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Happy Wednesday! I’m liking this colorful, happy dress from Boden. In addition to being machine washable, the bodice is lined with polyester (which can be good both for mommy pooch issues as well as, well, headlight issues), and I like that the outer material has 3% elastane in it for a bit of stretch and recovery. It’s available in black as well as four bright colors, sizes 2-18, petites, regulars, and tall sizes. It’s $148. Boden Lindsey DressSales of note for 4.18.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 50% off full-price dresses, jackets & shoes; $30 off pants & skirts; extra 50% off sale styles
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything; extra 20% off purchase
- Eloquii – 50% off select styles; 60% off swim; up to 40% off everything else
- J.Crew – Mid-Season Sale: Extra 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off spring-to-summer styles
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Spring Mid-Season Sale: Up to 50% off 100s of styles
- Nordstrom: Free 2-day shipping for a limited time (eligible items)
- Talbots – Spring Sale: 40% off + extra 15% off all markdowns; 30% off new T by Talbots
- Zappos – 29,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Up to 70% off baby items; 50% off toddler & kid deals & 40% off everything else
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off spring faves; 25% off new arrivals; up to 30% off spring
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Up to 60% off sale styles; up to 50% off kids’ spring-to-summer styles
- Old Navy – 30% off your purchase; up to 75% off clearance
- Target – Car Seat Trade-In Event (ends 4/27); BOGO 25% off select skincare products; up to 40% off indoor furniture; up to 20% off laptops & printers
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And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- If you’re a working parent of an infant with low sleep needs, how do you function at work when you’re in the throes of baby’s sleep regression?
- Should I cut my childcare down to 12 hours a month if I work from home?
- Will my baby have speech delays if we raise her bilingual?
- Has anyone given birth in a teaching hospital?
- My child eats everything, and my friends’ kids do not – how should I handle? In general, what is the best way to handle when your child has some skill/ability and your friend’s child doesn’t have that skill/ability?
- ADHD moms, give me your tips to help with things like behavior in the classroom, attention to detail, etc?
- I think I suffer from mom rage…
- My husband and kids are gone this weekend – how should I enjoy my free time?
- I’m struggling to be compassionate with a SAHM friend who complains she doesn’t have enough hours of childcare.
- If you exclusively formula fed, what tips do you have for in the hospital and coming home?
- Could I take my 4-yo and 8-yo on a 7-8 day trip to Paris, Lyon, and Madrid?
NewMomAnon says
Sleep training question – my 11 month old is sleeping horribly, and has gotten to a point where she won’t even sleep in my bed with me. I tried some gentler sleep training methods for a couple weeks, but they weren’t working. So last night after she didn’t fall asleep, I let her cry. She only cried for about 20 minutes, but she then stayed awake staring at the door for another 2 hours! Finally I pulled her into bed with me and she did sleep very well.
Does anyone know if this is a normal reaction to sleep training? I had steeled myself for the crying, but the prolonged wakeful waiting broke my heart….
RR says
Sleep training is very personal. My biggest advice is do not do it if you aren’t serious. Letting them cry only to ultimately go back in actually results in more crying (or in your case more not sleeping). Starting and stopping (although understandable because we all hate to see our babies cry) confuses them and is counterproductive.
All that said, it’s not unusual for babies to have periods of being awake at night. My youngest is 16 months and will go through stages where she wakes up and has a party at midnight for two hours. If they aren’t crying or otherwise in distress, I don’t bother them. She will figure it out.
I did sleep training with all of mine, generally around 7-8 months, although my two daughters were easy sleepers so it was just a couple days of 15-20 minutes of crying/fussing until they went to sleep and were good to go. My son had one night of crying for 45 minutes and one night of crying for 10 minutes and was fine after that. I did extinction CIO, so just say goodnight and don’t come back. My uneducated theory is that it results in vastly less crying overall.
