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BigDHornfan

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Lil BigD had his follow up visit with the neurologist today with another EEG.  Still showing signs of epilepsy but the Depakote is working.  No seizures of any type since 4/26.  Won't need another EEG until next summer and there aren't any adverse side effects to the medication thankfully.  It still stings a little to have to see him go through the tests though and he had to be asleep for this one today which meant sleep depriving him last night which sucked balls.  But we made it up to him by taking him to see the Incredibles 2 after the Dr today.  

ad471edd78876bd1df4118907c1b32f8.heic

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We’re going on our first flight this Tuesday. He’s 18 months old. I’m anticipating pain

 

Go buy a ton of new, small, airplane-friendly toys, snacks and candy. Once they get over the newness of being in a plane and tired of looking out the window, bring out a new item for them to eat or play with. Take them with you to the lav. Then another toy/snack/etc. keep their lovey handy.

 

At that age they may still nap, which is a godsend. Mine didn’t, which was a huge part of the problem as she was over tired.

 

The key is newness. Don’t just pack stuff from home. Play doh, blocks, coloring books, cool candy like kinder eggs, all things they haven’t seen before. Ask the FA for juice in a cup with a lid. Try to squeeze as much time out of them as possible before rotating a new one in.

 

One crazy thing to be careful of are those kid sippy/water bottles with the mouth piece that flips up. The pressure inside will stay at sea level while the cabin altitude drops during ascent. When the kid flips the lid open it may spray everywhere. Unscrew the top to let it equalize a bit before handing it to them. You want them drinking during descent so their ears equalize.

 

Hopefully your kid at 18mos is a sweetheart like my boy was and not a restless lunatic like my daughter.

 

Edit: Screw tiny lavatories. My daughter on the flight up had the largest, nastiest poop and changing her diaper inside that tiny closet was incredibly hard.

 

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About a year ago, I was on a flight where a family came on with a 1-2 month old.  After they got they stuff stowed, the dad handed out about 30 bags full of candy, hershey's kisses, bite-size milky ways, etc. and each bag had a note in it explaining that it was the kid's first flight, asking that we please be patient, apologizing in advance if there was any crying and so on.  Probably cost Mom-n-Dad about $25-$30 and a little time to put it all together.  But the goodwill exhibited by doing so paid off in spades.  Yep, the kid did cry, for about 5 minutes on takeoff and another 5 on landing, but nobody in legit earshot seemed to mind a bit.

Just food for thought.

Edited by Buffsoldier
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Father to a 4 month old and about to go on first plane trip. Only a two hour flight, but still nervous. 

Side note - for the experienced father's out there, what age did you find most difficult? I have always been worried about the baby years and so far it is better than I expected, but definitely a HUGE struggle for me at times (boredom reading the same books and playing with the same dumb toys, can't stop the crying, the endless process of putting baby to sleep at night, etc).

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1 hour ago, HoustonFrog said:

Father to a 4 month old and about to go on first plane trip. Only a two hour flight, but still nervous. 

 Side note - for the experienced father's out there, what age did you find most difficult? I have always been worried about the baby years and so far it is better than I expected, but definitely a HUGE struggle for me at times (boredom reading the same books and playing with the same dumb toys, can't stop the crying, the endless process of putting baby to sleep at night, etc).

Just wait until they become mobile. 

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Our girl was diaperless and pantsless yesterday because we are working on potty training. The wife and I were eating dinner while she was playing near the table. My wife tells her "remember, if you have to go potty, stand up and go." I almost said something, but she didnt seem to be in the mood for jokes. Not one minute later our daughter did exactly what the wife told her to do, stood up and peed all over the floor.

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1 hour ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Our girl was diaperless and pantsless yesterday because we are working on potty training. The wife and I were eating dinner while she was playing near the table. My wife tells her "remember, if you have to go potty, stand up and go." I almost said something, but she didnt seem to be in the mood for jokes. Not one minute later our daughter did exactly what the wife told her to do, stood up and peed all over the floor.

haha.

 

mine has it backwards...she tells us "potty potty" and sits on it...but her diaper is super warm. 

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My 2 1/2 year old son when not wearing a diaper likes to handle his baby junk. I'll politely ask him to stop. He stops for 5 seconds at most. Is this normal?
 
Seriously,
A. Dick Ted


My boy is almost 7 and his hand is constantly adjusting or screwing with his dick. I don’t think he even realizes it most of the time.
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Quote

Side note - for the experienced father's out there, what age did you find most difficult?

 

As a dad to a 3.5 yo girl, I'm going to go with 3.5 years old.  Requires far more patience than I ever expected to experience in my life.  I used to listen to Louis CK talk about making his daughter breakfast and arguing about "Pig Newtons" thinking that was hyperbolic for comedic affect.  Nope.  That kind of shit happens daily.

Newborn/infant was relatively easy once you adjust to having a person who required 24/7 attention.

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21 hours ago, ohchaucer said:

 

As a dad to a 3.5 yo girl, I'm going to go with 3.5 years old.  Requires far more patience than I ever expected to experience in my life.  I used to listen to Louis CK talk about making his daughter breakfast and arguing about "Pig Newtons" thinking that was hyperbolic for comedic affect.  Nope.  That kind of shit happens daily.

Newborn/infant was relatively easy once you adjust to having a person who required 24/7 attention.

I have a 3.5 y.o. and a 9-month old. Both girls. The 3.5 is already smart and combative. Not sure how I’ll handle their teenage years. 

