You ladies sure have been busy! I'll have to make sure to visit this thread more often!
Hi, I'm Sara!
For car seats, I am one of the few that likes the carriers for the convenience of not waking up baby. Though I have to confess that I usually made DH carry it. We had the Graco Snugride for DS, and it's on of the lighter ones and only goes up to 22 lbs. I wouldn't want it to go any higher. It's probably still good, so we will most likely use it for this baby unless we find an amazing deal on one. I like the idea of the Nautilus for older babies.
All the talk about food made me go downstairs and get a fruit bar - so refreshing! Sonic used to drive me crazy with advertising when we lived in Chicago b/c the nearest one was 3 hours away.
Now we live down the road from one and almost never go. I like their slushies, but the food is not that great. I agree - no posting pics of food here. DH & I like to watch "The Best Thing I Ever Ate" on Food Network - and it makes me sooo hungry!
For diapering, we still use the Diaper Champ (original) for DS and love it. It's so simple and does a pretty good job of masking odors as long as you don't wait too long between changing the bag. And you can use regular garbage bags.
I have a nice diaper bag from Potter Barn Kids for DS, but stopped using it 1.5 years ago and now just use a small backpack from a swap meet. It won't be big enough with the new baby, though, so I've been looking at the Skip Hop bags.
I never wore maternity underwear either. I like the VS angels stretchy cotton undies - they are so soft and comfy.
I had a lot of scent aversions with DS, but not as many yet. Mostly meat and fish. DH had shrimp for dinner one night and didn't take out the trash and it stunk sooo bad the next day when I got up.
Hospital stay - milk it for all it's worth, especially if you have other kids at home. The nurses when DS was born strongly recommended putting him in the nursery at night so I could get some rest, especially the first night, since I had been there since 2 AM that morning and he wasn't born until 6:45 PM.
Maternity leave - I had a c-section with DS, so I was off for 8 weeks, and will probably do the same this time. Due to my time with the company 6 weeks was 100% pay and 2 weeks was 75%. I didn't want to take more since I didn't think we could afford it. If I stayed much longer, I may have never come back, but I'm glad I did. I don't have the patience to be a SAHM. But I envy women who do.
Sorry to everyone that has the family and in-law problems. My family is great, but small. DH's family is large, but bought us nothing last time except a few little outfits. But I know they don't have much money, so I didn't really expect more. So my mom, and DH & I bought almost everything.
ZPT - sorry to hear about the "useless" doctor. I would go somewhere else if he was on call too! My DH can't follow instructions either. When we got DS's PNP, he and a friend put it together w/o the instructions, then couldn't figure it out at the end, so asked me to look at the instructions. They had missed one of the first steps, had to take the whole thing apart and start over.
Kiki - sorry about all you've been going through!
I hope your LO makes an appearance soon!
Iris - don't we all wish your mom was right and nausea and heartburn was in our heads! Maybe if I say "I feel fine" enough times it will come true!
EmALee - glad you passed the GD test!
Piecey/Patsy - interesting that your OB will let you go to 40 weeks, mine said 39 weeks for a scheduled c-section, but I would rather wait as long as possible. That nursery nurse you had was so out of line - I hope she's not working there anymore making new moms feel bad! The community baby shower sounds like fun!
Lindsay - are you so excited to see your baby in a week?! 4.5 pounds is small, I hope everything goes well for both of you!
Gabe's Mommy/Joy - thanks for the tip on Arnica. I've never heard of it before, but will get some for this time! I would be so mad if nurses were hitting on DH right after you gave birth - that is just unacceptable!
Oh, and I'm with you on being hit on by men lately - maybe it has something to do with the growth spurt "the girls" have had?
Christina - Have you figured out when your DH will take off work yet? How are the contractions today? Sounds like Ryan may try to make an appearance soon!
Mrs. Charming - so exciting on getting the u/s scheduled!
I would probably hold onto the Fertility Monitor until you are holding LO in your arms, like others said.
Nette - the clotting sounds scary, and that definitely did not happen to me. It would scare the crap out of me too!
Vettechick/Allison - Scary on your bleeding experience too! It's a good thing you insisted on seeing the doctor! That napnanny looks awesome - do they make them big enough for adults?
I didn't realize how bad it was until I started putting it all in the car! I also got some lasagnas for us to have for quick dinners. Yum! We're going to have one tonight, I'm scrapping my other plans!
I can't wait. I wish I could start right now. I've always hated school so I don't know where this excitement is coming from but I am glad I'm not part of the statistic about people who don't go right out of high school never going...I'll be out of high school 4 years this spring and I'm going back. I think it's almost better to wait...I have more life experience now and I feel I'm mature enough to handle it. Well mostly LOL. I just wanted to share my good news...its time for me to go find something to munch on now that I've read all of these food posts!
