tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78293663196190080302024-03-17T23:03:25.524-07:00The Baby EffectQuantifying the impact that a baby has on a middle class familytheboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-85997417153022708812019-12-31T22:55:00.000-08:002019-12-31T22:57:20.233-08:00Avoid Daycares Near a Major RoadI've talked with a lot of people who don't realize this so it seems worth posting in case anyone is unaware. Spending large amounts of time near a major road is very bad for your health.
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<a href="https://blog.cityprojections.com/2018/12/how-far-should-you-live-from-road-to.html"><b>This page has a large amount of information that is easy to understand and I recommend reading it if you have any questions</b></a>
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The rough summary though is that vehicle pollution is known to be associated with asthma, general respiratory illness, leukemia, heart disease, and dementia. With diseases like asthma, it is most strongly associated when children are very young (under 2). The state of California at least does not even allow schools to be built within <a href="http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200320040SB352">500 feet of a freeway</a>.<br />
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There are always trade-offs to be made when picking a daycare, school, house, etc., but this one is often the easiest to avoid. Try to find a daycare away from major roads.<br />
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One other note...long commutes are similarly bad, and non-electric school buses in particular are awful. The bus stops often. The pollution is worst when accelerating/starting, the pollution is quite toxic, and kids at the stop and in the bus while at the stop are exposed to high levels of it. This is not talked about often for whatever reason, but please research this and try to avoid using a school bus with your children and/or petition your city for electric school buses.<br />
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<br />theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-295746965506173922018-11-18T15:32:00.000-08:002018-11-18T15:32:21.146-08:00You Can Clearly See When My Son Started Asking To Go To The Candy Store...Just check out the plot. I realized we go to the candy store about once a week now so he can pick out the specific gummy bear flavors he wants, and it showed up very clearly in mint's trend plot.<br />
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theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-40492415830681287632018-01-06T15:22:00.000-08:002018-01-13T11:03:31.074-08:00How Expensive Is A Baby? - 2 Year UpdateWhat is the two-year cost of ownership for a baby?<br />
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What expenses are included?</h4>
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As I've noted in other posts, it's increasingly difficult to track detailed costs for things like food simply because he shares our meals. Thus, I will have to use estimates for it, and I'm going to estimate low overall here. That being said, the categories I'm including in the second year are:</div>
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<ul>
<li><b>Medical</b> - cost of doctor's visits, surgeries, insurance, and drugs; only major thing in year 2 (aside from insurance) was getting tubes in his ears due to something like 7 ear infections in 4 months</li>
<li><b>Diapers - </b>cost of diapers and wipes used for diaper changes</li>
<li><b>Safety </b>- cost of baby-proofing and car seats</li>
<li><b>Travel</b> - cost of plane tickets (he's two...we traveled right after his 2nd birthday and bought tickets before it, so I'm including that); I forgot to track which tourist things charged us for him so that is not included</li>
<li><b>Daycare - </b>cost of <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2017/09/daycare-costs-go-down-over-time.html">daycare</a></li>
<li><b>Food</b> - cost of his food; hard to accurately track in his second year so I used the increase in food costs per month in the second year vs the previous two</li>
</ul>
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It is again important to know that this ignores a large number of huge expenses that I don't know how to estimate well, including but not limited to:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Higher housing costs due to needing a larger house for the third person (no more 1 BR apartments)</li>
<li>Higher utility costs for the larger house and the additional person</li>
<li>His clothing costs (I didn't think to track those)</li>
<li>Lower wages due to selecting jobs that are flexible enough for raising a child</li>
<li>Saving for his future/education</li>
</ul>
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<h4>
Total cost</h4>
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Combining all of those, I end up with estimated costs of:<br />
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Comparing with the <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/10/how-expensive-is-baby-12-month-update.html">first year</a>, that means the added cost for the second year is:<br />
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Putting this into an approximate daily expense plot, I get:<br />
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<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
What about tax savings?</h4>
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For 2015, we gained a $4000 personal exemption and $150 child tax credit. For 2016, we gained a $5000 FSA exemption for daycare, $4000 personal exemption, and made too much for the child tax credit. Thus, over this time period, we saved ~$3400 total in taxes. We will likely save an additional $2250 for 2017.<br />
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<h4>
Grand total</h4>
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Adding this all together, the baby cost ~$37,000 using a very low estimate for the cost. Kids are expensive. It is important to note that my wife and I both work upper-middle class jobs in Austin, TX.<br />
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theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-85557173357653357052017-12-17T13:37:00.001-08:002017-12-17T16:27:35.698-08:00Does A Baby Make Me Happy?I've written a lot about the costs, stress increases, etc. associated with having a baby. I haven't really written much about the positives. I don't know how to do that well, but I attempt it here. How does a baby affect your happiness?<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VeCnnqvE1ME/WjbjPyPfv7I/AAAAAAAADx0/Ic03Xza9QAIyWhSFTsXNey-F1bkc3tkqwCLcBGAs/s1600/snow.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="baby happiness" border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="406" height="auto" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VeCnnqvE1ME/WjbjPyPfv7I/AAAAAAAADx0/Ic03Xza9QAIyWhSFTsXNey-F1bkc3tkqwCLcBGAs/s320/snow.png" title="baby happiness" width="60%" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a>Happiness is really hard to capture with any sort of metric and even difficult with anecdotes. I can't say 'he's worth $64/day in happiness'. In thinking about how I'd explain it, I settled on just sharing a list of things that I remember positively about him that will hopefully convey how he's become a positive and integral part of my life. These are roughly in order from his birth until now.<br />
<ul>
<li>When he was a month or so old, he would seek out a nipple for food. Part of this process involved clamping down on anything (e.g., my collarbone) and shaking his head and growling like a dog.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>When he was a baby, he would get really painful gas. He'd scream and we'd feel terrible. I eventually realized that if I massaged his stomach and carried him on my forearm, he'd fart really loudly then pass out on my arm like 8 seconds after the fart.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We have tile floors. When he was learning to crawl, he was a bit afraid of them. His nap bed is just a 6 inch mattress on the floor. Before he was confident enough with the floor to crawl on it, he'd lean over the edge of the mattress and slap the floor with one hand. He finally slowly eased off after slapping it with both hands, and then was comfortable going from nap bed to floor and vice-versa</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>He's always loved grapes. Since they're choking hazards, you have to cut them into tiny pieces to feed them. One day we were playing in the floor and my wife was feeding him grapes. She'd tear them into pieces then feed him. She reached over to find a toy, and when she turned back around he'd shoved like 7 grapes into his mouth and had them stuff in his cheeks like a hamster.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Once after we started leaving him to nap by himself on his nap mattress (he was ~9 months old), we noticed that he was napping for longer than usual. We got a little worried and were about to check on him when we heard a giggle and noticed that he'd crawled off the mattress and sneaked into the room we were in.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>When he around one year old, he learned that he could avoid eating what he didn't want. If I put him in a high chair with food that he didn't want to eat, he'd stare at me while slowly pushing the food onto the floor. When it fell, he'd scream 'UH OH!' like he was stunned about what happened.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>When he was roughly a year old, he moved on from 'dada' to 'dadoo' as my name for some reason. At around 15 months old, he finally started saying 'daddy', and 'dadoo' was gone forever.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>He figured out how to trick us. He often feeds us, and one day he said 'daddy' to offer me food. When he got it an inch or so from my mouth, he ate it real fast and laughed at me.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>He was scared to walk and was very delayed with it. He didn't walk until 17 months old or so. However, we knew he knew how to since he was 11 months. He proved this by running full speed within a week of walking comfortably the first time. There was no awkward toddling phase.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>When he was ~16 months old, I got a giant stuffed gorilla. He was absolutely terrified of it. Over the course of a few months, he warmed up to it a bit until he got to the point where he'd kiss it, wrestle it, etc., and now he really likes the gorilla.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>When he was ~18 months old, we were in Wal-Mart and he saw one of those giant inflatable balls in the rack. He managed to get one out somehow and carried it around the store (it was a bit larger than him).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>He loves watching videos on his tablet or laptop. The first one he really liked was an animal sounds one, and his favorite line is 'can you hear the sheep go baa baa baa?' Because of this, he started referring to computers as 'baa baa baa'. When he was 18 months old or so, he was pointing out things in the room. He pointed at my wife and said 'mommy'. He pointed at his shirt and said 'baju' (Indonesian for shirt). He pointed at the computer and said 'baa baa baa'. His laptop is blue, and he calls it 'blue baa baa baa'. Mine is black and he calls it 'black baa baa baa'.</li>
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<ul>
<li>When he was around 20 months old, he was climbing on some boxes that he isn't supposed to climb on. One of them fell and made a loud sound, and when my wife came in to ask what happened, he just sprinted away to his room without saying anything. It was very reminiscent of this scene: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfVOmxlHTc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFfVOmxlHTc</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>When he was learning to count, he'd start really softly with '1, 2, 3...' and get progressively louder as he got close to 20 and then scream 'YAY!' when he arrived at 20. He would then repeat it.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>When he was learning the alphabet, the last part he learned in the song is 'L M, N, O'. He would try to cover that by going 'H, I, J, K, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, P' and hold the P out for a long time. It took him a while to realize how many 'ehs' to say.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>He's never slept enough, and especially never napped. We thought he was napping well in his toddler class at daycare, but when my wife was there one day she noticed that all of the kids have empty mats that they sleep on except for him. He has books to read on his mat so that he doesn't bother the other kids while they sleep because he looks through books instead of napping.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Around his second birthday, he started blaming us for his farts. He'll fart, and then scream 'daddy poot' or 'mommy poot'. Sometimes, he even tries to blame his toys for them. I thought he might have been saying the name to let the person know he farted, but he only does this with farts. Everything else he says the owner rather than the person he's talking to.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>He was roughly two years old the second time he flew in an airplane. We were so scared that he would freak out and cry the whole time, but he really loved it. He sat calmly in his seat, and just told me to move so he could see better (I was by the window).</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Right around his second birthday, he figured out how to tell the difference among two items, three items, etc. He very rarely uses this ability, and thus far has reserved it for specifying how many pieces of chocolate he expects ('NO! Three Chocolates!').</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>He learned the phrase 'Oh goodness' at daycare and he says that when he's excited about something.</li>
</ul>
