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The Pit Parenting Thread

I don't post often, so I didn't announce with a new thread, but I'm a new parent. My first kid, Harvey, was born 12/28. Having a bitch of a time getting him to sleep at night. Sleeps all day and wants to be up between hours of 11 pm-3 am.

Wife sometimes seems like she is on brink of breaking down. Any tips?

Rice cereal formula
 
What books do you guys read to your kids? My 4-month old gets the "Goodnight Moon" treatment at bedtime.

For my 3 year old, he has recently gotten hooked on "Goodnight Goodnight Construction site" and he loves the shit out of "If I give my pig a pancake", etc books. I've been trying to find some good chapter book to read to him at night. Currently doing "Fantastic Mr. Fox," but it's not really ideal. Any suggestions?

My son's at an age now (almost 18 months) where he wants to interact with the book more than have it read to him, so most of the books we look at are the learning books to help him work on identifying colors, animals and other stuff like that. We would read him most anything when he was younger - Goodnight Moon certainly got its fair share of readings (and still does).
 
On the pacifier front, our son didn't use one at all until he was about 1.5 and, one day, he suddenly decided that he liked it and wanted to go to sleep with it. We were wondering, "Um, where did this come from?", but went along with it. He's 2 and a few months now and seems to still like it. Is there any danger in him continuing to use it? All of his teeth except his molars were already in when he started using it anyway.
 
if your kids always eat what you're eating, does that mean that you just don't generally have spicy foods? or do your kids actually eat spicy foods? i've always had that question.

Our son eats spicy foods. We just either tone his down somewhat or don't make ours quite as spicy as we would have otherwise.
 
What books do you guys read to your kids? My 4-month old gets the "Goodnight Moon" treatment at bedtime.

For my 3 year old, he has recently gotten hooked on "Goodnight Goodnight Construction site" and he loves the shit out of "If I give my pig a pancake", etc books. I've been trying to find some good chapter book to read to him at night. Currently doing "Fantastic Mr. Fox," but it's not really ideal. Any suggestions?

My 2 year old loves Goodnight Goodnight Construction site and demands it for bedtime reading, but then proceeds to name things and talk through any reading that occurs. :tard:
 
bumping this one to the top.

let's talk about grandparents. is it a foregone conclusion that one set of grandparents is pretty much always going to be more involved? my dad isn't exactly warm and fuzzy with grandkids while my FIL loves nothing more than to roll around on the floor and play with my daughter. this leads to my daughter looking at my inlaws more favorably than my folks. plus, they just make every effort in the world to see her while my dad can go a month or two without seeing us and it doesn't really seem to bother him. i'm worried about this being a long-term issue where visits to inlaws are viewed as fun trips and visits to my parents are mandatory visits, at least from the kids' standpoint.

i do think my dad is going to be much more effective when she gets old enough to really have conversations so hopefully there will be improvement made then. also, as a side note, my mom and dad separated about 18 months ago and my mom cannot drive due to some health issues so she's 100% reliant on us taking birdie to visit her. i will say that she has been great playing with her and they have a pretty good connection. just hard to make visits happen too often when we are the ones driving a couple hours each time.

any advice/tidbits on relationships with grandfolks?
 
bumping this one to the top.

let's talk about grandparents. is it a foregone conclusion that one set of grandparents is pretty much always going to be more involved? my dad isn't exactly warm and fuzzy with grandkids while my FIL loves nothing more than to roll around on the floor and play with my daughter. this leads to my daughter looking at my inlaws more favorably than my folks. plus, they just make every effort in the world to see her while my dad can go a month or two without seeing us and it doesn't really seem to bother him. i'm worried about this being a long-term issue where visits to inlaws are viewed as fun trips and visits to my parents are mandatory visits, at least from the kids' standpoint.

i do think my dad is going to be much more effective when she gets old enough to really have conversations so hopefully there will be improvement made then. also, as a side note, my mom and dad separated about 18 months ago and my mom cannot drive due to some health issues so she's 100% reliant on us taking birdie to visit her. i will say that she has been great playing with her and they have a pretty good connection. just hard to make visits happen too often when we are the ones driving a couple hours each time.

any advice/tidbits on relationships with grandfolks?

Probably not helpful, but I feel like you just have to let it happen as it happens. As long as you're not favoring one over the other (giving them equal opportunity, doing the travel that's needed if it's tough for them to travel, etc.). I wouldn't want to force someone to interact with my child in a way they're not comfortable doing. I have to admit that when I was a kid, one set of grandparents was definitely the more fun set and I probably enjoyed going to see them more. But I also had some different connections with the other set that were pretty strong. My mom's parents were always the fun ones, especially her mom, but my Dad's mom was really big into the Red Sox and used to score games while watching them - she was one of the first things I thought of when the Sox finally won the World Series in 2004, even though she'd passed away probably 15 years earlier.
 
I missed pretty much all of the first half of the Super Bowl last night, don't remember any of the commercials, and fell asleep with four minutes to go in the game. Ah, the life of a parent. (And I wouldn't trade it). Admittedly, I had spent the last three days out of town and just got back about an hour before the game, so I had some time to make up with the family, and was exhausted.
 
bumping this one to the top.

let's talk about grandparents. is it a foregone conclusion that one set of grandparents is pretty much always going to be more involved? ?

Does each side already have other grand kids? My parents already had 7 grand kids before my son was born and jumped right in. But he was the first on my wife's side and it took them a while to warm up, really until he could speak intelligibly. I think it just depends on how comfortable they are with kids, which should improve with time.
 
