Nursing Tuesday: Ruffles Cascade Maternity/Nursing Top

I might be pregnant again. I woke up in horror in the middle of the night afte rDH and I DTD when I realized that I’d done the math wrong and I’m ovulating this week.

I had a baby this past summer (10 months now) and got my first period last month. I’m not back on the pill, so obviously this was a possibility, but not a likely one since I wasn’t getting my period and we don’t really even DTD that often.

We have 2 and a 3rd has conceptually always been on the table, but we were going to make a call once things had settled down with our 2nd, who has given us a run for our money in every way possible. So, this isn’t bad news, it’s just a potentially sharp turn on what I thought was a gentle winding road ;). Kids would all be 2 grades apart, though the first two are almost 3 years apart and the 2nd and possible 3rd would only be 18 months (but 2 schools years) apart.

I’m not going to enrich it to DH until I’m actually late, nonsense borrowing trouble, but the next few weeks are gonna be interesting. I have a bday coming up so maybe happy bday to me (one way or the other). Ugh, I don’t even know if I’m happy or horrified. Both, probably.

Moms of room-sharing kids, any advice on getting them to lie down peacefully and go the f*ck to sleep? My 2-year-old and 4-year-old are driving me nuts. They were fine until about 2 months ago, but now at least one parent is required to stay or right outside their room for at least an hour after putting them down. Their bedtime is about 8:15, so definitely not too early. My 2-year-old is usually the culprit, and he often seems like he’s just not tired, but the problem is the same regardless of whether he’s had a 2-hour nap or a 30-minute nap. They just amp each other up, and start talking, yelling for us (even if we are right there), or running around like wild things. Sometimes one will escape and go to sleep in our bed, usually after we are too worn down from the process to put up a fight (not that this is a huge deal in the scheme of things — we just put him back in his bed when we go to sleep — but it’s a habit I’d rather avoid). Help?

How do people make it through an hour long church service with a 15-month old (there is no nursery/child care)? My son spent all of church on Sunday in the lobby with one of use because every time they tried to come back to the pew he would start screaming and crying and throwing his pacifier/cheerios/ books. Send me your distraction tips!

We’re planning a trip to Europe at 26 weeks pregnant – I can’t remember what 26 weeks pregnant feels like. Will I be up for walking around a city and exploring? I assume short hikes are probably not a great idea. Can anyone remind me of how miserable or great I will be feeling at that point? Thanks!

Will I regret not having a baby shower? I am 26 weeks. My mother’s friends (and mom) are really pushing for a baby shower, although mom seems to be coming around to the idea that I might not have one. This is the first grandbaby in her very close circle of friends – friends who have been incredibly helpful/supportive during her last 8 months of cancer treatments/surgeries. My friends/sisters have offered to throw me one as well where I live. So far I have had no interest. This is our first baby, but I am really of the “we don’t need that much stuff” mindset – we ordered a crib, bought a travel system and extra car seat base for the second car, my MIL ordered us a pack and play and I know my mother bought us some sort of rocker/bouncer. I’ve been putting together a list in a notebook (but have thus far refused to register anywhere) of a few other things to get us started – crib sheets, swaddles, changing pad for the dresser, some onesies, a few bottles until we find out what she takes, a few boxes of different kinds of diapers until we find out what works for what I expect will be a very flat bottomed baby if she takes after her parents, wipes, etc.

My husband is much more excited about the baby stuff. I just view it as stuff to check off a list (but am excited about the actual human, just not all the stuff she needs or people think she needs). I also just only recently started feeling good (thank you Diclegis, finally). I am concerned that I might regret not having a shower, that not having a shower will disappoint my mother/her friends, that I won’t be able to muster up the appropriate amount of enthusiasm for the party. If I have 1, I think I have to have 2 to keep everyone happy (that’s what we did for my bridal shower), but maybe I can get away with inviting my local friends to my parents’ (2 hours away). Also thought about having one but just requesting that in lieu of traditional gifts, we would love books that they would recommend/their kids loved, but that feels pushy and will probably not be honored by the mom group (who are SO EXCITED about baby things).

Advice/thoughts/recommendations?

Good news – baby’s heartbeat evened out. Bad news: she appears to be unusually sensitive to caffeine so the caffeine ban stays in effect until delivery. It’s the lack of chocolate that is killing me the most. Well that and the fact that I’m in BigLaw transactional work and it is really, really hard to work the hours I do without more sleep (precluded by the hours) or a limited amount of caffeine (I was doing okay with the under 200 mg limit). So it goes.

What are everyone’s thoughts on chore/responsibility charts for preschoolers? My 3.5 yo refuses to get himself dressed in the morning, help with his shoes, etc. So we either get him dressed ourselves, or nag all morning until he finally gets dressed with our help. I really, really want to avoid a nagging morning, every morning. He tends to not be a very self-motivated kid, he loves to have things done for him even when he can do things himself, and his daycare teachers have asked us to keep working on having him be independent with things he can do himself.

I was thinking of making a responsibility chart with 1) get dressed 2) put on shoes 3) clear breakfast dishes, etc. With a reward that he gets to pick a book at the bookstore when he completes the chart (because we do not need any more toys in our house). Not every day, but maybe every 7 days? The potty chart worked really well to motivate him, which is why I was thinking of going this route.

Thoughts? Am I expecting too much from him? Do responsibility charts kill internal motivation? Any expereinces?

Help! My two-year-old daughter has become an absolute nightmare in the morning, making it impossible to get out the door. For example today she cried for about an hour in the house, and then after my husband got her out the door she cried all the way to daycare and was still crying when he left her.

We never know what exactly it is it’s going to set her off in the morning (maybe she wants to be picked up and we don’t do it, or we are out of a type of cereal, etc. ) I don’t think she’s tired because she wakes up on her own. We usually try to get food in to her as soon as possible as it seems to be a contributing factor. I will take any and all tips anyone may have. Our usual m.o. is to reward the good behavior and ignore bad behavior but that isn’t working anymore. I realize that I probably just have to power through the next year but I’m hoping that someone has some good coping mechanisms.