New baby/pregnant and the Convention

[bry's-gal]

We are expecting a little boy the end of March! With my girls, I was early with both them- one was barely full term. We are also about an hour away from the Cincy convention and the hosptial. With the dates, I will either have a new born or be about a week past my due date during the convention. I really want to go to the convention- at least look at booths but at the same time, am I asking for trouble? Hubby will be with me so if I need to rest or get to the hospital, I'll have someone there. My thought was to go up Thursday night and spend that night and Friday there and then come home. Or, just go up Friday and come home Friday night.

[TKDmom]

So, are you saying the hospital is near the convention center? If so, I'd be more likely to consider it. If you're overdue, it might be a fun way to walk around and induce labor.

 

How do you usually feel right after having a baby? With my first three, I think I could have gone right after having the baby. I felt great not being pregnant anymore. And being away from the responsibilities at home might be relaxing, if I stayed at the hotel where the convention was held (is it being held in a hotel?) and I took things really easy, with lots of opportunities to rest.

 

For some reason, my 4th was a lot harder, and my back hurt so much that I could barely even change diapers for that first week. If you were to buy tickets for the convention, I think you'd want to do it with the assumption that you just might not be able to make it, because you won't know ahead of time how you will actually feel that weekend.

[ktgrok]

Probably not, because if you have a newborn thats a LOT of germs and people all together...not somewhere i'd want to take a 2 week old. And with all the travelers it will be germs you haven't been exposed to before.

[LibraryLover]

I went to a 2 day La Leche League conference when my youngest was not quite 2 weeks old. She was the youngest infant there by about a month. We even did a massage class with snotty, drooling older babies. This is a kid who has never had an antibiotic in her life. Her immune system got kicked into high gear from the get-go. lol It was a really easy and quick homebirth. I felt great. If I hadn't, I would not have gone. You could take a chance and see. If you only want to go to the vendor area, is it less costly?

[PeacefulChaos]

I would do it.

[SebastianCat]

I have a friend who went to a large MOPS convention with her 2-week-old baby, after having a c-section (3rd baby, 3rd c-section). Her mom came with her and helped with the baby while she attended breakout groups. Obviously, she didn't participate to the same extent that she would have if she hadn't just given birth, but it worked out for her and she was glad she went. Could your DH or a grandparent go to help you?

 

For me, personally, I wouldn't go. The stress of having a newborn around that many people, trying to nurse, postpartum hormones, etc., would be too much to handle. But the fact that you are considering it makes me think that you would do better than I would. :) And if you are still pregnant it would be a good diversion.

[kbpaulie]

Wondering if your other 2 kiddos might want/ need you home?

[bry's-gal]

Hubby and I talked. We are going to go on and get the convention pass and then play it by ear. We'll see what is acutally going on and how I feel and go from there. We will probably just go up for Friday but we have some flexibility and if we don't make it, there is always next year!

[Soror]

I'm 2 weeks pp here and I could do a convention I think and enjoy it, I'm feeling pretty good really and generally normal. At 1 week pp though it would have been a bit much(I started bleeding again after Thanksgiving at 1 week pp). However, even with all my non-intervention or complicated vaginal births (3 of which were at home) recovery time has varied. I know with births 2 and 4(this one) it has been pretty much a breeze. Births 1 and 3 were not quite so nice and I was fatigued much more easily. At the end of pregnancy I was pretty active with all of them, although slow, so that wouldn't concern me. It is not clear from your post but I wouldn't want to be very far from the hospital I was delivering at.