We need our own thread! Some advice for Marc (or any other soon-to-be-new-dad) Here you go: We got the Graco Snugride. Our kiddo got too tall before she got too heavy, and the higher weight restrictions wouldn't have helped. But being able to take the kid out of the car easily with them still strapped into it makes for a huge advantage over the bigger, higher-max-weight "convertible" seats. (Waking kid up at destination to get out of straps --> nightmare!) Boppy is definitely easier to use than its competitor, the Brest Friend. (Nursing pillows are awesome.) Puj tub is a great alternative to a bigger bulkier tub and will save your back while munchkin is still little. You only need a drying rack if you do a lot of bottle feeding; a dishwasher rack for small parts (munchkin makes a good one) is fantastic especially once kiddo begins to eat solids Diaper dude bags are great if Mama wants a girly diaper bag. Get and maintain your own. It will save your sanity if not your relationship. Michele Cohen's _The New Basics_ is the best book out there for infant and toddler care as far as I can tell. I'm not a fan of Dr. Sears and I think this guy's approach is great. A few other things: -Muslin blankets, like Aiden+Anais, are GREAT for summer. Get 3-4 of them (there are way less expensive brands out there) for use in the summer for swaddling, draping over a stroller when it's sunny and little one is napping, impropmptu burp cloth... -Amazon Mom is the cheapest way to get diapers if you use their subscription service. Diapers.com is next best; delivery is awesome. If you have a washer/dryer in your place cloth is not nearly the headache one imagines, but if you're interested I'll send a separate email. We're about to switch Isaiah over to cloth now at 6 weeks. Definitely do disposables until your baby is done pooping meconium, and definitely cover his/her butt with vaseline or similar until then too - the stuff is like tar and easy cleanup requires a thick slick of ointment til the pooping is normal. -generic Gerber diapers, the really old school big rectangular white kind, are the BEST burp cloths on the planet. And you can bleach the daylights out of them if you need to. Skip the fancy cute ones. It's puke we're talking about. -babies like swadding. babies like escaping their swaddles. Something like a SwaddleMe blanket is the way to go. Get the zip-up-front one (NOT a sleep sack that's big and floppy - those are great but not until your kid outgrows swaddling completely) and/or a velcro one. The ones that are just wraps are still too escapeable. -the Ergo carrier is the best thing ever. The Bjorn will destroy your back before the baby weighs even 10 pounds. The infant insert (heart to heart) is great. While the Moby is also great it requires more yoga than most have patience for and putting one on in public is de facto a demonstration of your kimono styling skills or lack thereof. Ergo goes from newborn to toddler and our Sophie still has 8 more pounds to go before she outgrows hers! (She's almost 27 lbs.) -Get a stroller with big inflatable wheels. Subway stops without an elevator will be much easier. When kiddo is bigger you can get a lightweight umbrella stroller; for early on, a nice stroller that the carseat clips into is the way to go, in a few months kid will still enjoy the nice ride in the stroller's regular seat, and later when you want to use the bus or just push a lighter load you'll invest again. Depending on what else you do, great choices initially are the Bugaboo chameleon (traditional), or the BOB revolution jogger. If you're going for a herd of kiddos a Phil and Ted's Explorer is nice, and you can get a doubles kit later (can't with the first two). MacLaren is the mac daddy of lightweight strollers and we've really liked ours. We've owned all of the above at different points and got rid of a Baby Jogger City Select which we ended up hating; other urban Baby Jogger models have a die hard following, though.)

Guys,

I've been thinking of starting this tread for a while now - chat about finding the right balance between Bike, Babies & Bride... then I saw this and laughed my ass off.

(Totally not bike related)

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/02/laws-concerning-food-and-drink-household-principles-lamentations-of-the-father/5013/

Under this subject I'd definitely be interested in starting up a long weekend training ride that began earlier than 8am so I could get back to the family at a a decent hour. Let me if anyone's interested.

i'm all about the pre-8 am rides so i can get back to brooklyn by around...some time not too late to prevent me from being a dad. definitely interested.

Totally interested in the family-men rides!!

Due to family stuff on the weekend, I try to get out and back early, and am often crossing paths passing Kissenas on the way back as they're going out. Anyone else in this camp? I usually leave from BB around 7ish and back around 11am. I plan to do it on Sunday this weekend. Let me know if anyone is interested in joining?

Jeff,

Last year we had a "Family Man's Ride" which left BB at 6 and we were all back by 10. It was great, but that is too early for wintertime.

I've got a birthday part for my eldest this Sunday but otherwise I'd be interested. I think we had a "Family Man's Ride" thread at one point.

j

Cool, I'll look for that thread and post for next week. 8am is still too late for me even in winter unfortunately.

I would be interested in an occasional "Family Man's Ride" for sure...keep me posted. Also, I'm planning to head out on Monday (our office is closed) so if anyone's interested...

I'm in. Lets start a monday ride thread?

OK will do!

Photography - if you're not already all over this, we're a huge fan of Smugmug.com

It's family-run, leverages the Amazon cloud and is a great way to host photos for family - who can order prints directly and cheaply.

