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Oooh: readers at Corporette always note that they love the Christine cardigan, and I just got around to checking it out now — not only does it look great, but it’s on a lovely sale. It’s machine washable, comes in regular, petites, talls, and plus sizes, and is available in eight colors for $36-$42 (formerly $60-$70). Nice! I can’t find a product sold as a matching shell, but this camisole seems to come in a ton of complimentary colors. (The cardigan itself also comes in elbow-length sleeves and v-neck versions.) Women’s Christine Cardigan Sweater – Solid (L-all)Sales of note for 3.28.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything plus extra 20% off purchase
- Eloquii – 50% off 2+ items; 40% off 1
- J.Crew – 50% off select styles
- Lands’ End – 10% off your order
- Loft – 50% off everything
- Nordstrom: Give $150 in gift cards, earn a $25 promo card (ends 3/31)
- Talbots – 40% off 1 item; 25% off everything else
- Zappos – 37,000+ 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 – 50% off entire site
- Hanna Andersson – 30% off all swim; up to 30% off HannaJams
- J.Crew Crewcuts – 40% off sitewide; 50% off select swim; 50% off kids’ styles
- Old Navy – 50% off Easter deals
- Target – 20% off Easter styles for all; up to 30% off kitchen & dining; BOGO 50% off shoes & slippers for the family;
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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?
SpecialObject says
We’ve misplaced or lost my child’s most favorite comfort object, and it’s surprising how sad I feel about it. He actually seems okay – we are on week 2 with no sightings. I’m totally perplexed as to how it went missing – we’ve isolated it to an overnight when we didn’t go anywhere. Presumably, it could still be in the house – but we turned over everything. I’m worried it was accidentally dropped into the trash or box that went to recycling and is long gone.
More than that, I’m surprised by how sad *I* am that it might be gone forever. It has been with my son since birth, and he really was attached to it. I can’t believe he’s not more upset by it being gone, so I’m trying to not make a big deal out of it. But that thing was synonymous with his “babyhood.” Poor guy. That it’s gone and that he’s not devastated is so strange to me.
Maddie Ross says
Is it something that could be replaced? There is actually a seller on ebay (and presumably others out there) who specializes in random stuffed comfort objects. I was able to replace my LOs stuffed bunny that was discontinued using that.
Anon says
If you find a replacement BUY FIVE. My mom did this the first time I lost my bunny because I completely lost my sh*t and she never wanted to deal with it again. That was 27 years ago when online shopping wasn’t a thing, so she had to go to like 7 stores to find them.
CHJ says
This has happened to me twice, with different loveys. And I know how you feel – “irrationally” sad that the lovey is gone too! I ended up buying an entire farm set a second time ($50) just to replace a small plastic cow.
Good news if your child’s lovey is a Lego or Duplo – there are resellers online who separate the packages so you can buy just the replacement item (in our case, a pony) without buying the whole set. Win!
Meg Murry says
FYI, Lego will replace a few lost pieces with no cost for their regular sets if you call customer service. My son lost some of the weird shaped pieces for his Batman Lego set (not sure if they weren’t in the box or got lost immediately after opening, but we never had them) and we were able to get replacements for free by providing the set number and the item number off the instructions (which you can find online if you can’t in stores).
Not sure if they would do free for a bigger feature item like a pony, or if it is just worth it to you to pay $5 on ebay vs sit on hold with customer service for half an hour, but I thought I would put it out there as an option.
LSC says
Just have to toot my own horn…Finished up a year of breastfeeding this morning. We did it! Toot toot!
JJ says
Congrats! That’s a great accomplishment.
Anon in NYC says
Congrats!
PregLawyer says
Yayyy! What are you going to do to celebrate?
As an aside – I am just back to work and am adjusting to pumping. I was one of those women who said I was just going to stop breastfeeding as soon as it got too hard. So far pumping hasn’t been so bad! I *think* I might actually be able to do a year . . . we’ll see.
