Everyone Thursday: Classic Dress Shrug

I am so so so stressed out by the Supreme Court. Watching the Anne of Green Gables trailer for the new netflix series to cheer myself up. Any other ideas? The Court actually stresses me out as a parent and thinking of my kids’ future, so I don’t find them the release I usually do!

I’ve been trying to avoid news sites but it’s hard to avoid all news.

Never hired a babysitter yet! A high-school aged student is going to be watching my 15 month old this Sunday afternoon (until right before bedtime). What is the going rate? MCOL area (medium-sized California city). TIA!

I’m kind of throwing around an idea and was wondering if I could get y’all’s take on it.

My husband worked nights the first 15 months of our kids life. Then he had a fairly normal schedule for about a year. And now he’s switching to a job with 50% travel. Each of these jobs has been with the same company and each has been a promotion. He’s really excited about the job he just got as it’s definitely a step towards what he ultimately wants to be doing.

During this time, I switched from public accounting to a sort of hybrid accounting job, where I still do taxes, but am in a much more relaxed environment with no room for upward mobility. So I definitely leaned out to save my sanity. Well, now that my husband is taking this 50% travel job, I’m considering leaning out further. A couple of my coworkers work 80% schedules, where they work 4 days a week when it’s not tax season.

I’m thinking of pitching this idea to my husband. But I feel weirdly selfish about it. I wouldn’t take my kid out of daycare that day off. I would leave her in and run errands and tidy up the house and just chill and recuperate from solo parenting. Selfish? Genius? Secretly has pitfalls I’m not thinking about?

Okay, to add to the chronic topics above, “Should I have one more?!”

My husband and I have never quite had a meeting of the minds on having 3. My husband never wanted 3 pre-kid, and I wanted 3 after I had my first. My husband would still be fine without 3, but does get wistful about another child. He went through a phase right when my second was just about to turn 2, and wanted to GO FOR IT b/c if we were going to have 3, he wanted them all pretty close in age. We stopped preventing for a few months, but it didn’t happen. I was actually relieved b/c I honestly wasn’t physically ready to be pregnant again and didn’t love having a 2.5 year old and newborn (but was willing to go for it then as a compromise – my preferred number of kids, his preferred timing). When it didn’t happen after a few months, we went back to actively preventing, and life went on.

Now, we have a big milestone trip coming up in May, and I’d like to go for it again during and after the trip. My husband thinks we’ve waited too long, and is worried that the age spread will trip us up indefinitely. It’s a valid point, and I’d love stories from either side. My youngest would be at least 4 when the newborn arrives (possibly older, depending on the timing, which is clearly variable — my first was conceived with intervention, second was an OOPS!, and most recently, a few months of “trying” yielded no results). My oldest would be 6 or older. I think it will be easier to handle a newborn with a 4 and 6 year old, and we’d only ever have two childcare payments at a time b/c public school.

But my husband isn’t wrong that the age spread impacts activities — on family trips, and just every day sports, etc. We are active and outdoor oriented. We’ve always brought our babies with us, but we are definitely crossing a barrier where the kids can do their own thing (old enough for ski school, no cribs in tents, etc.). Does the third in this case just tag along? Or are we going to be perpetually annoyed that the two older are off and running while we still have a baby in tow?

I’m soooooo over pumping! I had to go from SF to Sacramento for work yesterday. Today I have to go attend a complicated project I helped put together at a different campus. Schlepping my pump around and always watching the clock for best opportunities is wearing me off. My baby is 8 months old, breastfeeding itself is going great and I’d like to keep going until a year. I know I can do this, plus I have a 3-week vacation coming up so no pumping there! I just needed to let this out, commiseration or encouragements are appreciated.

This isn’t imminent, but we’re likely to start trying for #2 later this year. I had Baby HSAL at 34 and I’ll be 36 when we start trying again. Is there any difference in prenatal appointments for “geriatric” pregnancies? (ohmygod that’s the worst). Frequency, testing, etc? #1 was pretty standard. Monthly from 8 weeks to 24 or so, then biweekly until 36 weeks, then weekly. We were offered but declined genetic testing at the initial appointment, had the 18 week ultrasound, and then one more peek at 38 weeks to check positioning.

My mother in law’s supposed to fly in for a week long visit next week – we have two toddlers and we all adore her.
But, it was discovered on Sunday that their house has bedbugs. They had an exterminator over on Monday, and he said from the looks of it the bedbugs were confined to just two rooms – den and guestroom. I imagine he sprayed/applied his extermination processes throughout the house.
My question is whether the visit should be delayed. I suggested pushing it off for a few weeks – her birthday’s actually the end of the month – but my husband said she sounded really down when he suggested it to her…she said the tix are nonrefundable, and my impression is that they don’t want to shell out for another ticket, which is understandable. My husband said they asked they exterminator about traveling, and he said they should be fine.
I feel so bad about this. She’s an awesome grandma (and mother in law) and I know she’s been really looking forward to this, as have all of us. At the same time – bedbugs would be terrible. My husband and I both work outside of the house in somewhat demanding jobs, and with two such small kids we have so little time/energy to spare.
Anyone here experience bedbugs? What would you do?