We spent last Sunday with some 'first baby' couples. I know we've all been there. But, really......

[Bubble99]

This was at my MIL's with Mr Bubble's cousins and their babies.

One had a NASA style baby monitor and both couples arrived with travel cots with cat-covers.

One asked Mr Bubble where the cat was and he said that it had seen sense and scarpered. A 'cat-hunt' then ensued, even though this particular baby was in an autoclaved, temperature-controlled, cat-netted travel cot.

Mr Bubble buggered off to play with the big Bubble boys, leaving me to listen to puke-making cooing and discussions about Baby Mozart.

Puke.

Was I ever that bad?

Answer.

Probably.

[LandSmum]

I honestly didnt do PFB with dd1 and haven't developed PSB with dd2. Am surprised at the amount of people who don't use cat nets though - my grandmother had a son (my uncle) who was smothered by a cat lying on his pram as a young baby - and it wasnt even theirs. Needless to say I am totally paranoid about cats around babies and the overuse of cat nets.

[inanidealworld]

We have two cats. With DS1 I wouldn't let them or anything they had sat on come into contact with him (cos he'd get cat hair,germs, whatever)or let them in his room til he was about 2. With DS2(11 months)I have seen reason and he is best mates with one of the cats and frequently pulls his ears, tail, buries his face in the cat's fur while the cat just purrs away. The other cat scarpers when he sees him coming.

[theUrbanDryad]

i was VERY precious about ds till he was about 6 weeks old.

after that i couldn't be arsed.

dh is far more precious than me now!

[theUrbanDryad]

tee hee - i've just remembered a moment when ds was about 3 days old and dh insisted we had to give him a bath ...he ran it, and then i tested it with my elbow (didn't have a bath thermometer)...we stuck ds in and he SCREAMED AND SCREAMED!!! when i started to do his baths slightly above freezing he enjoyed them a lot more.

i don't test his bathwater anymore. he smiles and gurgles. it's very cute.

[mishw]

m pmsl theUrbanDryad thanks for that image!

[Sterny]

I've just remember another example. I used to go and stay with my Uncle and Aunt a fair bit when I was a child. I thought they were so 'cool' because they stayed up late and got takeaway pizzas. Anyway, when I was 13 they had a baby and that all changed. My Aunt used to go to bed at 6:30pm and my Uncle would put the baby in the pram and sit up until 2am jiggling it, when my Aunt would wake up and take over. Apparently if the baby wasn't continually jiggled he wouldn't sleep. Even at 13 this struck me as particularly bonkers. I never went back to stay for the weekend.

[smoggie]

Ok for PFB we had
Baby monitor with webcam attachment that linked into the TV in our bedroom....we kept the TV on all night so that we could see ds if we woke up. Said contraption never even came out of the box for NSC. In fact I can count on one hand the number of times I've used the normal baby monitor.

I too have approx 20 minutes video footage of PFB unfer his babygym...truly cringeworthy.

PFB has a word document diary detailing all his firsts, and even...oh god, do I have to admit to it?.....an excel spreadsheet of his milk consumption when he switched to formula at 6 months which I printed out to show the HV to check he was drinking enough. God I bet she pissed herself about that one. Didn't go so far as plottong it on a graph though.

[belgo]

lol @ smoogie's spread sheet.

[Lovecat]

MIB - the all white thing probably (well, in my case anyway!) relates to reading the first chapter of a certain book, which tells you it's easier to buy all white stuff when they're tiny so it all can get thrown in the wash at 95 degrees, thereby killing any nasty bugs that may be lurking in the cotton....

Given that dd had incredible jaundice the white babygro just served to counterpoint it and in all her baby photos from 0-9 weeks she appears a fetching 'Jordan' shade of orange...

[mummytosteven]

splutter at Blu and the sex in the toilet couple.

[shinypeople]

i was never OTT with my 1st. By the time we got to mumber 3, nothing really mattered!

I did take lots and lots of photos of 1 and 2 though. We have a handful of number 3

Poor chap!

[PippiLangstrump]

My mum has a diary in which she recorded every single thing I (PFB) ever did since day one.
She lies to my brother (DC3) when he asks her what was his first word!

[WideWebWitch]

lol at smoggies spreadsheet and webcam, hahahaha

[PregnantGrrrl]

my friend is having her first, and i know i wasn't as full on as her. if i get shown one more pushchair catalogue i'll scream! And she's buying so much stuff, there'll be no room for the baby when it appears!

[skidaddle]

smoggie - priceless - makes me feel oh so laid-back and smug

[serenity]

I used to go under the play gym with the DCs when they were babies - they'd 'play', I'd have a nap

[nappyaddict]

i did have an insect net for ds though last summer. the cats never tried bouncing on it thoug.quite disappointed about that!

[MummyTL]

For a few weeks after ds1 was born we recorded the amount of milk offered, amount taken, and amount puked back (estimate) during each feed, and then we loaded it all into a spreadsheet. Took us a while to realise that the information was totally useless.

[MummyTL]

And if that's not bad enough, dh once took 6oz of water in his mouth and spat it onto a muslin cloth to get an idea of how much it would weigh. Thinking back, I'm not sure why he had to put it in his mouth first.

[WideWebWitch]

ha ha mummytl

[LadyTophamHatt]

How did i miss this??

Those baby books always make me titter.

Ds1's was filled in religiously. Including a lock of his hair after his first cut, dates when hes 1st tooth came through (which actually I didn't know because I only discovered 2 teeth in his mouth when he yawn in woolies once, both were rightthrough so must have been there awhile. I recorded the dates for each tooth a week apart from that day!)

Ds2's book was filled in but only very basically. Weight, eye colour(aren't they all the same colour at birth though) etc.

Ds3...um I don't actually know if we even have one!

Ds4, well...you know!

[PippiLangstrump]

mummyTL you've made my evening!!

[cathcart]

before we came out of hospital I gave my mum strict instructions to proceed immediately to boots to purchase a nursery thermometer. For the first week I checked it nearly every couple of hours. I can't believe I did that, as I am writing this I'm think wtf?!

[milkymill]

Smoggie, i have just had tears rolling down my cheeks in hysterics at your spreadsheet! Iam guilty of pretty much everything on here, am much more laid back with nsc though. I am still rather neurotic about temperature mind you.