Anonymous says
Every time I felt it was too hard, I just told myself to finish the rest of the month…and eventually it worked! I may have stopped sooner, but my child had a dairy intolerance and the available formulas were not something I was happy with. Next time I think I’d give myself more of a break! I had lunch with my husband to celebrate and he had a little surprise gift for me!
LSC says
Whoops, that was me. The OP.
EB0220 says
That’s awesome – congrats!!
Anglophile says
Congratulations! I just hit six months and keep thinking I’m halfway there… I am pleasantly surprised I have made it this long but I agree with other comments along the lines that pumping has not been so bad as to convince me it is not worth it anymore. Highlights (lowlights?) of pumping so far have been forgetting my strapless pumping bra (holding my b**bs in my office felt VERY awkward), not thinking through a dress that basically required me to pump n*ked in my office, pumping into a cup when I forgot to bring enough bottles, and last, but not least, my recent hilarious conversation with a security guard at a federal building in response to “do you have anything electronic in your bag,” and the initial blank stare from the security guard and blushes from my older male colleagues. Can’t wait to see what the next six months hold…
mat leave says
I am in biglaw and thinking about taking mat leave a couple of weeks before my due date mostly because I want to make sure I make my hours this year and not have to worry about billing full days throughout the last couple of weeks. I haven’t been put on bed rest or anything – it’s really just trying to game my hours for the year. I think I would still make myself available on certain projects until the baby actually arrives.
I know most people say don’t take leave until baby is actually here to maximize time with the baby, but I feel like if I really wanted I could take an extra two weeks on the end of my leave as time off (we don’t have formal vacation). I’m less concerned about making my hours for next year anyway with having a baby in the mix.
So my question is – is this a strange thing to tell people? Or is there a better way to frame it?
JJ says
Does your firm credit you with any “ramp up” hours with your maternity leave? My prior firm would pro-rate our hours target for how long we were on leave, and also gave us 60 ramp up hours that were included to make up for time lost on either end of the leave.
How many weeks do you have for leave? If you have 4+ months, it really wouldn’t make a difference on your leave if you take two of those weeks early. If you only have 12 weeks, I would have wanted those two weeks for after the baby was born (but other people can feel differently about that).
When I was that pregnant, I would just “work from home” a lot so that I could get more hours in without having to worry and exert myself getting ready, going to the office, etc. Everyone understood.
mat leave says
Thanks for your input. There’s no formal ramp up credit, and I don’t really trust the partner in my group to give me the benefit of the doubt when it comes to bonus because I happen to know how he feels about mat leave (negatively – another story for another day). I don’t want to give him any reason to cut me short. I get 18 weeks, but I would probably end up coming back closer to 20 weeks because of my husband’s work schedule (he’ll stay home for his paternity leave when I go back).
For me it’s less about coming into the office and more about having no motivation/energy/attention span to do work. I never get much done at home anyway.
Meg Murry says
I don’t understand – if you only get 18, how is it that you won’t come back until 20, plus another few weeks before the due date? So almost 22 weeks off total?
Or is it that you get 18 paid, but can take more than that unpaid?
Not a lawyer, but I took off with both kids at 2 weeks before my due date – because I was just miserable, and most of my projects had been handed over, and also because I worked more than an hour from the hospital I intended to deliver at – and didn’t want to either have to drive there in labor or wind up paying for a really expensive ambulance ride there or wind up being sent by ambulance to the hospital near my work (wrong way from home, would be almost 1.5 hour drive for my husband).