Does each side already have other grand kids? My parents already had 7 grand kids before my son was born and jumped right in. But he was the first on my wife's side and it took them a while to warm up, really until he could speak intelligibly. I think it just depends on how comfortable they are with kids, which should improve with time.

our situation is the complete opposite. my parents already had 3 grandkids while this was the first for my inlaws. they were just crazy excited for it from day one. i applaud their energy and effort as it hasn't waned a bit in the 2.5 years since she was born.
 
our situation is the complete opposite. my parents already had 3 grandkids while this was the first for my inlaws. they were just crazy excited for it from day one. i applaud their energy and effort as it hasn't waned a bit in the 2.5 years since she was born.

Hmm, I don't know then. Maybe it's just not their thing. My only advice would be like Matt's, and don't actively favor one side or the other. The kids might decide they enjoy one or the other better, but what else can you really do? If the grandparents want more time, to be more active, whatever, then that's on them to make the effort and to make it more fun for the grandkids.

I actually ran into that a little bit with the inlaws, as they didn't seem to be making much of an effort at first. They have plenty of money to get an Ipad or nice computer or whatever to Skype and just didn't think it was worth the investment to stay in the kid's life on a more regular basis, which is insane to me, but whatever. My kids definitely like visiting my parents more because cousins will often be there and it's in a small town with a lot more open space and my parents are fun, but what are you gonna do? I liked visiting one set of grandparents more too, but I think that's pretty natural.

Only real issue I've had on this front is my father in law was really weird with the grandkids. He married my MIL 5 or so years after my wife's dad died and kind of has a "should I act like I'm their actual natural grandfather" complex, combined with his daughter from his first marriage guilt-tripping him about adopting his "new family" and spending more time with them, etc. It sucks and there's still some weirdness, but I think it's getting better with time. I've just tried to let him know that he will always be the only grandpa (on my wife's side) that they know and I think that's helped him to become more active with them.
 
I'm going to go ahead and check-in on this thread since my wife and I are expecting our first in June. Had the ultrasound today so I got to see the little one move around and scratch his/her (we're waiting) face. It was surreal, and really cool.
 
I'm going to go ahead and check-in on this thread since my wife and I are expecting our first in June. Had the ultrasound today so I got to see the little one move around and scratch his/her (we're waiting) face. It was surreal, and really cool.

Awesome - congrats! First ultrasound was amazing - makes it so much more real. We got out of the room and were waiting to see the next doctor, and talking about how great it all was, and Chic says "Plus, it's only one - not twins!"
 
I'm going to go ahead and check-in on this thread since my wife and I are expecting our first in June. Had the ultrasound today so I got to see the little one move around and scratch his/her (we're waiting) face. It was surreal, and really cool.

When is your wife due? I'm due June 3 and I swear I know 6-8 other people due within 10 days or so of me (ranging between close friends and acquaintances).
 
When is your wife due? I'm due June 3 and I swear I know 6-8 other people due within 10 days or so of me (ranging between close friends and acquaintances).

My sister is due June 8 and I'll come here and make it the Pit Aunting thread.

She is overwhelmed to start her shopping and registry, said that everywhere she looks has all sorts of different stuff as "must haves." I'm just having trouble not buying every cute little boy thing I see in Target.
 
My sister is due June 8 and I'll come here and make it the Pit Aunting thread.

She is overwhelmed to start her shopping and registry, said that everywhere she looks has all sorts of different stuff as "must haves." I'm just having trouble not buying every cute little boy thing I see in Target.

since we are having our second now, i feel like somewhat of an expert, but try to assure her that there are very few "must haves." i wish i could have 1/2 of the money i spent on shit that we really didn't need or didn't use. a few things are absolutely clutch and you should spend as much money as needed on them, but the rest of what you buy is largely overpriced and underused.
 
My sister is due June 8 and I'll come here and make it the Pit Aunting thread.

She is overwhelmed to start her shopping and registry, said that everywhere she looks has all sorts of different stuff as "must haves." I'm just having trouble not buying every cute little boy thing I see in Target.

Yeah, we were lucky in that one of our friends who just had a kid in June kept really good notes and had good tips about registry stuff and other advice. Between her long email, Lucie's List (I recommend that website/email for your sister), and Baby Bargains (also recommended), I think I have a decent registry list going. It's definitely overwhelming though.

And my mom is the exact same way about clothes...every time I talk to her she tells me about a new outfit she bought. I'm like, you know this baby needs some other essentials besides clothing right?! :p
 
I mean I'm no expert but I've been to lots of baby showers and I stayed at a Holiday Inn once or twice. I figure the main things you've gotta have are: Crib, bedding, car seat, monitors, diapers, wipes, onesies, swaddley blanket things, pump, bottles, stroller.

Thanks LadyDeac, I'll suggest those sites to her.
 
comfy ass glider/rocker is a must. also, video monitors are worth the extra hundred bucks or so, imo.

just keep in mind that buying nice clothes for 0-9 months is a waste. seriously, one of those frilly outfits that they will wear one time for an awkward picture would buy a box of diapers. i bet we had a dozen outfits that birdie wore one or less times.
 
When is your wife due? I'm due June 3 and I swear I know 6-8 other people due within 10 days or so of me (ranging between close friends and acquaintances).

June 22, and we are the same way. At least three of our friends are due within three weeks of us.
 
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