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There's more like this but this is hopefully enough to give an idea of the goofy stuff babies will do that you'll remember forever.</div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-36162025274989589972017-12-01T21:06:00.000-08:002017-12-01T21:06:20.733-08:00How Does The Baby Affect Stress?Having a baby changes your life. Everyone knows this. What I haven't really seen though is a really accurate picture of how it affects your stress level. I probably can't provide that picture either for many reasons, but here is my attempt at capturing some obvious and some non-obvious ways that a baby affects our stress levels.<br />
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They make almost everything you do harder</h4>
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It's really hard to capture how a child adds stress. When I previously thought of stress, it's like when you're going into a job interview and you have an overwhelming amount of it and then it resolves, like when you work a job you hate and deal with angry customers that you don't care about but then you go home, etc. The best way I can describe how a child differs is that it makes everything you do harder. It's a constant stress that's added to everything and never goes away.</div>
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<div>
A good example is my morning routine. Previously, it was:</div>
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<ul>
<li>get up</li>
<li>shower if it's a shower day</li>
<li>eat a banana</li>
<li>brush teeth</li>
<li>go to work</li>
</ul>
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My current routine is:</div>
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<ul>
<li>get up</li>
<li>shower if it's a shower day</li>
<li>wake up my son</li>
<li>calm him down (he's really cranky when I wake him up)</li>
<li>figure out what he'll eat that day (this often means prepare 3 or 4 different breakfasts for him)</li>
<li>play with him while he eats so he doesn't get fussy and refuse to eat</li>
<li>eat my banana</li>
<li>brush teeth</li>
<li>change his diaper and get him dressed</li>
<li>gather his items for daycare</li>
<li>convince him to go to daycare and put on his shoes</li>
<li>load him into the car</li>
<li>take him to daycare</li>
<li>go to work</li>
</ul>
<div>
None of those extra steps are awful. Most are actually really fun. It makes that routine significantly longer though. It's typically over an hour each morning now. Extrapolate this to everything you do (grocery shopping, going to restaurants, etc.), and it really adds up.</div>
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<h4>
They make it much harder to find a place to live</h4>
<div>
I wrote about this <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/09/how-does-baby-affect-where-you-live.html">previously</a>. It's still ongoing. There's just so much to balance. You have to find somewhere with ok schools. You have to find somewhere with a short commute since you have less time (see above). You have to find somewhere that you can stay for a long time since you don't want to move constantly with a kid. You need more space. </div>
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<div>
This could fit into the previous point, but I felt like it was important enough to call out as separate.</div>
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<h4>
They make the future much more frightening</h4>
<div>
I wrote about something related to this <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/02/how-does-baby-affect-death-anxiety.html">previously</a>. It's gotten stronger since then so I'll expand...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
I lean slightly pessimistic about many things. Specifically related to this, I have little confidence that society will be able to sustain itself in its current form for the entirety of my life. I run <a href="http://blog.cityprojections.com/">another site</a> focused on global warming that deals a lot with the impacts of it. The science is very clear and readily available. I have seen nothing that makes me optimistic about that and have recently moved into the<i> 'this will likely destroy society' </i>camp. I'm not in the <i>'this will make humans extinct'</i> camp. I'm more in the <i>'this will likely be significantly worse than WWII and more like a global plague level of destruction'</i> camp.</div>
<div>
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<div>
This is all fine. I've accepted all of this. My son has not though. He can't yet...he's only two. I want something else for his future, but I am powerless to stop it. I can't even get my immediate family to care about his future (see the next point in this post). It took me a really long time to convince myself it was okay to have a child, and I still question if I was just selfish when I went ahead with it.<br />
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How do I even explain this to him? Do I lie to try to make him feel better about the world until he discovers on his own? Do we try to move somewhere that will fare better than most of the world? If so, how much should I give up in salary to do that? I struggle a lot with this one...</div>
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<h4>
They create fights you weren't expecting</h4>
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There's the obvious ones between exhausted parents. That's not what I'm referring to. The ones I'm talking about are less obvious, and an example I'll provide is one related to politics.</div>
<div>
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<div>
My parents and I have very different political views. They are against environmental protection, for an evangelical theocracy, etc. Supporting politicians who share their views directly hurts my child.</div>
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<ul>
</ul>
<div>
Before having a kid, I just considered those awful views and moved on. Now I can't help but see those as direct attacks on my child's (and their grandchild's) future and defend him.<br />
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This creates a stressful situation that I haven't figured out how to resolve. My approach so far has been to try to educate them on how harmful some of these are for him. Unfortunately, it turns out they know and do not care, so we're still evaluating where to go from here.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
This is not the only example I have, but it is a clear one of a fight I didn't expect to be having. I am certain I will have a lot more like this once he starts school.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
They are expensive</h4>
<div>
This one is probably the one that everyone thinks about. People cost money to keep alive. They cost more money if you want to improve their quality of life. Estimates vary. I'll put up a post soon about the cost of his first two years, but I'm estimating right now that we've effectively spent >$40,000 on him in two years. We have to pay for college someday also.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There is a cost that many people might not factor in though, and that's how they affect your income. I know for a fact that I could work a job with slightly longer hours and make significantly more money. (e.g., >$30k/year more). I choose not to because I want to be around for him. This seems like a good choice as he is significantly happier when we are around him, and he really loves attention from us. What is the cutoff though? I obviously can't quit my job to be with him. Could I take something working 30 hours a week to get even more time with him?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
They are always there</h4>
<div>
If you always have roommates and always do stuff with people, this may not apply to you. I prefer being alone in a quiet place. I'm much better at my job when I telecommute and I spend most of my free time making a science website. I don't generally want to be bothered.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My son does not care. He wants to sit next to me all the time. He likes to stand outside the bathroom and let my wife know when I'm pooping. It's really funny because he'll just scream 'Daddy eh eh' or 'Daddy poop' to let her know in case she is confused about what was happening. He wants to do puzzles together and tell me what picture is on each piece.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When I play guitar, I have to stop every couple of minutes to let him touch the strings and giggle. I haven't attempted to record any music since he was born because it seems nearly impossible.<br />
<br />
I asked a coworker to describe the stress of having children, and his description was that he's 'always on' in that there's never a time when he's not having to be responsible for something.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
They cause you to sleep less</h4>
<div>
This is another one that everyone probably thinks about. When they're babies especially, you have to feed them all the time so there's no way around this.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What's maybe not obvious is that this doesn't go away. You have the 'things are harder' one that I mentioned that cuts into your free time. You also have all of these points combining to make it harder to sleep well (assuming you sleep poorly when stressed).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There's another one that might not be obvious in that his schedule is your schedule (at least one parent's). When the child wakes up at 7 AM saying 'Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!' over and over, sleep is over for at least one of you. If you want to nap and he wants to play, you're going to play.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The net effect of all of these is less sleep.<br />
<br />
<h4>
They expose your weaknesses</h4>
</div>
<div>
Kids are not independent, especially early on. You have to keep them alive and make them productive members of society. They also pick up on what you do. This is a recipe for them exposing your weaknesses.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As an example, I will sometimes get extremely anxious about a specific thing and have trouble moving forward. It's great for optimization problems at work and really helped as a physics student, but it's awful for almost everything else. When my son was approximately one, I did this about buying a house. We live in Austin which is an extremely competitive and overpriced housing market but we could afford one (at that time) so we were strongly considering it. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
During one particularly stressful period of this, I went into my anxious mode of only sleeping 2-3 hours a night for a stretch and talking only about this topic. He was really uncomfortable with me being that way and was freaked out also while it was going on and I was not there to console him. I still feel bad about that period, and I know I will do this again because it's just my nature.<br />
<br />
This is minor but it is an example of what I'm talking about. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
They cause you to stop being you</h4>
<div>
I can't think of a better way to phrase this. It's sort of like marriage in that now it's not just me pursuing what's best for me, but us pursuing what's best for us. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The me that existed when I was in college is effectively dead. I'm a completely different person now with different priorities. I would not think twice about donating a kidney to them.<br />
<br />
I tell dad jokes now. I have some random kids' songs that I enjoy on youtube. When we plan trips, he's just as much a factor in what we'll do for fun as anyone else. I've actually considered what type of work would make him proud of me and have strongly considered changing jobs because of it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
Conclusion</h4>
<div>
This obviously doesn't capture all of the ways that a child can introduce stress, but hopefully it gives some perspective to anyone wanting a blunt assessment of it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It is important to note that as a whole, the positives of having a child outweigh the negatives so far. Many of these create joy along with stress (not the money one, but most of the others). It would just be irresponsible to not make it clear that having a child means signing up for all of this in case anyone is on the fence and needs to know this.<br />
<br />
As a final note, the relative weight of these stresses will vary from person to person. I am extremely privileged. I am a white, male, US citizen. My family received some government assistance when I was younger. I received scholarships to a public school and my parents paid many expenses so I did not graduate with debt. My wife and I have high-paying jobs. She graduated with very little student debt that we paid off immediately. We have no significant disabilities. We did nothing to earn most of that. I would assume the time and money stresses are higher for someone less privileged.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-35254968424628741162017-11-26T18:56:00.001-08:002017-11-26T19:00:07.477-08:00Putting A Car Seat In A Sports CarI drive a Subaru BRZ. For anyone unfamiliar, this is a very small, 2-door sports car. Is it possible to use with a car seat?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p7Jbjoap8uc/Wht9YWg2wPI/AAAAAAAADs8/3BzPV9xuODgZwPFcxbnFnmGIpee7zqfcACLcBGAs/s1600/P_20171113_084828.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p7Jbjoap8uc/Wht9YWg2wPI/AAAAAAAADs8/3BzPV9xuODgZwPFcxbnFnmGIpee7zqfcACLcBGAs/s1600/P_20171113_084828.jpg" width="60%" /></a></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a><h4>
Background</h4>
<div>
I <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/">previously wrote</a> about getting an infant (rear-facing) seat into my car. The general summary was that it worked, but only for a couple of infant seats on the market and only if I didn't use the front passenger seat. Now, my son is a toddler whoe doesn't fit in that seat and needed a front-facing car seat. Luckily, this also makes life much easier...<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
Options</h4>
<div>
