Expecting baby

KitKatMum2

Congratulations Would agree with everything said, especially working out how much you will have to live on if your wife is on mat leave or planning to stay at home, and putting the excess aside.

Make sure your wife gets her mat exemption card from the midwife (I think they give this at 16 week appointment, but someone will correct me if wrong) this will entitle her to free prescriptions and dental care until baby is 1 year old.

Also I would say don't buy too much before the baby is born if you can. I know this is hard (especially for nesting pregnant women!) because you will want to be prepared, but I was shocked at how many presents we got (and from people I didn't expect such as neighbours, friends of our parents etc) and we ended up with so many duplicates and things that were not used we could have saved a fortune if we had waited to buy things.

arbrighton

KitKatMum2 wrote: »

Make sure your wife gets her mat exemption card from the midwife (I think they give this at 16 week appointment, but someone will correct me if wrong) this will entitle her to free prescriptions and dental care until baby is 1 year old.

Can get it as soon as you are pregnant- I got form at GP reception and had it signed by nurse at flu jab appt around 6 weeks. ASK, don't wait!

shiny76

You'll hardly use a lot of the baby equipment. Ask friends if they have any you can try the baby in, then and only then (assuming they enjoy the equipment) you could buy your own.

e.g. bouncy chairs, jumperoos, baby swings.

General advice:
- get as much sleep as you can now
- the 1st 8 weeks or so are the hardest. Bear with it!
- accept all offers of help from family/friends in the first few months
- investigate your Shared Parental Leave options, for us it was more (financially) beneficial for me (the dad) to take the greater portion of leave.

arbrighton

shiny76 wrote: »

You'll hardly use a lot of the baby equipment. Ask friends if they have any you can try the baby in, then and only then (assuming they enjoy the equipment) you could buy your own.

e.g. bouncy chairs, jumperoos, baby swings.

General advice:
- get as much sleep as you can now
- the 1st 8 weeks or so are the hardest. Bear with it!
- accept all offers of help from family/friends in the first few months
- investigate your Shared Parental Leave options, for us it was more (financially) beneficial for me (the dad) to take the greater portion of leave.

Get as much sleep as you can now. HA. Easy for dads without pregnancy insomnia, weird dreams, restless legs and getting up to pee constantly :P Oh and beans who wake up to party just when mums to be go to bed....

copperclock

Start gathering support now for breastfeeding. That means researching/going along to your local breastfeeding support group, reading and learning about breastfeeding, and getting other family members onboard/to back off as necessary.

Obviously, breastfeeding isn't a walk in the park, but, biologically speaking, almost all women can do it if the support they get is good enough. The better your wife's support network, the better her chances of getting through those first few weeks and getting confident. Even if that means you having to do everything else around the house and be there to lean on when it gets tricky.

If she can nail it - and I am sure she can - you're going to save an absolute bomb by not needing formula, as well as mum and baby getting a whole host of health benefits.

shiny76

arbrighton wrote: »

Get as much sleep as you can now. HA. Easy for dads ....

Hey! We have to put up with the fidgeting and complaining, it's no picnic let me tell you!

honeypop

barbiedoll wrote: »

You really don't need a GP appointment to "confirm" the pregnancy, he/she won't do another test if you already have two positive ones.

Where I am (and with my current pregnancy) no referrals to midwives are made until you've seen the doctor. They don't do a test, but there is no other way of getting to the midwife booking appointment without seeing the doctor first.

It wasn't like this with my previous two babies, and I'm not sure why they've done this now, but in some areas it seems they've gone back to making you see the doctor first.

arbrighton

honeypop wrote: »

Where I am (and with my current pregnancy) no referrals to midwives are made until you've seen the doctor. They don't do a test, but there is no other way of getting to the midwife booking appointment without seeing the doctor first.

It wasn't like this with my previous two babies, and I'm not sure why they've done this now, but in some areas it seems they've gone back to making you see the doctor first.

Receptionists here just give you midwife number. I wouldn't have seen GP at all if I hadn't needed to discuss medications

penguingirl

Yep another who went straight to midwife.

And in terms of saving money- I'm nearly 27 weeks and not bought anything yet so don't feel you have to rush! Buy own brand folic acid, it's very cheap. Join boots baby club and you get sent a voucher for some.

toniq

Try to wait till your wife is past 12 weeks before planning anything or letting everyone know.

Get as much sleep as you can whilst you still can

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