What's new
The Shaving Cadre

Welcome to The Shaving Cadre, a forum dedicated to gentlemanly discourse about wet shaving and other topics of common interests. Membership is always free so register today and join in the fun

Tips, Tricks, and Must Haves for a New Dad!

dangerousdon

dangerousdon

"I am Udderly Insufferable”
Veteran
Concierge Emeritus
Okay...if you haven't heard by now...I am having a baby. Umm...Scratch that...My Wife is having a baby! I am just along for the ride...wait...that didn't come out right either. Okay, seriously.

I am a first time father...at the wise old (emphasis on old) age of 47...I know I have my challenges ahead of me. So yeah...dangerousdon needs to buckle up! Because this train ain't stopping anytime soon!

Anyway...I am soliciting the help of the Cadre...Men...Women...and two or four legged furry creatures. I mean, I have to include @Dave in KY in the conversation...right?

I have already received help from the Cadre on the acquisition of a baby monitor. But I thought...why stop there? The Cadre is a wealth of knowledge. A lot of Fathers and Grandparents around here. So there has to be this untapped resources of good advice...right?

So if you happen to see this thread and you have tip or a trick or a gadget or some other item that will make my life a whole lot easier...please...I beg of you...please...help a clueless first time father out!
 
Fist item on the Table...feeding. So the wife and I plan on breastfeeding as long as she can...if she can. I won't go into details...but there is a possibility that she will not be able to. Either way...we are almost certainly going to feed the little danger baby formula at some point. Yeah...I am looking for that day that I have to get up at 3:00 in the morning...blindly stumble around while the baby is crying her heart out...just absolutely starving! Then I have to find the powdered stuff...spill it all over the counter...put water in the bottle...wait for five minutes for the bottle warmer to heat the formula up to a perfect temperature. Wait for the bottle to cool down because the perfect temperature wasn't so perfect! I am exhausted already!

Enter the baby Brezza Formula Pro! Think of a Keurig for babies. Yeah...it's expensive. But honestly...I think it might be worth it's weight in gold! Dispensing perfectly mixed baby formula at the right temperature in about 30 seconds? Yes Please! talked to a couple of people that have this also and they say that it is a MUST HAVE! All the online reviews say it's a must have. The mother-in-law scoffed at us when we told her about it...but what does she know... 🤪

Anyway...here is a link to check it out...and short video review that says it all. So...what does the Cadre Think?


 
We made up our bottles ahead of time for the day, and kept in the fridge. Bottle warmer took under a minute to heat them up. It’s really not that bad. We would have never spent $200 on that, even when we had twins bottle feeding.
 
Don, when you brought up feeding it brought back a lot of memories for me. Please get a WHOLE MESS of Soft white cotton shop towels! They are indispensable for urpage and all the other fluids and discharges that a baby generates. If you are burping a freshly loaded baby almost certainly there will be a bit of discharge. Have the towel in place to protect your shoulder and back. I still have a couple of the towels we used in my dresser because I found the towels handy for all kinds of other stuff. Sweat rag, glasses cleaner, etc..
 
dangerousdon said:
So the wife and I plan on breastfeeding as long as she can...if she can. I won't go into details...but there is a possibility that she will not be able to. Either way...we are almost certainly going to feed the little danger baby formula at some point.
Click to expand...
Just want to point out that if she’s able to, then there is a good chance you wouldn’t need formula at all with pumping and freezing milk for a return to work situation.

Anyway, the next few months will be fun watching your mental process of overthinking everything. But what an enjoyable even to be able to overthink. Just remember babies were being born even before electricity (I think) so you realistically don’t need to worry as much as you will about doing everything “right”.
 
I loved the breastfeeding thing because it meant I had the PERFECT out. Middle of the night feeding, grab kid, nudge wife to notify her she’s about to receive a surprise and BAM, my jobs done. But our first son didn’t go so easy. I did what KJ did, made the night time bottle(s) ahead of time and heated as needed. The baby keurig would have been a sure thing though had it been available. I know there will be a million people saying “CBLindsay did WHAT?” But we started night bottles with rice cereal really early. My memory says within a week or two but it might have been two-three weeks. It bought an extra hour or two.

My other recommendation is to absolutely embrace the idea of a bassinet next to the bed for the first several months, especially if breast feeding works. There will be an appropriate time to move to another room but the bassinet offers separate sleeping quarters without the need to travel. A glider rocker in the corner and you’re set.
 
Mainly...keep chill, go with the flow, don’t overthink things, just be as helpful as possible to the missus.

As soon as that little one makes an entrance, everything changes, all plans go out the door, the world clicks in a different way. You won’t know what you’ll need until you need it. Unless the plan is to rapid fire more kids out, there’s no reason to invest heavily in stuff that you might need for only a short time.
 
NurseDave said:
@GearNoir you have all boys. Isn't the rule don't get involved unless there's blood?
Click to expand...
I remember a time when my mom was a single parent with us 4 boys. She was I'm sure having a stressful day and my uncle came over that night to visit/encourage her I guess while we were upstairs rough housing. He comes up and swings the door open and says, "QUIET !!!!!" " I don't care if you kill each other but do it quietly" and he left. We just stood there staring at each other contemplating tactics..........
 
NurseDave said:
@GearNoir you have all boys. Isn't the rule don't get involved unless there's blood?
Click to expand...
Well, I guess that depends on the kids and the parents’ level of patience. My boys can do a fair bit of hen pecking passive aggressive stuff to each other, sometimes it’ll turn into a scuffle. Usually I step in when the pestering has gone on too long or things just start getting downright ugly/mean. It only gets worse the longer it goes on, so I’d rather just make attempts to curb the behavior and negative mindset.