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I have 6 and 5 yr old girls. 1-3 are pretty enjoyable. 3+ has been a pain in the ass. I hope the man upstairs grants me super human strength when they become teenagers.

But knowing my luck..he will take away what strength i do have and make my daughters the worst lil shits possible.

Hope this helps. Have fun.

Sent from my SM-J727T using Tapatalk

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22 hours ago, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

It was tough sledding (28+ hours), but Mrs.’s FromTheMailRoom and I welcomed baby Sophia to fam.  Mom and baby are both happy and healthy - and I’m already completely wrapped around her finger.

Congrats. The 28 hours sounds familiar. 

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2 hours ago, HoustonFrog said:

Congrats. The 28 hours sounds familiar. 

Only way we survived was an amazing hospital staff at Baylor Scott and White in Lakeway.  Beautiful facility with giant rooms, great staff, and minimal - I guess occupancy?  We were 1 of two families on the entire floor.  They only deliver 16 babies a month there.  The nurses would come pick Sophia up for 2-3 hours at a time just because.  I highly recommend it for any family that’s expecting.

As a caveat, the dad’s “bed” in the rooms was horribad.  Only downside.

Edited by GlenFromTheMailRoom
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Pro tip for new parents: If your new born is sleeping like crap in its bassinest, buy buy baby makes a new born insert where you hook it up to the sides of the bassinest and it looks to be more of a snuggle fit instead of the open/hard layout the bassinest provides.

 

i bought one tonight and am going to give it a test...hopefully it makes baby sleep for up to 2.5-3 hrs at a time instead of struggling to sleep 1.5 hrs in between feedings.

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1 hour ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Pro tip for new parents: If your new born is sleeping like crap in its bassinest, buy buy baby makes a new born insert where you hook it up to the sides of the bassinest and it looks to be more of a snuggle fit instead of the open/hard layout the bassinest provides.

 

i bought one tonight and am going to give it a test...hopefully it makes baby sleep for up to 2.5-3 hrs at a time instead of struggling to sleep 1.5 hrs in between feedings.

You swaddling with sleep sacks?  Been working like a charm for us.  She's only three days old and we have to wake her up to eat.

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19 minutes ago, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

You swaddling with sleep sacks?  Been working like a charm for us.  She's only three days old and we have to wake her up to eat.

we tried swaddling the first few nights....just wasnt a go. we've been using sleep sacks since. He just doesnt like the hardness of what the bassinest provides for a sleep surface. our first kid used a rock and play and slept much better  on that thing. shes going on 3 and still wears a sleep sack but with the legs cut out lol

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15 hours ago, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

Only way we survived was an amazing hospital staff at Baylor Scott and White in Lakeway.  Beautiful facility with giant rooms, great staff, and minimal - I guess occupancy?  We were 1 of two families on the entire floor.  They only deliver 16 babies a month there.  The nurses would come pick Sophia up for 2-3 hours at a time just because.  I highly recommend it for any family that’s expecting.

As a caveat, the dad’s “bed” in the rooms was horribad.  Only downside.

Woman's Hospital of Texas in Houston is simply amazing.  They deliver over 800 babies a month.  The nurses there are absolutely top notch.  I recommend them to anyone. My "bed" was a slim couch that I fell off of twice.  I slept probably 4 hours in the 3 days we were in the hospital.  Should have gone to the next room and crashed on the hospital bed.  Funny how there are hospitals in Houston that literally all the do is deliver babies.

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16 hours ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Pro tip for new parents: If your new born is sleeping like crap in its bassinest, buy buy baby makes a new born insert where you hook it up to the sides of the bassinest and it looks to be more of a snuggle fit instead of the open/hard layout the bassinest provides.

 

i bought one tonight and am going to give it a test...hopefully it makes baby sleep for up to 2.5-3 hrs at a time instead of struggling to sleep 1.5 hrs in between feedings.

We ended up using the dockatot and just put it in the bassinet. Baby girl loved it and slept in it until she outgrew it. 

https://dockatot.com/

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Driving 4 hours to Galveston >>>>> flying 4 hours to Portland with a 4 and 2 year old. Stopped at the Blue Bell factory in Brenham to break things up a little.

Still sucked as baby girl would throw random tantrums with a lot of screaming but having some sort of control is a nice thing.

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Guest Lobo
On 6/29/2018 at 10:58 PM, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Swaddling good and tight made a big difference for us. Unfortunately my wife never got the technique down and I had to wake up to do that part to get her back down every time.

Bears repeating.  I don’t give new dads any advice because that’s all they get, and mostly from women   But I do repeat that they practice swaddling before baby arrives.  Learn to do it on no sleep, in the dark, upside down, left handed, and drunk.  So damn critical the first few months am no classes emphasize it at all.  

 

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On 6/28/2018 at 6:00 PM, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

Only way we survived was an amazing hospital staff at Baylor Scott and White in Lakeway.  Beautiful facility with giant rooms, great staff, and minimal - I guess occupancy?  We were 1 of two families on the entire floor.  They only deliver 16 babies a month there.  The nurses would come pick Sophia up for 2-3 hours at a time just because.  I highly recommend it for any family that’s expecting.

As a caveat, the dad’s “bed” in the rooms was horribad.  Only downside.

Will be there in about 2 months from today.  Was pretty impressed with BS&W Lakeway, but they're saying September is going to be a busy month, and they may have to fire up the postpartum wing. 

In other news, wife had the first baby shower last weekend, and I got to have my first official "putting shitty made shit together" experience.  Soon enough, seems I'll be buying batteries by the hundreds.

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