Maternity Monday: Lace Maternity Dress
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Ingrid & Isabel’s popular shirred maternity dress has pretty much always been available, certainly since I was pregnant, and is still available today. This is a nice holiday take on that style, and while lace can be less accessible for an office environment, this would be great if you need something for holiday parties, and in a subdued color with a cardigan over it, you could even make it work to expand your work wardrobe while you’re pregnant. It’s really affordable as well — $98 at Nordstrom — and you can wear it to baby showers, parties, and so forth. It comes in nine (!) colors and patterns and is hand washable (i.e., possibly safe for the hand-wash cycle on your machine). Ingrid & Isabel Lace Maternity Dress
Psst: Amazon’s Black Friday deal of the day for toys is on games and puzzles from Ravensburger — including the game Bugs in the Kitchen, which my 6yo likes a bunch.
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Building a maternity wardrobe for work? Check out our page with more suggestions along both classic and trendy/seasonal lines.
Sales of note for 1/16:
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Nordstrom – Cashmere on sale; AllSaints, Free People, Nike, Tory Burch, and Vince up to 60%; beauty deals up to 25% off
- AllSaints – now up to 60% off (some of the best leather jackets!)
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles with code — readers love this blazer, these dresses, and their double-layer line of tees
- DeMellier – Sale now on, free shipping and returns — includes select options like Montreal, Vancouver, and Venice
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; extra 50% off all clearance, plus ELOQUII X kate spade new york collab just dropped
- Everlane – Sale of the year, up to 70% off — reader favorites include their scoop tee, Dream Pant, ReNew Transit backpack, silk blouses and oversized blazers! New markdowns just added
- Hannah Andersson – Up to 30% off all pajamas;
- J.Crew – Up to 40% off select styles; up to 50% off cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 40-70% off everything
- L.K. Bennett – Archive sale, almost everything 70% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Tag sale for a limited time — jardigans and dresses $200, pants $150, tops $95, T-shirts $50
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Semi-Annual Red Door Sale – 50% off + extra 20% off, sale on sale, plus free shipping on $150+
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?
I did IVF with PGD and did progesterone shots for the frozen transfer. I didn’t do my own injections, so I can’t help with that, but I wanted to warn you about progesterone on the off chance you don’t react well to it.
For most people it’s totally fine, but my body did not handle it well, and it was incredibly painful after injections. They offered to let me do the suppositories but I didn’t want to switch because it’s not supposed to be quite as effective (harder to get a read on the levels, I think). I was finally in so much pain from cumulative progesterone injections that I couldn’t really walk, and switched to suppositories. I wound up with a twin pregnancy that was very successful. Just something I think they should talk about more and I wish I had been more open to earlier!
Good luck!
No advice but total commiseration. My husband is also an introvert and I accept that but sometimes I get so frustrated because I think he crosses the line into “rude” at times. Like, when we return to our hometown across the country twice a year, you need to call your closest friend and make an effort to go see him. I feel similar to you in that it feels like we miss out on social events sometimes because he either doesn’t prioritize them or he makes absolutely no effort to be social when we do go to an event. I get that it’s uncomfortable for him and I appreciate that he’s never going to be life of the party, but minimal effort to pretend to be interested in other human beings would be appreciated.
UGH A VENT.
My husband is notoriously bad, and I mean REALLY REALLY bad at keeping up with friends and family. He doesn’t respond to texts or emails or whatever. He just doesn’t make it a priority. Usually, it doesn’t impact me b/c his issue, not mine. He is an introvert, and does a job where he is client facing all day long. He usually just seems to shut down and can’t handle more interactions outside of his job stuff. His friends give him a hard time for it, but sort of “accept” that’s how he is, it seems.
UGH, but one of his super close friends held a Friendsgiving over the weekend — these are “his” friends, who I have become very close to over the years, and I consider my close friends as well at this point. I saw pics on FB, and was a little hurt that we hadn’t been invited. Oh, wait, turns out the friend emailed my husband to invite him, and HE NEVER RESPONDED. Ugh. Usually my husbands sends me invites like this so I can decide if I want to go, but he just forgot this time. I sent an email to the friend and his wife this morning, mostly because I was embarrassed he never even responded, and also to say how disappointed I was that we missed the fun. We didn’t have anything else going, and we even invited one of our mutual friends to do something else (the mutual friends were at the Friendsgiving, of course). Ugh, I feel ashamed and embarrassed, even though it wasn’t my fault. Again, I know it’s husband’s deal, but these people are my friends too — anything else I can do here to soothe feelings? I got a response from the husband, and it was short and curt (basically, yeah hope we see you guys sometime, we had fun). In the crush of the holidays (where clients and other obligations are overwhelming me and I don’t WANT to commit to anything else social), I can’t think of much else to do to fix this. Or do I just swallow my shame and hope the longevity of the relationship pulls it through?
