Heh. To be fair, a lovely nurse brought the baby over to me to let me see her and kiss her, and my husband held the baby for several minutes while they stitched me up.

thats why I had my second at a birthing center!

ml

A friend of mine is a nurse midwife and had both of her babies at home in her own bed. She looks so happy and comfortable in the pictures right after the babies were born.

I don't think I could do that--especially with a first child--even if I knew there was an extremely high likelihood that everything would go fine. I'd want to have emergency equipment on hand, just in case. Maybe with a second child, where I know what to expect with a birth. I think that at my age, though, a hypothetical second child would be a higher risk pregnancy (assuming at least a year or two between kids, and assuming the first kid isn't any time soon, and assuming no twins (that predisposition passes down the mother's side, right?)).

The birthing center seems like a nice compromise, though.

NOTE: RT is not pregnant and has no plans on being pregnant any time soon.

Another issue is the mess. No way I'd want to be anywhere near my wool carpet at that moment. Bad enough that my water broke at home this time. After just one time of amniotic fluid leaking onto the rug, I decided to head for the hospital to let them deal with cleanup. And don't get me started on the actual delivery!

tm

Hunh?

From subsequent posts, it sounds like this policy is somehow connected to C-section births (which, as it happens, didn't happen with us). With vaginal births, I don't see how this kinda time element would come into play.

Am I surmising this correctly, or is there something else I'm missing.

I think the lengthy delays all involve c-s, but even with a vag. birth they do take them away for a period to measure, wash, immunize, etc. The old school policy was to keep them in the nursery for ages and ages while mom recovered (and then bring baby back eventually, full of formula, of course).

The potential mess was the first thing I thought of when I read RT's post, but then I don't know nothin bout birthin no babies, so I wasn't going to be the first to raise the issue.

Yeah, the whole put-the-baby-on-mommy's-bare-tummy so they can bond thing is a newish invention. They used to just hand the baby to a waiting nurse to be whisked away, dried off, suctioned out, etc. Now they do the drying and suctioning while the baby is on mommy. At least here on the west coast. With Thor, the anesthetic for the stitches for some reason didn't take (this was the one drawback to not having an epidural) and I was howling, so they told the SFC to take his shirt off and bond with the kid. So there are some nice shots with the baby nestled up against a fur carpet. ;)

tm

Wow. This was not at all our experience. Federalism works! In our neck of the woods, I think the nurses were prepared to pee in any bottles of formula they found to stop them from being used.

Vaginal births, no epidurals, no Pitocin. Slimy, bloodied babies were immediately placed on belly and held by me for as long as we wanted -- we were encouraged to let them suckle for a while as well.

Frankly, I think the "let's give the baby a bath" pressure comes from the fact that the nurses find it easier to do all at once. Once that shit dries, it's harder to wipe off with just water and mild soap. Why should nurses be any less lazy than any other American worker? They want to finish up and get back to their dirty nurses' chat boards on company time.

My wife's had three C's and each time they cleaned the baby in the room, gave her to me, and I brought her over to mom's head while they stitched up her belly. They took baby back, looked her over a bit more and then I accompanied the baby and nurses to the nursery leaving mom behind to finish getting stitched and transported to recovery.

For the next 45 minutes or so I traveled back and forth from the nursery to recovery to visit my ladies. Once they moved my wife to her room in the maternity wing, the baby was brought in. It was exactly the same procedure for all three babies.

__________________

It was. I delivered with a Mid-wife and my husband . The facility was about 2 miles from the hospital should anything happen. they had hot tubs, and other non-medicated ways to deal with labor, although they did have some meds available. I delivered in a big queen size bed and I swear, they moved me like 2 or three times and I was suddenly in the bed, baby to belly, with my DH with me...while the assistant cleaned up the bed, and me, DH carried our D into the other room, helped with the cleaning, weighing etc.. and he actually brought her to me. we slept together for a few hours, got up, showered, went to the bathroom, nursed and then we went home. I had to take D to the ped within 48 hours, but as our ped knew our delivery plans, as soon as we called and said we'd delivered, she got us right in. a nurse came to check on me within 48 hours...much better experience than at the hospital with first..... but since I firmly believe if I try for a third, I will end up with twins, 48 hours of labor ending in a c-section(I had relatively quick deliveries with the first 2), I am done!

ml

What does "DH" stand for? I am assuming this is your husband . . .

When my son was born they took him away for about an hour to see a specialist. Seems at first they thought he had a third leg having a club foot. About an hour later they realized their mistake. My mom tells me almost the exact thing happened when I was born.

Dearest Fringey,

On other parenting boards where you do not visit and never will, the naming convention for spouses and siblings is usually Dearest Husband (DH), Dearest Son (DS) or Dearest Daughter (DD), or something to that effect. It's like using em on this board. Pop out a few kids and you'll get the codebook.

Ugh.