Some front-facing seats are gigantic, so I looked for the smallest one I could find that wasn't absurdly expensive. I settled on the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N26FBD2/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=rhamner-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01N26FBD2&linkId=566745e8f54bf82b705c3bf76da646a4">Safety 1st - Guide 65 Sport Convertible Car Seat</a>:<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UW9WKmLYk1E/Wht7uEdMCtI/AAAAAAAADss/fs73N2jF1K0pBUfTbpESypJiJKe_KoynwCLcBGAs/s1600/P_20171126_202803.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="car seat in a sports car" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UW9WKmLYk1E/Wht7uEdMCtI/AAAAAAAADss/fs73N2jF1K0pBUfTbpESypJiJKe_KoynwCLcBGAs/s1600/P_20171126_202803.jpg" title="car seat in a subaru brz" width="60%" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The picture above is how it looks installed in the car. There are likely others that would have worked...I tried a couple that did not fit well but I've forgotten their names. Anyway...this one isn't expensive, it fits well, and it seems really nice so I would recommend it.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
How does it fit?</h4>
<div>
The first thing to note is that Subaru BRZ's have hooks for car seat latches, and this car seat comes with latches, so that's nice. There are the normal ones at the base of the seat, and there's an additional top one. Here's the top one in my car with the latch connected:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Vy-Y6HWcJc/Wht9mUeuiHI/AAAAAAAADtA/zogPvewNxqwUWuB8K_0HD8ZVEa7LQdDWwCLcBGAs/s1600/P_20171126_193616_NT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Vy-Y6HWcJc/Wht9mUeuiHI/AAAAAAAADtA/zogPvewNxqwUWuB8K_0HD8ZVEa7LQdDWwCLcBGAs/s1600/P_20171126_193616_NT.jpg" width="60%" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The next thing to note is that we can use the front, passenger seat now. It's hard to convey how much space there is, especially since it's a small sports car so it's going to be small either way, but this is the best picture I could think of:<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FI8jSZSUsd0/Wht8sbOXkhI/AAAAAAAADs0/zGxC9yQN9cAswTD0K3N3vnkT1XyRgXI8wCLcBGAs/s1600/P_20171126_202744.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FI8jSZSUsd0/Wht8sbOXkhI/AAAAAAAADs0/zGxC9yQN9cAswTD0K3N3vnkT1XyRgXI8wCLcBGAs/s1600/P_20171126_202744.jpg" width="60%" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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That is my wife in the front, passenger seat with the car seat behind her and plenty of space for my son's feet. You can see that there is plenty of room for her knees. Further...if you look really closely, you can see that the front, passenger seat is further back than the driver seat. For reference, that is the position I use for the driver seat and I am 5'9". </div>
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<br /></div>
<h4 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Conclusion</h4>
<div>
Using it is pretty simple. With the rear-facing seat, I had to take it out of the car to put him in, take it out to take him out, etc. It was exhausting. With this seat, I can just buckle/unbuckle him with the seat in place. It fits really snugly in the car also. I would say that a car seat in the Subaru BRZ and, by extension, any sports car with a back seat is definitely doable.<br />
<br /></div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com84tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-53873736966527104022017-11-11T20:18:00.000-08:002017-11-13T18:28:20.455-08:00Babyproofing A Tile FloorI was really stressed about having a baby in a house with all tile floors. In this post I walk through how we babyproofed and how successful it was.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/718QXFCfgUL._SX522_.jpg" /></div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name='more'></a>Background</h4>
<div>
The house we moved into a month before giving birth has only tile flooring. Right after moving in, I freaked out about the baby falling, hitting his head, and dying. I'd actually wake up panicked sometimes about it. I child-proofed, and after two years, there have been no accidents so I figured I'd share exactly what I did to childproof in case anyone else goes through this.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
Materials</h4>
<div>
I used three types of items:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Rug</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.landofnod.com/5-x-8-fretwork-navy-rug/s103445"><img alt="5 x8' Fretwork Navy Rug" height="auto/" src="https://images.landofnod.com/is/image/LandOfNod/Rug_Fretwork_NV_LL/$web_product_hero$&/160607105038/navy-fretwok-rug.jpg" width="40%" /></a></div>
We have an 8x10 one but I can't find a link...I freaked out a bit about rug types being harsh on his skin, being toxic, etc., and this one has seemed nice. It is cotton. It also doesn't really show dirt which is great with a baby.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Rug Pad</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=rhamner-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B00578FHSU&asins=B00578FHSU&linkId=0638f946716a7f032ddfa9b86cb81974&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff" style="height: 240px; text-align: center; width: 120px;"></iframe></div>
<span style="text-align: center;">This rug pad has been great. It is thick and soft enough to pad well with the rug on top, it has not damaged the floor, and the rug does not slip at all.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Foam Tiles</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=rhamner-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B01JOARB7Q&asins=B01JOARB7Q&linkId=25bd6cff362ff63e07ef0afe2647ccec&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066c0&bg_color=ffffff" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;"></iframe></div>
These tiles have been great also. They did not smell at all, but I did order them a few months before we needed them and let them air out in the garage just in case. They're really soft and you can find them in different sizes and prices if you search a bit.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<h4>
How I used them</h4>
</div>
<div>
The primary usage was his play area. In our living room, we have the rug pad with the rug on top of it in between all of the furniture. Between the rug and the pad in heavily used areas, I also put some of the floor tiles to make it very soft. This is where he plays most of the time.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The other area where we used them is his nap bed. We have an extra mattress in the floor of one of the bedrooms where he's always napped. We used this because he will not go to sleep for his nap on his own so one of us has to lie with him, and our bed is too tall. We use a 6 inch memory foam mattress so it's fairly close to the ground. That mattress is in the corner of a room so only two sides are exposed. We put the foam floor tiles around those two exposed sides.<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
How they held up</h4>
<div>
I have no idea how many times he's fallen. Babies and toddlers fall all the time. For his bad falls that I remember though...</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>three falls off of the couch - in all three, he fell from the couch onto the rug + foam tile + rug pad combo and was not phased at all...it really is soft</li>
<li>two falls off his nap mattress - he rolled off of it all the time, but there are two times that I remember when he was playing and fell off while standing and landed on the back of his head...this would have been really bad if he'd hit the tile, but he landed on the foam tiles instead so it was no issue at all</li>
</ul>
<div>
Neither my wife nor I can think of any instances of him falling and hitting his head on the tile, so it worked out really well. He has fallen on a hard floor a number of times at daycare, but I have no idea how to prevent that.<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-15459328471759120512017-11-04T15:59:00.000-07:002017-11-06T19:57:22.460-08:00Travelling With A ToddlerHow does a toddler affect travel? We've stayed in seven different hotels in the past three months with a toddler, and I learned a few things that I didn't expect.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yJE5a2I0u-4/Wf5Fd8Xz37I/AAAAAAAADoI/H0pyJUAHMM0kYIJ2xwqHb3QW3Vuhgi58QCLcBGAs/s1600/flying.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="1008" height="auto" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yJE5a2I0u-4/Wf5Fd8Xz37I/AAAAAAAADoI/H0pyJUAHMM0kYIJ2xwqHb3QW3Vuhgi58QCLcBGAs/s1600/flying.png" width="80%" /></a></div>
<a name='more'></a><h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Background</h4>
<div>
The travel consisted of three different trips:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>a one-night trip to a city ~1.5 hours away that we drove to</li>
<li>another one-night trip to a city ~1.5 hours away that we drove to</li>
<li>an 8-night trip spanning 5 different hotels in different cities that involved two cross-country flights</li>
</ul>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Lesson #1 - Make the hotel like home</h4>
</div>
<div>
In the first trip, he (toddler) was extremely excited in the hotel. He ran around the room for a couple of hours and giggled constantly. He blew past his bedtime and didn't actually fall asleep until ~3 hours after his normal bed time.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We chalked this up to him just being excited about something different.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In the next trip, we arrived at the hotel earlier and he did the same thing. However...when his normal bedtime rolled around, he started asking to go home. He seemed really confused, and kept asking mommy to take him home. He then threw a tantrum and refused to sleep. We were completely unprepared.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For the long, 8-night trip, we prepared much better. It isn't the same as home obviously, but we maintained his night-time ritual as well as we could:<br />
<ul>
<li>he ate supper ~2-3 hours before bed</li>
<li>he ate a snack consisting of fruit (usually grapes) and milk ~1 hour before bed</li>
<li>he played with us while eating the snack and for a bit after it</li>
<li>we brushed his teeth together about 15 minutes before bed</li>
<li>his mom put him to bed and I waited in the bathroom to keep from distracting him since she puts him to bed at home</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Further, we tried to recreate his bedroom. Lights were off once he went to bed, screens weren't visible to him, and we brought all of the stuffed animals and toys from his crib.<br />
<br />
His schedule was slightly disrupted because travel breaks the routine, but this experience went much better than the previous two ones for which we were unprepared. He went to bed close to his normal bedtime and slept through the night every night of the trip.<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Lesson #2 - Use Southwest to fly</h4>
<div>
I historically have not used Southwest. Even though I'm in Texas, the rates have typically been higher than other airlines for the flights I've taken, and the inability to pick seats annoyed me. Two big things make it more attractive than other airlines for travelling with a toddler though:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>parents with young children get to board early so they can sit together and they do not have to pay for early boarding</li>
<li>you get two, free checked bags per ticket which means you can bring suitcases full of his toys, stuffed animals, etc. to make it feel more like home</li>
</ul>
<div>
It also worked out for us in that Southwest had direct flights to and from our location, and you'll want direct flights if possible if you're flying with a toddler.<br />
<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Lesson #3 - Bring candy on the plane</h4>
</div>
</div>
<div>
We flew when he was six months old, and we gave him a bottle during takeoff and landing to force him to suck and ease pressure on his ears. Now that he's a toddler, we couldn't do that. However...he loves dum dums, and those worked just as well. Depending on what your toddler likes, if you can find a candy that he can suck on to keep him calm during takeoff and landing, that can be really helpful.<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Lesson #4 - Car seats are considered oversized baggage</h4>
<div>
We rented a car at the airport, so we brought a car seat with us. We checked it with our luggage, and got really confused when it didn't show up in baggage claim. Apparently it goes to the oversized one, so you have to get your car seat there.<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Lesson #5 - Move a mattress to the floor if you need to</h4>
<div>
In most of our rooms, we had either two double or two queen beds. Unfortunately, they're generally on box springs which makes them dangerously high for someone used to sleeping in a crib. Some hotels offer cribs or other sleeping options for small children, but I wouldn't rely on that. You could also bring your own, but that seems awful in the airport, and you'll probably already have more than you can comfortably carry.<br />
<br />
An alternative available when you're stuck in a situation with only adult beds is to simply move the mattress to the floor to prevent injuries if the toddler rolls off the mattress.<br />
<br />
<h4>
What was my favorite moment from travelling with him?</h4>
<div>
One of the trips involved going through Louisville, KY. We watched a few horse races at Churchill Downs while we were there. It's pretty huge and he loves animals so we thought he'd be amazed seeing the horses.<br />
<br />
The race started and the horses went by and it was great and everything, but he didn't care. A few seconds later, the ambulance that follows them went by, and he screamed 'FIRETRUCK! FIRETRUCK! WHEOOWHEOOWHEOOWHEOO' and it was great. Kids are fun.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-40305059456994626982017-09-24T20:24:00.002-07:002017-09-24T20:25:15.924-07:00Daycare Costs Go Down Over TimeSomething I wasn't aware of with daycare was a pleasant surprise...the costs go down as the baby ages.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KU4IpMUjhYA/Wch2fOOFTpI/AAAAAAAADkg/JEMp8a6S7wMckzACGKdyrEVy-X6FSpb1QCLcBGAs/s1600/daycare%2Bcost.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="cost of daycare goes down over time" border="0" data-original-height="493" data-original-width="761" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KU4IpMUjhYA/Wch2fOOFTpI/AAAAAAAADkg/JEMp8a6S7wMckzACGKdyrEVy-X6FSpb1QCLcBGAs/s1200/daycare%2Bcost.png" title="cost of daycare" width="90%" /></a></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
