Maternity Monday: Make My Belly Fit
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Reader J just wrote in to recommend this coat, noting “Never suggested a product before but I’m due in March and maternity coats either sucked or were $$$$$. I needed fall AND serious winter coat (Philly w/o car). This has been an awesome solution makemybellyfit.com — works w/my Bauer GOTG trench (no adapter needed) and L.L. Bean wool coat (w/adapter and fleece insert if really cold). Also should work for babywearing. Wanted other moms to know about this b/c it saved me $150+ on coats I would have only worn for 2-3 months (this is #2 and last).” Nice! We’ve recommended 3-in-1 coats before but I’ve never seen a zip-in jacket extender like this (and, bonus, it works on your husband’s jacket too when you’re babywearing — or your nanny’s, or your MIL’s, or whatever). Another bonus: There’s a sale on! Certain colors are 20-30% off through the end of January (or until the stock runs out). The extender is $41-$58 USD. Make My Belly Fit Zip-In Jacket Extender
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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 9.10.24
(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase
- Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; up to 50% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off wear-to-work styles; extra 30% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off everything; extra 60% off clearance
- Lands’ End – 30% off full-price styles
- Loft – Extra 40% off sale styles
- Talbots – BOGO 50% everything, includes markdowns
- Target – Car-seat trade-in event through 9/28 — bring in an old car seat to get a 20% discount on other baby/toddler stuff.
- Zappos – 26,000+ women’s sale items! (check out these reader-favorite workwear brands on sale, and some of our favorite kids’ shoe brands on sale)
Kid/Family Sales
- Carter’s – Birthday sale, 40-50% off & extra 20% off select styles
- Hanna Andersson – Up to 50% off all baby; up to 40% off all Halloween
- J.Crew Crewcuts – Extra 30% off sale styles
- Old Navy – 40% off everything
- Target – BOGO 25% off select haircare, up to 25% off floor care items; up to 30% off indoor furniture up to 20% off TVs
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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?
My husband an I now use AnyList so we can both add to our grocery list. I love it as we can both add items and remove items from the grocery list. Is there a similar type of app for creating a to do list?
Hey everyone, quick pumping question. I am about to return to work and have a decent stockpile- hopefully enough to cover some work travel and bachelorette activities. My routine was pumping one side in the morning after a feed, and I could pretty regularly get 2-4 ounces in 10-20 minutes. However, these last three days I’m barely getting an ounce. The only change I can think of is that I normally eat oatmeal with brewers yeast and flaxseed for breakfast, but haven’t for the last week. I think all my equipment is in good shape, and other than the stress of returning to work this week, I can’t think of another change. I’m just nervous because when I return to work, obviously I’ll need to rely on pumping a lot more. Has this happened to anyone else? Any tips or anything I should try? TIA!
I had one of these last year for babywearing. Worked really well, and I loved just putting socks over footed pjs and a hat on the two month old and going outside! She stayed super warm inside my coat. We’re not sure if we’re one and done, but it’s one of the only maternity-ish things I’m keeping, since it’ll work with so many coats or I’ll just order another adapter (I needed an adapter for my Uniqlo down jacket).
If you don’t live in a super cold area or it’s spring, you can adapt a button peacoat with a hair elastic looped through the buttonhole.
Sorry if this posted twice, but the first one disappeared on me! I am going back to work soon, and have built up a milk stash by pumping every morning. I used to get 2-4 ounces from one side in 10-20 minutes. However, these last three days I’ve barely gotten an ounce, which makes me super nervous about being able to pump at work. The only thing I can think of that’s changed is that I haven’ eaten oatmeal with brewers yeast and flaxseed for breakfast the past week, which had essentially been what I was eating every day since the baby was born. My equipment seems fine. Advice? Has this happened to anyone else? I just wish this sudden drop hadn’t happened literally the week i’m going back to work.
Shoe shopping help.
Can anyone recommend a black flat that comes in wide with decent arch support? Must be business casual appropriate – I’m open to a heel of less than 1″ if it means right fit and price. Preferable budget range $50-$60. I need to be able to order online, with simple returns.
I have this for babywearing and it is fantastic. I had a maternity down jacket and didn’t discover this until baby was born, but I can still fit her in a front carry inside this and she just turned 2. I highly recommend it! Especially if you live in an urban area where it is easier to babywear than drag the stroller on public transit or down crowded streets, or you have winter baby that you need to keep super warm while out and about. this thing is totally the best! The only downside I will say is it is sort of hard for me to reach the zipper on my own with the toddler inside so sometimes hubby zips it for me. And I guess it looks a little weird, but I get lots of comments on how cool it is from other like minded mamas.
