mandysee_mandydo | Baby Update

Yesterday painted_wolf and I went for another visit to the OB/GYN. We got to hear our baby's heartbeat again, and also heard the baby moving around, too. PW still isn't feeling any movement, but she most likely will soon. In two weeks we're going for another ultrasound, so we're really looking forward to that. Our next visit to the OB/GYN is in a month. I can't believe how quickly it's flying by. It seems like only just a few days ago that we found out, but PW is 16 weeks along. We're almost at the halfway point!

We've signed up for parenting classes through the OB/GYN and start those in May. In the meantime, we've been receiving so much baby stuff from friends, which is just so amazingly helpful. We're waiting on two more packages to come in, and then we're going to fill out our registries and send out a letter to friends and families with information on how to find the registries and information on how we plan to raise our child and how best everyone can help. We are very grateful for the help of

chenoachem and

quantumswordsmn with the information and baby stuff they've provided!

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Is she high risk? Is that why they are doing all the ultrasounds? Around here they only do 2 or 3 unless there are complications. I hope that all is well with Kathy and the baby.(and you of course)

No, she's okay. The first was just because we were unsure if we were correct on the conception date. We were going by her most recent menstrual cycle, but it was extremely short and light, so since there was a chance we may have succeeded a month earlier than we thought, the OB/GYN felt it would be good to get an ultrasound to determine for sure so we could plan all of our appointments appropriately.

This one coming up is the 18-week ultrasound which is pretty typical.

So far Kathy and baby are both doing well and very healthy! :)

Your welcome. Let us know if you want anymore help. I would suggest one book. "What to Expect in the First Year". It got us out of a lot of potentially panic times. Also, make sure you know the number of the on-call nurse for your insurance company. That is also helpful for late night questions.

We're definitely going to get that book. A few people have recommended it already. We picked up a couple of "first year" books from the library used books sale and from one of my workers who gave us a bunch of baby stuff, but we've heard lots of great things about "What To Expect in the First Year" so we want to make sure we get that.

Actually, I do have one question. We're trying to estimate the increase for groceries in our budget. Do you remember about how much more per week or month that you and Steve paid in groceries once Helena was born? We've been looking at the prices of diapers and baby food and such, and I think I have a good number, but to be honest I'm not exactly sure just how many diapers a day on average we'll be going through, how much food we'll need in a given week, et cetera.

Well it depends on your theories and ideas. On average infants will go through about 10-12 diapers per day. I think we ended up paying about $50 per month on diapers. Amazon has a diaper club that is worth signing up for since it is far cheaper than the grocery store or Walmart. We made our own baby food out of vegies and soft meats we were eating so that budget never really increased. We bought cereal (about 1 container per month) but we didn't start her on that until 6months old. We had an emergency backup of formula for day care, that was the expensive thing. Now that Helena is only eating people food we have increase our food budget (at 2 years old) about $50-$100 a week. The healthier kids version of things and 100% juice does get pricy. Hope this helps.

If you decide to go with jar baby food, a healthy diet would be 1/2 jar per meal. It is not recommended to start on anything but cereal before 1 year. We started at 10 months, one vegi/fruit per week. That is how you can determine allergies and prevent them.

Thanks so much for the information! It's extremely helpful! That's definitely more than we anticipated on diapers, but I think we still managed to add in enough to cover that much. I keep forgetting that in the beginning it's not going to be as much food cost as it will be diapers and such. Even still, I think if I leave things be we'll be good. I'm increasing our weekly groceries budget by $30 per week starting the week our child is due, so I think that will be okay.

Kathy and I have been talking about making our own baby food and I really think that's what we'll do, which means we have to get a new food processor at some point. We've been reading about it in some of the baby books we have and know which foods to avoid making ourselves. We would much rather make it ourselves because then we know what's going into our child's food.

There are baby food processors, which we have, that are about $30. Better for portions that will be good for them. There are a lot of information out there for freezing baby food too.

Also, Make sure, that after the baby is born, that Kathy has food high in iron. I lost a lot of blood so it was crucial to have red meats and fruits. I know I didn't eat much after she was born, just forgot to since I was so busy. Other things to keep in mind.

All the "What to Expect" books are rather good. :D

Also, formula is a real budget killer. Our budget wasn't hit terribly by diapers or food, but the formula... $30 per week for just the formula. We can buy a $30 box of diapers that'll last a month or more (depending on the size and how many the kid goes through.) Sam's Club and bulk boxes FTW. ;)

The benefits of breast feeding and amazon diaper club.

Baby Update - February 2009

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