It’s the final weekend of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, ladies — what were your hits and misses? This ballet flat skimmer looks lovely, and seems to be a hit as it’s selling out in sizes and colors. There’s still a bunch of sizes left in both black and red, though, and for $129 it looks great. (This oxford/sneaker from Cole Haan is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere — particularly in the gray — as a new, hot way to wear oxfords. To me it still looks like a more geriatric shoe — I actually bought it in black for my mom! This is the sneaker version of the super-lightweight oxfords I posted about on Corporette a while ago — if you can make these work with your personal style, do it, because it’s a great deal and a super, super lightweight shoe.) The ballet flat pictured will go back up to $198 when the sale ends August 3. Cole Haan ‘Amalia’ Half d’Orsay Skimmer Flat
Anon in NYC says
What was your bedtime routine for your infant? My daughter is 9 weeks and I’d like to start an easy bedtime routine that doesn’t take that long and can be done by other caretakers if need be. I was thinking of dimming the lights, reading 1 book, and singing a song (currently, the only song I know is Wheels on the Bus). She sleeps really soundly after a bath, but I’d like to avoid making that part of the routine if possible.
RDC says
Our routine is bath (every other night), diaper, lotion (for excema), pjs, vitamin, milk (bf or bottle), one book, bed. Except he usually passes out while eating so we skip the book. This was a good routine for a long time – about 3-7 months – but is becoming problematic now (8 mos) that he has teeth and in theory we should brush them… which he hates, and leaves him wide awake if I attempt it before bed.
Pigpen's Mama says
Have you tried the Banana Brush? My kiddo loves chewing on hers — not sure how well it brushes her teeth, but it gets her used to the idea.
http://amzn.to/1KC5qVK
Maddie Ross says
I may be the voice of dissent, but I wouldn’t worry too much about a “routine” at 9 weeks that will stick through all of infant/toddler-hood. We didn’t start bathing at night until about 6 months. Prior to that, our routine was to start dimming the lights, do a final feed, and either rock or cuddle to sleep. Around 6 months, we started doing bath at night, lotion, jammies, sleep sack, final feed, and rock or cuddle to sleep. When I weaned around a year, the final feed changed to reading of books. And around 14-15 months we dropped the cuddling to sleep and put her down drowsy.
Bloom says
We started a routine around 4 months. PJs, sleep sack, pacifier, a couple of books and cuddles in the recliner, then singing a song while putting baby in crib awake. Did he really “need” a routine at 4 months? Probably not, but I think it helped us in the long run when he went through some rough sleep patches with teeth, starting to crawl, cruise, etc. The sleep sack in particular has definitely been a good sleep trigger, he starts rubbing his eyes as soon as we put it on.
pockets says
My 18 month old loooooooves her sleep sack. She starts smiling and giggling when we put it on her (assuming she is tired enough to go to sleep) and is so happy when we zip her up.
CPA Lady says
I had a very loose routine beginning around age 4 months, and by around 5 months, it was something we do every night. If she gets a bath, it’s before the routine. She gets a bath about 3-4 times a week depending on how dirty she is.
I change her into PJs and overnight diaper, turn off the overhead light, turn on her sleep machine, give her a bottle while rocking her, give her a pacifier then put her in bed, walk out and shut the door. Sometimes she’s asleep right away, sometimes she fusses for a few minutes. I usually sing her one song while I’m giving her the bottle.
TK says
Our routine
2 months until weaned (~ 11 mos):
calm play / book reading after dinner
bath
walk around nursery doing ‘bedtime’ things (turn on nightlight, close curtains, talk about bedtime)
nurse / bottle if with dad
turn on nightime CD
in crib with pacifier
11 – 18 mos (current age)
run around outside after dinner
read book, if he’ll sit still
bath / teeth brushing
walk around house saying ‘goodnight’ to cats and toys
walk around nursery doing ‘bedtime’ things (he turn on nightlight, closes curtains, starts sound machine)
in crib, say goodnight, do not come back in even if he’s crying unless he cries for more than 10 minutes – (rarely, rarely happens.)
Grandparents have successfully put him to bed under both routines. The music cues helped tremendously – we do them at naptime too, and he associates the CD with, ‘time to sleep.’
Katarina says
I started around that age with books (as long as he could stand), diaper and pajamas, nurse to sleep, sleepsack. I realize that some would think that nursing to sleep defeats the purpose, but it worked for me. I have gradually changed the routing as he got older. I increased the amount of books (this is not necessary, but I like to make sure he gets enough books in a day), I started waking him up after nursing before putting to bed, I added teeth brushing, removed the nursing, and added a bath. Nursing could be replaced with a bottle if someone else did it.