Do you want her to not sleep with you? Or just to sleep, even if it’s co-sleeping? First, figure out what your goal is. There’s nothing wrong with co-sleeping if that’s what you want to do. Then, you can make a plan to get there based on how much tolerance you have for crying/wakefulness.
NewMomAnon says
I am torn on cosleeping. I’d like her to sleep in her own bed (as a single parent, I need that gap between her bedtime and mine to clean the house, get myself ready for work, do some yoga, decompress, etc), but I enjoyed snuggling with her on the nights she slept.
For background, she had been sleeping decently in her crib, and that went downhill when she started walking a month and a half ago, so I started cosleeping. Cosleeping worked for about a month, but then it turned into a nightly combat mission of her slapping me, biting, pinching, etc. and neither of us sleeping. So something had to change…I don’t know how to do sleep training in my bed without injury, so I figured I had to do it in her crib.
I would say that I’m doing sleep training more as a desparate last ditch effort to save my sanity, so I am self-doubting quite a bit.
RR says
Consistency is key here, so until she’s a great sleeper you need to stick with one strategy. I’d put her in her crib and let her figure it out. You said she only cried for 20 minutes or so, which is actually great for a first night. With respect to the 2 hours of wakefulness, I think you are projecting feelings onto her. You are imagining that she’s feeling sad and waiting on you to come back. Maybe she’s just fascinated by the doorknob or the way light comes in the window or something. Babies are funny like that. :) She has a way to tell you if she’s upset–crying–and she wasn’t doing that, so I’d let her go. She’d eventually go to sleep, and the next night she’d go to sleep more quickly, and even more quickly the night after that. Within 3-5 days, I bet you have a happily sleeping baby in her crib. Of course, there are setbacks. She might get an ear infection in a week or something and you have to start over. But, from what you are saying, she doesn’t seem like she should be hard to sleep train at all, and I think it will be best for both of you to get some quality sleep.
mascot says
Was she fussing during that time? If not, I’d call that progress. She may have just been awake and thinking, counting her toes, etc. Just because she was watching the door, I wouldn’t necessarily assume that the whole time she was pining away for you and feeling abandoned. She may have even caught a cat-nap or two. She’s self-soothing. It’s a good skill.
I actually think that this can be the downside to video monitors that you see too much and worry. (not judging, we haven’t bothered to pack ours away either). Kids, like adults, sometimes have wakeful periods during the night.
NewMomAnon says
She was pretty quiet (occasionally would utter a random “da” or “ba”), and her little head kept nodding as she fought sleep. You’re right, if I had just turned off the monitor I would have assumed she was sleeping. After a couple hours, she finally got up and started yelling at me again….
I think my big fear is that she won’t ever fall asleep, and I’ll have a grumpy zombie baby who feels like I’ve abandoned her.
RR says
She will eventually fall asleep. And she’ll greet you the next morning with a smile on her face and no hard feelings.
hoola hoopa says
+1 Sounds like a very successful sleep training night, actually. If you keep with it, I expect she’ll be sleeping normally within three days.
But whatever you do, be consistent! The worst thing you can do is start the night with sleep training and then go to bedsharing. I’ve done both, so it’s not a preference for one over the other, but you must be consistent to get anywhere. If you want her sleeping in her room, then stick with it. If you want to bedshare, then just start the night like that and save the two sleepless hours.
Philanthropy Girl says
I love Dr. Weissbluth’s Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child for sleep training. He offers a variety of solutions for various sleep training issues and sleep issues. Perhaps that would be a good resource?
I think the others have given sound advice. If she wasn’t crying or in distress, she probably just needed the time to process what was happening, which will allow her to adjust as you continue sleep training. I wouldn’t be surprised if it continues for a few more nights, so I’d avoid taking her from her bed (otherwise you’re training her to fall asleep in your bed instead of her own) and give her a few nights to adjust to things being different. It’s a great skill for her to be in bed awake and fall asleep on her own, it sounds like she just needs time to develop that skill.
