The SSP Calgary Baby/Children Thread

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by simster3

That's an awesome picture. I find myself looking forward to knowing him when he is a man. I have always had a long horizon in my planning but nothing quite like this. It is a strange feeling.

Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I have two older children who are now adults, and I can say that it is a very rewarding experience knowing them as adults. You have so much to look forward to.

[RWin]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I have two older children who are now adults, and I can say that it is a very rewarding experience knowing them as adults. You have so much to look forward to.

x2

Going back 18 years I remember thinking to myself, "this is going to take forever." Now I wonder where the time went. Having said that, I've always like the point in life where my kids were/are at "now." If that makes any sense.

[simster3]

Originally Posted by RWin

x2

Going back 18 years I remember thinking to myself, "this is going to take forever." Now I wonder where the time went. Having said that, I've always like the point in life where my kids were/are at "now." If that makes any sense.

I've heard that before. There is no favourite time, the present is the best.

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by simster3

I've heard that before. There is no favourite time, the present is the best.

That's true. All periods are good. So many things to look forward to.

[Surrealplaces]

I have been picking up my son from my wife's work location in the Beltline three times a week, and since it's only 4:00pm when I pick him up we have been killing some time enjoying the fresh air and spring weather.

We decided to risk life and limb and hit the parks in the Beltline....even knowing we could easily be dead by 5:00 pm. So far it's been all been good ..... I haven't been stabbed, accosted, or shot at and haven't stepped on any drug needles......haven't even been asked for change. I'm still alive to tell the story and post some pics.


Beltline Park by Surrealplaces, on Flickr


Kirby plays at a downtown park by Surrealplaces, on Flickr


Kirby at a downtown park by Surrealplaces, on Flickr

[mersar]

Figured I'd just stop by and let everyone know here that my wife and I welcomed our first born on Tuesday morning, a healthy and stubborn little boy. Now I'm heading to bed for what may be my last full night of sleep for a while as the wife is still at the hospital for a few days.

[Bigtime]

Whaaaaaaaat? I don't even recall you mentioning you two were expecting.

Congratulations and welcome to the no sleep club, totally worth it!

Oh and Surreal, I'm glad you made it out alive.

Haultain park is the best, we still go down there sometimes with the kids. A cycle track will make going down into Beltline much easier/safer/quicker so I plan to visit much more in the future.

[simster3]

Congrats Mersar! Our sons are only a month apart. Its been a lot of fun and a bit of frustration so far. Looking forward to more!

[You Need A Thneed]

Congrats Mersar!

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by mersar

Figured I'd just stop by and let everyone know here that my wife and I welcomed our first born on Tuesday morning, a healthy and stubborn little boy. Now I'm heading to bed for what may be my last full night of sleep for a while as the wife is still at the hospital for a few days.

Congratr J!

Get that sleep in, soon sleep will be a precious commodity!

[Surrealplaces]

Alcatraz has nothing on the Beltline

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Oh and Surreal, I'm glad you made it out alive.

Haultain park is the best, we still go down there sometimes with the kids. A cycle track will make going down into Beltline much easier/safer/quicker so I plan to visit much more in the future.

[MonctonGoldenFlames]

So, anybody have the pleasure of owning multiples? We welcomed identical twin girls into the world on may 2ndI, and have been blessed as well as overwhelmed. Does anybody have any help resources that would make our life a little easier? The small amount of family in town has not been around nearly as much as we had hoped, and the wife needs support during the day while I'm at work.

Any help or tips is much appreciated!

[YYCguys]

Congratulations to you and your wife, MGF! The company I work for has a program called "Employee Family Assistance Program" aka EFAP, administered by Homewood Solutions. Check to see if your (or your wife's) employer has a similar program. It's a free resource to locate day cares, lawyers, emotional support, play groups, and all sorts of other things.

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by MonctonGoldenFlames

So, anybody have the pleasure of owning multiples? We welcomed identical twin girls into the world on may 2ndI, and have been blessed as well as overwhelmed. Does anybody have any help resources that would make our life a little easier? The small amount of family in town has not been around nearly as much as we had hoped, and the wife needs support during the day while I'm at work.