If you look at the graph, you'll see a slight bump right before it starts declining. This bump is due to inflation, so that was the yearly adjustment. What caught us off guard is that the babies require less attention as they age, so the daycare costs go down. We got price breaks at roughly 1 year, 18 months, and 22 months, and those correspond to him advancing (infant first, then crawling room, etc.).<br />
<br />
It's not a massive decrease, but it is enough to notice since daycare costs are such a huge part of the expense of having a baby, so I figured I'd post it.theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-49911727838328621352017-09-17T12:56:00.001-07:002017-09-17T16:09:46.968-07:00How Does The Baby Affect Grocery Spending?I'd guessed that we'd spend more at the grocery store with a baby since he has to eat, wear diapers, etc. I've broken down exactly how much our spending has changed.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KKafWBUSKjQ/Wb7QimtGOeI/AAAAAAAADjE/9NZzVoPJm5cDxNjrMIOGEDNigYBmlKmtACEwYBhgL/s1600/by%2Bmonth.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="1093" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KKafWBUSKjQ/Wb7QimtGOeI/AAAAAAAADjE/9NZzVoPJm5cDxNjrMIOGEDNigYBmlKmtACEwYBhgL/s1200/by%2Bmonth.png" width="0" /></a></div>
<a name='more'></a><h4>
Anecdotal</h4>
<div>
Early on, there was the obvious spending on <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/10/how-expensive-is-baby-12-month-update.html">diapers and formula</a>. However...I did all of the shopping with the baby by myself and it was all well-planned, so we made fewer impulse purchases. Since he's stopped taking bottles (he stopped at ~12 months) and fully switched to our diets + milk, we buy a lot more at the grocery store. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At a minimum, I'd guess we've added 50% more fruits and vegetables, 100% more paper towels, and 10% more other foods to our monthly grocery purchases.<br />
<br />
One anecdotal note on grocery shopping with a baby...it's significantly more fun. They're so curious. He also loves running down empty aisles. Often when we shop my wife will walk around with him while I get food, and if he sees me across the store he screams "Daddy!" and runs as fast as he can until he gets close to me. He then say says "Hi" and runs back to his mom. It's great fun.<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
Actual Data</h4>
<div>
Below is a plot of our monthly grocery expenses for the past three years.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KKafWBUSKjQ/Wb7QimtGOeI/AAAAAAAADjE/9NZzVoPJm5cDxNjrMIOGEDNigYBmlKmtACEwYBhgL/s1600/by%2Bmonth.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="1093" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KKafWBUSKjQ/Wb7QimtGOeI/AAAAAAAADjE/9NZzVoPJm5cDxNjrMIOGEDNigYBmlKmtACEwYBhgL/s1200/by%2Bmonth.png" width="90%" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There is a very clear upward trend that starts roughly a year after his birth. This corresponds to roughly when we started feeding him the same things we eat. It's a bit noisy and difficult to make out exactly how much it's changed, so I've included a plot broken up by year relative to his birth:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G-haWnIHMj8/Wb7VG2FCtnI/AAAAAAAADjY/xUd4ZubWiusDwYtxCHfx_rKLFAVDxeZCACLcBGAs/s1600/by%2Byear.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="1091" height="auto" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G-haWnIHMj8/Wb7VG2FCtnI/AAAAAAAADjY/xUd4ZubWiusDwYtxCHfx_rKLFAVDxeZCACLcBGAs/s1200/by%2Byear.png" width="90%" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
We very clearly spend more at grocery stores in his second year than we did in his first year or in the year before he was born (p < 0.01).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Two notes on this data:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>grocery spending includes things like toilet paper and diapers</li>
<li>I did not factor out inflation</li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-23838198711477708302017-08-26T20:25:00.000-07:002017-08-26T20:47:42.515-07:00How Does A Baby Affect Exercise? - 2 Year UpdateMy exercise habits definitely changed with a baby, and they've continued to change as he's gotten older...<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sXPLt86ekng/WaI51q0jPeI/AAAAAAAACcQ/98VhpueLrPIPnlr5vOawklGJM5Bt41DFgCLcBGAs/s1600/workout%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="exercise after a baby" border="0" data-original-height="795" data-original-width="1203" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sXPLt86ekng/WaI51q0jPeI/AAAAAAAACcQ/98VhpueLrPIPnlr5vOawklGJM5Bt41DFgCLcBGAs/s320/workout%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="working out with a baby" width="80%" /></a></div>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>There are a lot of ways to track how the baby affected my exercise and activity level. I bought a fitbit to use for this while my wife was pregnant, but it broke a week after birth. I got a replacement, and it broke less than a month later.<br />
<br />
Another way to track it though is to compare my exercise routines at various points around his birth. I never had a fixed exercise routine that I stuck with for years since I changed it pretty regularly, but I'll break down an example of one before the baby, one while he was still a baby, and my most recent one now that he's a toddler. Hopefully comparing these give some insight into how it can change.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Pre-Baby Workout</h4>
<div>
This was my routine about six months before we got pregnant:<br />
<br />
Day 1:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>light warmup</li>
<li>bench press (barbell)</li>
<li>incline press (barbell)</li>
<li>Arnold press (dumbbell)</li>
<li>squats (barbell)</li>
<li>box jumps</li>
</ul>
<div>
Day 2: Rest</div>
</div>
<div>
Day 3:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>light warmup</li>
<li>bent over rows (dumbbell)</li>
<li>rear delt flys (dumbbell)</li>
<li>hammer curls (dumbbell)</li>
<li>pullups</li>
<li>shoulder shrugs (dumbbell)</li>
<li>hamstring curls</li>
</ul>
<div>
Day 4: sprints</div>
</div>
<div>
Day 5:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>light warmup</li>
<li>cleans (barbell)</li>
<li>pullups</li>
<li>squats (barbell)</li>
<li>jog</li>
</ul>
<div>
Day 6: Rest</div>
</div>
<div>
Day 7: jump-rope routine</div>
<div>
<br />
I was in pretty good shape, maintained a nice diet, etc.<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
Workout With Baby:</h4>
<div>
With a baby, my workouts came much less often and typically only lasted 5-10 minutes. This is the routine I tried (and often failed) to stick to from the time he was 2 months old until he was around a year old.<br />
<br />
Day 1:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Arnold press/curl combo (dumbbell)</li>
<li>lunges (dumbell)</li>
</ul>
<div>
Day 2: Rest</div>
</div>
<div>
Day 3: Rest</div>
<div>
Day 4: </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>pushups</li>
<li>lunges (dumbell)</li>
</ul>
<div>
Day 5: Rest</div>
</div>
<div>
Day 6: Rest</div>
<div>
Day 7: Rest</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The biggest issues here were sleep deprivation + time lost to feeding the baby. I stopped working out for the most part. Looking back, I think I went roughly 18 months without doing a pullup. If you check out any of the posts on <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2017/03/mothers-weight-16-month-update.html">our weight</a> you can see that I lost a lot of weight during this period. I also completely stopped doing cardio.<br />
<br />
Another issue is that we don't keep a squat rack/bench set up with the baby around because it takes so much space and can be dangerous.<br />
<br />
I noticed I was getting really bad back pain a couple of months ago so I decided to start working out more again.<br />
<br /></div>
<h4>
Workout With Toddler:</h4>
We bought one of those <a _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B48ISLU/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00B48ISLU&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=869058cf2713ed0134525add33e38d45">Weider cable machines</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00B48ISLU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. If anyone wants a review of it just ask and I'll post one, but my workout routine now (past two months) looks like:
<br />
<div>
<br />
Day 1:<br />
<ul>
<li>light warmup</li>
<li>rows (cable machine)</li>
<li>squats (cable machine)</li>
<li>not sure what it's called, but it's like an iron cross only at a 30 degree incline (cable machine)</li>
<li>sort of leg press (cable machine)</li>
<li>walk with son</li>
</ul>
<div>
Day 2: walk with son</div>
<div>
Day 3: walk with son</div>
<div>
Day 4: </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>light warmup</li>
<li>pushups</li>
<li>chest flys (cable machine)</li>
<li>side lateral raises (dumbbell)</li>
<li>reverse flys (dumbell)</li>
<li>hammer curls (dumbbell)</li>
<li>walk with son</li>
</ul>
<div>
Day 5: walk with son</div>
</div>
<div>
Day 6: </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>light warmup</li>
<li>pullups</li>
<li>pushups</li>
<li>lunges (dumbbell)</li>
<li>shoulder shrugs (dumbbell)</li>
<li>rows (cable machine)</li>
<li>walk with son</li>
</ul>
<div>
Day 7: walk with son</div>
</div>
<br />
The walking was unexpected. I don't like being outside much. I was never much of a walker. I live in Texas and it's still like 95 degrees at sunset. None of those matter at all to my son.<br />
<br />
At least once a day, and often two or three times a day, he gets the urge to go on a walk. He'll say 'Walk!' a few times then go stand by the door until one of us goes on a walk with him. Hurricane Harvey is going on as I write this and he's really upset with us that we aren't going on a walk right now. We've already gone on two walks in the hurricane over the past 24 hours.<br />
<br />
I use the time to practice whatever he's working on (e.g., 'ABC song'), and we typically walk for 10-20 minutes each time. Making it more of a workout, he often gets exhausted since it's so unbearably hot, so I carry him part of the way (he's ~25 lbs now).<br />
<br />
<h4>
Summary</h4>
<div>
Having a baby definitely affected my workouts. Like most things, age, interests, etc. also played a part. However, I can say with confidence that the time spent with the baby combined with sleep deprivation severely impacted my ability to workout while he was really young. I can also say with confidence that I walk much more now because he enjoys going on walks.<br />
<br />
As you can see in the image at the beginning of the post, he also affects it in ways that are hard to capture in that a baby kind of takes over your whole house. In between sets now, I have to wait because he tends to stand by me and then run his trucks over the equipment when I stop.</div>
<br />
<br /></div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-84866541384504649872017-08-18T21:25:00.000-07:002017-08-18T22:21:36.672-07:00How Does The Baby Affect Our Meal Planning? - Toddler-Friendly RecipesI generally cook most of the family's non-breakfast meals on Sunday afternoons and have done this for a while. Now that we have a toddler, this means I have to cook things that all of us will eat and that can be difficult since I'm picky, my wife is Indonesian, and our toddler is a toddler. Below I've laid out a few simple recipes that have worked well for us.<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5uNKee47dkc/WZUZhjZkXnI/AAAAAAAACbY/LOPNDW_dVNYzoDVLnko0mtf4CXXRm3qIgCLcBGAs/s1600/nutritional%2Binfo%2Bfor%2Btaco%2Bmeat.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="calories and nutritional info for taco meat and salsa recipe" border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="551" height="auto" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5uNKee47dkc/WZUZhjZkXnI/AAAAAAAACbY/LOPNDW_dVNYzoDVLnko0mtf4CXXRm3qIgCLcBGAs/s1600/nutritional%2Binfo%2Bfor%2Btaco%2Bmeat.png" title="nutritional info for taco meat" width="0" /></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><h4>
General Goals</h4>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Not just carbs</li>
<li>Decent vegetable content (we all snack on fruits but not so much on vegetables)</li>
<li>Really easy to cook and store</li>
<li>Doesn't require cutting or anything so he (toddler) can feed himself</li>
<li>Inexpensive</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Recipe 1 - Sort of Taco Meat</h4>
</div>
<div>
Ingredients:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>3 lbs of ground turkey</li>
<li>2 jars of <a href="https://www.heb.com/product-detail/h-e-b-select-ingredients-medium-chunky-restaurant-style-salsa/536004">salsa</a></li>
<li>4 ounces of shredded cheddar</li>
<li>2 red bell peppers</li>
<li>1 bunch of green onions</li>
<li>breadcrumbs</li>
<li>1 packet of taco seasoning</li>
</ul>
<div>
Instructions:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>brown the ground turkey in a large saucepan</li>
<li>while that's happening, cut up the peppers and onions in a food processor</li>
<li>once the turkey is done, stir all ingredients together in the pan and add a cup of water</li>
<li>simmer while stirring for ~10 minutes</li>
</ul>
<div>
