Maternity Tuesday: Swing Dress
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The Nordstrom Winter Clearance Sale is on, and there is a surprising number of maternity and nursing things in the sale — lots of nice deals! (You can see my roundup of workwear in the sale here.). I like this chic swing dress for maternity — nice high neckline and long sleeves, and a work-appropriate length. The dress was $105, now marked to $73 (33% off!). Imanimo Maternity Swing Dress
(L-3)
Sales of note for 12.10
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Beauty deals on skincare (ends 12/14) including La Mer, Kate Somerville, Dior, Sunday Riley, Dyson, and gift sets — the deals include reader favorite lip balms Dior Addict, NARS Afterglow, and Clinique’s Black Honey, as well as Too Faced mascara and Sunday Riley’s Good Genes.
- Ann Taylor – 40% off your purchase, up to 50% off outerwear
- Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything + extra 20% off
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off all sale + extra 25% off 2+ items
- J.Crew – Up to 60% off everything, with 40% off their newest styles
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off everything + extra 25% off when you buy 3+ styles
- Macy’s – 15% off beauty, including Tarte, Clinique, Dior and gift sets
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off, plus free shipping on everything (and 20% off your first order)
- Talbots – 50% off everything + extra 25% off when you buy 3+ styles
And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interest – working mom questions asked by the commenters!
- The concept of “backup care” is so stupid…
- I need tips on managing employees in BigLaw who have to leave for daycare pickup…
- I’m thinking of leaning out to spend more time with my family – how can I find the perfect job for that?
- I’m now a SAHM and my husband needs to step up…
- How can I change my thinking to better recognize some of my husband’s contributions as important, like organizing the shed?
- What are your tips to having a good weekend with kids, especially with little kids? Do you have a set routine or plan?
Maternity-clothes hunters: I gotta recommend this dress. I’m 8 Mo.s and it’s been the best from 4 mo’s to now (and I think will go the distance). So happy to have a go-to dress that’s not body con: http://www.seraphine.com/us/seraphine-sophia-pleated-dress.html
The peplum side flaps make it – I think Seraphine will periodically make maternity dresses with them.
I miss diapers. I have a child who should be potty trained (age-wise) but is <100% potty trained and has been stuck there for years (and we've gone to all of the drs and there's no medical or developmental issue, and I'm not sure if that is comforting or distressing). At any rate, she will dribble in her underwear when she is doing something she wants to do or just forgets and is oblivious that the starts to smell when she is damp-to-wet. I am living in fear of travel — cloth chairs, other people getting grossed out, etc. I put her in a underjams overnight (and that holds it in; previously I traveled with waterproof mattress covers and remade the bed) but the daytime is so yucky.
If any of you have lived through this, any thoughts / advice / strategies? The only thing that helps is putting her in just a dress at home (she doesn't like pee running down her legs), but we can't do that if people are over or we are out and about.
HELP!
Question about how to cope/get used to a different office culture after starting a new job.
I recently took a new job (same field, different company) because both the pay and the commute are much better than they were my previous job. This has already made a big difference because we have more room financially and I get home earlier/leave later. The only thing I am having a hard time with is adjusting to a different office culture.
My old company was very working parent/family friendly. If someone had to leave early because of child related/childcare emergency or take a day off because their child(ren) got sick it was no problem. People with children were given preference when booking vacations and were not asked to go on business trips if they didn’t want to. They also didn’t have to work overtime/stay late/work weekends if they didn’t want too.
My new company, although great in other areas, is the exact opposite. Time off is first come first served. Everyone, parents or not, is given I’ll dependant time and if you use all the alloted days you have to take unpaid time. Everyone has to take turns working overtime, staying late or taking business trips and if there is a childcare emergency and none of the people without kids want to stay and cover then you still have to stay or risk getting in trouble if you do leave.
Like I said my new company is good in other areas and I like my raise and my better commute. I’m not sure how to cope working in an environment that is not family friendly. If anyone has any tips or advice they would be greatly appreciated.
Can you say more about the power pump idea? 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off for an hour, once a day for three days? Should it be the same time every day? Any particular time of day? I’m on Fenugreek and alloftheoats and am currently pumping 15 min 4-6x a day after feedings, but am still not producing enough to not use formula in his supplemental bottle feeds. As we’re closing in the on the 3 week mark, and I hear your supply is established by the 4-6 week mark, I’d really like to pull out all the stops to get my supply up in the next week or so.
