found out today we're having a girl

6/9/2010 12:25:04 PM

What do you guys do about childcare.........I am having tons of emotions and the little guy isn't even here yet.

6/10/2010 9:36:57 PM

I'm lucky enough to have a neighbor who homeschools her kids watch our daughter. We pay her $700 a month, and it's a far far better situation than daycare where she didn't get nearly as much 1 on 1 attention and cost $1200 a month.

If you have no other choice besides daycare, find a good one and get on a waiting list NOW. We researched a ton of daycares when my wife was pregnant, and once we decided on one, the waitlist was nearly a year long. My wife was only 4 months pregnant, and we got on the waiting list, and still didn't move to the top until my daughter was 6 months old. When my wife had to go back to work, we had to use a less than stellar daycare as a temporary measure.

The difference in quality between a kindercare and a goddard school or kids r kids is astronomical, while the price is not nearly as much of a gap. it's worth it to spend the extra to get a better daycare with a lower caretaker to infant ratio.

6/11/2010 12:54:31 PM

my mother-in-law has kept my son up until now. he will start daycare when school starts back up in the fall after staying home with my wife all summer

6/11/2010 1:43:40 PM

$1200/month That's basically half my paycheck after taxes and shit have been taken out

6/12/2010 1:04:20 AM

Quote :

"What do you guys do about childcare.........I am having tons of emotions and the little guy isn't even here yet."

I'm in the same boat. I do feel a little better having found a daycare that I'm happy with, though. So far...

6/12/2010 3:24:48 AM

I have found home daycare for 160-180wk to several nice facilities at 1000-1200 dollars a month.

I was thinking of trying to find another family and getting an in home daycare provider and I liked that more than the day care option (esp. for the first year). It has already been decided I will stay home when I have the 2nd.

6/12/2010 9:23:13 AM

As a someone who worked in childcare for a number of years prior to becoming a mommy, I think that it is best to have your child at home during the first two-three years rather than in center-based care. However you choose to do that is up to you. Having Mom or Dad at home is my first choice, but there are some wonderful nannies and other caregivers out there who do an excellent job. I just think that parents need to be extremely careful about who they choose to stay at home with their child, especially a non-verbal child.

Once children reach the toddler years, they can get a lot out of a center-based care. I think that it's very appropriate to put them into some sort of daycare program (at least part time) by the time that they are 3 years old. I don't care how good of a caregiver you have, there's no substitute for peer interactions. Stay at home parents arrange playgroups, but I think that there is a great deal of merit to taking mom and dad out of the equation and letting the children work things out amongst themselves with the direction of a learned adult.
----

I am biased, but I think that a nanny is a wonderful thing. (I worked as one for 6+ years.)

6/12/2010 2:48:31 PM

As a worker at an MMO program, I am a fan of MMO programs But in all seriousness, I think it is great for socialization and time off for mom/dad. And it is only a couple days a week for a few hours each day.

6/12/2010 3:12:18 PM

[Edited on June 15, 2010 at 9:50 PM. Reason : eheh ]

6/14/2010 3:22:26 PM

My kid has fifth disease.

not serious, but man she is MISERABLE

6/14/2010 5:46:45 PM

^^ did you seriously try to post a pic from your GMAIL??? qntm will be crushed!!!

about daycare, my wife is a teacher and they have a daycare for the teachers' children, free of charge. not the best option, but pretty good considering it is free. thank goodness for that!

6/14/2010 6:20:44 PM

Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease is EVERYWHERE. In the past week, I've heard of it THREE times. By someone localish, from another DiGeorge baby's mother in WV, and my husband's cousin's baby in Va. I don't know if it's just the age of the kiddos (2-3 years) or if there's a little mini epidemic.

I'm so glad that my son is home with me instead of in daycare. I don't know how we would handle all of the germies and sickies after spending so long with minimal exposure. Ugh. Maybe I'll home school instead of send him to kindergarten in a few years.

6/14/2010 9:00:45 PM

I am going to start visiting places next week. Right now we cannot afford for me not work because of the health insurance benefits. My husband's company benefits are piss poor. I will pay 200 dollars a month for a family plan that if we went through his would be closer to 900 for similar benefits. My company also pays 80% of the deductible which is super awesome.

