About Me

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Relationship Status: Married
Gender: Male
Birthday: 09/09/1979
Hometown: Austin
About me: I live in Austin with my wife Sarah and our two dogs. I'm a Due Dad who loves beer, life, and my family.

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City / Town: Texas
Country: United States

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daddy_ryan

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Member since
Sunday, 02 November 2008 06:00
Last online
312 days ago
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Yesterday

Daddy Clay and kikikiwi18 are now friends

08:07 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re: Carseat Geek Out: What's in Your Ride? in the forums.

I have a Graco Nautilus in my car currently. As a matter of fact, I even went so far as to BUY A BIGGER CAR in order to accommodate the Nautilus. It was too big for my pre-schooler to sit comfortably in the back seat of a Mazda 3. So I upgraded to a 6 (in my defense, I had other safety concerns as well).

12:54 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re: Stroller Confusion in the forums.

UPPAbaby are definitely cool, and one of our favorites at the most recent ABC kids show was this from TFK.

12:50 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:Finally finished painting the nursery! in the forums.

Wow. Our decoration is a tale of birth order. Sort of. We didn't paint or decorate with our first because he came so early (31 weeks). We did at least some redecorating for our daughter. Then when our third -- a boy -- came along, we didn't even bother taking all the girly stuff down. Good thing because three years later the nursery became our daughter's room.

12:38 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re: Hi, I'm James, a brand-new dad in the forums.

@teacherdad No need to be an expert. Just share your experiences. No hurry, or pressure though. Just curious.

12:32 PM

2 days ago

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:The Family Wheels in the forums.

@teacherdad RAV4 w/ 4WD? Toyota is trying to move cars, might be a deal there.

I like Mazda, so CX-7 would be on my list (less competent off road -- only avail w/ AWD -- but more fun on the road). And I'd take a hard look at the Chevy Equinox for good bang for your buck.

Mazda endorsement notwithstanding, I'm still having check engine light problems on my 03 MPV. Got another O2 sensor fault code, bought the part and tried to fix it myself. Fail. Gave it to the mechanics next door. They told me I had the wrong part and then stripped the threads on the manifold getting it out. Got a new one in (somehow), but the light is still on. *sigh* I really hate these kinds of problems.

I've decided to defer doing any more work on this until closer to inspection sticker due date despite the fact that it drives me nuts daily and is bad for the earth.

12:58 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:Three's A Crowd - when do you start moving the in the forums.

@teacherdad

Necessity is the father of invention, and fathers have lots of necessities. There are also "co-sleeper" bassinet products on the market. If you have any safety concerns (some people are really finicky about baby sleeping mattresses, etc.) then you might want to look into one of these.

12:38 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re: Hi, I'm James, a brand-new dad in the forums.

Hey, James! Welcome. Dad you know DadLabs was started by three teachers? Troy, Brad and I were all working at a private boarding school in Austin, Texas (a pretty far cry from the Navajo reservation). I still live on the campus (my wife is an administrator), and Troy's wife works there as well.

I know how busy two-teacher families are, but we would love to hear more about raising kids on the Navajo reservation. If you would ever be interested in writing a guest blog, please let us know.

Hope you find lots of useful stuff here.

Cheers!

12:30 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:The Business of Being Born in the forums.

It's been a pretty polarizing piece, although Rikki Lake has never been afraid of that. My wife and I have been believers in hospital births since the birth of our first, a preemie, but found our ideal combo with our middle (a midwife delivery in a hospital). By the time our youngest was born, the hospital had prohibited midwife deliveries.

That was really frustrating to me.

The birth of our third was more expensive (because of a last-minute, unsuccessful attempt at a spinal) and less satisfying experience.

I am not a believer in home births, but a firm believer in midwives and doulas. Pushing them to the periphery, or out of hospitals altogether, causes parents to take unnecessary risks.

I also think that market forces drive this trend, and that, in a microcosm, it represents what is wrong with our health care system. Not to get too political, but I think this is why we need some kind of health care reform.

There. I said it.

12:24 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:Foods with HVP recalled in the forums.

Recalls like this really frustrate me. How did our food supply chain get so screwed up? I sometimes get to the point that I want to stop trying. Obviously processed food has lots of hidden dangers, but so does organic.

I wish I had more time for farming.

In the meantime, I guess we'll keep trying to use fresh whole foods to eed our kids, and do whatever Michael Pollan tells us to.

12:10 PM

4 days ago

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:RSV in the forums.