My bosses appreciated having a drop-dead date for me to wrap up my projects, instead of the “every night I organize my folders in case I don’t come back the next day and someone else has to figure out where I left off” or “every day I come in to the office and beg my co-workers for something short term I can help them with”. And that way they could still call me with questions during those 2 weeks I was technically “off” but knew they weren’t disturbing me with a newborn – so it was kind of a test run for what it would be like once the baby was born and I was completely off the grid other than maybe a once a week email.
mat leave says
I get 18 weeks of leave, but since we don’t have a vacation policy, I would just take the extra time as “time off” – similar to vacation time (hopefully without veering into unpaid territory… which we do have an additional 2 months available for unpaid leave). Starting two weeks early puts me in the position to need to take the extra couple weeks – if I took off closer to my due date, I could just take 18 and the timing would work for my husband’s leave.
Your last paragraph makes a lot of sense, and makes me feel better about the whole arrangement. Thanks!
LSC says
Nope, not strange at all to tell people you are taking a couple weeks off before your due date so long as you are comfortable with not knowing how soon the baby will come. I’ve known several people who had made the same choice. Just don’t mention the hours game ;)
NewMomAnon says
Totally normal to take a week or two before baby comes – lots of women are really uncomfortable and not very productive anyway by that time, so employers don’t usually mind. You may also be able to frame it as “giving certainty about your departure date” rather than leaving a project in the lurch if you go on the early end of your “due date month” versus the late end of that 38-42 week window.
Pigpen's Mama says
I took off a week before my due date partly because my productivity had ramped down so much that I was worried about not making my hours for the year — since I was going to be out for the rest of the billable year, I knew I couldn’t make it up when I got back. It also made wrapping things up much easier, since there wasn’t any uncertainty when I’d stop coming in.
It was nice to have that time — more than a week would have driven me nuts, but that’s mostly because it was really hot and I was so uncomfortable I couldn’t do anything but veg out on the couch. I ended up doing some work the first few days, but it was pressure-free. I also picked up some billable work while on leave a few weeks before I went back — that helped the ramp-up back to work.
mat leave says
Or I guess another question would be – do I need to really tell anyone besides HR about when exactly I will begin/end mat leave if the expectation is that I will generally be unavailable once baby arrives?
AIMS says
Any maternity tights recommendations? It’s starting to get to be that time of year and I still have 2 months to be pregnant.
JJ says
Spanx and Spanx Assets were my favorite maternity tights. Towards the very end, they also helped give a little support to my belly, which was very appreciated.
Anon in NYC says
Second the Spanx recommendation. They were my favorite maternity tights!
pockets says
I got the preggers brand, and when I put them on I literally went “ahhhhh” because the compression felt so good. You can order them online or buy them at destination maternity.
sfg says
Plus three for Spanx tights. I wore them nearly every day.
Anonymous says
THIGH HIGHS.
Anglophile says
I found Old Navy maternity tights to be great for the price.
Anon says
So, my daughter is fully potty trained (daytime) at home. She goes to daycare and for whatever reason, she Will.Not.Pee on the toilet at daycare. I can’t figure it out, her teachers can’t figure it out, but she won’t tell them when she has to go (which she does at home and with babysitters etc), they put her on the toilet every 45 min and she won’t pee, so she holds it until either I pick her up (as soon as I show up she tells me she has to pee and we run to the potty) or just ends up having an accident.
We’ve tried bribes – stickers and chocolate (which she doesn’t need at home), a Special Potty Seat (which she doesn’t even use at home or in public…), etc. No progress.
Any ideas? I’ve tried hanging out at daycare for the morning and taking her to the toilet myself, but she seems to think it’s a game/fun thing vs at home where the bathroom is strictly business (you go in, pee, leave).
Meg Murry says
Is the potty at daycare taller than at home? Does she have trouble balancing on the seat there? (needs a stool or insert) Is it cold?
Do you usually stay in the bathroom with her at home, or does she sit on it by herself? What about at daycare – is someone staying nearby, and does she prefer that? My oldest wanted privacy to use the bathroom as soon as he could reasonably manage it, so I would help him sit and then go stand behind the cracked but not closed door. My youngest wants you to stay with him most of the time and hold his hand. Can you ask daycare to mirror whatever you do at home, or ask her “do you want me to stay here in the stall with you or give you some privacy?”
