To wonder how we got having a baby years ago.

[IsItSummerYet2018]

This is totally light hearted.
But reading some people on other sites/ threads/forums saying about things for example : perfect prep machine for milk.
Saying how they couldn't live without it. When its 3am boiling up a kettle is a faff etc.
Don't get me wrong it is and time Consuming when you have a crying baby and sleep deprived.
However they haven't been around forever and everyone just got on with it before hand.

please note I'm not Having a dig it's just a general wondering

Can anyone think of anything else that we have now but didn't before... But just can't live without?

[JJPP1234]

I was born in 85 and remember having no seat belts!

[Namechangedtoscream]

Gadgets I'll be using now as then:

Car seat (but now I can rear face for longer)
I may actually use p&c spaces this time around

[loopylou1984]

Isitsummer - it's not recommended now that you make bottles more than 2 hours in advance.
That being said I know lots of people who have and the babies have been okay, but worth noting it's now considered risky.

[megletthesecond]

Hasn't perfect prep come around since they tightened up the rules around making formula? Can't make it in advance and store several bottles in the fridge like they used to 15 years ago.

[Namechangedtoscream]

What's changed between now and then?

[IsItSummerYet2018]

Same I have a similar gap and I'll do what I feel best not what they tell me.. Lol

[Louiselouie0890]

Before though you could just put milk into cool water. Guidelines are a lot stricter now that of you did it correctly can take upto 45 minutes.

[FannyHertz]

God, slings! Bloody slings! Everything’s about what sling you’re using at my nct. My ds has been in an umbrella fold buggy since he was 3 months and was doing stomach crunches in his pram trying to sit up

[NewYearNiki]

Hasn't perfect prep come around since they tightened up the rules around making formula? Can't make it in advance and store several bottles in the fridge like they used to 15 years ago.

But then perfect prep is risky too as the hot shot isnt hot enough to sterilise the milk powder.

There is no epidemic of sickness in adults raised on pre mixed bottles or weaned at 6 months.

[ChaosNeverRains]

I thought the perfect prep had been deemed shite now because of some temperature thing or other? Doesn’t heat the water to the right temp or something....

But when mine was little we:

Made up bottles in advance
Weened at four months
Didn’t have smart phones.

But when I was little:

No disposable nappies, or apparently there were but they were really expensive
No baby wipes
People had twin tub washing machines
No tumble driers
Babies were put in own room from day1 and put in the garden to sleep in the pram. Left to cry for periods
Even seatbelts in the front didn’t become law until 1980 iirc and wasn’t till the late 80’s/early 90’s in the back...

[storynanny]

I think taking prams and buggies on the bus would have been great when I had little ones. The number of buses I missed because the driver wouldn’t wait while I folded up the buggy with one hand, whilst holding toddlers hand, bags and a baby with the other.
I would also have used disposable nappies as standing over the twin tub every 2 days boiling terries was no fun.
Another one here who made up 6 bottles every morning and put them in the fridge door and warmed them up in a Pyrex jug of boiling water. I would be tempted to repeat the same now and not tell the health visitor!

[Namechangedtoscream]

I used to pull the bottles out the steriliser, make the bottles with boiling water (or just make up bottles of boiling water to add formula to later) then put the teat upside down hanging into the bottle and seal. All nice and sterile. What's wrong with that

And fuck off with the slings. I fall over a lot. I'll stick to the pram/buggy thanks. Although HOW MUCH! do they cost now

[GhoulWithADragonTattoo]

The truth is most people ignored the guidelines because they became massively impractical.

My answer to your question is birth control!

[Tiddlywinks63]

Sometimes I wonder how we managed 35 years ago without ovulation monitors, pregnancy POAS, scans, diagnostic blood tests, waterbirths etc let alone the plethora of gadgets once the baby's born and home 🙂
Somehow mine managed very well with only the basics (certainly we couldn't have afforded the costs of a designer pram or buggy!)

[Justmuddlingalong]

Prams with pneumatic tyres. I cannot for the life of me, get my head around adding a puncture repair kit for the pram to a shopping list.

[crunchymint]

Washing machines, tumble driers are the big one. Years ago I remember reading a list of things you needed for a baby. It was divided into must have, and nice to have. It recommended in the must have somewhere for the baby to sleep, but said that could be a drawer taken out of a chest of drawers.

[MistressPage]

I couldn't afford a perfect prep machine but I just half fill bottles with boiled water for night time, during the night I can flick switch to boil tiny amount of water in kettle, top up bottles to the level, pop in pre measured powder and have bottle made at perfect temp in under a minute.
I used to faff around for ages in the night with boiling and cooling before I worked it out!
Of course I don't have perfect tits like the breastfeeding bore...

[MrsMaxwell]

women ditched reusable nappies overnight for them

Just the women?

[crunchymint]

It was mainly women changing nappies. When I was young it was very rare to even see a man pushing a pram.

[MistressPage]

I think it's great that there are so many gadgets now to make our lives easier.
My mother's generation are fond of wittering on about how they just got on with things like hand washing pooey nappies as if that somehow makes them better. Lol.

[recklessgran]

Washing machine - definitely! Used to spend all morning hand washing little frilly dresses, frilly knickers, socks and matching hand knits. Nappies boiled up on the cooker after soaking in a bucket of Napisan. When I got my first washing machine I sat in front of it on the kitchen floor for a whole hour watching in wonder! Those were the days. We were poor but happy and everyone helped each other.......

[crunchymint]

I still have a big pan in the garage that was used for boiling up nappies.

Mistress Of course it does not make older mothers morally superior, but it was bloody hard work.

[ChaosNeverRains]

Also fathers at the birth were almost unheard of now we have the expectation of fathers plus birthing partners plus doulas whichever takes your fancy...

[January87]

It's fine to make up bottles in advance, but the formula has to be added to the water at 70 degrees. What you cannot do is boil the water, put it in the bottles and then put that in the fridge for the day and add formula as needed.

[Fintress]

Smart phones! I had my 1st dc before smart phones and I've got no idea how I managed not to die of boredom in the early days.

I developed an addiction to the twice a day Neighbours and Home and Away. I didn't even know what they were until I had my daughter!