Parent Thread

  • Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and give us your nominations!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
E

etoille

698
0
joeboo_sl said:
My wife got 3 months of maternity leave, and that is definitely on the long end of normal for women in the US. A lot only get a month or two.

And Etoille, my wife is the same way. We're at 8 months now, and she really wants to get to 1 year with breastfeeding but we may not make it. Now that the kiddo has 2 top and 2 bottom teeth, I hear an audible yelp from my wife while she's feeding him at least a couple times every feeding. He's getting really, really bitey with his teething. He bites everything. Bites your shirt while you hold him, bites his stuffed animals, bites his pacifier. Breastfeeding has become quite uncomfortable for my wife, not sure we'll make it a whole lot longer just from that perspective.
Click to expand...
i got 3 months paid for at 100% through a combo of short term disability, vacation etc. At my last job.

Next time around at this job I will only be paid out for short term disability at 60% (different policy obviously) and I won't have the vacation banked.

No teeth here. I can't even imagine that.

We had pink eye last week, this week its a new virus. He napped 20 mins before the cough woke him up. Fucking ahhhhhhhhhh.

In other news we are putting the house on the market. Holy. Shit.
 
E

etoille

698
0
Irongut_sl said:
So, my 14 month-old son is obsessed with Wheel of Fortune. We don't let him get much screen time, but this show transfixes him before bed.

I've heard other parents say this about Wheel of Fortune. What is it? I know I can't stand the contestants and I'm fairly sure that Pat Sajak knocks a few back before each taping.
Click to expand...
hmmm. My sister loved wheel of fortune too. Maybe I should try that. I'd give anything to sit my kid in front of the tv for 10 mins. Best I do is a 3 min mana mana video on my phone.
 
E

etoille

698
0
joeboo_sl said:
Baby Einstein videos are the best things ever. For some reason our 8mo old LOVES puppets. Doesn't really care much about videos with people, or animation, but if it's a puppet/muppet he goes nuts. He'll sit and watch the entire 30 minute Baby Einstein sign language video. We show it to him once a day, he loves it. Hoping it pays off soon and he can start signing. We obviously sign to him as well, and I think he knows a lot of the signs, he just doesn't have the motor skills to do them himself yet. He gets super excited if you make the food or milk sign, to the point that he gets really pissed if he isn't eating or drinking within minutes of telling him that sign.

Pretty much all of the Baby Einstein videos are on Youtube as well(which I found out after going to the trouble of downloading them all first). The Chromecast device works great for this, throw the sign langage on the TV in the living room while the kiddo is playing on the floor, and he'll drop what he's doing to watch it.
Click to expand...
god I am so jealous
 
E

etoille

698
0
joeboo_sl said:
While having several months off sure is nice, who the heck works at a job where you can take half a year off and it doesn't cause a major problem? A while back I read that there was 1 European country(Germany maybe?) that allowed a full year for maternity leave. How would an employer deal with that, they'd have to actually hire someone to fill positions while people were gone on maternity leave, that's nuts. Unless you're like a fry cook at McDonalds or something, most people can't disappear for a year and step right back in like nothing happened.
Click to expand...
canada too
 
E

etoille

698
0
Thengel_sl said:
I wouldn't say anyone has really given us shit if we use formula, it's kinda the opposite. Everyone pushes breastfeeding so hard and talks about all the benefits etc. that it just makes you feel like that's what you have to do. We did bust out the first bottle of formula last night, because what she had pumped wasn't enough and baby was still hungry. I think she has finally given up on breastfeeding entirely, it's just too painful. All pumping & formula from here out.

The lactation people keep saying it's "toungue-tie" and want to clip his frenulum. I don't doubt that's a real issue in some babies but our pediatrician says the lactation consultants really over-push this and actual tongue-tie is much more rare. I'm fairly certain we would go in, feel bad about getting him clipped, and it'd be somewhat better but in a week she'd still be torturing herself and give up on breastfeeding anyhow.
Click to expand...
ive known a few who have had tongue tied babies it does help.

You will never let down for a pump like you will for the baby. So eventually like you said you will be formula feeding and usually more and more because having the kid on the boob all the time is what increases supply in most cases.

My son was born at 7lbs 8oz. He had jaundice fairly bad but no lights....a week out he was down to 6lbs 10 oz. Two week appointment rolls around he's back at birthweight. And sleeping a 5.5-6 hr stretch a night. Lactation consultant and pediatrician said I needed to wake him up every 3 hrs regardless and that if I didn't he wouldn't gain and my supply would tank. He was in the 5-25th percentile for weight. I said fuck that noise the dude wants to sleep ima let him sleep.

Well he hit a growth spurt three days later and spent about 80% of his waking time on a boob if not more. At weigh in at a month ish he was at 40th percentile.

He is now at 50-75th percentile for weight. And I have over 500 ounces of breastmilk in the freezer and adding to it. Over 400 of that was from Oct to now (when I went back to work).

Formula is great. If you need to make the switch that's just fine. But don't let the docs make you think you can't. Very few people have true supply issues. Usually as you said its a latching issue of some sort ie a tie or forceful letdown etc. If it's important to her to try, try all the things because once you are on formula you aren't decreasing. Only increasing it. Because even if it's weak flow time at the boobs will tell the body make more milk. That's how supply increases. My son is sick and won't nap but he has been asleep sucking on the boob for an hour. If this keeps up my body is going to kick supply again.


Also if breastmilk is important to you there are banks.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
140
My wife can't pump enough at work to keep up with the milk demand that the kid needs via bottles during the day, so we supplement with formula. He generally needs 3 bottles a day while she is at work, so we do 1 full breastmilk, 1 half breastmilk half formula, and 1 full formula. Kiddo drinks them all just fine, no noticeable difference in his behavior or digestion or his willingness to eat regardless, thankfully.
 
lindz

lindz

#DDs
1,201
63
I'm pretty sure everyone here has said breast milk is ideal, but formula sometimes has to do for reasons beyond our control.

For myself personally, I breastfed my second and third baby for a year or more but with my first baby my milk dried up after 4ish weeks. I felt terrible, like I had failed as a mother, but shit happens. My daughter is happy and healthy so I'm not going to beat myself up over it.
 
lurkingdirk

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
46,621
214,588
Well, my youngest got exactly 0 breast milk. Wasn't possible. He's entirely fine, and has the strongest immune system of any of my kids. He has had the flu exactly once in his nearly six years, never had an ear infection, and generally seems fine.

For what it's worth.
 
Tuco

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
47,390
80,856
Thread split toRerolled

Izo, if you have some bullshit advice to give, please use that thread and if someone wants some bullshit they can go there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.