JJ says
My pediatrician strongly recommended that book (she used it on her four kids) and we followed it with great success, as well. It takes a few nights, but the payoff of your (or any parent’s) discomfort is really worth it. Just repeat to yourself “I am teaching my child how to sleep. This is an important life skill.” It worked for me.
RR says
+1. That book was a lifesaver with my twins.
EB0220 says
Which gentler methods have you tried? Just curious. I had zero luck with the No Cry Sleep Solution but great success with the Sleep Lady shuffle.
CPA Lady says
Car seat question– my baby is still in her infant car seat and will be for several more months, but I’m starting to think about the future. I started looking around on amazon and was really surprised by the huge differences in price among similarly rated convertible car seats. Everything from $75-$400+ with a 4.5-5 star rating. I don’t want to cheap out when “it’s your child’s safety!!”, but at the same time, if I can put the $ into her 529 instead, great. Is paying for a pricey car seat “worth it” if all car seats have to meet the same safety requirements? Can anyone advise me?
I’m currently thinking of getting the Graco My Ride 65 LX for my husband’s car and some kind of Britax for mine. Any specific recommendations for or against a particular model of Britax or other brand of seat would be welcome.
I drive a CR-V and we don’t have any special requirements– my kid is average sized, we don’t need a small or narrow seat or to be able to fit multiple seats back there. Our drive to daycare is 10 minutes, our drive to elementary school will be less than that, and we don’t really take road trips, if any of that matters.
NewMomAnon says
I looked at carseatblog dot com when we were getting our convertible – I have a baby who is in the 80th percentile for height and weight, so we needed a seat that could accommodate a tall baby. I also wanted one that could do extended rear facing (i.e., until age 2) for a tall kid, and then could face front and convert to a booster. That pretty much narrowed it down to the Evenflo Symphony DLX (based on the carseatblog recommendations), which I found on sale at Target for less than $200.
I’ve been happy with it – it is easy to install, really easy to adjust the shoulder straps (no rethreading!!!) and the straps don’t seem to twist as much as my Britax infant seat straps. Downsides – I find the chest clip difficult to get closed (it’s plastic and doesn’t have that nice metallic click to let you know it’s locked), I find it difficult to push down on the seat with enough force to have confidence that I’ve installed it right, and I feel like it doesn’t recline enough for a young baby who still sleeps in the car a lot (so her head kinda hangs when she sleeps).
Anyway, I would suggest you look at the carseatblog recommendations – I feel like $200 was a good amount to spend for a seat that will hopefully be the only carseat my kiddo needs, and I don’t think I would have gotten anything extra for an additional $200. Also, shop around once you’ve found the seat you want; I found that the prices for the same seat varied wildly across Amazon, Babies ‘r Us, Target, etc.
mascot says
We’ve used a Britax Boulevard for going on 4 years now. It’s held up well, it has good head protection, and it is well padded/comfortable. We also have a Britax 5pt harness booster (Pioneer or Frontier, the cheaper one) and like it too. All carseats meet safety standards. We tried to find ones that would last for a while, were relatively easy to install, seemed to have some padding for those longer trips, and provided some additional side impact protection. (My car has curtain airbags, my husband’s previous car didn’t).
CHJ says
I have the Chicco NextFit ($279) and my mom has a Safety First car seat that she bought at Costco for about $80 for occasional grandma days. The difference in the quality of the car seats is night and day. The Chicco is easier to install, feels more locked into place and secure once it’s installed, and all the mechanisms and straps feel more solid and well-constructed. All car seats do have to meet government standards for safety, so the cost difference isn’t a safety issue. But I do think that it’s worth spending $150-300 for a nice mid-high range car seat if you’re going to be using it everyday.
For Britax options, one of my friends has the Britax Marathon and loves it. I’ve had my son in it a few times and it is definitely a nice car seat.
