Feeding Tuesday: 360 Toothbrush

What is a good gift to give to a baby’s daycare teachers when leaving the center? We are moving our daughter to a new daycare due to my husband chNging jobs and having a different commute. Is it bad to just give cash rather than Amex gift cards? I would hate to give gift cards to stores they don’t use and hate paying activation fees.

I just tried out primary.com for some infant clothes and wanted to share my review, as I know I have struggled to try to find reviews. For reference, my LO is about 26 inches long and weights about 13lbs. On Primary’s size charts, she’s on the higher end of the 3-6 month size, so I ordered 6-9 month for everything. I ordered a hoodie, pants, a long-sleeved onesie, and a short-sleeved onesie. Everything but the pants is way too big for her to wear right now, so I’d say those items tend to run a little large (as compared with Carter’s). The pants more or less fit her now (as compared with Carter’s 6 month pants that are still rather loose in the waist). The quality seems good – everything looks well-finished, and the fabric is soft.

I do have a referral link that will get you and me $10 off, so if you would like it, please feel free to post an email address and I’d be happy to send to you.

I am a 5th year biglaw associate and 16 weeks pregnant with my first baby. I’ve worked incredibly hard at my firm, received excellent reviews, and have great relationships with the partners I work with. Since I became pregnant, however, I’ve been really struggling. My first trimester was difficult because I was nauseous all day every day. Now that I’m in my second trimester, I’m feeling great but I just cannot work as long of hours as I used to.

I don’t have the sort of debilitating all-day exhaustion that people talk about — I feel great during the day with plenty of energy, but when it gets to about 8 PM, I become so tired and basically can only do mindless tasks like put in a load of laundry or wash dishes, and get ready for bed and read a book until I pass out at 10 pm. I used to be able to stay up really late when needed without much of an issue and do not typically need a ton of sleep to function. It feels weird to be so out of control of my body, but I feel like I owe it to myself and the health of my baby to stop working and go to bed when I am feeling so exhausted at night.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how often I utilized the time between 8 and 11 pm to work on really demanding high-concentration type work that I cannot get to when I am on calls all day. Now that I don’t have those night time working hours, I feel constantly behind on all of my deals, to the extent that even when I’m not working, I am not enjoying the thrill of going to bed early with a book–I am feeling anxious about everything I should be doing instead. I also feel like I am failing at “leaning in” before my maternity leave. I’ve tried to do a lot of catching up on the weekends, but even that is draining because it leaves me without time to recharge/hang out with my husband/run errands etc.

I’m still billing plenty of hours, but not as many as I should, given how busy I am right now. My colleagues know that I am pregnant, but I don’t want to destroy all of the credibility I’ve built up for the past 5 years by asking for less work. I’m on the brink of tears most days and I’m not usually someone who cries. I feel like I am letting everyone down and totally failing at the working mother juggling act already, and the baby is not even here yet. Ugh. Any advice?

Hey guys, you might remember I was somewhat active on here back in the winter/early Spring. I had a bit of a life crisis that put baby-making on the back burner, but I’m in a much better place now (personally and professionally). We’re still hoping to add a little one to the family – my new job is close to home, and doesn’t have me working 12-15 hour days and travelling to Europe every month.

My question to you ladies is, I’m coming up on 1 full year of “trying”, though with the caveats of the above paragraph in mind, maybe we weren’t “trying” as much as we thought we were the whole time (you can’t get pregnant if you and DH are not on the same continent). But we did have at least 6 or 7 months of well-timed “trying” in there. I scheduled an appointment with my OB (my normal yearly checkup) for next month.

What should I expect given our 1+ year of trying and no success? What, if anything, should I push for from her? I don’t want to be that obnoxious, overly ambitious, type-A patient but… that’s kind of who I am. Right now I’m back and forth between “Do whatever science you need so I can have a baby, don’t you dare tell me to just RELAX” and “Oh god did I really overwork myself into infertility? Do I need to live at a spa for a year??”

fwiw, I’ve had nothing done from the OB, other than regular exam and going off birth control. I haven’t had hormone levels tested or anything. I’m curious what the steps are and what I should press for when she’s like, “Oh, you just relax honey! It’ll happen!”

When do you start brushing teeth? My daughter (10.5 months) has two teeth, but we haven’t started any brushing. I’ve seen conflicting information in terms of fluoride versus non-fluoride and when to start. I’m thinking I should, at the very least, get a toothbrush and start trying to use it so she starts to get used to it.

Is there a product out there that makes dining room chairs tip-proof? I’m envisioning a heavy duty cap that goes on the end of the back legs in the shape of an L or something like that. For all my googling, I’m coming up short.