And that's it. Super-basic, he can eat it with a toddler spoon or just with his fingers, and most importantly...he will actually eat it. It takes ~20 minutes total to cook. My wife and I use chips with this and he (toddler) just eats the meat along with some fruit or an avocado, and this makes ~12 portions. Where we shop (HEB), the ingredients are ~$18, so it works out to ~$1.50 per portion. The approximate nutritional info is below:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5uNKee47dkc/WZUZhjZkXnI/AAAAAAAACbY/LOPNDW_dVNYzoDVLnko0mtf4CXXRm3qIgCLcBGAs/s1600/nutritional%2Binfo%2Bfor%2Btaco%2Bmeat.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="calories and nutritional info for taco meat and salsa recipe" border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="551" height="auto" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5uNKee47dkc/WZUZhjZkXnI/AAAAAAAACbY/LOPNDW_dVNYzoDVLnko0mtf4CXXRm3qIgCLcBGAs/s1600/nutritional%2Binfo%2Bfor%2Btaco%2Bmeat.png" title="nutritional info for taco meat" width="80%" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4>
Recipe 2 - Japanese Restaurant-Style Fried Rice</h4>
</div>
</div>
<div>
Ingredients:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>8 cups of rice (cooked...I use the brown rice in a bag stuff)</li>
<li>2 cups of diced onion (I use frozen)</li>
<li>3/4 cup of diced peppers (I use frozen)</li>
<li>1/2 cup of peas (I use frozen)</li>
<li>1/2 cup of carrots (I use frozen)</li>
<li>3 tablespoons of butter</li>
<li>8 tablespoons of soy sauce (I use kikkoman's low-sodium; if you want a slightly different taste, you could do half soy sauce and half teriyaki or half soy sauce and half sweet soy sauce) </li>
<li>12 eggs (you can use egg whites if you want)</li>
<li>favorite powdered seasoning (I use a garlic and pepper mix)</li>
</ul>
<div>
Instructions:</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Boil the rice in a big pot</li>
<li>While it's boiling, saute the vegetables in another pan</li>
<li>Once vegetables are done (should only take 5-6 minutes), move them out of the pan and start cooking the eggs in it...basically, scramble them without adding normal scrambled egg ingredients</li>
<li>Rice should finish in the middle of cooking the eggs, so drain the water (and cut open the bags if you use the bagged stuff)</li>
<li>Once the eggs are done, put the butter, and soy sauce on top of the rice in its pot, then sprinkle as much of your seasoning as you want</li>
<li>Add the eggs to that pot, and stir for a few minutes</li>
</ul>
<div>
That's it. It tastes great and is very baby/toddler friendly. The ingredient list above makes ~8 servings. If you need to extend this because it isn't enough, you can always cook more, or you can supplement with protein (steak, chicken, shrimp, scallop, tofu, fish, more eggs). It also pairs well with a side of fruit or more vegetables (broccoli and zucchini in particular).<br />
<br />
Where we shop, the ingredients are ~$9, so this works out to just above $1 per portion.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PqI4FYGiZZo/WZUZ4sqlo8I/AAAAAAAACbc/HsYDBaQMZicQ8gZf0nqVThNWsHK4YrIIwCLcBGAs/s1600/nutritional%2Binfo%2Bfor%2Bhibachi%2Bfried%2Brice.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="472" height="auto" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PqI4FYGiZZo/WZUZ4sqlo8I/AAAAAAAACbc/HsYDBaQMZicQ8gZf0nqVThNWsHK4YrIIwCLcBGAs/s1600/nutritional%2Binfo%2Bfor%2Bhibachi%2Bfried%2Brice.png" width="80%" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4>
Recipe 3 - Crustless Quiche</h4>
</div>
</div>
<div>
Ingredients:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>1 cup of chopped onion (I use frozen)</li>
<li>10 ounces of chopped spinach (I use frozen)</li>
<li>7 eggs</li>
<li>4 cups shredded gouda cheese</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon of seasoning (I use salt and pepper)</li>
</ul>
<div>
Directions:</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Preheat oven to 350 degrees</li>
<li>Spray non-stick spray into a 9 inch baking dish</li>
<li>Saute the vegetables</li>
<li>Stir up all ingredients and put in the baking dish</li>
<li>Bake until eggs are done/solid (start at 30 minutes and check every 10 minutes after that if they aren't ready yet)</li>
</ul>
<div>
That's it. The ingredient list above makes 8 servings. Since this is basically carb free we usually pair it with a carb (usually fruit).<br />
<br />
Where we shop, the ingredients are ~$6.50, so that's just under $1 per portion.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jYPObbUeoCg/WZUZ7ksqIkI/AAAAAAAACbg/KgaiLIDwGiIe_9__FkS4JI3Cf-UR3eO9wCLcBGAs/s1600/nutritional%2Binfo%2Bfor%2Bquiche.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="326" height="auto" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jYPObbUeoCg/WZUZ7ksqIkI/AAAAAAAACbg/KgaiLIDwGiIe_9__FkS4JI3Cf-UR3eO9wCLcBGAs/s1600/nutritional%2Binfo%2Bfor%2Bquiche.png" width="70%" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h4>
Other Meals</h4>
</div>
<div>
He gets some of his meals from daycare. He averages three lunches a week from them. For breakfast, he almost always eats a banana, and I will give him some cheerios if he is still hungry. He can have whole milk on demand. For snacks, he normally has an avocado at dinner, crackers and fruit in the afternoon, and eats grapes or oranges two or three times a day. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
He really loves grapes...he'll run to the refrigerator and scream 'ANGGUR!' which is Indonesian for grape and is equally adorable and annoying. He also screams no if you try to eat one of his grapes and will occasionally put one in your mouth and nod all wide-eyed like 'it's freaking awesome right?'. I'll stop now.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Other meals that we cycle in that we all love and are too basic to detail here include:<br />
<ul>
<li>spaghetti with double sauce and half noodles</li>
<li>rotisserie chicken and fruit (we just buy the chicken from the grocery store)</li>
<li>mashed potatoes with spinach and sausage</li>
<li>frozen burritos (buy the wraps, pour salsa in them, chop sausage or egg, jalapenos, onions, and bell peppers into them, add cheese, and freeze)</li>
<li>jambalaya (buy the zataran's mix, add meat, jalapenos, and habaneros, and that's it)</li>
<li>salmon (put oil, lemon pepper, and almonds on it and bake it for 20 minutes)</li>
</ul>
</div>
<h4>
</h4>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-88620747209158983772017-08-11T21:28:00.000-07:002017-08-11T21:39:11.646-07:00Feet And Leg Swelling During PregnancyThe baby had a huge effect on my wife's feet and legs during her pregnancy. How bad was it, how did we reduce the swelling (also called edema), and how is she now?<br />
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bB0GRKX7sTQ/WY6A0A_PTRI/AAAAAAAACas/o2Zkc9S8MxUO1npH0Otq3zYzeRRAAXCpQCLcBGAs/s1600/shoe%2Bsize%2Bchange.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="auto" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bB0GRKX7sTQ/WY6A0A_PTRI/AAAAAAAACas/o2Zkc9S8MxUO1npH0Otq3zYzeRRAAXCpQCLcBGAs/s960/shoe%2Bsize%2Bchange.JPG" width="0" /></a><br />
<a name='more'></a><h4>
How bad was it?</h4>
<div>
Anecdotally...pretty awful. The swelling looked terrible and it was very painful for her. Her legs from roughly the knee down were warm to the touch. <br />
<br />
Non-anecdotally, her shoe size went from a 5.5 to a 7.5. This became noticeable at roughly seven months into the pregnancy. Here's a photo comparing her pregnancy shoes (left) with her normal shoes (right):<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bB0GRKX7sTQ/WY6A0A_PTRI/AAAAAAAACas/o2Zkc9S8MxUO1npH0Otq3zYzeRRAAXCpQCLcBGAs/s1600/shoe%2Bsize%2Bchange.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img alt="change in shoe size during pregnancy due to swelling/edema" border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="auto" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bB0GRKX7sTQ/WY6A0A_PTRI/AAAAAAAACas/o2Zkc9S8MxUO1npH0Otq3zYzeRRAAXCpQCLcBGAs/s960/shoe%2Bsize%2Bchange.JPG" title="change in shoe size during pregnancy" width="80%" /></a></div>
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<br />
Here's a photo of her with swollen legs during the pregnancy:<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MpAQ0fuRGLM/WY6BYXcdDFI/AAAAAAAACa0/PJbNcdHgN7Yzj6wPtql_8FB-DnSAX4NwQCLcBGAs/s1600/WP_20150925_18_30_29_Pro%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="leg, ankle, and feet edema due to pregnancy" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="899" height="auto" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MpAQ0fuRGLM/WY6BYXcdDFI/AAAAAAAACa0/PJbNcdHgN7Yzj6wPtql_8FB-DnSAX4NwQCLcBGAs/s960/WP_20150925_18_30_29_Pro%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="ankle swelling due to pregnancy" width="60%" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
She was having difficulty with her job because of the amount of walking she had to do.<br />
<br />
<h4>
How did we reduce the swelling?</h4>
</div>
<div>
We used three main things that ended up being effective:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>She wore <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UM20UZQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00UM20UZQ&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=311f9c400cfa307878cff84137350fd7" target="_blank">compression stockings</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00UM20UZQ" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> at work</li>
<li>I massaged her legs at night</li>
<li>She slept and relaxed with her lower body on an <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXPM2CN/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01LXPM2CN&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=b3e2df53126adb7aa0513a555bf5bc75" target="_blank">inclined pillow</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B01LXPM2CN" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></li>
</ul>
<div>
For the massages, she would prop her feet up, and I would apply a decent amount of pressure and push from her toes to her knees. We did this most nights once we noticed the swelling becoming an issue. <br />
<br />
I unfortunately did not track any data around this, but anecdotally her swelling was noticeably better after one week and was a complete non-issue after 3 weeks.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
How is she now?</h4>
<div>
She's had no long-term side effects that we can tell. As I noted above, the swelling went down significantly pre-birth, and was completely gone when we left the hospital. It's been almost two years now so I would assume any long-term side effects would have shown up by now. Thus, I think it's safe to say that the baby had a huge effect on my wife's leg swelling during the pregnancy, we successfully managed it, and the swelling had no obvious, long-term effects on my wife's legs. To wrap it up, here is a photo of her wearing her pregnancy shoes while pregnant and then 21 months after birth:<br />
<br />
While pregnant:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wuYGeFbNt4o/WY6CH92ZO_I/AAAAAAAACbA/AFtPsLhaAJwiWdIHLhSIXsk65L-l6fMUQCLcBGAs/s1600/WP_20150925_18_30_42_Pro%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="leg, ankle, and feet swelling due to edema" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="899" height="auto" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wuYGeFbNt4o/WY6CH92ZO_I/AAAAAAAACbA/AFtPsLhaAJwiWdIHLhSIXsk65L-l6fMUQCLcBGAs/s960/WP_20150925_18_30_42_Pro%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="leg swelling due to edema" width="50%" /></a></div>
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</div>
<br />
Now:<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RVpIdmqnnFk/WY6B-V8W8yI/AAAAAAAACa8/98bR_07qp3E0bL_jWH4xBSI4OHhDpUreACEwYBhgL/s1600/IMG_20170806_220530603%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RVpIdmqnnFk/WY6B-V8W8yI/AAAAAAAACa8/98bR_07qp3E0bL_jWH4xBSI4OHhDpUreACEwYBhgL/s960/IMG_20170806_220530603%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="50%" /></a></div>
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theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-32532716369788477432017-08-01T16:57:00.000-07:002017-08-01T16:57:02.065-07:00How Has Having A Baby Affected My Video Game Playing And Hobbies In General? - 21 Month UpdateIs it possible to maintain a video game habit with a full-time job, a baby, and other hobbies? This is my post looking back on this after 21 months of life with a baby.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I7k0IxL_fSQ/WYEVF_Eq-5I/AAAAAAAACYU/XKHDfGcXQswRpe0rsqO7nFCWoVZ8dr9cgCLcBGAs/s1600/video%2Bgames_21%2Bmonths.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="505" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I7k0IxL_fSQ/WYEVF_Eq-5I/AAAAAAAACYU/XKHDfGcXQswRpe0rsqO7nFCWoVZ8dr9cgCLcBGAs/s1320/video%2Bgames_21%2Bmonths.png" width="80%" /></a></div>
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<br />
<a name='more'></a><h4>
Background</h4>
<div>
I wrote <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2015/12/how-has-baby-affected-my-video-game.html">previously</a> about how an infant affects video games and the result was that the effect wasn't massive. For a quick summary in case you don't click on the link:<br />
<ul>
<li>I've enjoyed games since I can remember</li>
<li>I lean towards strategy, RPGs, and RTS but do enjoy others (Action, FPS, etc.)</li>
<li>Most games were still pretty easy to play with a newborn</li>
</ul>
<h4>
21 Month Update</h4>
</div>
<div>
I'd say things are pretty much the same. The biggest difference I've noticed is that I don't get as excited about open-world games as I used to, and similarly don't play ones that require extreme focus, fast reaction time, etc. as much. Part of that is probably the baby. Part of that is probably just general aging.<br />
<br />
Once the baby hit ~12 months old, he was pretty independent. He likes to sit quietly with his toys, read his books (he can't really read...more look at the pictures and name all the colors he sees, practice flipping pages, etc.), and generally be left alone as long as we're sitting next to him. That works great since I switched to a gaming laptop a few years back. Kids also go to sleep pretty early so it leaves a good bit of time to play at night.<br />
<br />
Basically...while my typical schedule used to involve an even mix of tv and video games, now it's no tv, slightly less video game time, and more time with the kid.<br />
<br />
That's all anecdotal. For some actual data on how much I play, I can pull times from Steam on some of the games I've played since his birth. Examples are:<br />
<ul>
<li>Total War: Warhammer - 202 hours</li>
<li>Middle Earth: Shadow of Morder - 11 hours</li>
<li>Renowned Explorers: International Society - 53 hours</li>