Y’all, gender is so weird. My not-yet-three year old has been hassling me about piercing her ears (after her first requests I got her stick on earrings but they fall off and she says, “that’s because you won’t put a little hole in my ear, mama.”) and was begging for nail polish and like… what? Where does she get this? (I mean, the answer is daycare but she seems SO young for this stuff.)
There is no right answer here so its unfair of me to be annoyed, but wtf with sahms “inviting” me to things during the work week? Your mom’s circle sounds lovely, like I really truly would like to be a part of it. But mid-morning on a weekday? This group is obviously not for working moms. I suppose it’s nice to be invited but it just underscores how exclusive of working moms this thing is and forces me to write you a thankful email explaining that I am at work at that time but would love to join some evening or weekend (which we both know you will never do). Arugh.
Going off of the post earlier: Talk to me about going back to work after having a baby. I’m a family law attorney in a very small firm in rural America. Less than 5 other attorneys in my office and none of them practice in my area. How realistic is it for me to try to go back into the office for an hour or two or do some work from home during the first 6 weeks? Basically to put out any fires and deal with emergency situations. Thoughts/experience/etc.???
Is it normal to panic a little bit (or a lot) as your due date approaches? It’s like I literally just realized that within the next 4-5 weeks I have to give birth, recover, and then raise another human being forever. The other morning, while I was taking a shower, I found myself wishing that I wasn’t pregnant and DH and I could just run away to Italy and live happily ever after in the Tuscan countryside forever. I’m a very Type A, responsible, organized person, so this thinking like that isn’t like me at all. This was a very much wanted and tried-for pregnancy, so it’s surprising to me that I feel this way. Please tell me it goes away or gets better once the baby is here?
Ugh, can the support staff at work please stop commenting about the fact that I’m still at work 2 weeks before my due date? I’m . . . sorry? I’m uncomfortable, but that’s my own problem. And I know how labor works: it’s very unlikely that I will give birth on the office floor. I know they mean well, but I am grumpy.
Looking for a doll:
1) Not Barbie or American Girl
2) Not ridiculously expensive
3) Has clothes that can be taken on and off– preferably with some additional clothes options.
Buying for a kiddo who has recently become obsessed with dressing and undressing dolls and stuffed animals.
Does anyone have a toilet paper stand they love? I’m tired of wrangling ours. ideally this would go in the corner and be the kind that you can stack multiple rolls onto.
DH and I are doing IVF and I’ve done stims for the last 10 days with the trigger shot tonight. Any tips? I got a handle on the injections, but doing this one in my b*tt is freaking me out a bit. Not to mention to progesterone shots I will need to do daily later. But we’re doing PGS testing, so we will be doing a frozen transfer in the next month or 2. Basically, advice for giving myself shots in the booty? (Or any tips for IVF in general…retrieval is on Wed. morning). Thanks!
Favorite places to shop for warm winter pajamas for the kids? I’m trying to avoid flame retardants/synthetic fabrics but the regular cotton ones (that are about as thick as a t-shirt) are not warm enough. All I can find for flannel either is polyester or an acrylic blend. Help!
I am really struggling today with the fact that, despite the fact I have a partner who truly does 50% of the household/child-rearing/mental labor needed to keep our family going, having another child is never EVER going to be fair to me because biology/society.
There’s a big work thing coming up 3 or 4 weeks after I give birth. Bless him, he said he’d take off work, come bring the baby, stay in the hotel with me so I could breastfeed (if I chose to breastfeed), arrange childcare for our older child, etc. so I could go. However, I had to point out that I will be on short-term disability and literally am not allowed to go. Also, flabby uterus, still bleeding, probably leaking everywhere, etc. It was sweet of him to offer, but I’m also irritated by how much he truly doesn’t get what I’m going to be going through (he’s not the biological father of my first).
No matter how much they want to help, men at least have the OPTION of popping in for a few days a couple of weeks after a baby is born without leaking blood and milk everywhere. They aren’t labeled literally “disabled” by childbirth. They don’t have to breastfeed. No one assumes they’re taking 12 straight weeks off to care for a child. No one immediately goes “oh he’s not available for that project, it happens 6 weeks after his baby is due!” No one asks him “are you really going to come back after the baby is born?”
I’ve shed a lot of “IT’S NOT FAIR” tears to myself lately. There’s no answer or solution to it, a lot of it is literally biology, but it’s frustrating to know that it can’t ever be “fair”.
How the heck do I pick out a crib? I don’t need a convertible, although they’re hard to avoid. I want a mattress that can be adjusted vertically. I don’t want dark brown wood – leaning toward white or gray. Ideally it’s available on Babies R Us or Target for registry purposes, but not required.
So.Overwhelmed. by all the choices (for the crib and basically all baby gear in general). Thoughts or recommendations?
Is there money to outsource? You could have someone come once a week or once every other week to clean and do laundry, which should free up some time. Have your husband handle at least one daycare handoff (either pickup or drop off, or both) when he’s home – you shouldn’t be doing that all by yourself.