This wasn't a planned pregnancy (we are super excited and are happy). We have decided to start downsizing our current situation and hopefully in a few years when child 2 comes along I can stay home.

My husband's parents live a few miles away as well as some aunts but they are chain smokers and I just cannot have that around my child.

I am thinking of doing a nanny for the first 6 months......I am really curious to see some of the in home and traditional day cares that are out there.

6/14/2010 9:32:11 PM

forkgirl, please be careful in your search and make use of the resources that are out there for parents in search of childcare.

Child care in NC: http://ncchildcare.dhhs.state.nc.us/general/home.asp

International Nanny Association: http://www.nanny.org/nannyforfamily.php

Recently, there has been a surge in childcare ads on Craigslist in comparison to previous years. There seem to be a lot of people out there trying to make ends met by offering some version of childcare. There are a lot of great non-professionals out there who will do a phenomenal job with your child, but there are just as many duds who probably shouldn't even have custody of their own children. It's very important that parents know what they want out of a situation. Then they need to know what to look for in quality provider.

6/14/2010 10:22:25 PM

Quote :

"^^ did you seriously try to post a pic from your GMAIL??? qntm will be crushed!!! "

SHIT!! CALLED OUT! I thought it was a facebook photo.

6/15/2010 12:09:12 AM

^^ thanks for the sites.....I found the NC one. I will def. look into the nanny one. What do you guys think of Au Pairs?

6/15/2010 10:26:06 PM

just wanted to post another picture...

almost 5 months now

6/16/2010 12:33:49 AM

Does anyone here use an au pair?

6/16/2010 7:06:04 AM

I don't know anything about Au pairs. They're outside of my realm of experience. However, I can tell you that I never knowingly met one or anyone who used one. (And I worked as a nanny in Cary for 3 years.)

6/16/2010 9:26:15 AM

I worked as an au pair for awhile and it was a horrible experience. Mostly the fault of the parents I was working for.

Anyway, I kind of like the concept of a foreign exchange au pair once I have kids. No idea what they cost though. I remember this organization being used a lot amongst the other families in the area I was working:

http://www.iapa.org/Docs/index/index.php4

6/16/2010 9:54:02 AM

we just had miscarry number 2.

I feel so bad for my wife. this is really tough on her.

6/16/2010 5:33:06 PM

^ I hope everything works out ok. I am sure it is very tough. I knew someone that went through several before having her first.

6/16/2010 6:21:36 PM

well we just got a little bit of comforting news. the doc said she had a chemical miscarriage.

6/16/2010 8:48:36 PM

How does it being a chemical miscarriage bring comfort? I don't really know anything at all about miscarriages other than they suck

6/16/2010 9:18:42 PM

Quote :

"we just had miscarry number 2. I feel so bad for my wife. this is really tough on her."

I'm sorry. My sister had a miscarriage last year ten weeks into the pregnancy, and it was devastating. And I'm sure it's tough on you too, no matter how far along. Just don't give up hope. My sister thought there was something wrong with her, or that they would never have a child. Now she's got an absolutely beautiful 5 month old girl. Hang in there

6/16/2010 9:37:45 PM

Tess is 6 months old today. She's starting to babble for longer periods of time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGD_X7700Fo

6/18/2010 8:51:37 PM

Quote :

"we just had miscarry number 2. I feel so bad for my wife. this is really tough on her."

That's rough. One thing to consider is that, based on my wife and my poking around online, most miscarriages seem to be the result of a baby that had some problem meaning it wasn't developed right to be brought into the world. It's nothing controllable or blamable (a lot of people blame themselves for miscarriages) but just the body recognizing that this child isn't going to be ready.

There's not a lot of solace there, and it's still rough. I feel for you.

6/19/2010 8:28:45 AM

me and lydia 11 months 25 days.

6/19/2010 9:28:56 PM

he pissed through 3 outfits at Target so he had to ride home in a diaper and hat

6/20/2010 5:22:11 PM

lol
aww
why didn't u just change his diaper?



And on that note. . .It wasn't until I became a parent that I had the nerve to open a package before getting to the register to pay for it. Like diapers or wipes or goldfish...

6/20/2010 5:52:17 PM

that was day we gave up on the huggies and changed to pampers, he was peeing out the back of them and soaking his clothes way too much

6/20/2010 9:48:42 PM

we've definitely noticed that pampers handle our girl a lot better than huggies. but my mom buys us diapers all the time (and buys huggies because of coupons) so i just have her buy a size larger than normal. tess is almost 17 lbs, and [for her] a size 3 pampers is comparable to a size 4 huggies for absorbency.

