A Thai Mother Bringing Up A Baby/child.

[Nickerelastic]

My babies slept in my bedroom and in my bed.

When My X was not there I wore a shirt of his so as not to confuse the babe..........scent.

IMO it's not ""natural"" to put a babe in another room.

[chanchao]

> IMO it's not ""natural"" to put a babe in another room.

I agree. Furthermore, you would only hear them when they really start crying loudly. That would wake them up more than is needed.. When they're in the same room you can start preparing milk and stuff at the first 'quack' out of your baby's mouth. They get to sleep easier and faster after that.

Also, not sure if this is related to the question, but let me state my incredible appreciation for Thai mothers-in-law. Sure Thai women make good mothers, but they make even better grandmothers. Never seen such tireless dedication. Ok the missus scolds her mum several times a day because she's 'not doing it like the instructional DVD she got from the hospital' but mostly there's just no doubt that grandma knows best.

[chanchao]

(So when you have kids, consider importing a mother in law. Seriously!!)

(And it doesn't seem they expect the father to do much beyond drink beer, watch TV and occasionally be nice to his wife and massage her a bit. And I noticed that with grandma around, there's ALWAYS food around. I don't think the rice cooker ever sits idle anymore. Come to think of it, we now own THREE rice cookers, one being used to boil/sterilize bottles.

Edited December 7, 2005 by chanchao

[MilkPlus]

Moms are Moms, they are the strongest and wisest creatures on the planet.

The world would be a much nicer place if the the first requirement to run for political office was that the candidate be a mother with children in the home.

[minbari73]

My lady is turning out to be a great Mother! She loves and protects our little guy like I knew she would

If she calls baby "ugly", just agree with her! A previous post mentioned something about it having to do with ghosts and he's correct. If you say the baby is ugly the nearby ghost

"mother" will go away or something and the baby will turn out "handsome"....i think thats it . Some Thai women also say to the ghost; "This is MY baby go away!!! (in Thai)"

Also the pulling of the nose is to make it look more western and less asian/flat - some Thais have a fascination and desire to look farang. I know my wife at least is enamoured with half Thai/half Farang people. Her mother pulled on her nose at an early age too.

Tips

Start buying disposable 'newborn' nappies the moment your gal falls pregnant and save them up in a room somewhere. Don't go the cloth nappy route, it'll just make things difficult. Have as many 00000 size and lower wondersuit type baby clothes as possible. Don't bother with pyjama style top and bottoms, they turn out to be a pain to put on all the time.

Make sure she speaks only Thai to baby and you only English. It'll make baby smarter and even though it may take him/her longer to start to speak, it'll be easier to learn languages in general and the intelligence factor will be higher. Speaking of that, make sure she breast feeds if she can. It's waaaaay better for babies entire life.

I didn't think before baby came that the crying would upset me so much. It really does get on your nerves in the extreme. The only light at the end of the tunnel is that you can get used to it. It took me 5 months. Don't panic about it, don't get angry with baby or Mum. It's what babies do. The feelings of resentment are yours alone and you have to deal with them.

When your baby starts to recognise you and smiles when he/she see you, it truly is one of the better feelings in the world and makes all the pooey nappies and crying seem like nothing at all. I've been very lucky in that the sleepless nights for me have been few, even though baby has been in the room with us for the last 6 months. Did I mention make sure Mum breastfeeds the baby. I'll third that one too

Good luck with your lady and future baby