RR says
We’ve had four Britax Boulevards and two Britax Advocates between my three kids and two cars, and I love them. For infant seats and for boosters, we’ve gone with Graco (and I also have positive things to say about every Graco seat we’ve had–three infant seats and four boosters), but Britax wins my vote for convertible seat. The big differences in the Britax seats are that the Boulevard/Advocates have side impact protection wings that the Marathons don’t have. There are pros and cons there. Those wings are bulky and make it difficult for the baby to see anything while rear-facing. I have older kids staring at my baby from the 3rd row, so it hasn’t been a big issue for us, but if your baby hates the car it won’t help. It also makes it more difficult to put a toddler in rear facing. My 26 pound 1 year old is difficult to get in her seat between the LATCH straps and the side impact wings. Finally, they are also more expensive. I do think they are safer though, so we went with them.
In House Lobbyist says
We own 6 Britaxs for 2 kids and 3 cars and have bought them for grandparents too. We love them but they are bulky and heavy. We offered to move out 4 year old to a high backed booster this year but he didn’t want to leave his car seat so they must be comfortable for kids too.
ANP says
We’re big Britax carseat people but had to switch from a Marathon to a Graco MyRide 65 in order to keep our son rear facing until age 2. Britax seats, I think, tend to be better for smaller/shorter kids and he’s a beast! We like the MyRide a lot — there’s a cup holder, which DS appreciates, and it’s going to keep him RF’ing for quite awhile (which I like). That said, the strap-tightening mechanism is definitely smoother/easier with Britax.
I like the FB group Car Seats for the Littles — lots of knowledgable folks on there.
hoola hoopa says
We’ve had a 6-10 carseats in a wide range of brands/price (from cosco to britax). We’ve thankfully never been in an accident, so I can’t speak to actual protection, but the difference is generally comfort and convenience. Cheaper ones may have less padding or no cup holder. More expensive may have belts that resist twisting or clever install methods. Not hard rules, but usually true.
Generally, we use the cheaper carseats for situations where the child won’t be using it often or for long periods (secondary commuting car, grandparents/caregivers). We get the expensive ones for our road trip cars and daily running around with kids cars. Our logic being that comfort and convenience is not worth as much when the kiddo will be in it for 5 minutes every other week, but it’s absolutely worth it if we are going to be getting them in and out frequently or they will be in them for many hours at a time. Sometimes space or height/weight or install considerations trumps, though.
I highly recommend taking kiddo to try out carseats. IME, it’s really obvious when one is more comfortable than another.
My favorite carseats are the britax. I like the twist-resistant straps and my kids are usually most comfortable in them. I’d say Evenflo are probably the most for the money. The cheapos will keep your kids safe and sometimes the simplicity is nice (such as when you’re cleaning vomit out of the strap canals…). If you’re backseat can accommodate the height when RFing, I’d seriously consider a Radian because you’ll never have to buy another again.
OliveMac says
Wonder why they shot something into the model’s eye right before taking the picture? I can’t help but think this is the kind of dress that looks so adorable on the model (minus the bug in the eye) and will look so frumpy-dowdy on me.
Anonyc says
I think that may have been an attempted wink. (Her forced expression just reminds me of the end of Austin Powers when he’s shooting models and screaming ridiculous things at them: “Yes! Yes!…NO, NOT WORKING!!”)
Philanthropy Girl says
I agree. The dress is adorable, but I have a feeling my size 18 post-baby hips would look embarrassingly awful in this dress.
Jdubs says
Opinions on a cruise (non-disney) with a 1 year old and a 3 year old?I am not sold but getting pressure from family that its a “great vacation for kids”. I sort of think its a better vacation for older kids who can attend the activities.
NewMomAnon says
I have been on several cruises and currently have an almost-one year old. I would not mix them. The cruises I’ve been on have childcare for older kids (I think 5 and up?), so parents can do the cruise activities – but I don’t remember infant or toddler care. That would mean you are stuck with two mobile kids who can’t safely toddle anywhere other than your cabin, which is the size of a matchbox and completely crowded with furniture (unless you get one of the huge cabins, in which case you might as well bring a nanny). You can try to fight your little ones into the formal dining room for dinners, and the other meals will be cafeteria style (think balancing a tray while steering two little ones through a crowded communal dining room). The pool will be crowded with bigger kids. And cruise ships have their own somewhat unpredictable schedules that are relatively inflexible (think, you eat when food is served, and the times for that vary throughout the cruise, but there are times when no food is served). My kiddo would be a wreck.
