Nursing/Postpartum Tuesday: Glow Baby Newborn Tracker App
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The newborn baby phase is totally disorienting, to say the least. You don’t know if you’re feeding the baby right, or enough, or at the right times; you’re tired; and your hormones are going crazy. For me, that manifested in a lot of anxiety around feeding, weight gain, and dirty-diaper counting… night under the jaundice lights for my little guy was definitely the cause of it. At first, I was just using the Notes app in my iPhone to track time breastfed, oz. of formula, and naptimes. (I still have it on my phone, and it looks like A Beautiful Mind-type equations.) I finally downloaded this app, and the graphs and data were very reassuring! I found it very user-friendly, and the graphics are cute. I didn’t try any others since I feel like this one hit all the points for me, but feel free to suggest any you tried and liked. Glow Baby is free at the App Store and Google Play (although it does offer in-app purchases). Glow Baby Newborn Tracker App
Psst: Looking for more info about nursing clothes for working moms, or tips for pumping at the office? We’ve got them both…
4-6 breathing method. Breathe in for 4, breathe out for 6. Keep doing it for as long as you can. I’ve tried other breathing methods. ambien, all kind of tricks — nothing has helped me more than this.
Third trimester sleep tips?
Discomfort in laying on my side/side of my body falling asleep, anxiety/too amped up to sleep, sciatica, etc. I’ve been taking zzzquil w/ doctor’s okay but I hesitate to do it every night and it doesn’t always knock me out quickly or for long.
I’ve been given a wonderful job opportunity – but it’s cross-country. I’m very reluctant to go because my family is here. I’m very close with them, and they’ve been a huge help with my small children.
My husband has affection for them, but has said it’s weird and “distressing” that I’d let something like my family play a role in my decision. It’s not like my current situation is dire, and I like my job fine. This other opportunity is great – but it’s not worth it to me to move several states with small children when my family is all here.
I guess I just want validation here. I’m feeling very angry at his attitude.
For those of you with infants in daycare, is anyone else experiencing utter exhaustion leading to what feels like an aggressively early (pre 6:30pm) bedtime?
DD is 4.5 months. She gets home from daycare around 5:30pm and is completely exhausted. We struggle most days to keep her awake through 6:30 pm. Last night we put her down at 6:10pm after falling asleep sitting up in my arms. I feel like this is so early. She’s waking up consistently around 3:30am these days. I’d like to think that if we put her down 90 mins later we might be able to sleep till 5am (I know, I know, it never works that perfectly…but a girl can dream). She cat naps for 30-40 mins 2-3x daily at daycare, which is the same when she is home on non-daycare days (Fri-Sun).
Does this sound normal? Will she ever adjust to the stimulation of daycare and not be comatose within 20 mins of my getting home at night?
Where do you keep your baby monitor? We are just starting to use ours and the instruction pamphlet says to keep it 6 feet away from you due to radiation, but it seems annoying to have to get out of bed every time I need to look at it. Is this one of those warnings on a product that they do to avoid liability or is it a real thing I should be concerned about?
Anyone find some alternatives to peanut butter that your kids will actually eat? Child is in a peanut-free (but most likely not nut-free although that is still being worked out). I tried sunflower butter which he hated. He really loves peanut butter and honey sandwiches and I’d like to find an alternative.
Really curious to hear the hive’s thoughts on this.
Husband travels for work on average once or twice a week, so I am solo parenting on those days. We have two very high-energy young kids.
I never have to travel for work. However, I’m quite social and really enjoy hanging out with girlfriends and going to professional events when I can. I have curtailed this quite a bit, but would say I probably go out for a social evening once every two weeks.
Husband will often say that he never does anything for himself and is always focusing on the family, whereas I do things for myself like go out. He says that I can’t compare him going out of town to work because it’s part of his job, whereas I am going out for fun.
To me, though, it comes down to the fact that I am solo parenting way more than he is and so it’s fine if I go out to socialize a few times a month.
Writing this down husband sounds horrible but he’s actually really great. Super hands on parent, 50/50% house related cooking, cleaning, etc.
What do you all think? I should add that husband never says that he wants to go out for fun with his friends and even if I pushed him to go, he wouldn’t want to.
I just got a positive pregnancy test this am! Feel fine other than extremely lightheaded and dizzy. Not telling anyone at work at this point and we are going to wait until after the first OB appointment to tell family (once we know there is a heartbeat, etc). It is so weird to have this huge secret and not tell anyone. Does anyone have a recommendation for a book about pregnancy/newborns that is written for first time dads? DH is pregnancy / baby clueless and I am not much better and he would like to learn some stuff to be less clueless and I want to support this inclination!
I’ve got a cheapy pump off amazon which is about half the size of the Medela. It cost about £30. I keep it at home in case I do an evening pump and will take it when I travel at the end of the month.
I once read that the average NY Times contains more information than a person in the Middle Ages would have taken in during their entire lifetime. We definitely live in the age of TMI, and with parenting it just keeps coming. I think we have to remind the app providers (aka the PTO, the doctor, Sunday school) and ourselves that these things exist to serve us but not for us to serve them. I hate the feeling that these things that are supposed to be making our lives easier and better are just creating more homework for us parents.
That being said, I don’t track baby kicks since I feel them all the friggin’ time, but I do plan to use a tracker to serve as a brain outside my body and communicate with husband during the wee-post-natal stages. I can’t remember anything from last time I had a baby.
Is a travel/small pump worth it? I anticipate a lot of work-related travel this first year with baby. I have a Spectra which I love, but after taking a work related trip with it – I loved how much milk I got but hated lugging the bulky pump around. I am torn bc a travel pump means less milk / more time pumping, but easier to travel with. Most of my trips are 2-3 days, and I have a very decent freezer stash.
Also, any recommendations? I am looking at this one https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MJLIW4O/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
I tracked obsessively on an app and it was definitely bad for my mental health. I did it for nearly a year.
It is sort of gratifying when I think about how miserable newborn life was for me to look back and be like “okay, so I’m not crazy, he literally didn’t sleep for more than 90 minutes for several months. It was actually awful!”
When is the right time to introduce chores and how do you get the kids to do them? Kids are 3 and 5, their only chores are putting away their toys at the end of the night and (sometimes) putting away their laundry that I fold. I would like them to take on more responsibilities, if nothing else than to teach them that mom and dad can’t do everything. Should I make a chart? Something else? I’d like this to be fun, not just a “chore.” :)
How do I get more sleep for my elementary kids?
Since school started (real school, although we called their summer program school too, oops) my kids clearly need more sleep. However I can’t get them to get more sleep. Normally they go to bed at 8, fall asleep by 830, and are up at 630. I’ve tried pushing that bedtime back to 730 or even 7. But then they either stay awake until 830 anyway (playing quietly in their bed), or if they do fall asleep early, then they’re just up at 530 or 6 (playing not so quietly in their room).
I’ve tried letting them sleep in on the weekends (even though you’re not supposed to do that) and same issue, they wake up anyway. I’ve tried doing an intense morning of physical activity and then trying for a nap or an earlier bedtime, and still no dice.
Other ideas to try?
I would go with dress and blazer, if they fit. A hastily purchased suit will not look polished—suits inevitably need tailoring and pressing to look right.