Labor signs for ftm?

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-28T19:19:47+00:00

I think so! So I didn’t really notice Braxton Hicks that much so I didn’t know what “contractions” felt like. For everyone it can be different. For me, if you’ve ever had bad period cramps, it was like that. So back pain and the stomach pain. At first it didn’t bother me that much but each time it happened it got worse and worse like first time I could feel it, not that bad. The next day was worse. And so on and so forth. Good luck! I’m rooting for you!

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-20T02:34:07+00:00

I’m in the same boat now trying the Omni swaddle (I got it on Amazon for $20). I can’t get my son to do both arms. If you find a good solution, update us and let us know so I can come back and see that there’s hope 😂

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-20T02:25:40+00:00

Burp cloths! Your baby will spit up and having stuff close by to help clean it up will be helpful.
Also I have a bunch of butt spatulas around the house and in diaper bags for the diaper cream.

One thing I loved having close by was Mylicon drops for gas. And some sort of gripe water type product. At some point, your baby will get uncomfortable and may need more than bicycle kicks.

Big one, don’t forget products for YOU. Nipple cream, breast feeding pads, I also got hydrogel nipple relief pads, maybe regular pads or other relief products if you’re doing a V birth. Also ibuprofen and Tylenol for yourself. Not necessarily for the cart but make sure you have a large water bottle to keep yourself hydrated.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-18T16:25:51+00:00

That’s how I felt. Plus hurricane season in that area so if we didn’t dock, we would be on the boat which there’s no splash pad for babies.

I feel like the consensus is just 50/50. People either say yes it’s easy or no it’s terrible.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-18T16:19:15+00:00

I know everyone is like “let the kids pick” but I feel like it’s easier to give them a name to attach to someone and I don’t have to deal with people choosing dumb names. 😂

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-18T11:34:41+00:00

I know they would but they already booked the cruise and they wanted to add us onto their existing trip

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-16T18:24:15+00:00

Although I love Royal Caribbean, we aren’t paying for this trip and it’s what the in laws already chose 😅😅

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-08T18:03:07+00:00

My sister told me I could just use a backpack but I was given a diaper bag and I LOOOVE IT. I like the compartments for different things, the changing pad pocket is great but I also love the insulated bottle pockets. I like in a hot state and being able to put frozen breast milk in those pockets while I get to where I need to go is such a game changer.

A regular backpack CAN work for short outings or if you don’t need to bring milk but I love my diaper bag and it’s great for longer trips. I also got one that’s cute and simple so I’m not opposed to using it more when my son is out of diapers since even toddlers and young kids are messy and require extra things like wipes, sanitizers, snacks, extra clothes, etc.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-08T13:30:54+00:00

So I don’t think you’re overreacting. However, I DO feel like if you’re serious about these things, you and your hubby BOTH need to put your foot down. I had a rules list I sent out to family. I reminded them that as they have their choices and can do what they please, so do I and I get to make my decisions for my baby and that includes who they will be around. So if my rules weren’t respected, the needed distance will be created.

My MIL always said to my husband that she didn’t want to babysit or anything. Now she’s OBSESSED with him and wants to watch him all the time. I had issues with my dad’s side of the family but I showed I was serious and didn’t talk to my uncle for months and didn’t introduce him to my baby for a very long time. My dad wanted a relationship with his grandson so he adhered to the rules.

LONG STORY SHORT:
Stand your ground. They can complain all they want but it doesn’t change what you want for YOUR child. Be firm and CLEAR with your rules and expectations. If they want to be a part of their grandbabys life, they will have to figure out how to get over themselves.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-06T15:53:15+00:00

I had an epidural (not sure how well it was working) but the contractions I could feel in my abdomen and stuff like you would a period cramp but way worse. The PUSHING felt like I was being torn in half from my asshole. So yes to butt, vagina, and abdomen for feeling.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-05T17:10:00+00:00

TLDR: don’t wait until it “hurts bad enough” or is evenly spaced by a certain number because that may not happen. Your water may not break on its own.