<li>The Political Machine - 18 hours</li>
<li>Democracy 3 - 32 hours</li>
<li>Fallout 4 - 51 hours</li>
<li>Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - 22 hours</li>
<li>Divinity: Original Sin - 60 hours</li>
</ul>
<div>
These are all games that I started playing after his birth, so I know the times are post-baby. I don't have good tracking for games I started playing before then and have continued playing, but I'm certain I'm well over 100 hours since his birth in Europa Universalis IV and Civilization 5. I've also completed GTA V once and Dragon Age: Inquisition twice since his birth. Unfortunately, I did not track my total game time for the 21 months before birth for a comparison plot.<br />
<br />
As far as content goes, there aren't really any issues that I've run into. Strategy games seem fine in general, and things like GTA and Fallout that might be inappropriate can be played when he's not sitting in my lap or next to me.<br />
<br />
There have also been non-baby distractions that have cut into my video game time. The primary one is that I run three websites now instead of one. The other two are <a href="http://cityprojections.com/">CityProjections </a>which is a site focused on climate data and fun things you can pull from it, and <a href="http://somesolvedproblems.blogspot.com/">SomeSolvedProblems </a>which is a site that consists of solutions to problems that I found interesting. <a href="http://cityprojections.com/">CityProjections </a>in particular has probably taken the most overall time of all of these since the learning curve for getting it going was massive. Another lesser one is that when he was ~12 months old I realized he liked it when I played guitar, so I started playing guitar while he plays with his toys pretty regularly.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<h4>
Does his mother still have hobbies?</h4>
<div>
His mother is harder for me to track because she doesn't have such clearly defined hobbies. She definitely has less free time than she did before, but she is also preparing heavily for graduate school and working more hours since she seems to enjoy her work more now than she did previously. I will try to figure out a way to capture hers well and write a future post on it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h4>
Summary</h4>
</div>
</div>
<div>
Overall, the baby has not severely impacted my video game hobby from what I can tell, I still clearly play a lot of games based on the data available, and overall...hobbies in general have not been affected by the baby. We might have lucked out in that our baby is really good-natured and enjoys entertaining himself as long as we're around.</div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-51194818061710828002017-07-26T16:46:00.001-07:002017-07-26T16:46:19.227-07:00How Did The Baby Affect His Mother's Ring Finger?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IUBqvnPytx0/WXkpZtS_qtI/AAAAAAAACXc/n65OZysPOaI2DyoO2m7EmUgeX5_gYplQQCLcBGAs/s1600/ring%2Bsize.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="515" height="auto" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IUBqvnPytx0/WXkpZtS_qtI/AAAAAAAACXc/n65OZysPOaI2DyoO2m7EmUgeX5_gYplQQCLcBGAs/s1600/ring%2Bsize.png" width="80%" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
My wife has tiny fingers (ring finger ring size of 2 3/4 before pregnancy) and was worried about not being able to wear ring anymore. Did the baby have an effect?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div>
So this one is really short and limited with data as it's kind of binary. She got pregnant in January of 2015, her ring finger was too swollen to wear her ring starting in June of 2015, and the finger finally returned to almost normal (now a size 3) in June of 2017. Thus, she was unable to wear the ring normally for almost exactly two years.</div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-84694710142226632942017-03-04T17:19:00.003-08:002017-03-04T17:30:39.304-08:00Mother's Weight - 16 Month Update<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gyA0jc16qrA/WLtne1Uj_YI/AAAAAAAACJQ/bHeJoy9Gr7cEMHfqIbtMy_sz-LhPh2NpgCEw/s1600/mother%2Bweight-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gyA0jc16qrA/WLtne1Uj_YI/AAAAAAAACJQ/bHeJoy9Gr7cEMHfqIbtMy_sz-LhPh2NpgCEw/s1200/mother%2Bweight-min.png" width="475" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mother's Weight</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Has his mother been able to keep her weight off?<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>As you can see from the plot, she returned to her pre-pregnancy weight about six months post-birth, and has kept it off for roughly a year since then. There's been no real secret to her maintaining her weight. She weighs herself periodically...if she's above her target weight, she eats slightly less until the next weigh-in...if she's below her target weight, she eats slightly more until the next weigh-in.<br />
<br />
As I noted in a <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/03/losing-weight-after-pregnancy.html">previous post on this</a>, a milestone for her was that in March of 2016 (six months post-birth), she was able to wear her pre-pregnancy pants again. I also noted that she controlled/planned her diet from January to March 2016 to lose weight at a controlled pace and you can clearly see that here.<br />
<br />
For completeness, I've included a plot of my weight below:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A9iR0vRlYcc/WLtnewnckzI/AAAAAAAACJM/61a2Ufy75PckIV3XpzBbKOy01sJRIWA7gCEw/s1600/father%2527s%2Bweight-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="350" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A9iR0vRlYcc/WLtnewnckzI/AAAAAAAACJM/61a2Ufy75PckIV3XpzBbKOy01sJRIWA7gCEw/s1200/father%2527s%2Bweight-min.png" width="475" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Father's Weight</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
I've lost a bit of weight during this process. It wasn't an active attempt, but I have greatly reduced my workouts so I'm not overeating to maintain muscle mass, and I also tend to lose significant weight when stressed and a baby does increase stress levels.<br />
<br />
I would assume going forward things will stay pretty much the same. The most stressful periods were immediately post-birth. It's gotten easier since then. He's also a lot more active now, so we move much more than we did when he was a newborn.<br />
<br />theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-66315523397152086842016-12-23T18:56:00.000-08:002016-12-23T19:06:26.894-08:00Can He Nap At Daycare As A Toddler?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YUbsKRJ3_Po/WF3eL6MZXrI/AAAAAAAAB8k/4-3elkhBI389d_bwbJWbQeTIGrQ1zieiwCLcB/s1600/napping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YUbsKRJ3_Po/WF3eL6MZXrI/AAAAAAAAB8k/4-3elkhBI389d_bwbJWbQeTIGrQ1zieiwCLcB/s400/napping.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Now that he's moved into the room for toddlers, have his napping habits changed?<br />
<a name='more'></a><h2>
</h2>
<h4>
<br /></h4>
<h4>
Napping Habits Vs Time</h4>
<div>
There are a number of ways to break up his napping data and I've written a couple of posts on them already. Since I have roughly a year of data now, a first thought is to look at his napping habits vs month over the year since napping habits change as babies age. Below is that data:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-80SSnVviGGA/WF3f1J_n-aI/AAAAAAAAB8w/9uw2qYfjF9YAyM1cWzVAm7Ehzr1sPZuVwCLcB/s1600/nap%2Btime%2Bper%2Bmonth-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-80SSnVviGGA/WF3f1J_n-aI/AAAAAAAAB8w/9uw2qYfjF9YAyM1cWzVAm7Ehzr1sPZuVwCLcB/s400/nap%2Btime%2Bper%2Bmonth-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As I was watching it come in, I'd thought maybe he was just getting older and spending less time napping, but there was a spell in the fall where he was not napping at all most days and coming home exhausted. He switched rooms right after that so we got new data. As you can see, his nap time also spikes right at the end so maybe the room determines how long he naps?</div>
<h4>
<br /></h4>
<h4>
Napping Habits Vs Room</h4>
<div>
He's in his third room at daycare now. The rough description of the three rooms and their napping situations is:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><b>Infant room: </b>Babies are aged 6 weeks to ~6 months (when they can stay seated and roll on their own). They nap completely on demand and if they fall asleep on the floor the teacher moves them to a crib. All babies nap at different times, the lights stay on the entire day, and babies play while other babies nap. Typically ~5 babies in the room at a time.</li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YXngLEKZwiI/WF3hoqqtvYI/AAAAAAAAB9M/n-FwMdyaThsNgmryAYwO_w_NfxRgL0d3wCLcB/s1600/infant%2Broom%2Bhistogram-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YXngLEKZwiI/WF3hoqqtvYI/AAAAAAAAB9M/n-FwMdyaThsNgmryAYwO_w_NfxRgL0d3wCLcB/s400/infant%2Broom%2Bhistogram-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><b>Crawling room:</b> Babies are aged ~6 months to ~12 months. They nap on demand though the teachers try to encourage them to get one morning and one afternoon nap. Babies in this room typically crawl for most of the time that they're in the room, and typically ~8 babies are in the room at a time. They have to nap in their cribs and the teachers move them to their cribs if they fall asleep somewhere else. The lights stay on the entire day and babies play while other babies nap.</li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rfvYQFGwp-o/WF3hvZmG3-I/AAAAAAAAB9Q/7UYD922UydM1cp93VUKfoxWvr5cRptkxgCLcB/s1600/crawler%2Broom%2Bhistogram-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rfvYQFGwp-o/WF3hvZmG3-I/AAAAAAAAB9Q/7UYD922UydM1cp93VUKfoxWvr5cRptkxgCLcB/s400/crawler%2Broom%2Bhistogram-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li><b>Toddler room:</b> Babies are aged ~12 months to ~18 months. They start walking around the time they enter this room typically (one outlier started walking at 7 months so she joined this room at 9 months). All of them share a nap schedule and it is from roughly 12:00 pm to roughly 2:00 pm. They have to remain quiet during this period and the lights are turned off. Each baby sleeps in a mat on the floor and has a blanket available if they want it (see picture at the top of the post).</li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RevAhqYrEtg/WF3h0uCWWzI/AAAAAAAAB9U/74SYZlOxMIoRPZfOqgiyWWlqcG3LZulmACLcB/s1600/toddler%2Broom%2Bhistogram-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RevAhqYrEtg/WF3h0uCWWzI/AAAAAAAAB9U/74SYZlOxMIoRPZfOqgiyWWlqcG3LZulmACLcB/s400/toddler%2Broom%2Bhistogram-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You can see from the histograms for each room that he napped poorly in the crawler room, and below are the averages for each room:</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wMumxLUH4gg/WF3hBjOAEjI/AAAAAAAAB9E/T6ZlbszIRkQv4iY5pm2jjshOpCcOFpf9wCLcB/s1600/nap%2Btime%2Bper%2Broom-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wMumxLUH4gg/WF3hBjOAEjI/AAAAAAAAB9E/T6ZlbszIRkQv4iY5pm2jjshOpCcOFpf9wCLcB/s400/nap%2Btime%2Bper%2Broom-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As you can see, there is a clear dip for the crawling room. That room typically had more babies than the infant room and they were very active. Our baby is very sensitive to noise (he's still scared of my sneezes) and very curious, so my gut is that he could only sleep in the crawling room if every other baby was also sleeping. <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/06/did-he-ever-get-better-at-napping-at.html">Combined with the previous analysis that found that his nap length went down as the number of babies went up</a>, I think I can reach the obvious conclusion that having a room with fewer distractions leads to better sleep.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As a final note...I have 44 records from the infant room, 64 records from the crawling room, and 25 records from the toddler room. </div>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-19410505197295307052016-10-23T13:02:00.000-07:002016-10-23T21:54:42.462-07:00How Expensive Is A Baby? - 12 Month Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mCKlJZs6F1o/WA0X99CmHDI/AAAAAAAAB4c/0RWIB9aJwD0Yq1j2gfgWPLgPWb5NnLzQgCLcB/s1600/800px-2006_AEGold_Proof_Rev.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mCKlJZs6F1o/WA0X99CmHDI/AAAAAAAAB4c/0RWIB9aJwD0Yq1j2gfgWPLgPWb5NnLzQgCLcB/s200/800px-2006_AEGold_Proof_Rev.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
What is the one year cost of ownership for a baby? We've tracked several expenses that are directly attributable to the baby and aggregated them here.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h4>
What Expenses are Included?</h4>
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<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Medical</b> - cost of delivery/c-section + cost of hospital stay
(including NICU) + all associated trips to doctors' offices (all are
what we owed after insurance) + cost of his insurance</li>
<li><b>Diapers - </b><a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2015/12/how-expensive-are-diapers-10-week-update.html">cost of diapers + cost of wet wipes used in diaper changes</a></li>
<li><b>Formula - </b><a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2015/12/how-expensive-is-baby-formula-9-week.html">cost of baby formula</a></li>
<li><b>Baby Safety - </b>cost of car seats + cost of rug and pad for baby to lie on for tummy time, play time, etc.</li>
<li><b>Daycare - </b>cost of daycare</li>
<li><b>Lost Wages - </b>wages lost from mother's FMLA + cost of mother's
benefits during FMLA - disability insurance payout - wages gained by
cashing in vacation and sick leave</li>
<li><b>Nursery - </b><a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2015/10/the-cost-of-nursery_1.html">cost to set up the nursery</a></li>
<li><b>Other Food - </b>at around six months he started eating <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/08/how-much-does-it-cost-to-feed-baby-10.html">other foods</a>, so this includes vegetable purees, foods we prepared for him, etc. </li>
</ul>
Note that this leaves out many expenses that we either did not
track separately and/or could not directly attribute to the baby.
