think if you know your dogs, you already know how they're going to react.

 

[*blackrose]

Issue with the baby cries. Baby cries sound vastly different from one another. Like totally different. You don't realise this till your brain turns mummy. So the cry you're playing won't sound anything like your baby's cry, and to dogs, who have even better hearing than us, it'll just be totally alien. We didn't do anything if I'm honest. Newborns don't DO anything. There's just a static sleeping lump that cries on occasion. So you actually have lots of time to adjust and praise and evaluate reactions. Our dogs are only really noticing her now, at 6 months. Bodhi didn't like her newborn cry at first, but that's as far as it got, and lots of comfort and praise and she totally isn't interested at all in her.

I think the issues will arise, if they do arise, when babies become mobile. Personally I also think if you know your dogs, you already know how they're going to react.

I was wondering this, too. Also, with my dogs anyway, they can totally tell the difference between someone who is present and a recording. For example, if the doorbell rings on TV they ignore it. If it rings in real life, they go nuts. When I skype with Michael they don't register that they hear his voice/see him on the screen, even when he calls them by name. (Well, Abrams reacts a little. But he's super confused.) And they CERTAINLY react to him in person. Lol

 

[release the hounds]

I think the biggest thing you can do is know your dogs. I don't bring blankets home when we get a new dog, I don't play kitten sounds for a new cat. I don't require overnight guests to send sleeping linens over before their arrival so my dogs can get used to it.

I know them, we have a great relationship. If I suspected there might be an issue, they don't get to meet the baby, but they can handle pretty much anything. No dog gets free reign with a new born or infant anyway, and i think an owner should be confident enough in the interactions to happen with them around, or they shouldn't be happening at all.

I know not all dogs are as "go with the flow" or stable as others, but this is where you need to know your dogs. Beyond having meaningful and safe interactions once you get home, I don't think there is much anyone can do other than have a good relationship with their dog before bringing a baby home and that's the most important part. The rest, to me, i just "stuff" to do that others tell you to do because it means you're "doing something" though I don't think it does anything.

just my 2cents

 

[milos_mommy]

I think playing recorded cries can help some dogs, particularly noise sensitive dogs. Most dogs who react to a baby crying are going to do it a few weeks/months later when they know the baby is part of the family and crying means it's distressed. But for some dogs, especially those who get really stressed by any new noises (smoke detector, neighbor using a power saw, vacuum, etc) I think desensitizing them to that kind of noise is very helpful. It definitely doesn't hurt.

Most dogs are less stressed by a baby/newborn's presence than by everything else going on (schedule changes, owners being stressed, people coming in and out to help/visit, potentially scary things like strollers and baby swings). Or they get stressed by people getting upset about behaviors that they never bothered with before - jumping, going on furniture, etc. If your dog is already trained to act the way you want them to act with a baby in your arms, they're way less upset than a dog that realizes suddenly a baby is here and they aren't allowed to violate your personal space or have free run of the house.