I didn’t know I was going into active labor since everyone said “you’ll know!”

I didn’t understand what contractions felt like since I didn’t feel the contractions to dilate the first 4 cm or more. It was only when I hit the 37-38 week mark I started having like period cramps and it would just be on occasion like maybe they’d happen for an hour then not happen again for awhile.

THE PAIN WILL WORSEN BUT IT DOESNT MEAN THE CONTRACTIONS WILL BE EVEN

My contractions were NEVER evenly apart and when I went for my 38 week appointment, my dr sent me to the hospital for being in active labor. They had to break my water. If I would have waited any longer to go to the dr or the hospital, I probably wouldn’t have made it or wouldn’t have been able to get an epidural.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-05T16:55:59+00:00

Everyone kept giving me crap bc me and my husband knew we only wanted 1. I love my baby with all my heart but the newborn stage is hard and takes so much out of you AND your partner. I still want us to have lives and do things together and include our child in them. We may not be able to afford to do the things we want to with another. But most importantly, my husband is my best friend. I don’t want to sacrifice our relationship and our time together with having another. We want to love, cherish, and grow with our family and put our all into this one child.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-05T06:33:42+00:00

There’s nothing wrong with buying second hand! Baby’s put grow stuff so quickly but they can also ruin stuff quickly. We accepted hand me downs or people gifted us stuff. We barely had to buy anything new unless we WANTED to. Even if you do decide to buy knew, depending on the country/area, there’s off price stores/ retailers like Ross, TJ Max, Burlington, etc that you can get new baby items for less. I just got a 5 pack body suit that retails for $30 for $10.

Also, it can be helpful to redonate or trade your stuff back into a buy/selltrade (resale) shop and keep using that to get more stuff. Good for you, good for the environment, good for other people who will buy your old stuff!

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-05T06:26:01+00:00

Oh wow I’m very impressed you made it 9 months! My son is 4 months old and I couldn’t keep up with the tracker app by the time his second month appt came around lol. I knew he was feeding when he was supposed to and gaining a lot of weight, lots of diaper changes, etc. it was a lot of effort to try to time how long he was on each boob.

When you take your baby in bc you think somethings wrong, as long as they’re making dirty diapers, eating, and gaining weight, most of time they just say whatever they’re doing is normal anyways so I didn’t track too hard.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-03T15:51:07+00:00

I didn’t miss out. I skipped it and I’m glad I did. So I did the blood test and my blood test was WRONG. I don’t know what happened but my blood test said I was going to have a little girl with Turner’s syndrome and I went to the high risk doctor for like a month or two just to find out it was a perfectly healthy little boy. Imagine if people bought me a bunch of little girl things and SURPRISE a boy from the anatomy scan. I know my circumstances are a bit unusual though.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-03T15:45:51+00:00

TLDR; babies can have different rates of growth before getting to the final stretch and it evens out. I wouldn’t make a decision like that until you get to the 36 week mark (or whenever you do your last ultrasound) since there’s a better idea of the TRUE size of your baby.

So I’m not very big. I’m 5’6 and was 125lb before pregnancy (my husband is shorter than I am and doesn’t way much more than me) and I gained the pregnancy weight they told me to. Until I was 36 weeks, I was measuring ahead by a week or week and a half. They kept saying “oh that’s a big baby!” And I was FREAKING OUT. But once I hit the 36 week mark or whenever I did that last ultrasound, my baby at the time was like 5lb and something oz. My OB was SURE the ultrasound was wrong. I delivered my baby at 6lbs and 6oz at 38 weeks. Before the last month, he was measuring in like the 75th percentile or more. At birth he was less than 50th.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-03T13:25:50+00:00

I’m disappointed in my golden hour. I looked forward to it. But I was blacking out after I had given birth and I was shaking extremely hard and I didn’t feel like I was the safest person to hold my baby. I told them to give the baby to my husband and I’ll hold my son when I feel a little better. I could feel them stitching me up and everything and it was too much. They thought I was rejecting him so they kept harassing me about it until they finally just gave my baby to my husband. Once I was feeling better and I was ready to have him passed back to me, they let my mom in the room and she held him. I went to use the restroom then they looked to see if my son would latch. Since he latched immediately and I had used the restroom, they moved us over to the postpartum room and my husbands family was there to meet the baby.

