To ask what you've done in the past as a parent and now cringe about

[CherryChasingDotMuncher]

We've just celebrated our son's first birthday, he's our 2nd baby. We had a lovely chocolate cake made for him and of course plated him up a little slice. DH reminded me of our PFB DD's first birthday. We did the same - had a chocolate cake made for her 'party' (parents and siblings came round) which we dished out to everyone, except DD. Then we produced a sugar free disgusting muffin for the birthday girl herself as we didn't want her having any chocolate until she was much older what a pair of wankers. She's 4 now and today she had 3 Freddo's.

We also took her to the doctors when she was eight months old - because she shivered. It was January in northern England, and we'd just returned from living abroad, in the desert. Idiots

DH removed the bangs from the crackers at Christmas on DS's first Christmas

I'm in love with this thread

Dinosaurs microwaving melon 😂 Not my children, they are just feral, but we did microwave the cat’s food when she was a kitten.

I wrote instructions for my Mum with my first, when she gets her bottle, how to prepare it etc. She thought she knew better and didn’t read it. Phoned me because she couldn’t get her to calm down. Says I “is she not taking her bottle?” She replied “fuck.....I’ve not made it!”

I was a bit of a nightmare elsewhere though

Someone mentioned perfume. I don’t like that either. My baby came back from visiting her grandparents today smelling like MIL.

Awesome thread!

Our “just eat” account still notes not to ring the door bell from when DD was a baby. I also cooked her veg in Evian because I thought London water was dirty

I cried when my twins were 13 months or so and one of them bit through her tongue and the hospital suggested feeding her ice cream til it healed. She had never had “sugar”. I have a photo of my 3rd eating a chocolate magnum at 8 months old.

I still wash my hands before I touch a newborn though - doesn’t everyone?!?

I told DS1 that if he kept fiddling with it, it would turn blue and fall off.

Wandering around chemists in Tenerife with my 7 month old to find the bottled ‘baby’ water that I had identified during my detailed research. Evian and the likes obvs wasn’t good enough.

I've also done these PFB things like detailed instructions for mum, sugar free cakes, natural fibres, no screens. But I'm realising I haven't changed my parenting style as we never went on to have more kids. This means we're condemned to be these very careful parents forever doesn't it?

I wish I’d taken a pic of the hand-luggage ‘work of art’ nappy bag I packed for DD’s first long-haul flight at 6mths. It was a thing of pfb beauty.

Divided into 14 compartments, everything further broken down into labeled ziplock baggies within. A ‘quick go’ pouch clipped to the side with a ‘single-serve’ of nappy, wipes, dummy, toy and disposal baggy. Another pouch for baby meds, including that nose-sucky thing and ear-popping ear plug thingies and pre-measured doses of painkillers.

I was in a panic because I couldn’t figure out how to transfer my favourite (organic, non toxic) aerosol sanitizer into a spritzer bottle. I mean, you can’t put a baby directly on any gross germy airplane surface, can you? And how could I expect her to sleep without her lavender spray?

It would have been nice, in retrospect, if someone in my life had gently nudged me towards the anxiety diagnosis (and associated therapy & drugs) that I so clearly needed!

I’m in love with this thread too...trying not to feel guilty that I left the xmas crackers unmolested! [santa]

At the hospital, one of the nurses mentioned keeping track of PFB's bodily functions, looking back I don't think she meant it quite as literally as I took it. For FOUR MONTHS I wrote down the time of every poo/wee. I still have the sheets 18 years later.

Also for the first two weeks I was so nervous of DD being passed around, I made everyone put her down on a safe surface, so the next person could pick her up. None of this handing her off from arm to arm - they could have dropped her!

Was much more relaxed with DC2 thank goodness or my family would have smacked me

Okay, I have a PFB. I'm assuming from reading this thread that a piece of chocolate cake on a first birthday is not a major problem?

@cherrychasingdotmuncher I love your honesty

When my little boy was about 3 months i was getting him out of car seat and very lightly bumped his nose on handle he did a tiny little cry no tears i was panic stricking and rang midwife crying ( to make matters work i know her from work ) she was like ok is it bleeding i said no she said is there a mark i said no and then she said is he crying i said no. She was lovley to me and reassured me he was fine but what nust she have thought ! I wrote down how much milk he took at every feed then counted it up every day to see if he had the required amount then write down all solid good he had in a day aswell probably for most of the first year .

I'm fairly sure ds's first bath was in cooled boiled water.

Never really my kids so much but when we got kittens I used to leave a night light on for them

I recorded every nap, wet/dirty nappy, milk/solid food and dose of medication (including bonjela!) until she was 7 months old. She's now 9 months and I still occasionally catch myself in a panic that I've not logged something

I'm still on my PFB... he's 5 months and he loves the TV. I do log everything though... but that's literally because my OH will say 'is he getting hungry, when was he last fed' and I'll wrack my brains and then confidently say 'only about an hour ago. Hour and a half, tops, he can't be hungry.' I'll then check my app and it'll say three hours and fifteen minutes... so I find it very useful to remind me to actually feed/change him or put him down for a nap.

I love this thread. I'm still on PFB. 3 months in, I'm still logging every nappy and feed start time, but I feel like I need to as I still don't really have any concept of time. I will think I fed her half an hour ago, but when I check, it was actually 3 hours ago!

We asked for Christmas Crackers to wait until after dinner on Boxing Day at my in-laws, but that was because, as well as making PFB jump, it made 18 month old niece scream.

I also hate it when my baby smells of other people's perfume. I have a feeling that strong perfume smells make PFB cry, so was considering asking MIL not to wear any if she wants to hold her . Maybe I will wait a little longer before having that conversation...

Placemarking to add later. I was very pfb

I kept my bedside light on all night for the first 2 or 3 months of DDs life as I was anxious about SIDS and wanted to be able to see her clearly at all times.

On the birthday cake thing, friends of ours served their PFB a watermelon carved into the shape of a cake for their first birthday

silk I bought a dimming LED no heat touch light from Amazon so frightened was I that I would wake and not be able to immediately see newborn DS. And slept with the light on till he was at least four months, I remember being all proud of myself one morning telling my DH "i turned the light off last night"

I was terrified. I'm still bad to be honest, DS bedshares with me so I can check his breathing immediately huge anxiety issues regarding this though, as yet undealt with

I nipped my sons finger while clipping his nails. It bled a lot. I rang my mum in tears, couldn't talk, threw the phone to my husband who said "I don't know why she's called you, he's fine" and then I rang the doctors because I was in a panic about how to keep it clean when there was no way he'd leave a plaster on.

He was fine. Finger healed well.