Examples of these are baby clothes, bottle expenses, and utilities. This
means that the cost estimates that follow are likely underestimates.<br />
<br />
If you would like to see these same costs at three months, <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/01/how-expensive-is-baby-three-month-update.html">they can be found here. </a>The six month costs <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/04/how-expensive-is-baby-six-month-update.html">can be found here</a>.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Results</h4>
The 12 month totals for each category are listed in the table below:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JR9rc0H1g8w/WA0T-ud7hzI/AAAAAAAAB4A/OwBS3f2g7KEgyRLawJxS_jIQmYAo-IEogCLcB/s1600/12%2Bmonth%2Bcosts.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JR9rc0H1g8w/WA0T-ud7hzI/AAAAAAAAB4A/OwBS3f2g7KEgyRLawJxS_jIQmYAo-IEogCLcB/s320/12%2Bmonth%2Bcosts.png" width="275" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The expenses listed above are plotted vs. time as they accumulated in the interactive (non-mobile) chart below:<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
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</div>
<div class="pconly" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QCHvXXAYFME/WA0WAPBbsJI/AAAAAAAAB4M/gHJcTXbUcVkKarv04v9__GH8LbdQPcqjgCLcB/s1600/12%2Bmonth%2Bcost%2Bplot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="331" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QCHvXXAYFME/WA0WAPBbsJI/AAAAAAAAB4M/gHJcTXbUcVkKarv04v9__GH8LbdQPcqjgCLcB/s400/12%2Bmonth%2Bcost%2Bplot.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<b>What About Taxes?</b><br />
As mentioned in <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/06/how-does-baby-affect-taxes.html">this post</a>, the baby saved us $1150 on our 2015 taxes. Our 2016 taxes should show the same savings + a write-off of $5000 of income for daycare expenses through an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexible_spending_account">FSA.</a> Again assuming a 25% tax bracket, that will net us $1250, for a total savings of $2400 on taxes.<br />
<br />
<b>Takeaways</b><br />
It's become even more obvious at this point that daycare is by far the biggest expense and will continue to grow. It more than a third of the ~$25,000 first year cost. There's no real mitigation for this one either as one of us quitting our job would be far more expensive than daycare (easily an order of magnitude over our professional careers) and we're at one of the least expensive daycares in the area.<br />
<br />
The good thing about that I guess is that the other expenses don't seem so bad by comparison. It's not stressful at all to spend slightly more on diapers we want, more bottles for convenience, etc. as saving $2 a week here and there really doesn't matter anymore when faced with the cost of daycare.<br />
<br />
I don't think my lessons learned have changed at all since the six month post so I'll write it again here:<br />
<ul>
<li>Find a job that pays you for parental leave or has really good short-term disability coverage</li>
<li>Find an insurance provider that has good coverage for pregnancy expenses</li>
<li>Find a cheap daycare (note that you do get what you pay for to some degree so be careful with this)</li>
<li>Get second-hand nursery items</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-44175646786655154172016-10-16T14:16:00.001-07:002016-10-17T19:52:02.174-07:00What Baby Products Would We Recommend?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gtUdOKlOIvQ/WAPt504O4DI/AAAAAAAAB3c/uyRDobIrasE--k56Tp7nLvxcSQyVzpYBACLcB/s1600/baby%2Bat%2Bwork.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gtUdOKlOIvQ/WAPt504O4DI/AAAAAAAAB3c/uyRDobIrasE--k56Tp7nLvxcSQyVzpYBACLcB/s400/baby%2Bat%2Bwork.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Throughout his first year, we've bought a massive amount of baby stuff. Which items were best and which items do we regret buying?<br />
<a name='more'></a><h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Recommend</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<b>Bottles: </b>We tried a lot of different bottles and ended up with five different varieties. Our favorite are <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00140BE3W/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00140BE3W&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=6b675a0c857955522df0763bcf05d189">Gerber</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00140BE3W" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and our next favorite are <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N9X4TYI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00N9X4TYI&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=5f5515666f0f4c23851f30f622a2e4f9">Evenflo</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00N9X4TYI" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Both brands held up (both bottles and nipples) throughout his entire first year which cannot be said for all brands. The Evenflo ones are available in both <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N9X4TYI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00N9X4TYI&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=5f5515666f0f4c23851f30f622a2e4f9">glass</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00N9X4TYI" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N9X4YZW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00N9X4YZW&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=d947ebfa5ef28fb1688440d2b9b68192">plastic</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00N9X4YZW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
<b>Safety: </b>How do you baby proof tile floors?. We searched for a while and ended up settling on a rug and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JGSV9GA/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01JGSV9GA&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=f5b120cb41f3f0efed3517ef94b6d306">Norsk foam tiles</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B01JGSV9GA" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. The rug was just ok but the foam tiles are great. These have no odor, are apparently safe for kids, and have held up very well. They are soft enough that a single layer on top of our tile is sufficient protection for him.<br />
<br />
<b>Lighting: </b>We wanted to control lighting in his room to get him onto a nice day/night schedule early on. This required dimmable bulbs with adjustable colors. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K18PW04/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00K18PW04&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=037db6ececebf691194a09846d8818f4">These work exactly as described</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00K18PW04" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and I've recommended them to everyone who has asked.<br />
<br />
<b>Toys: </b>His favorite toy is this <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CQHYX2G/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00CQHYX2G&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=e510c27d52a197af2697d277f42d519c">dinosaur toy</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00CQHYX2G" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. He puts everything in it (other toys, his sippy cups, etc.) and it has held up well.<br />
<br />
<b>Feeding Items: </b>We've been happy with <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016L0O71A/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B016L0O71A&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=536a1b3fc148bee4ad0a23ff29cfc367">this rocker</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B016L0O71A" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />.<br />
<br />
<b>Health: </b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00171WXII/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00171WXII&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=e7cee530fd66b62b8a3ab52029ca2921">We've used this to clear his stuffed-up nose</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00171WXII" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> many times. Other things (e.g., the little bulb one) we've tried have not worked nearly as well. It's worth warning that he cries whenever we use this though.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Do Not Recommend</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<b>Bottles: </b>Playtex bottles. Ours leaked very quickly.<br />
<br />
<b>Sippy cups:</b> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00318CLNM/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00318CLNM&linkCode=as2&tag=rhamner-20&linkId=b97c3aee0bad1ab158e1f955251d7957">This sippy cup</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=rhamner-20&l=am2&o=1&a=B00318CLNM" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ended up being too heavy and hard to use for our baby.theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-68176411732301637872016-10-09T17:54:00.000-07:002016-10-09T17:54:09.508-07:00How Expensive Is Child Birth?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a6ELUJLMW38/VsQBLCnnqJI/AAAAAAAAAZM/SNfizimbiWsCjdqWadNrSsYLB8OnrvpNwCPcB/s1600/Usdollar100front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-a6ELUJLMW38/VsQBLCnnqJI/AAAAAAAAAZM/SNfizimbiWsCjdqWadNrSsYLB8OnrvpNwCPcB/s400/Usdollar100front.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Two co-workers and I have all had a child within the past year. All of the deliveries went differently, there were different insurance plans used, and we were in different hospitals but all in the same metro area. What was the range of expenses we saw?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h4>
Birth 1</h4>
<ul>
<li>scheduled induction for right before the due date. </li>
<li>issues during delivery that required an emergency c-section and four days in the NICU </li>
<li>delivery and post-delivery treatment happened at hospital 1</li>
<li>mother was covered by her insurance; baby was covered by both parents' insurances.</li>
</ul>
Total out-of-pocket cost - $3828<br />
<br />
<h4>
Birth 2</h4>
<ul>
<li>scheduled induction for a few days before the due date</li>
<li>zero issues during delivery so no c-section, no NICU, and a short hospital stay for the mother</li>
<li>delivery and post-delivery treatment happened at hospital 2</li>
<li>mother was covered by her insurance; baby was covered by dad's insurance</li>
</ul>
Total out-of-pocket cost - $5753<br />
<br />
<h4>
Birth 3</h4>
<ul>
<li>wait until mother went into labor to go to the hospital</li>
<li>issues during delivery (>24 hour labor) that required an emergency c-section but no NICU</li>
<li>delivery and post-delivery treatment happened at hospital 1</li>
<li>unclear which insurance covered who (wrongly billed and currently being sorted out)</li>
</ul>
Total out-of-pocket cost - $2484<br /><br />
<h4>
Summary</h4>
The healthcare system in the US is weird. Birth 2 went the smoothest and resulted in the highest cost. The insurance provider for birth 1 is the same as birth 2, but the mothers work for different agencies so they have slightly different plans (both are public employees). <br />
<br />
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-18206373806467568092016-10-05T19:08:00.000-07:002016-10-05T19:08:35.588-07:00How Does The Baby Affect Going To Restaurants? - 11 Month Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xXRs1ourZtc/V_WwWz348_I/AAAAAAAAB2Q/JFkQdYVmnIMD6nUVD7JVvmXLFAJo9uEpACLcB/s1600/sept2016_restaurants-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xXRs1ourZtc/V_WwWz348_I/AAAAAAAAB2Q/JFkQdYVmnIMD6nUVD7JVvmXLFAJo9uEpACLcB/s400/sept2016_restaurants-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
How do our restaurant habits look roughly a year after having a baby?<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Earlier this year, <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/02/how-does-baby-affect-going-to.html">I wrote about going to restaurants</a> with a baby and noted that our restaurant spending had dropped a bit but it wasn't very dramatic. We have much more data now, and looking at the plot at the top of this post, we do spend a good bit less on restaurants now than we did before the baby. Maybe interestingly, I haven't really noticed a change in our frequency of eating out, so I think we just go to more casual places now as they're usually faster.<br /><br />To maybe provide a clearer picture, here is the year over year difference in spending on restaurants:<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0vJ5oml8Hvs/V_WxC2bcRtI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/Up1InfRrtUs0X-rnsVQ2E1WSuirYviTNwCLcB/s1600/sept2016_restaurantsYOY-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0vJ5oml8Hvs/V_WxC2bcRtI/AAAAAAAAB2Y/Up1InfRrtUs0X-rnsVQ2E1WSuirYviTNwCLcB/s320/sept2016_restaurantsYOY-min.png" width="320" /></a></div>
I don't actually know why we had such a big change YOY in the winter, but it is might be related to:<br /><ul>
<li>My wife went back to work in January, so we had less free time and didn't go out as much.</li>
<li>We ate out more in that time period in 2015 because that was early in the pregnancy but before morning sickness and gestational diabetes became issues that made us eat less</li>
</ul>
Converted to percentages, we're averaging ~20% less YOY. <br /><br />I'm curious now when the extra amount we have to spend to buy him meals will offset this drop and result in us spending more at restaurants than we did before. I'll probably check this again in six months or so.<br />
<br />theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-75583005360381362102016-09-11T11:52:00.001-07:002016-09-11T11:52:52.209-07:00How Does The Baby Affect Where You Live?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NO_QzbypUg0/V9WntBXi4cI/AAAAAAAAB1U/38fVMV42rgQ06vmtcocpB_MGiA_Uol4fgCLcB/s1600/Map_of_current_Interstates.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NO_QzbypUg0/V9WntBXi4cI/AAAAAAAAB1U/38fVMV42rgQ06vmtcocpB_MGiA_Uol4fgCLcB/s400/Map_of_current_Interstates.svg.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Another impact I hadn't fully thought through before having a baby is what effects that would have on where I live...<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
My wife and I packed up and moved quite often pre-baby. I'm probably missing some, but off the top of my head:<br />
<br />
<b>Me:</b><br />
2004 - moved within the same city<br />
2005 - moved to a different city for a job<br />
2005 - moved to a different city for school<br />
<br />
<b>Wife:</b><br />
2005 - moved to the US for school<br />
2005 - moved within the same city<br />