I would pass on this – renting a lake cabin or a house by the shore would be a much more enjoyable experience for everyone, I think. Probably cheaper too.
Spirograph says
We went on a cruise without the kid over the summer, and there were a ton of kids of all ages on the ship. I specifically remember DH and I observing that it did NOT look like a vacation for the toddler parents, unless they were on a multi generation family trip and grandparents were extensively babysitting. Even then, I felt bad for the harried parents I saw trying to wrangle the toddlers at breakfast every morning. There was toddler child care, but it didn’t look like somewhere I’d want to leave my toddler, and swim diapers were not allowed in the pool. I’d stick with waiting til the kids are older.
OliveMac says
+1
Burgher says
We have tried various levels of vacationing with our child over the past 2.5 years and have determined that taking any “real” trip at this point is just not worth it. Sorry to be a downer, but we have vowed to stick to staycationing, out of town family visits, and rental houses with family until the kids are older.
JJ says
Amen. There’s no such thing as a “vacation” when they’re that young. It’s just a trip with kids.
mascot says
This may vary by cruise line, but I have heard that kids who aren’t potty trained are prohibited from entering the pools. No water activities and limited childcare activities would be a no-go for me. Some cruise lines may be better than others about the littles.
Jdubs says
Thanks. You all pretty much echoed all of my concerns, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just shooting it down since this is my inlaw’s idea or if I was shooting it down for legitimate concerns.
mascot says
We rented a beach house (with pool) with another family, combined 2 3 year olds and a 1 year old. It was great. So much easier to have space for naps, playing and easy access to the kitchen and bathroom. Save the cruise for when the kids are older and can do more.
anne-on says
If you’re looking for a truly family friendly vacation with little ones, see if the Tyler Place Resort in VT has any openings left. Awesome day care from teeny babies on up to teens, nannies for night time/meals, and awesome meals. We found it a few years back and looove it.
RR says
I am all over this thread today.
We took my twins on a Disney cruise when they were 4, and it was great. They were old enough to go to children’s club (they have to be 3 and potty trained I believe), and we all had a blast. They were able to do excursions with us (obviously, not everything is open to young kids–we picked ones that were). Under 3 would be harder. There is a babysitting service, but you have to book it in advance and pay for it. It’s not drop in anytime like the children’s club. But, there’s lots of fun things for a 1 and 3 year old to do. Just not much downtime for mom and dad.
Disney does cruising for kids as well as it can be done. They provide pack n plays and diaper genies. They build meals around keeping kids happy. They have bathtubs in the rooms. The kids’ club starts at a younger age. Lots of kid-friendly activities. Splash areas for young, not potty trained babies. To me, it’s probably as easy as a beach vacation with young kids.
hoola hoopa says
I’ve never been on a cruise, but my general rule is to never travel with kids in a situation where we only have one room. I’m all about the condo/suite/vacation home for a real vacation. My impression is that cruise accommodations are generally one smallish room, which I wouldn’t even consider with a one year old.
FVNC says
Just reading this post stressed me out. Five years from now? Ssounds great. But not now. Don’t get pressured into doing this. Take a real vacation where you have some chance of getting sleep and a tiny bit of relaxation.
PregAnon says
I wanted to thank everyone for the acne suggestions yesterday! I went to Costco and found a clarisonic look-alike for $58, made by Conair, that came with 3 brushes and a body brush. Used it with my Purpose face wash, and then moisturizer, last night and I think I already see a little improvement.
Hopefully this helps! I’m seeing both my Dermatologist and my Ob in two weeks, so this will at least hold me over until then.
