babies in cities

Awesome, n/a. We just started buying baby stuff last month (we waited until we found out she was a girl). Haven't bought a stroller yet.

when is yrs due?

October 11.

How about you?

july 26, pretty soon

Just a month left to go - that's great!

OH SHIT SO SOON. Very happy and excited for you and Sarah!
And for you too kkvgz, even though I don't know you.

I am having so much fun in the city with my 1.5 y-o lately. She's really into going for walks around our neighbourhood and visiting with everyone from the drunks in the park (they have their own corner opposite the playground) to the old Chinese ladies at the bakery who always give her a little cookie. She waves and blows kisses to everyone. EVERYONE.

Not to get all sappy and sentimental, but having a kid has really made me more engaged with my community and kinda opened up the city to me in a way I didn't anticipate.

thanks dude!

just bought an ergo baby carrier off of craigslist

ha ha

the ergo carrier has turned out to be a very wise investment, because as soon as I put the baby in it, she calms down, and after I walk around for 10-15 minutes she falls asleep and stays asleep until I take her out again. I think it's basically like being in the womb; with the infant carrier she's almost in a fetal position and it's warm and holds her tight and she's bouncing around in front of my chest. The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to transition her from the carrier to the crib without waking her up.

We've got a stroller/car seat too. We're supposed to drive to my parents' house in NC for xmas and I'm a little concerned about a 13-hour road trip with the baby in the car seat, since she doesn't really seem to enjoy it very much. We're going to do a practice 3 1/2 hour trip to the mother-in-law's in the fall and see how it goes.

You just have to sleep sitting up in a chair w/ the baby in the Ergo carrier until she is a toddler.

:/

anyways it's come in handy because my wife is sick right now and the last couple of afternoons I've been able to pop the baby in the carrier and take her out for a couple of hours and let my wife sleep

13 hr roadtrip with a little baby seems nuts to me, but our kid has never loved the carseat -- don't think she's ever fallen asleep in it, no matter how tired she might be. but i know people whose kids love the car, too.

no matter how bad a 13-hour drive ends up being (and we're going to split it up over a couple of days with lots of stops), I would still rather do it than try to fly at xmas with a five-month-old baby. I hate flying in general though.

yeah, it's true -- we're flying out to california over xmas (baby will be about 16 months by then) and I'm dreading it. though i've found that traveling so far with the kid has been way worse anticipating it in my head than it actually turns out to be.

We took a 10 hour road trip (plus 10 hours back) with our one year old in the early 2000s. It was way better than it's been with 2,3,4 year olds, when they're too young to read or play video games & anyway their attention spans are short, but too old to just sleep the whole way (as our baby did on the aforementioned 10 hour trips).

We took transatlantic trips with our oldest child & youngest child when they were about 10 months old (respectively) (and a few cross-country red eyes too). They weren't a big deal. Again, the transatlantic trips with the 2,3,4 year olds have been worse (though better since you can play with them on the flights at least).

We flew transatlantic with Aidan when he was 7 months, it was fine with him in the wrap. At least flying you can attend to their needs immediately. We were lucky in that Aidan didn't dislike the car or the carseat and he'd sleep for most of our long car-rides, sorry.

The transatlantic flight we took when Aidan was 18 months was much worse, sorry Tyler, especially as he was still on my lap at that point. If you can afford to buy a seat for them then I heartily recommend it. A red-eye flight on a full plane sitting in the middle of a row with an 18 month on your lap, who's uncomfortable, claustrophobic and unwilling to sleep on you is one of the circles of hell, I'm sure.

haha, yeah, i'm sure. fortunately the flight itself for us isn't too long (2 hours) -- it's mainly dealing with airports around that time of year that I'm dreading. I'd be dreading it even if I didn't have a baby tbh.

W/r/t the 13hr drive, can you do it overnight? Then (in theory, don't blame me if it goes hideously wrong) all you have to do is stop for night feeds every however often (mind you Howie was still feeding hourly at night at this stage, though Archie was sleeping through, so depends how much of a good sleeper you're lucky to get!).

yeah my older brother is a big proponent of the "put the kids in the car at 1am and drive for 8 hours" strategy, which seems to work for the kids. he's pretty wiped for the rest of the day, but it might be worth it.

Kinda miss those good old days of my daughter in the Ergo, walking around to bookstores, record stores, comic shops, 3-hour sojourns with her nestled up against me. Now it's all pulling everything off the shelves, pointing, screaming, blowing kisses at winos.

We're going to Hawaii in October. She'll be 22 mos. We're flying overnight, which will either be the best or the worst idea ever. We flew with her last summer, she b-fed during take-off and landing, no problems, but she's fully weaned now, so who knows!?!