Delivery - scary to mention, but I'd confirm that wherever you're planning on having the kid has a cool-cap system in their NICU. Reach out offline to me on this one if you have questions.

Getting home after delivery; line up a friend who can drive you all home.

Socks; newborn size socks are a joke.

Spoons; when it's time for feeding solid food, we like the "Munchkin" brand spoons.

Clip on high chairs - just say no - not all tables fit all clip-ons and it's too easy to make an engineering error attaching one

As if you need a preview of the good things coming...

awesome, Jules. Thanks. I won't necessarily respond back to every post with my appreciation, but rest assured we're super appreciative of all posts. Love the picture. Makes me think that maybe it will be my fat arse that continues to hold me back in years to come and not the baby on the way!

All my peak performances have been post-kids. FWIW.

Nothing like training to "see your grandkids" on a thin time budget.

Marc,
First, I have a co-sleeper and more with your name on it. Car seat, graco, if its not someone else's should be good to go by then, too. Have a boppy by then as well.

Diaper bags are overrated. We've been using a re-usable six-back wine bottle bag. Cheap, don't need to cry when it breaks, easy to get it.

When the groms are teeny, baby bjorn. Make sure you get the one that has lower back support. Jules must have had one without. Not sure if we ahve to return ours to somebody.

After about 7-8 months, baby backpack. The Deuter is the best I've seen and it's been really good to us. Oscar loved sitting high and people love talking to him, too.

Strollers. Always go for light. For the first six months, you'll need one that can take a car seat. BTW, MacLarens can always be had used pretty cheaply.

Jogging strollers. There are basically two styles, small wheels with a rotating front wheel and large wheels with a fixed front wheel. The city mini is popular with the first. Good for walking around, too, but not so light and the small wheels are not great when running. Big wheels with the fixed front are much better for running, but not easy to turn and bad for just going around. Most new moms, with the exception of Paula Radcliffe, are unable to run for the first six months after or so.

(for those who can't tell, I'm doing my bit to defeat the baby industrial complex)

WTF is swaddling???

BTW, congratulations Marc.

Mike, you should be paying closer attention to all this for Trophy.

@ Perlberg: actually it's a fair question. Think of a straight jacked for newborns.

Newborns are so used to being 'snug' that they find a huge amount of comfort by being wrapped up tight. Really tight.

All of those irritating baby photos you get forwarded where the kid looks like an infant-taco? Yep, swaddled.

Lots of technique involved, my secret formula is the twist&wrap. Don't worry, you'll be there soon enough

I am not so secretly jealous of the swaddle . Its like a full body recovery compression outfit. Gotta convince Alice to help get me setup like that after my next ride.

@ Marc: one other thing; brace yourself for it or go cloth diapers only - the Jetwash of Merde. You heard me, the infamous "Blowout"

Basically a kids butt cheeks make a Berouilli like funnel and the poop shoots up, clears the waistline and will make it past the shoulder blades to the neck, possibly the hair...

Truly impressive, and basically just a matter of time.

Sophie did it in traffic court, just as the judge was speaking. It was impressive, and the look on the Judges face was awesome.

Laugh if you will, non-family men; but even working as an EMT didn't fully prepare me for the onslaught of bodily "functions" that fatherhood brought with it.

Getting pooped on in the bathtub, followed by a sleepless night with a crying kid; then try 120% of FTP before Prospect opens to traffic. Chopper can eat my frickin' shorts. HTFU indeed.

my only fatherly advice: take the night feedings.

there is no more amazing feeling, as tired as you may be when you hear that cry at 2 or 3 am, than holding that little dude in your arms and helping him chow down. a great bonding experience.

side bonus: you might earn a few extra cycling "hall passes" for letting your wife catch the extra Z's....

Amen to that.

Cross post from California Training Camp

Anybody recognize the road that guy's running on? Bay Area alumni?

(Cross-posting from the Sandbox....)

Not sure where else to post this, but this seems as good a place as any. And I'm not usually the negative Nellie type but.....

Sad to say that my 3 1/2 year-old daughter and I were nearly "blowed up" this morning by someone in a full Kissena kit making a sharp left turn from 6th Avenue onto 9th Street in the Slope. We were halfway across the street, with the walk sign, when whoever it was (I honestly didn't see their face - or I'd have sent them a private message) came screaming past, less than 2-feet in front of us, cornering like it was the last 500 meters of Grant's Tomb. A serious Cat 6 move.

We are trying to IMPROVE people's perceptions of bike riding/racing, not make it worse. Save the racing for races. Take your time. Be aware of your fellow pedestrians. And please....don't crush toddlers on their way to pre-school.

Hey guys, thought this would be a useful cross-post from the thread on the rained out race this saturday:

"FWIW my coach will sometimes give me a Plan-B for weather that is truly sh*tty. Saturday's was 20x1 minute maximums with 1 minute rest.

Horrible to be sure but I got most of it done on the trainer in under an hour.

Also a good thing for the family men when your scheduled ride-time gets kaboomed by unexpected family shenanigans."

The moral of the story is if you can't go long, go white-hot.