Nursing/Postpartum Tuesday: Calming Vibes Hedgehog Soother
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Every year, there’s a cute animal that becomes the must-have critter for babies. (Remember llamas?) Perhaps this is the year of the hedgehog?
This soft, huggable hedgehog soother has four music and vibration settings to comfort your baby at home or on the go. It’s also machine washable — just remove the electronics first.
Fisher-Price’s Calming Vibes Hedgehog Soother is $17.99 at Target.
Psst: Looking for info about nursing clothes for working moms or tips for pumping at the office? We’ve got them both…
Sales of note for 6/16/25
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Designer clearance up to 60% off
- Ann Taylor – 40% off summer must-haves + extra 40% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 40-60% off everything + extra 20% off
- Eloquii – Extra 45% off all sale
- J.Crew – Easy summer styles from $39.50 + extra 50% sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – Extra 60% off clearance + extra 70% off 3 clearance styles
- M.M.LaFleur – 30% summer essentials with code + try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Spanx – Free shipping on everything
- Talbots – 30% off all tees, shorts, dresses, and more + extra 30% off all other markdowns
Please tell me if I’m doing something wrong in this situation.
I used to volunteer in a hospice facility, and one of their massage therapists taught me how to do a brief hand massage for comfort. Just hands, nothing even about the wrists. At bedtime for DS (8 yrs old), I massage his hands for 5-10 minutes. He loves this, finds it very relaxing, asks for it every night, sometimes asks for it if he’s had a rough day.
He’s had two sleepovers at our house, and each time, he asks for his usual hand massage, which I’m happy to do. He encourages his friends to have me massage their hands as well. I think he’s kind of proud of it in a very sweet way. I’ve been really really clear with both kids that they get to decide on their own, that it’s only if it sounds nice to them, etc. Both kids have asked to try it after seeing me massage DS’s hands. I give them a shortened version, telling them what I’ll do before I’ll do it (“so now I wiggle each one of your fingers gently, now I squish your palm like Play-Doh”), asking if it feels ok.
Is this weird? I know both kids and their parents well, and I’d feel comfortable with their moms doing something similar for my son, but I haven’t talked about it with either family. Should I ask their parents in advance, now that my son has offered it twice? Or tell my son that it’s something that parents should only do for their own kids?
My 5 year old is doing this thing now where he ruins the end of every fun activity. We’ll have a great day, and he’ll behave super great the whole time, and then on the drive home he’ll get really whiny and by the time we get home he’s miserable. I’ve tried keeping him full of snacks, thinking he was getting hangry, but I don’t think it’s that. I think he just senses the fun is over and gets anxious/upset. How can we get him to reframe that coming home is a nice thing at the end of a fun day? Do we just wait this one out?
Do I bring a gift to a Hebrew naming ceremony?
It is the last day of school and I celebrated with lice treatments! My kids had a mild lice infestation weeks ago and I guess I didn’t get it all the first time. My snuggly son’s head was absolutely crawling with them this morning. Of course he was in my bed last night. Ugh.
visiting DC Area (Rockville/Bethesda) area next month with two 7 year olds.. we’ve been before and in DC have done the american indian museum, air & space, museum of american history. any recs of things to do/see either in DC proper or in the burbs? i know it will likely be hot. has anyone been to the KID museum in bethesda?
Any ideas on ways to get my 5 year old son to get along with/not be afraid of our cat? They have basically ignored each other his whole life (cat is not a snuggler). But recently son has been yelling at her “Name! Go away!” He says he is not afraid of her, he just doesn’t like her. I think it might be because recently she’s started getting on the table after dinner, and we’ve yelled at her a bit to get down, so he’s learned from watching us that that’s how you interact with her. I’ve been trying very heavily to model speaking nicely to the cat, petting her, talking about how she’s a loved member of the family, but he still says he doesn’t like her.
It feels surreal to be asking this question, but I’m looking for advice on how to manage cancer treatments while having young children (and a job). Kids are preschool and early elementary school. Job qualified for FMLA leave but I’m not sure if the treatment time will exceed the 12 weeks of FMLA. Treatments are not immediate but I cannot help but worry about the path ahead.
I need a pep talk. I have two kids under 4, and lately I feel like I constantly count down the time to when they’re in bed or away from me. I’ve never felt like a “bad” or “failing” mom until now. There are many valid reasons for my feeling overwhelmed by young kids (getting DOGE’d and having no identity other than “mom,” lots of OT and PT for one kid every week, spotty childcare options after preschool year ended and camp starting, back-to-back summer colds), plus preschool kids have relentless daily needs. But I’m starting to feel crummy that everything about my kids annoys me right now. It’s not a pleasant way to feel. I’m trying to schedule little breaks for myself, but I feel overwhelming guilt if I’m not constantly productive given that I’m not working anyway. Any advice? Any books or podcasts on reclaiming a self besides “mom”?