Can we ban this terminology on the board? I mean, why have the extra letter? It's inefficient. There are no other Hs so no need to designate one DH.

I am so very amused that you know this.

And Fringey, they are lame lame lame abbreviations, (though sometimes DH stands for Dickhead, rather than Dear Husband), but it is so engrained on parenting boards, I've found you might as well join 'em because you aren't going to change a thing by fighting it.

You won't catch me using the term, but standing, madame?

What about if we let you use "DC" for "Dear Cat?"

H could stand for Ho.

Oooh, spinster burn.

If we have another kid, Fringey has agreed to stand as Godmother.

Wow, Hank really is my friend.

so it's prehensile? That explains a lot.

dh = dear husband/ damn husband depending on how i am feeling about 'em. habit from parenting board and being home with toddler & infant and desparately needing adult interaction......and cut me some slack in that post..it was a mushy moment!!!!

ml

I am a meta-nerd. I can also recite elvish poems in Klingon and tell you some poker odds. I do not go to spin class, or own plaid pants however. There are some lines that men shouldn't cross.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

TV is on. The announcer says "Coming up next... Sesame Street." The Brazenette looks at me and screams at the top of her little lungs "I hate Sesame Street! Elmo sucks!"

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

I've posted this before, but it is a special holiday story.......

My wife was a La leche league devotee- my oldest at 2 was a beautiful (dtb she is beautiful-no?) still being breast fed curly haired little blond girl. She called breasts "nursies."

Anyway, we are all shopping at http://www.bronners.com/ world's largest Xmas store. We were in north michigan in july and just stopped in. It's a place of wonder and peace- all your worries fade away as you walk along aisles of mechanical angels and every Christmas ornaments you might imagine. There is an AISLE of dog ornaments, as an example.

Anyway, our guard is down, Little Kate is walking ahead of us. Coming at us is an enormous fat trailer trash woman. Kate stops and turns to us- pointing "look at her nursies- they're funny!"

Time stops- everyone freezes- they Kate delivers the death blow "She's fat!"

Nice! Be happy your kid is off punching blow up snowmen.

.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

This was in public?

We are very proud of his verbal skills
 

Mr. Lex blew his back out a few weeks ago picking up the Lexling at a bad angle from his crib (and then bending back down to grab something else). He yelled, "Fuck!" And so did the baby. Repeatedly. We had to convince him, "Daddy said, 'Stuck!'" Fortunately it worked - not one for the grandparents to hear.

We are very proud of his verbal skills
 

The Brazenette's dad taught her to say "Lying makes the baby Jesus happy". I am so glad I will not be anywhere near the ex-in-laws for Christmas.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

I love your kid. Elmo does suck. Whiny, high-pitched little narcissist. Elmo Elmo Elmo.

My husband loves the "cocksucker" story. Something similar is surely in our future.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

Careful -- complaining about Elmo to people who lived through Barney is a little bit like complaining about HIV to someone who lived through the 13th century. Yes, it sucks, but if you're allowed to pick your poison you'll pick Elmo ten times out of ten.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

The way I get ignored on this board, it's hard to believe I was voted MOST BELOVED POSTER on FB.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

Relax. When I said "lived through Barney," I meant Dinosaur. When Sebby called you the "Barney of the Board," I'm pretty sure he either meant Gumble, Frank, or Fife.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

W-A-T-E-R

He meant Barney Pennypacker, the namesake of the dorm i lived in Freshman year.

Hank Chinaski
'88 Law '91

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

My oldest daughter's very first curse word (over a year ago) was "motherfucker." Said it twice in a row. Fortunately, I sucessfully distracted her and she has never said it again (and the wife never heard it).

For quite a while, she would pop out with "Oh, crap!" or "Oh, Christ!" at very appropriate times. We have mostly got rid of that, though.

S_A_M

P.S. I agree with Atticus that Elmo is far preferable to Barney -- and I think Dora, Diego, the Wiggles, and Little Einsteins all beat the heck out of the Smurfs or Stawberry Shortcake. We are blessed.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

Our task was to morph the oldest son's appropriation of the word "fuck" into something more benign. "Fiddlesticks" was chosen, pretty successfully.

People still stare, but usually due to wonder at why the child selects a word not in current usage for the past 3 generations.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

The baltspawn know that fuck is not an acceptable word. They do not use it in ordinary conversation. However, they love to steer any conversation to include a discussion about a kid at school who uses the word extensively, at which point one can expect a lengthy diatribe as to why the kid is bad for saying "fuck" and a listing of the times he said "fuck" (and "stinky poopy head" - a curse which seems to have much more real meaning to everyone involved), an assurance that no one else says "fuck" in class, etc., the result of which is hear the word "fuck" or "fucking" from the mouth of a three year old about 50 times in a three minute period. A couple of times a day. All in a way that's difficult to argue with.

My proud parenting moment is better than yours, dtb.
 

Send them to me for re-education.