PregLawyer says
Nice! I noticed that it really deep cleans and gets a lot of crud off your skin, which also means lotions penetrate really well. I have been slathering on about twice as much lotion as I used to. It’s great during these dry winter months.
hoola hoopa says
Oh, thanks for the heads up on the Costco clarisonic look-alike.
PregLawyer says
Daycare. Ugh.
So, I thought I was being proactive to start touring daycares at 3 months (slightly over 3 months). My rationale was that I wouldn’t be out of the ‘danger zone’ until 12 weeks, so no need to pay wait list deposits until then, right?
WRONG. Apparently the “good” places already have crazy waitlists. I am in a city that does not have enough childcare services (especially infant care), but it still surprised me that it was this booked up. The place I saw today has a 61-person waitlist. I think that includes infants-through-preschool, so hopefully the infant list will move pretty quickly. Who knows.
It also stresses me out that they can’t give me any information about availability until there’s an opening. We need full-time infant care starting October 1st, so I guess I just cross my fingers and hope one of these places calls with an opening around then? I assume I need to arrange for some sort of back-up, but right now it seems pretty daunting.
Anyway, now I know that when people say to start looking at daycare early, they mean EARLY. As in right when you find out you’re pregnant, I guess.
hoola hoopa says
Blech, that’s what it was like with my first, born pre-recession.
I will say that, IME, while the waitlists are daunting and the process requires an extreme amount of faith, they did pass rather quickly. I suspect that when it’s known that there are wait lists, people sign up for multiple places, which means that they are removed from multiple lists when they get into the first.
Back-up ideas:
– Nannies generally work on a much shorter timeline. IME, daycares can also give a better estimate within 1-2 months of ideal enrollment. So you can interview potential nannies then.
– Tour the places that aren’t “good.” There are diamonds in the rough, probably mostly with home centers. After being unhappy with the “good” center we got into, we ended up using a lady who worked out of her home and cared for neighborhood kids. It was a really great place for us and so off the map that there was no real wait list.
And remember that you CAN change care providers. In the event that you don’t have a slot when you need it, you will all survive a change in a couple of months.
NewMomAnon says
Ugh, I hear you – we need better/more daycare options. But barring that….”good” care for an infant means a responsive caregiver who follows widely accepted infant safety protocols (like b*milk storage guidelines, hand washing, safe sleep guidelines etc). Your infant doesn’t need spanish lessons, and a very young baby doesn’t need an on-site chef because baby is taking only formula or b*milk anyway, and it doesn’t take an on-site nurse to tell you an infant has a fever or is throwing up (for a mobile kiddo, you might like to have an on-site nurse for injury treatment, but little babies don’t get injured unless an adult does something dumb).
So, I would get on the waiting list now for the “good” places and plan to start there once baby hits 6-8 months (i.e., mobile and eating solids), and in the meantime, pick a place that has caregivers you like and trust and doesn’t have a bad safety rating. When visiting, look at staff ratios and whether staff are promptly attentive to the very young infants when they cry (bigger babies can and should be asked to wait a minute, but smaller babies should get quick attention). Someplace that is convenient to either home or work, and has relatively easy access to the pediatrician’s office.
PregAnon says
Same problem in my town, but I knew it was coming and got on all of the waiting lists right when I found out I was pregnant – so at 5 weeks. But one waiting list is 15 months! So how does that work?
The other waiting list is only about 5 months, so I’m not going to be “officially” on the wait list until I go tour on the 26th, but that still puts me at only 8 weeks. So that’s ok. I spoke to both directors and the consensus was “find a nanny until you get a spot where you want.”
Anonymous says
I empathize. My 3.5 year old is STILL on the wait list at one place, and we put him on the wait list there literally the day after I found out I was pregnant. I don’t even understand how this is possible.
OliveMac says
Yikes! Are any of you in the Boston area? I’m 12 weeks (hooray!), and had this on the list of things to do “meh, sometime in the next 6 months…” I think I may have been severely underestimating.