You'v inspired an episode of DadLabs! We have an RSV info episode set to be shot next Friday. Thanks for bringing this subject up.

02:25 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:The Office: The Delivery in the forums.

We're going to counter by shooting for two full days at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, OH. We are going to get an in-depth and behind the scenes look at one of the leading Obstetrical and NICU hospitals in the country -- a peek at the leading edge of birthing practice. Really excited about the trip. Episodes to air early May.

And our viewership is pretty similar to The Office, so...

I'm not and Office fan, but I'd love to hear Daddy Brad's opinion. He's all about The Office.

02:17 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:Hello all! in the forums.

Welcome, bro. Thanks for joining. The key here is not to be shy. Post questions, and raise topics. Chime in. We really appreciate guys that get things going.

See you around the site.

02:06 PM

6 days ago

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re: Managing the critters and the babies. in the forums.

Allergic to cats. Wife hates dogs. We're a fish and rodent family.

03:37 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:Hi I'm Adam and I'm a dad in the forums.

Everybody should check out dadarocks. It's a cool site run by a creative and smart guy. I've added it to my feed reader Good stuff.

Welcome, Adam!

03:34 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:Work-at-home dad-to-be in the forums.

Work at home is a great overall thing for family balance. But one work of caution, it's toughest with a newborn. You might want to keep that in mind as you schedule projects. You think that you'll be productive when the baby is sleeping, but that is much harder than it sounds (as I'm sure many here will attest).

Overall, I think work-at-home is a great choice and one that will really pay off with your relationship with the kids in the long haul.

Welcome!

03:29 PM

Daddy Clay replied to the topic Re:New father-to-be trying to learn the ropes! in the forums.

One thing to remember is that newborns need the very least stuff of all kids. So you'll actually have plaenty time to gear up after the baby is born. No need to get all the big ticket items up front.

Obviously a good rear-facing car seat rated for newborns.

Receiving blankets and burp cloths. You simply cannot have enough of these things. You'll probably get gifted a ton. Buy more. Babies spit up and drool and generally go through these things by the ton.

If you are going to get a camera, but it now and start using it during pregnancy. You'll want to be really familiar with it by the birthday.

Other than that, a basket for him to sleep in, a couple of onesies, some diapers/wipes/butt paste would be nice, and you're good for six to eight weeks at least.

They really need very little when they first arrive.

Let the shower wave pass, give yourself a little time to figure out what you will actually use.

03:26 PM

Wall

Daddy Clay, Tuesday, 03 November 2009 18:20

Hey, Ryan, welcome to DadLabs. We'd love to be on your show. Just let us know when and where. Congrats on the pregnancy!

orangebiker, Wednesday, 15 April 2009 17:03

Yeah everything is going great! We are expecting a girl, and I can't wait to see her!

quagmire, Monday, 06 April 2009 04:29

I would much prefer to live in Austin, but my wife's friends all followed us out here from Florida, so there's no moving them anymore. I totally dig the live music scene, as well as the hills and drier climate.

Everyone's so surprised when I tell them that we aren't going to find out, especially since I'm kind of the uber-planner "Type-A personality" kinda guy. Having said that though, I have a VERY strong suspicion that it's going to be a "he."

Luke's a cool name, I like that. If ours does turn out being a boy, we've settled on...Ryan! (Grandfather's name). We're still not quite sure about a girl's name. My wife's grandmother died last week, and they were very close, so I know she's contemplating doing something with that name-first or middle I don't know yet.

I'm actually off to the OB in about a half hour. This visit has the glucose test, and possibly the RhoGAM shot, so I don't think it's going to be a pleasant visit for the wife.

Good luck, and I'm glad to hear everything's going smooth!

quagmire, Monday, 06 April 2009 03:59

Congrtulations to ya! We don't know the gender, and we're not planning on finding out. It's funny because it doesn't really bother us, but is irritating the ever loving crap out of all of our family members and friends! Yeah, I'm a first-timer, and I'm still scared as hell, but I have numerous friends who have had children recently, so I have a pretty good support network set up.

I see you're a fellow Texan. Are you going to name your baby Ike? Everyone keeps joking that we're going to name ours "Ike." The timing is a little off, but not much!

adrian, Tuesday, 17 February 2009 09:10

I know what you mean about the name thing. We tossed around a few and got funny looks. That's when we thought best to go into stealth mode. Now we throw out the occasional Biff and Gerta just to see the reactions, but that's just for laughs. You guys going to an ob or midwife? Do you have the option? What have your experiences been so far?