Anonymous says
We started our “routine” around 5 or 6 weeks, when the baby indicated he wanted an actual bedtime that wasn’t just “hang around dozing with mom and dad until they go to bed.” At that point, it was just go upstairs, diaper, pjs/swaddle, bottle, burp, snuggle until he was aaaaaalmost asleep with or without pacifier. Books were waaaaay too stimulating at that age. From then until now (5 months), it has morphed a bit as the baby’s gotten older. I would say around 3.5 months, around the same time we stopped swaddling, we moved bottle a little earlier in the routine. That had the advantage of perking him up enough to tolerate reading a book. So now it is bottle (w/song), book (or just a few pages if he’s really tired or irritable), play briefly with stuffed animal/another song, diaper, into sleepsuit or pjs wide awake, say good night , turn out light, and leave.
anon says
We also turn on AC/fan, both for cooling and noise to prevent us from waking him by moving around the house (room doesn’t have a door).
pockets says
I’m really sick of people telling me that if I changed my situation (moved to a different neighborhood, stopped shopping so much, whatever) then I wouldn’t “have to” work. Or that when I have more kids it’s going to be too difficult to work. The casual sexism kills me. Ordinarily the people telling me this (generally my in-laws as I’m not friends with many people who think this way and my mom doesn’t think this way at all) are perfectly pleasant people that I don’t need to instigate fights with, and I struggle with how to respond.
CPA Lady says
It makes me grumpy too. I saw someone commenting on an article about how bottles are evil and that the only way a child should eat should be b-milk directly from the boob (eye roll) and one of the responses was something about how some women “have” to work so we shouldn’t shame anyone for pumping and using a bottle. Okay, fine, I agree that we shouldn’t shame women for however they choose to feed their babies. However, it irritates me that the default is assumed that all women would stay home if they could. Like the only thing my job brings me is money that I could not live without? No. It brings me so much more than that.
I get stabby too. Especially when it’s an older family member expressing her pity at how I’m still working.
Clementine says
The kid isn’t even here yet and I’m already getting pity. The worst line in the ‘pity speech’ to me?
‘Well, I just couldn’t bring myself to work to have somebody else raise my child.’
Good for you, dude. Good. For. You. I’m so glad you know my personal finances, ambitions, personality, and family dynamic so well as to assume that I am making a bad and wrong decision. Also- if you’re only raising your child between the hours of 9-5, Monday through Friday, you’re doing it wrong.
In other news- I visited a daycare and my major takeaway was ‘huh. I’ll bet this is what prison is like.’
TK says
Ugh. If it weren’t family members that you’ll see over and over again, I’d be tempted to say ‘I don’t HAVE to work. I choose to work so my son/daughter can grow up with examples of women who can do more than babysit.’
Which isn’t even something I really believe – I have respect for the stay at home moms I know – but in frustration I could totally see myself responding that way.
PregAnon says
I’ll just second everything here. I don’t get this from my family, or from my mother in law, but it’s my sister in law that drops these comments – and she doesn’t even HAVE kids. It started right when I got pregnant…she said…”oh are you going to keep working.” I said of course…I love my job….and she said “well who is going to stay home with the kid?” Um….we have awesome daycare in my town?
It was like I was this horrible person because I’m not going to be a stay at home mom.
I get the “I just couldn’t let someone else raise my child” comment from people sometimes, and I’m never quite sure how to respond. I also have a friend that constantly posts on Facebook articles about “oh THIS is why you should be a stay at home mom” and “look how much better my kids are because I’m a stay at home mom!!” While at the same time, she posts about how broke they are and how they can’t afford anything and she can’t pay her student loans. Hmmm…..the irony…
sfg says
This makes me grumpy as well. One way to address this that I have seen (maybe here?) is to say something along the lines of: “We all know it costs money to provide childcare. Your family decides to pay this cost by having Jane stay home with the kids. Our family decides to pay this cost by daycare/nanny/etc.”
KJ says
Ugh, I am outraged on your behalf. I have been doing more childcare than usual over the last month because my husband had surgery and can’t lift our toddler. All I keep thinking is that if I had to take care of her all day, every day, forever, I would completely lose my mind. I love my daughter and enjoy spending time with her, but I’m not cut out to do it 100% of the time. And that’s OK! No one expects men to want to care for kids 24/7, so I refuse to feel guilty.
CHJ says
Seriously, I cannot deal with people who have that attitude. One of my law school friends has a great story where on her first day back to work after having a baby (literally, first day back), she ran into one of our former law school professors who shook his head solemnly and told her that he could “never, ever” put his baby in daycare. “Never, ever ever.” (Head shake). Our law school professor!!
PEN says
I always hate the “I was so lucky to be able to stay home” or “My children were so lucky my wife was able to stay home.” UGH!! I seem to get those two often and respond with “I am so lucky to have access to high quality child care and a career I love!”
Ems says
That’s been my strategy too – “I’m so lucky to have a great job and a great support network.”
anon says
Equally as bad is people just suggesting to me that “Or you could just not go back to work.” Okay, random neighbor lady I’ve never met before, you want to tell me how we can support our family without my income?! My husband’s grandma also remarked at how impressed she was that I wanted to go back to work, and couldn’t get through her head that it’s not exactly a choice for us — but, in her day, to be fair, you could probably have supported a family on my husband’s job’s income (teacher) much more comfortably than today.