2005 - moved within the same city<br />
2006 - moved to a different state for a different school<br />
2006 - moved within the same city<br />
2006 - moved within the same city<br />
2006 - moved within the same city<br />
2007 - moved within the same city<br />
2007 - moved in with me<br />
<br />
<b>Together:</b><br />
2010 - moved to a different state for a job<br />
2012 - moved to a different state for a job<br />
2014 - moved within the same city (bought a house)<br />
2015 - moved within the same city (sold a house)<br />
<br />
So between us, that's 16 moves in 11 years spanning two continents and four states in the US. <br />
<br />
<h4>
Moving Criteria Pre-Baby</h4>
<ul>
<li>Is the cost of living to salary ratio ok?</li>
<li>Can we tolerate the area?</li>
<li>Does one of us have a job lined up there that pays well enough?</li>
<li>Are there jobs that the other can get nearby?</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Moving Criteria Post-Baby</h4>
<ul>
<li>Is the cost of living to salary ratio ok?</li>
<li>Can we tolerate the area?</li>
<li>Does one of us have a job lined up there that pays well enough?</li>
<li>Are there jobs that the other can get nearby?</li>
<li>How are the school districts near work?</li>
<li>How are the daycares near work?</li>
<li>Are the job's hours compatible with daycare?</li>
<li>Will the area fare well enough with global warming that he'll be able to visit us there when we're retired?</li>
<li>How is the community as far as extra-curriculars are concerned for him (e.g., are there martial arts schools near work)?</li>
<li>Are the public colleges in that state good enough?</li>
<li>If an apartment, is it one that works well for a baby?</li>
<li>Is the location ideal for physical development (e.g., >300 meters from any major roads)?</li>
<li>What will the commute to school be like if there's no bus access?</li>
</ul>
<h4>
Sample Questions I'm Not Sure How To Answer About Moving With A Baby</h4>
<ul>
<li>How do we move all of his stuff? Previously we'd just throw away everything that wasn't easily moveable. We've added a lot more baby stuff.</li>
<li>What do you actually do with him while moving? I guess we just have to hire movers at this point? Within city, maybe we just move during the day while he's at daycare?</li>
<li>How disruptive will it be to move while he's in school? My mom moved something like 10 times growing up, including two overseas moves, and I've not been able to figure out how much that affected her. </li>
<li>What actually matters in schools? My gut has generally been that extremely high intelligence means that you'll succeed regardless of school while average or below intelligence means that you won't excel and be invested in at a top school, so it doesn't really matter if you go to an average school. That's most likely just a rationalization, but I can't actually figure out if school quality matters and can't find great research on it. </li>
</ul>
<h4>
How Do We Manage It? </h4>
We haven't actually figured it out yet and the prospects of moving are more stressful now than before. I see us moving less often going forward. Anyone have advice or experience doing this?<br />
<h4>
</h4>
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-21521880917513737782016-08-28T14:57:00.001-07:002016-08-28T14:57:15.798-07:00Another Dad Hack - Save A Year Of Daycare Expenses<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3NUgPK4imNY/V8NeE0tZoSI/AAAAAAAABzw/cnMcgZbOtoIuroqQbgLsW1eogfQKAQbKACLcB/s1600/Indonesia%2BIndependence.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3NUgPK4imNY/V8NeE0tZoSI/AAAAAAAABzw/cnMcgZbOtoIuroqQbgLsW1eogfQKAQbKACLcB/s400/Indonesia%2BIndependence.png" width="260" /></a></div>
<br />
I don't know if this qualifies as a dad hack as my wife and a coworker both independently told me about it but...<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>If your due date is very close to the cutoff date for admittance to kindergarten, schedule your labor just before that cutoff date. This provides a few different benefits:<br />
<ul>
<li>If your child has developed enough that you're ok with them being one of the youngest kids in their grade, then you can admit them at what is effectively a year early and save a year of daycare expenses.</li>
<li>If your child has not developed enough that you're ok with them being one of the youngest kids in their grade, then you can wait and let them be one of the oldest kids in their grade.</li>
</ul>
As an example, if the due date is September 4th and the cutoff date is September 1st, schedule to induce on something like August 30th. If the baby came naturally on September 2nd, you would be forced into waiting a year to send them into kindergarten. If you induce on August 30th and they come on the 30th or 31st, then you can still wait a year for kindergarten if you want to, but you have the choice to send them a year ahead. <br /><br />Also...Happy Indonesian Independence Day.<br />
theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-31436303956620597672016-08-20T12:39:00.001-07:002016-08-20T12:44:36.704-07:00How Much Does Feeding A Baby Actually Cost? - 10 Month Update<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I0vRxMkwDF4/V7iwZXZlHRI/AAAAAAAABzA/B7qpaAVqywEe2cwOdo2FPGSpEZUO3bKGQCLcB/s1600/total%2Bcost%2Ball%2Bestimates-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I0vRxMkwDF4/V7iwZXZlHRI/AAAAAAAABzA/B7qpaAVqywEe2cwOdo2FPGSpEZUO3bKGQCLcB/s400/total%2Bcost%2Ball%2Bestimates-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
We were warned about how expensive baby food is, and we opted for convenience over cost savings when he started eating solids. Has it been ridiculously expensive?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
It's a bit difficult to determine exactly how much the food costs so I'm breaking it down into:<br />
<ul>
<li>Formula cost</li>
<li>Specific 'baby' food cost</li>
<li>Estimates of other food he eats</li>
<li>Estimates of the additional costs we would have incurred if we didn't breastfeed </li>
</ul>
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Formula Cost</h4>
Since just after birth, we've supplemented with formula. Since he started daycare at 12 weeks, he's switched to a roughly 50/50 breastmilk/formula split. <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2015/12/how-expensive-is-baby-formula-9-week.html">I've written about formula costs previously</a>, but just as a quick recap:<br />
<ul>
<li>the formula we use runs ~$0.60 per dry ounce</li>
<li>1 dry ounce of formula ~= 6.3 fluid ounces after preparation</li>
</ul>
We could spend slightly less if we used Wal-Mart's formula but we shop there rarely, and we could spend slightly more if we used something like Similac, so this is probably a reasonable estimate of what it would cost for a typical user. It's also worth noting that our baby has historically eaten slightly more than recommended. That being understood, below is the total cost of formula for our baby:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gHgewnHRDvI/V7iwZU5ciWI/AAAAAAAABzI/-hyAvTmnCjIlrc880_1gxNbfcvZYfE9yACEw/s1600/formula%2Bcost-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gHgewnHRDvI/V7iwZU5ciWI/AAAAAAAABzI/-hyAvTmnCjIlrc880_1gxNbfcvZYfE9yACEw/s400/formula%2Bcost-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
This is actually not as bad as I'd expected. <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/04/how-expensive-is-baby-six-month-update.html">Compared to other expenses</a>, this is still quite low. Possibly interesting note...at a typical size of 4 fluid ounces per bottle, this means we've prepared ~800 bottles of formula so far.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Baby Food Cost</h4>
Starting at around 6 months, we've been adding solid foods to his diet. We've had a mix of food specifically branded as baby food (jars of pureed vegetables, dissolving baby crackers, etc.) and regular food that babies can eat (apple sauce, peanut butter, etc.). We opted to save time by buying pre-made baby foods, and sample costs are:<br />
<ul>
<li>$0.60 per jar of pre-made pureed vegetables</li>
<li>$3 per container of baby crackers</li>
<li>$2 per container of baby yogurt (the only difference I can see is that it's high-fat/low-sugar compared with regular yogurt)</li>
</ul>
Below is the total cost of this pre-made baby food:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FRV9QxAdf-Q/V7iwZbQkJEI/AAAAAAAABzE/gDgACoWeXOc5b3qI4QML3aXKaBMA4R40wCEw/s1600/baby%2Bfood%2Bcost-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FRV9QxAdf-Q/V7iwZbQkJEI/AAAAAAAABzE/gDgACoWeXOc5b3qI4QML3aXKaBMA4R40wCEw/s400/baby%2Bfood%2Bcost-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/04/how-expensive-is-baby-six-month-update.html">This is also quite low compared with other costs</a>. If we made all of this ourselves, the opportunity cost would be much, much higher, so I'd definitely recommend doing this for someone in our situation (dual-income with both incomes above median).<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Estimated Cost Of Other Foods</h4>
This is where it starts being speculative. We feed him other foods constantly. For a few examples of what I mean by this:<br />
<ul>
<li>I do <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/mealprepsunday">Sunday meal prep</a>. I will typically make two extra servings per week to feed him.</li>
<li>We buy fruits and vegetables each week. I will typically buy two servings of each to feed him.</li>
<li>Whatever snack item I pick for the week (e.g., mozzarella cheese), I will get extra for him.</li>
</ul>
There's no reasonable way to track this cost exactly, so I'm just going to estimate it at $5/week. This is roughly 5% of our total food budget each week and feels like a reasonable estimate.<br />
<br />
Below, I have plotted the tracked costs from above with this cost and filled the area between. The actual cost likely falls somewhere in that red area.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7xhZCFHLlk0/V7iwZsdQ0aI/AAAAAAAABzM/3JUjVA9lRpAsgEe6DJfrDWjCrYCmz8RPwCEw/s1600/total%2Bcost%2Bno%2Bbreast%2Bmilk-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7xhZCFHLlk0/V7iwZsdQ0aI/AAAAAAAABzM/3JUjVA9lRpAsgEe6DJfrDWjCrYCmz8RPwCEw/s400/total%2Bcost%2Bno%2Bbreast%2Bmilk-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Estimates If We Didn't Breast Feed</h4>
As I mentioned above, he was breast-fed primarily at the beginning and has been roughly 50/50 since then. There's no way to know exactly how much breast milk he gets, but based on previous analysis of breast milk production and number of daily feedings, I am estimating it as 16 fluid ounces per day on average. In the earlier section about formula we had the dry->fluid ounce (fl oz) conversion + the cost per dry ounce (dry oz). Combining those, we get ($0.60 $/dry oz)*(1 dry oz/6.3 fl oz) = ~$0.10/fl oz. Using the 16 fl oz of breast milk per day estimate, we get that not breastfeeding would result in an additional average cost of $1.60 per day.<br />
<br />
All of our estimates are then combined in the plot below estimating the actual cost of feeding a baby for 10 months. Note that this plot increased the y-axis to $1000 in case you're comparing it with the other plots.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I0vRxMkwDF4/V7iwZXZlHRI/AAAAAAAABzA/9Z07DYvVLOYnJ22Jgx4wp0QCNwmbOZZMwCEw/s1600/total%2Bcost%2Ball%2Bestimates-min.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I0vRxMkwDF4/V7iwZXZlHRI/AAAAAAAABzA/9Z07DYvVLOYnJ22Jgx4wp0QCNwmbOZZMwCEw/s400/total%2Bcost%2Ball%2Bestimates-min.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Overall...if you are in our position (both parents working and using daycare), food cost will be a non-negligible expense but will definitely not be your largest expense.theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7829366319619008030.post-30673636495762064102016-07-17T15:16:00.003-07:002016-07-17T17:27:43.416-07:00How Did The Baby Affect His Parents' Weights? - 9 Month Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cQqc1QjscbM/V4v8MkEDE8I/AAAAAAAABx8/vhlx6HAcy7wm8YSjdNDVtEyY_hgRD0VNgCLcB/s1600/Parent%2BWeight%2BVs%2BTime%2B9%2Bmonths.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cQqc1QjscbM/V4v8MkEDE8I/AAAAAAAABx8/vhlx6HAcy7wm8YSjdNDVtEyY_hgRD0VNgCLcB/s400/Parent%2BWeight%2BVs%2BTime%2B9%2Bmonths.png" width="400" /></a></div>
What effect has the baby had on our weights after 9 months?<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<h4>
Total Effect</h4>
As you can see in the plot, the baby has not caused us to gain weight. I (father) have actually lost a good bit of weight, and the mother has been hovering around her pre-birth weight for the past three months. There are no signs that this will change in the near future, so I'm concluding that the baby did not lead to weight gain for us.<br />
<br />
<h4>
How Did We Avoid Weight Gain?</h4>
The baby is stressful and he takes a lot of our free time. We both still work full-time also. Thus...we exercise and cook well much less often than we did before the baby.<br />
<br />
Luckily, all you have to do to lose weight is not overeat. By weighing ourselves periodically and adjusting our calorie intake accordingly, it has been remarkably easy to control our weight. <a href="http://www.thebabyeffect.com/2016/03/losing-weight-after-pregnancy.html">As mentioned previously</a>, the mother actually counted calories from the fourth month to the sixth month to get to her target weight on a schedule, but we haven't been strict with it outside of that. We simply weigh ourselves occasionally...if we've gained weight, we eat a bit less than we were eating...if we've lost weight and didn't want to, we eat a bit more than we were eating.<br />
<br />
<h4>
What Sorts Of Things Do We Eat Though?</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
<i>Typical day for the father:</i><br />
<ul>
<li>Breakfast (small bowl of cheerios + half-serving milk + banana)</li>
<li>Lunch (turkey and spinach sandwich on wheat + 12 ounce soft drink)</li>
<li>Snack (couple of fun size chocolates)</li>
<li>Dinner (apple with peanut butter + some m&m's)</li>
</ul>
<i>Typical day for the mother:</i><br />
<ul>
<li>Breakfast (slice of bread with peanut butter + banana)</li>
<li>Snack (crackers with cheese)</li>
<li>Lunch (chicken strips and salad)</li>
<li>Snack (yogurt)</li>
<li>Dinner (small frozen dinner)</li>
</ul>
When we do cook for dinner, it's usually something like 'salmon + small baked potato' or 'wheat pasta + tomato sauce + ground turkey + bell pepper + mozarella'. I will periodically also cook 15 or so servings of something that's good when re-heated (zuppa toscana, jambalaya, etc.) and we will eat it for lunch each day.theboathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01260139398901806725noreply@blogger.com1