Yeah, MrWhatsit and I were allowed into the NICU with colds, as long as we wore face masks.
This was during the H1N1 flu epidemic. They had implemented very strict rules about visitors. Nobody with a cold or flu was allowed beyond the lobby at all.
New mommies are so naive.
I had never before visited sMothering.com, so was interested to see a thread on vaccination. The OP was warning about vaccines being a eugenics plan to lower the population. Followups were less overtly insane but no one challenged the crazy, which I hear is par for the course.
You should totally challenge the crazy.
ETA: Vaccination is a eugenics plan? There’s part of me that’s just fine with stupid people not vaccinating their spawn; my only problem with that is that these diseases are contagious.
Posting pro-vaccination information of any sort in the vaccination forums on MDC will get you instantly banned, especially if you’re a new poster. Not that I’m saying Jackmanii shouldn’t go for it. Just that if he’s going to do it, he better get all of his debunking into one post, because one post is probably all he’ll get.
I had not been there either. I was a little shocked at the 22 page thread, titled "Eating your Placenta to prevent PPD… "
And the OP says she ate a little of the one from the first kid, but fed the rest to her cats :eek:
Just wanted to say that this is the best and most honest and heartfelt advice for new mothers I’ve stumbled across, despite the physical address of the thread.
Hey now, don’t let my praise kill a legit pit thread. Just imagine my unwritten responses to ZPG Zealot’s Dark Ages advice in the current GD breastfeeding thread, and be sure to add plenty of colorful expletives and eye-rolling. I’m not one to beat my head against a wall or hang out under bridges, so Ima let it go, but geez…
I think I set a world record by managing three days of pro-vaccine posts before the ban hammer fell. The anti-vax section of sMothering gets my nomination for single worst board ever.
I just wanted to say that if you think the parenting boards are bad, you should see the TTC boards. The stupid on those boards makes my brain bleed sometimes.
Since I was terrified of mommy boards before I read this thread I have a question to ask the sane moms of the Dope.
I have a one month oldand a two year old, and I consider myself a pretty relaxed mom.
A coworker has a new baby as well and I was reading a facebook post of hers that was going on about how stressful and worried she was when she first took the baby out. Then a bunch of other women posted about how they had such a hard time (mentally) when they left the house with a baby.
I don’t get it. What is so stressful about it? What are they worried about? Do they think that they are going to loose the kid? That they will loose control of the stroller and have to watch helplessly as it careens down the escalator and crashes into the pet store window where the baby is licked to death by a pile of puppies? She took the baby to a mall. At the age that she was fretting about a mall trip I had taken my first on a six hour car trip to visit family. On that trip we regulary went out to dinner, and even took her on a tour of a military air base. I have a picture of her in the cockpit of a fighter jet at two weeks old.
Am I missing some mothering instinct here?
Germs.
Newborns have not yet had most of their shots. The only vaccine given right after birth is the hep b. Most of the rest aren’t given until the baby’s two months. My ped said to keep the baby home as much as possible until her first well baby visit.
At least that’s what I think they might be talking about.
Or just the logistics of it. With my first, I was a bit stressed about how I would manage a feeding (especially while still trying to get the hang of breastfeeding) or a diaper change in a public place. For me, it took a few outings to get a system going and, since I’m the type of person who likes to have a plan and an idea of what the hell I’m doing, that was a bit stressful in the beginning.
I get the germ thing, too, though. My second had respiratory problems starting very early that were triggered by colds. His first of three week-long hospitalizations was at 5 weeks. I had to get out because my older son needed to leave the house every once in awhile, but it was very stressful to have people try to touch my baby, even when he was in the sling. There are a lot of people out there with very loose interpretations of personal space.
I vividly remember the first time I took my daughter to the grocery store…she was maybe a couple of weeks old. Got through the shopping part okay, but then we go to check out, and I get stuck in the line…you know, you’re up between the racks of candy and magazines, and there are two people behind you, and not enough room to squeeze out in front, and the current customer is a little old lady who just realized she has to *pay *for those groceries so she starts digging through her purse for her checkbook…you know what I mean.
Anyway, I went into near-panic mode. “Please don’t start crying. Please don’t start crying. Please don’t start crying!” (Said to both myself and the baby.)
I’m not sure what horrible tragedy I thought would befall me if she had started crying right then…I guess I was just still so new at the whole mothering thing that the thought of juggling a crying baby at the same time I was trying to check out groceries was just paralyzing. Not to mention trying to soothe the baby with all those stranger eyes on me, judging.
Not rational at all, but then what new mother is rational? (Besides you, Ludy! ;))
Yeah, basically the same as PeskiPiksi. I was terrified by the logistics, had no idea how to take care of the thing at home let alone out, under the judgemental eyes of others, and was incredibly sleep-deprived. Didn’t do anything for my confidence.
I had dreams like that when the daughter was first born. Well, not like that but I remember nightmares about accidentally leaving the baby on the bus and stuff like that. It was not helped by my reading an article about parents of newborns forgetting them and leaving them in cars on hot days, which is one of the more horrible things I’ve ever read.
Nonetheless, we managed to get out of the house with no difficulties and even took her on a long car trips without major incident.
I still had the stitches from the C-section when my OB-Gyn met me at a Sushi Restaurant in the mall near our neighborhood. My daughter was born slightly premature (3 weeks short, I got pre-eclampsia) but she came out kicking and screaming and a large baby. She was exclusively breastfed and her pediatrician said that for most germs she’d make do with my immune system. She has never had anything more serious than a mild cold.
My husband is frequently away from home for weeks at a time, so staying home with the kid was not a choice, somebody had to do the shopping, and all those other things that have to be done outside. A Baby Bjorn and a bit of planning (like not going out during peak traffic) worked wonders. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t too difficult either.
Wow, I really do feel dumber after reading some of those boards. If I ever say I’m leaving this place please remind me that most people can’t speell whell. I also see a lot of women get mad at their exes and give them problems with seeing their own children. Of course I might see that because I’m getting a lot of problems with my ex and seeing my kids.
I don’t get it either. I can, though understand being worried about the first time driving with the baby in the car and no other adult.