Any help or tips is much appreciated!

I have younger sisters that are that are twins, and my mother has mentioned before that it was a lot of work. I have also heard her say that once they were a bit older they were easy to look after because they kept each other company. Right now is the tough part.....it'll only get easier as time goes on.

Congratulations!

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

I have younger sisters that are that are twins, and my mother has mentioned before that it was a lot of work. I have also heard her say that once they were a bit older they were easy to look after because they kept each other company. Right now is the tough part.....it'll only get easier as time goes on.

Congratulations!

My oldest boys are twins. They have two younger brothers and a younger sister. Embrace chaos.

[Jimby]

Happy Fathers Day to daddies new and old!

[Surrealplaces]

Originally Posted by Doug

My oldest boys are twins. They have two younger brothers and a younger sister. Embrace chaos.

lol! A handful!

Same makeup as my siblings (a set of twins, a girl and two boys). I sometimes wonder how my mother did it, with 5 kids under the age of 6.

A 5, a 4 and 2 year old and twin babies.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by Surrealplaces

lol! A handful!

Same makeup as my siblings (a set of twins, a girl and two boys). I sometimes wonder how my mother did it, with 5 kids under the age of 6.

A 5, a 4 and 2 year old and twin babies.

My parents had 5 over 6 years and my mom worked full time.

[Bigtime]

Well a rough weekend for my kids health wise just got a lot worse.

Middletime got a fever on Friday night/Saturday, Tylenol took care of it and she was good on Sunday. However on Sunday Littletime got the fever, and by yesterday she was complaining and rubbing her feet. Then she started getting little red dots all over her body. Pediatrician on the street took a look at her and she has hand, foot and mouth virus. Nothing you can do but tough it out, she barely slept last night and Middletime's fever came right back too.

So the wife and I are going on about two hours of sleep, one daughter with a fever and the other with the fever and that virus and aside from Tylenol there is nothing we can do to ease the pain of it.

It is heartbreaking...

[lubicon]

Originally Posted by MonctonGoldenFlames

So, anybody have the pleasure of owning multiples? We welcomed identical twin girls into the world on may 2ndI, and have been blessed as well as overwhelmed. Does anybody have any help resources that would make our life a little easier? The small amount of family in town has not been around nearly as much as we had hoped, and the wife needs support during the day while I'm at work.

Any help or tips is much appreciated!

I have a set of boy/girl twins. It's awesome! You parents of singletons don't know what you are missing and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Tips?
biggest one is be organized, and don't let them dictate your schedule as much as possible. When one is hungry, feed the other one too or youc an be sure you will be doing it in an hour anyways. May as well do them both at the same time - especially at night. It gets to be almost like an assembly line but that is the only way you will keep from going insane.

If you haven't already joined Calgary Twins, Triplets, and more club (www.ttmac.org ), do so. They have an amazing amount of resources and can be a lot of help. Plus they have two giant sales each year (spring and fall) that are absolutely fantastic for buying and selling your stuff you don't need anymore or stuff you need now - especially clothes.

Somewhere out there (maybe through the twins club or Google it) there are places that will give you either free items or discounts on stuff if you have multiples. things like diapers, food etc. it might not be much - maybe a carton or box, maybe a discount price, but it all adds up and saved us significant cash.

Much like you we had virtually no family in town to lean on so had to do it by ourselves. It's a lot of work but you wont trade it for anything. My wife didn't sleep through the night for 2 1/2 years after they were born and it wasn't until they were 12 that we spent our first night away from them.

They are lucky in that they will have a built in best friend for life. Even with mine being boy/girl they are each other's best friend. There's a saying about twins along the lines of 'the only people they hate more than each other is someone who tries to come between them' and it is absolutley true. They will fight and scrap with each other day and night but will be the first to defend the other when an outsider tries to mess with one of them.

Cons to multiples is you miss out on the hand me down stuff and have to buy double of everything. They are expensive. You also only get to see events in their lives once instead of several times if you have kids of differing ages (ie first day of school, etc.) so make sure you enjoy all the big occasions, you only get half as many as other people.