Harmon said:
The wife and I are expecting our first in Feb/Mar, so this is a good time for us to start thinking about it.
I know that a kid will change our gaming lives and might well end it, so any kind of suggestions beyond the ones displayed here would really help.
Make sure you have a vehicle with plenty of trunk room. Because now instead of just having to pack character sheets, a dozen rule books, dice, miniature cases, and snacks you'll also add-in:
pack n' play (portable crib/containment device)
jhonny jump-up or exersaucer (after they can sit up on their own - yeah it only keeps them occupied for 10-20 minutes - but that's another 10 - 20 minutes you can play)
one huge diaper bag filled with everything you think you might need (this includes the bulb syringe they give you at the hospital, baby tylenol drops, rattles, extra changes of clothes, and of course diapers and wipes - hehe it's a first child thing that you fall prey to. With my third child we threw the diapers and wipes in with the dice box and skipped the bag altogether.)
bottles, pacifiers, jars of formula, boxes of rice (the suggesstion above about putting the rice in their formula - once the dr. OK's it - is a great one. When you start, do it for the bottle before bedtime rather than the daytime meals. The added bulk will keep baby sleepy and his/her tummy full longer - hopefully helping him sleep longer, but also making bedtime easier.)
comfort item (some kids latch onto a blanket of stuffed animal and woe to you if you don't remember it.)
cheerieos (when they are old enough, cause pringles, cheetoes and guacamole are usually not good first foods. Besides they'll chase those things around the tray of the exersaucer or high chair for another ten minutes of game time.)
car seat (when they are young you get an occasional lucky night where they go to sleep in the car on the way over. It's quite comical to watch the ritual of trying to get car seat out of the car carefully enough to not disturb the sleeping baby, finding a quiet room, covering the seat with a blanket to keep out the light, and hoping the baby will sleep through the first big combat.)
Anyways I guess the one thing I remember even more than all the stuff you pack around is sleep deprivation. If you play every week you may want to take a one or two month hiatus to get adjusted. (Most good DM's can work it in if you give them the heads up) It's no fun to go to a session so beat that you kill your PC off due to just not being able to think because you are so tired.
If you play once a month, and both of you game: Splurge on a sitter or impose on a close relative, because you want to find a balance and keep your sanity. Having a newborn puts your whole life in a juggle cycle for a while. You do eventually adjust and things calm down, routines get established, and the baby starts sleeping at night and for more than two hours at a crack, but it will seem like forever when you are living through it.