Is the toilet at daycare one of the really loud flushing ones? Or even worse, an automatic one? My son will avoid public bathrooms if at all possible because he is terrified of the loud flush and of automatic hand driers – he hates the loud noises and screams his darn fool head off if one goes off when he’s in there.
Anonymous says
Nope, none of those things unfortunately. My guess is that she gets more attention from the teachers when she’s in there…or something. O rthat she’s not comfortable enough to tell them when she has to go? I don’t know..
anonymama says
The you hanging out at daycare to take her to the potty might be part of it… she gets extra attention from you, so now it’s a thing? If she pees fine on the daycare toilet when you are there, but not when you are gone, it seems like it’s more about who’s with her than the toilet itself.
I might suggest that they don’t take her to the potty until she really has to go, and then maybe the need to pee plus the potty association will overcome her reluctance? Also, if you are taking her to the potty at the daycare center I’d advise you to give her as little extra attention as possible when she’s in the potty. Like, all business, leave the room if you can, don’t talk to her until she’s done, just take her, sit her down, step out, and then after she’s done talk as normal.
Anonymous says
When training my daughter I used to sing a short song I made up to encourage peeing. I find now if she or I sing it she will pee as she has a strong association with it. Maybe you could sing the song with her when she is peeing at home and have her teachers sing it at daycare? The song I made up was only two or three lines long and I just repeated the lines two or three times.
Totally Anon for this says
She probably really enjoys school or is too embarrassed to say something to her teacher (maybe not even embarrassed of the teacher, possibly embarrassed of the other kids) — I was the same way in first grade and had several accidents as a 6 year old because I couldn’t bear to leave class and possibly miss something.
If that’s the case, encourage her teachers to suggest she go during transitions. Normally you’ll see lots of advice to not make going to the bathroom part of transitions, because kids will become resistant when they are enjoying an activity or associate bathroom breaks with the stopping doing fun things. But for a kid who is definitely potty trained and fears missing out, transitions are a boring time when she’s not likely to miss anything. I’d see if the teachers would try reminding her for a few weeks and see if that will help.
Maternity Leave Logistics says
I am due in a few months and I am curious about how maternity leave logistically works in different organizations. I realize I need to ask someone for purposes of figuring this out for my own work (although I’m not sure anyone is really going to know – we literally have no maternity leave policy). I don’t have access to my email outside of work and none of my coworkers have access at all (without some string pulling from IT) so when I go into labor I’m not sure how my out-of-office is going to be activated. Also, my maternity leave is a combination of STD, vacation (which has to be submitted in advance electronically from a work computer and be approved), and unpaid leave. I work at a large company (don’t interact with anyone in payroll), so I’m not sure how they are going to figure out when I go into labor so they can stop paying me. Or how they are going to know to process my vacation days since I won’t be at work to submit them. Is my work super unorganized with not having a process for this or are these standard issues at other companies?
mascot says
Do you have HR? Certainly they have dealt with someone taking some sort of leave before and can decide how to do this. Generally, you have to contact the STD carrier directly and report that you have given birth. I remember calling from my hospital room and it being a pretty quick process. They will send you any paperwork that needs to be completed to return to work.
B says
I submitted a plan to HR based on my due date, and they asked me to notify them by phone or email when I deliver. Then they’ll work with me to finalize that tentative plan based on actual delivery date, remaining vacation, etc. I’ve also already submitted FMLA paperwork and my OB’s certification for why I need leave.
Also, I plan to contact our department admin and I think that will take care of getting my time categorized correctly in those first few days.
*when I say “I” am going to do all this contacting – I actually have given my husband a list of required contacts for after the birth.
Due in December says
Any maternity jean recommendations for those with short legs (i.e., comes in petite or short length)? Preferably something with a full panel for the third trimester, and a straight/slim leg (not skinny or bootcut)…