6/21/2010 12:18:08 AM

Ugh! I hate Huggies. They just don't seem like they would even be comfortable for the wearer. As far as disposable diapers are concerned, I prefer Pampers. They're just a better fit and seem to wear better. However, if you're able to deal with a few extra steps. . .I love Little Gs cloth diapers w/ the flushable insert.

6/21/2010 7:53:20 AM

We're on the No Huggies bandwagon, too...R peed through those from day 1.

We've been using Luvs lately (b/c it's what we had from the showers) and they work well. As do the Pampers.

Also, a couple of shots from yesterday:






OMG!

6/21/2010 7:54:29 AM

http://wright-twins.livejournal.com/

My wife started a blog for the twins.

It's a bit premature, but really we just wanted a central place to put pics and videos for the family members instead of waiting for them to come around the house to see them.

Hopefully they won't hate us one day for putting ultrasound images of their wangs on the internet. Although I used to have an ultrasound of my bait and tackle in my photo gallery, so I guess they're just already taking after the old man.

6/21/2010 9:20:14 PM

Senez: that first picture needs a caption and then needs to become an internet meme. Get on it!

I , too, hate huggies. We tried them all and pampers was the winner by far!

6/23/2010 3:55:11 PM

Julia was born Wednesday - now we have one of each.
I can already understand the saying, "there's nothing like having a little girl".

6/26/2010 8:36:30 AM

congrats!

6/26/2010 9:53:31 AM

so awesome, YOMAMA!

6/26/2010 12:00:07 PM

^^^Look at that hair! So cute. Love the little girl pics....

We finally found out that we are having a girl in September!
She had her legs crossed for most of her ultrasounds.

6/28/2010 11:19:21 AM

Ah, so she's already a proper lady.

Congrats!

6/28/2010 7:10:02 PM

I didn't realize that waiting lists were so long for really good daycare. I'm 26 weeks pregnant today, but I guess I should go ahead and start looking into that since I'll have to go back to work after Christmas. She'll be 3 months old. We decided on Kensie Grace as her name- the Ken comes from my husband's pop who passed in February.

I finally started feeling her kick recently. It's so weird but I love it!

6/29/2010 10:31:28 AM

my lil bambino probably looks something like this right now...

6/29/2010 10:54:44 PM

^^ day care seems to have "seasons" of high enrollment. i was fortunate enough to claim a spot that was becoming vacant since one baby was going to move from the infant to 1-year-old room.

and as far as the movement goes, just wait! i could only describe the early movements as a baby alien trying to escape from my belly. it eventually felt more like a elephant trying to escape.

6/29/2010 11:38:53 PM

The first movements feel like little flutters, like a butterfly or gas bubbles. But in my last trimester, Silas's movement was so dramatic that people sitting across from me in the waiting room were able to see my belly moving under my shirt. It's crazy.

Silas is 2 1/2 now. I'm not a huge fan of babies, but I'm actually starting to miss having one. They're not quite as much fun as toddlers, but they sure are easier.

6/30/2010 9:05:08 AM

She typically settles down when I sleep at night, but this morning at 5 am she started pounding into my ribs. It is still such a weird feeling!

On a side note, I had the glucose screening yesterday and it was not nearly as bad as everyone had told me in their horror stories. 26 weeks along and she's measuring 27 cm. All is good.

7/1/2010 10:12:29 AM

--->

7/1/2010 10:50:56 AM

Our daughter will be 1 yr 4 mo in 6 days. In the last 2 months she has done several firsts, and it is always exciting when she does.

Today she did a first which I thought was particularly great.

I was sitting on the couch and she was playing a couple of meters from me on the carpet. She came over to me, held out her hand and started leading me towards the bedroom. I could smell poop and was wondering if she was going to do what I thought she was going to do. And she did! She walked me to the changing table in the bedroom, picked up a purple nappy (we use non-disposables) and handed it to me!

7/1/2010 10:57:07 AM

^haha



Our little guy is almost 6 months...some firsts as well:

sitting up, babbling like no one's business and teeth (god save me).

7/1/2010 1:16:56 PM