Them being cooped up so long this year and one of my boys reaching teen-good has really not helped.
 
Bottle warmer that is small and can plug into the master bathroom is HUGE for middle of the night feedings. Megan comforted the baby and I got the bottle ready.

In the beginning don't stock up on diapers OR formula. Your baby will have a favorite. and others won't agree for example. Connor was fine in pampers and huggies caused a rash. Sadie was the other way around. It's weird!

Invest in a good swing and bouncer. These are lifesavers!

Don't buy too many clothes in one size they go grow quick in that first year. So for instance buy the same LSU shirt in like 4 sizes!

Invest in a nice glider or rocking chair for mama... this is for feeding and late night rocking.

Dad needs a laz-boy, this is for napping!

Slow down trust your instincts you both are hardwired to take care of this baby. Ask your pediatrcian for a chart that goes based off of weight tylenol and ibuprofen.

Love your baby and remind momma that she's still beautiful. Honestly after delivery your love for your wife will intensify.

Now this one is hard for the first baby so I understand if you don't do it, but looking back I wish we did, we definitely did it with our second. While in the hospital your wife is GOING to be exhausted after delivery. Remember you are paying for it anyways. But take advantage of the nursery while in the hospital. This is the last time you both can sleep. The nurses would call our room and say the baby was hungry and we would walk down to the nursery for feeding. But trust me it was a lot nicer to go home after a more decent night's sleep. Because that first night at home you will NOT get much sleep.
 
Last edited:
Cvargo said:
Bottle warmer that is small and can plug into the master bathroom is HUGE for middle of the night feedings. Megan comforted the baby and I got the bottle ready.

In the beginning don't stock up on diapers OR formula. Your baby will have a favorite. and others won't agree for example. Connor was fine in pampers and huggies caused a rash. Sadie was the other way around. It's weird!

Invest in a good swing and bouncer. These are lifesavers!

Don't buy too many clothes in one size they go grow quick in that first year. So for instance buy the same LSU shirt in like 4 sizes!

Invest in a nice glider or rocking chair for mama... this is for feeding and late night rocking.

Dad needs a laz-boy, this is for napping!

Slow down trust your instincts you both are hardwired to take care of this baby. Ask your pediatrcian for a chart that goes based off of weight tylenol and ibuprofen.

Love your baby and remind momma that she's still beautiful. Honestly after delivery your love for your wife will intensify.

Now this one is hard for the first baby so I understand if you don't do it, but looking back I wish we did, we definitely did it with our second. While in the hospital your wife is GOING to be exhausted after delivery. Remember you are paying for it anyways. But take advantage of the nursery while in the hospital. This is the last time you both can sleep. The nurses would call our room and say the baby was hungry and we would walk down to the nursery for feeding. But trust me it was a lot nicer to go home after a more decent night's sleep. Because that first night at home you will NOT get much sleep.
Click to expand...
Much better recommendations than mine......
 
GearNoir said:
Mainly...keep chill, go with the flow, don’t overthink things, just be as helpful as possible to the missus.

As soon as that little one makes an entrance, everything changes, all plans go out the door, the world clicks in a different way. You won’t know what you’ll need until you need it. Unless the plan is to rapid fire more kids out, there’s no reason to invest heavily in stuff that you might need for only a short time.
Click to expand...
Pretty accurate assessment of the terrain ahead.

I was fortunate enough (smart enough?) to get a huge load of pretty much everything i would need for the first 9-12 months from a friend of my dad's. As @GearNoir suggested, the period of need is rather short while the shelf life is rather long, especially if you take care of the stuff so I was able to keep and us pretty much everything that was of value for all 4 kids AND still have most of it tucked away 24 years after the fact. Interesting how some of the things that are no longer available because they were deemed to dangerous is some of the best made stuff around.

Looking back some of the best gifts/items we had were:

Diddie Diaper service for the first month or 2 (a gift from grandma)- cloth diapers we didn't have to wash kept us from having to buy disposable ones at a time when we were still figuring out how and when to change diapers. Cloth seemed to help with the skin but disposables these days (Costco...best diapers at the best prices ever man!) are as good as you need. I recommend adding baby wipes to your Costco list NOW, you will never stop using them. You won't need the micro-sized diapers forever but you can start buying them now too.

That diaper genie no stinky trash can, pretty cool and it works. Dont rush out and buy one but if you get one as a gift don't exchange it.

Glider chair, your wife will LOVE it.

That little blue binky they give your carpet crawler at the hospital ...pure gold. You CAN NOT lose it!. In fact, pretend you lost it and ask the nurse for a replacement, try to get as many back ups as possible. Trust me on this one. *I know, you aren't going to use binky's because of some reason or another...you will, take the little blue hospital binky and never lose it.

We used to make/use a special "anti-monkey-butt rub" at the hospital NICU that you MUST have at home. It is super simple but oh man will it save you and the danger baby so much agony. All you need to do is take some vaseline (any flavor will do but unscented is recommended) and mix in as much baby powder as you can get into it without making it become a block of goo. The ratio is roughly 2-3 parts powder to 1 part vaseline buy eyeball measurement. We used to mix in film canisters because they were a good size per infant and lasted forever. ...and back then we actually USED film.
 
So true on the binky from the hospital. FYI you can buy them in two packs at Target now! Also ask the hospital and your doctor for formula samples!

We took so much home from the hospital. Literally everything they brought in we kept... don't tell @NurseDave

But there are these little pink buckets I might have about ten of them!
 
Majorrich said:
Uh... I don’t think anyone’s asked because of your trip to the sandbox, but how sensitive is your gag reflex. Seriously! I’ve seen a wee one bring a mighty man to his knees. That’s something you can train on.
Click to expand...
Night Music?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top