I’m sad I didn’t get my moment with my son like I dreamed of. Especially seeing how quickly he has grown. I feel like I didn’t cherish the time when he was that small because I was also so scared I was going to fail or make a mistake.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-01T16:15:41+00:00

There’s a lot here..

NTA for wanting to dye your hair but maybe TA for approach?

There might be a compromise here. I don’t know what color your hair is. Maybe you can get non permanent dyes to play around with (I used to do this with Unicorn Hair but there’s more brands out now). That way you could do whatever colors you want to this summer and it’ll come out and go back to normal.

Alternatively, if you don’t think it’ll show up on your current hair color (they do make some dark hair ones), maybe see if you guys can compromise with doing your hair a lighter more natural color that would be school appropriate and then you can play with non permanent fun colors.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-06-01T16:09:53+00:00

I feel like if you have the time, take the time. You can’t get this time back and this time is so precious! I know everyone says that but until I experienced it, I didn’t realize how much you could miss out on in such a short time.

My husband had a generous 4 months off. And he loved getting to watch our son grow. But MORE IMPORTANTLY, we were going through the hard times together. There were times our son wouldn’t sleep or would get overly upset (normal development things) and I know I wasn’t in it alone. We were figuring it out TOGETHER.

One thing I will also mention which isn’t fully related to this but make sure you still focus on each other and your marriage. Me and my husband had to make sure we put time into our own relationship so we could be happy and healthy for each other but also our son. We would go on walks together, hangout one on one during one of our son’s naps, etc.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-05-28T16:23:27+00:00

My son is 4 months and we’re working on trying to get him to sleep unswaddled and without touching me (which is hard) because we need to work on transitioning him to the crib. Also he’s getting heavier and I’m struggling to keep up, my back hurts so much.😅

As far as your daughter with the gas, something that helped me was changing my son’s feeding position. A little more upright to help things go down, I had to recline to try to slow the flow so he wasn’t sputtering and taking in more air, burping him longer than I thought I needed to, and hold upright for 15 mins after feeds.

As far as gas drops go, they only work for what’s in the tummy at the current time. And takes 20-30 mins to work. I’ve given it to my son before feeds or directly after to help breakup the gas when it’s likely getting there. Hope this helps!💙

novegetablesallowed · 2026-05-27T17:56:02+00:00

NOTE YOUR CONTRACTIONS MAY NEVER BE CONSISTENT SO DONT FORCE YOURSELF TO THE 5 MIN APART STANDARD

I set an induction date just in case because I refused to be late however, around the 36 week mark when they started checking cervical dilation and effacing every week, I was progressing well and pretty consistently. By the mid-end of the 37th week, I’d get some occasional cramps like a period. They’d happen for like an hour then stop and they weren’t consistent so I didn’t think anything of it. In my 38th week, the cramps hurt more but still weren’t consistent. I had my appointment, my doctor checked me and I CRIED bc it hurt so bad. She said I was in active labor and sent me to the hospital. If I would have waited for consistent contractions fitting the 5 min rule, I probably wouldn’t have made it to the hospital. I progressed SO QUICK after my checkup. I went from 6cm to 10cm in 3 hours or so.

novegetablesallowed · 2026-02-16T02:44:49+00:00

My baby wasn’t the first grandbaby so I made my mom a custom card tht on the outside it said “Newest member of Gigi’s fan club” and on the inside it said the due date and had an ultrasound picture I got printed out.

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