DH does breakfast with our 12-month-old in the morning while I get ready for work. He WFH and has more flexibility in his morning. I try to sit for part of breakfast but am newly back to work and still getting use to the new morning routine.
Is it unreasonable to ask him not to use his phone while at the table with our LO for breakfast? Pre-kid he loved to do crossword, wordle, pretty much all the NYT puzzles while he was having breakfast. We didn’t usually sit down together for breakfast in the morning so it made sense that he did something he enjoyed while eating.
Now, it drives me crazy to see him sitting at the table with LO while he is on his phone. Breakfast does not last that long and he is really doing his puzzles, its not like a quick urgent work emails (his career has few things that are truly urgent, thankfully). Now that LO is in daycare full-time, I would really like it if he would maybe switch to a podcast in the morning rather than staring at his phone or tablet. He loves routines and his morning puzzle is one that he clings to… BUT I am also not the one who made breakfast, served it to our LO, or cleaned it up! I’m usually leaving around when breakfast is ending.
Unreasonable request and leave it alone or fair ask of a partner to not use their phone for the 15-20 minutes of breakfast?
The protein discussion below made me think of all the ways social media and its trends infiltrate my brain. I want to go for a run today but I can’t stop thinking, “you’re too old to be doing that! You need to life weights! Heavy weights! Your muscles are wasting away! Long cardio is not the answer for you!”
None of which is consistent with my doctors advice. Leave it to the internet to make me feel bad about my workout of choice, ha!
(Please don’t at me, I do lift weights and I know the benefits are real.)
The sibling rivalry between my 10yo son and 5yo daughter is getting out of control, most frequently flowing from my son to my daughter. He is needlessly unkind to her – nothing dangerous, of course, but everything is “she’s so annoying” when she’s just being a 5yo girl, “you’re lying” when she’s not, “stop talking” when it’s unreasonable for her to be completely silent. This is a daily problem. She does know how to push his buttons and we try to nip that as quickly as we can and we do that in front of him in the moment so he knows we have his back. Nevertheless, we have made very little improvement and it feels like we’ve tried everything.
My 10yo son is a confident, fun-loving kid. He has lots of friends at school and is very successful in sports. He gets a lot of love and time from me and my husband, and a lot of our resources as well – solo outings and trips, conversation time, our presence at all of his games and many practices, lots of room for independence and responsibility. My guess is that a lot of the issue stems from him thinking he’s missing out on something because his sister is around – resources, choices, something – but he already gets everything he needs and lots of things he wants. We’ve asked him to stop, told him to stop, tried to engage in the moment, tried to get him to ignore her – nothing has worked or made any improvement.
I am an oldest kid, and so is my husband, and both of us are very well aware of how hard it can be to deal with younger siblings. But I am at a loss here. This type of behavior has made our family life pretty unpleasant at times and is affecting our family dynamic. We also have a 3yo son who isn’t party to any of this, in case that’s helpful.
Desperate for any thoughts or suggestions or literally anything – thank you!
Anyone have a favorite spray for helping detangle kid hair? It’s straight, long, and fine and usually worn in braids or a ponytail, but she still struggles with letting us brush it every morning.
Posted this late so trying again to hear from more. I’m of two minds about how to proceed in my life and career and I could use some help navigating. I’m a very all-or-nothing, driven person feeling like I’m not living up to my professional potential – working in the same local gov level for years, with no current options for upward mobility… but I have great benefits, a solid income, and am well-liked by my colleagues. I feel a pull to do more/be more, and be seen as highly capable in my niche role, but at the same time I feel a pull to spend more time with my family as my oldest starts K. I posted here a few weeks ago about what type of part-time schedule to ask for, and someone suggested asking for just one year. I was approved to do 32 hours for the school year, but I will have to go back up to 40 after that. I have been feeling really down about everything, considering leaving the workforce, but a poster yesterday asked why I don’t lean out and I thought it was a helpful reframe – but I don’t know how to lean out because of my personality. How do I do embrace leaning out? How do I think about this? My spouse has a big job and if I reduce my schedule or leave the workforce, I’d spend more time doing the household things he currently does, which he would love… and he is supportive of any option I choose.
Inspired by meeting planning at work and the doughnut party discussion below: someone please help me understand why people are crazy for Chick-Fil-A breakfast sandwiches at events. Why would anyone want to eat soggy lukewarm chicken in the morning? How do you keep it hot?
Whatever got into my kids last night, I hope it continues for the rest of summer! They played outside together (new trampoline – worth it!), then went in and straight for the shower, discussed their plan to go to bed early so they could play more together in the morning, did their videos and reading together, and then even had a “sleepover” where they decided to sleep in the same room. Literally, no work needed from me or my husband. It was magical. Bigger kids, bigger problems and all that, but right now, I am enjoying these years so much.