As background, we’re currently on a triple feed plan (I breastfeed, pump, and supplement by bottle pumped milk or formula) to get the bean’s weight up. Even when we get there, he’s not a great eater – he’s been called “sleepy”, “immature,” and possibly has a bad latch (the jury’s out on this one – I’ve seen 4 LCs and 1 ENT and no one can agree whether he has a lip tie, a tongue tie, or none of the above. AWESOME.). Whatever it is, the milk is currently not making it from me to him in the quantity it needs to. I’m not against formula but would love to have my supply be there if exclusive breastfeeding all of a sudden starts working for us.
Willing to take any and all tips! I did buy the small 2oz. bottles/containers that someone recommended here last week to make me feel not so bad about pumping so little – they’re awesome so thanks!
Just amazon’d the Huggies – thanks for the suggestion. We loved the Pampers swaddlers when he was a newborn, and just never looked back. I’m encouraged that others with similar issues had luck with a different brand. The maxi pad idea is intriguing – maybe I’ll pull one of my boat-sized post-partum ones out if Huggies don’t work.
Also, he usually has the milk during stories, and does a slightly hilarious impression of teeth brushing after, so he’snot going down with the milk, which hopefully will prevent any dental issues.
Another sleep issue. My 15 month old is 22 lbs., and is waking up at 5:30 every morning b/c his diaper has basically disintegrated. Sometimes it’s just pee, sometimes not, but either way, it’s a mess and awful. The little diaper crystals are all over the inside of his jammies and he’s wet and unhappy. If his diaper does manage to hold, he’ll sleep until 7. So, not only for his comfort, but also b/c he’s a tired wreck by 8AM, we need to fix the issue!
Currently, he’s in size 5 pampers at night (so we sized up – technically the size limit is 27 lbs.), which are better than size 4s, which he wears during the day). Any bigger, and it would leak out his legs. Has anyone had luck with overnight diapers? Or other suggestions? He goes to bed at 8, and usually has a 6 oz bottle of milk. He cries if he doesn’t get a full bottle of milk, so I hate to withhold.
Only available in XS :'(
In the event there’s any other plus-size pregnant ladies out there (really universe, we do exist and we have jobs that don’t let us wear muumuus), I ordered Bella Bands in a size 4 and have more than enough room to spare. I normally wear a 16W in dresses and a 20W or 22W in pants. I’m pretty happy about this as I can’t find a single pair of work maternity pants that aren’t completely crap.
Sleep advice please. My 4 month old is still waking 3-4 times a night to nurse. I nurse her to sleep from 7:30-8:10, and then she often wakes at 11/12, 2, 4, 5:30 (sometimes she is up for the day then), and 6:30. I know the 5:30 and 6:30 feeds don’t really count. It is that she is doing BOTH 2am AND 4am that is slowly killing me. Some nights she will skip the 11pm, and just do 3 and 5:30, which I can live with, but I am back to work and the all night nursing is so tiring. I moved her out of our room, and am going to try some cereal this week, but I know that may not work. She will not take formula, but I am considering trying mixed bottles.
A while back, I tried doing a dream feed at 10pm, but this somehow seemed to disrupt her sleep even more. And we have tried to push back bedtime, but she is very sleepy at 7:30, and even though she wakes, she goes right back after nursing. If my husband goes in to her, she screams bloody murder and we are afraid of waking my toddler so I just always end up nursing her.
Any advice? I’m worried it is my milk supply (i.e. I just have more during the night and she is hungry) and I tried talking more milk plus but it upset both my and the little one’s tummies.
Random question: is getting your toddler into Mandarin lessons a thing everywhere, or is it just a DC thing? Because it is such a *thing* here. We were thinking of having the kids learn Spanish eventually, since that seemed like the most practical second language. I still think that makes the most sense, but I wonder a little whether there’s anything to the whole Mandarin thing beyond it being a somewhat difficult language and the thing that everyone’s doing (so having your kid take Mandarin is a class signal the way French lessons were 50 years ago).
Anyone have any experience/insight on membrane stripping? My OB has proposed doing it at 40 weeks + 3 days if I haven’t delivered yet (I am just over 39 weeks). She wants to schedule me for a Pitocin induction at 41 weeks + 2 days if I don’t go into labor naturally, so she proposed the membrane stripping to avoid that. I tried to research it and, while I couldn’t find any statistics on it, what I could find seems to suggest that it is pretty ineffective.