DH and I are thinking about taking a vacation in August with Toddler, who will be 2 (28 months) at the time. Where would you go? Our budget isn’t enormous, so we need to stay in the continental U.S. and should probably avoid extremely expensive cities.
We live in an area that gets really hot in the summer and is near the beach, so we are thinking of going somewhere with cooler weather and/or mountains. We usually enjoy cities or towns with museums, parks, etc. to explore, and we’d enjoy some “light” outdoor activities, but we’re probably not up for rigorous hiking or camping with a 2-year-old (who, at least right now, hates his stroller and being carried and holding our hands and wants to run everywhere all by himself).
Peanut arrived early while we were all coming down with a cold. Poor guy caught it. Luckily it’s not too bad and I’m bf’ing so ped is not worried unless he spikes a fever. He has a cough and stuffy/runny nose (so sad in a 1-week old!). I track his temperature and have a nosefrida that works for visible gunk, but he sometimes pulls away while nursing to breathe so he’s still congested. Any tips to help a tiny one feel better?
I’ve fallen into a bad habit of giving the kids (2 and 6) deli meat 2-3 times a week. It’s always Applegate uncured/organic whatever, but still, my MIL and mother are both giving me the stinkeye and moaning about how unhealthy deli meat is. What are the other options? I feel like I grew up on baloney so this seems to be an improvement to me, but hey.
We eat a lot of yogurt, cheese, and eggs, but I still feel like lean, meat-based protein is a good thing, and deli meat is easy. Do you guys grill up chicken or turkey breasts and give that to your kids? Am I missing some totally obvious thing?
So I took a vacation day on Friday to start potty training boot camp for my twins (2 yrs, 10 mo.). It was an unmitigated disaster. We talked up the potty for weeks before. We got potty books and watched potty videos. We took the kids into the bathroom with us and discussed in detail what we were doing. We talked about which of their friends at school use the potty, and about how they’re big boys and ready to not wear diapers.
I covered everything in plastic, rolled up what rugs I could, and set the potties out in the middle of the room. The au pair and I let the boys run pantsless all day. Every time one started peeing, we’d scoop him up, say “pee goes in the potty!” and plop him on the potty. We had a chart and every time anything went in the potty, we made a mark on the chart and the kid got an M&M. I had Hot Wheels cars (which they love) for any time they either got 4 pees in the potty, or one #2. We did a potty dance and song for any hits.
The result? We got one hit in each potty, each from scooping up the kid mid-pee. Mostly they held it and went A LOT in their pull-ups at naptime. By Saturday morning, my husband was suggesting we throw in the towel, but I had already put so much into it, that this suggestion just led me to completely break down in sobs. Meanwhile, one kid was begging for a diaper, and the other was mortally afraid of the potty. I got Twin B to sit on the potty by offering him M&Ms for trying. This led to him basically doing bodyweight squats over the potty (sit down “M&M&M?”, stand up, sit down “M&M&M?”). I offered to let them play with their LeapFrogs if they sat on the potty. B was okay with this but A would sit, grab the LeapFrog, and run off. From 8:00am until nap time at 12:30pm, no one peed AT ALL, except it turned out someone peed in a corner of the tarp on the rug that I didn’t notice until I was rolling up the tarp and put my hand and sleeve right into a big puddle of pee. By post-nap, they were 100% opposed to anything potty and were crabby little monsters the rest of the day, and all day Sunday (even though we totally gave up on potty training Sunday).
Has anyone else had such a horrible first go? Is there a method other than boot camp? Something less intense and that doesn’t require me to take another vacation day for potty training? I honestly am in no hurry to do potty training, but the Oh Cr@p book made me think I was already far behind. They need to be trained by Sept for school, but otherwise everyone’s fine with diapers. Any advice for next steps? We’re all totally fried from the weekend.
Maine!
Portland is a nice small city to walk around/do touristy things, and mid-coast is a short drive from the city and good for “light” outdoor stuff. The Freeport outlets (where LLBean is) are very kid friendly and there’s a lot of car camping nearby – places with pools and hot showers and toilets, so not “real” camping but still fun for a night or two.
You could combine with Boston, tho I think Boston is miserably hot in the summer (not as bad as NYC but still.. not fun).
Otherwise PNW – the Olympic peninsula and Rainier are both nice and cool in August and have plenty of family-friendly “hikes”. We also did the San Juan islands one year around that time, I think, which could be fun because boats! And whales! Though potentially more of a PITA for hauling stuff.
About ten years ago we did a Smoky Mountains trip (including Asheville) with this idea in mind – cool mountains, Air Bnb, walking around downtown, light outdoors stuff – and I found it underwhelming, but that might have been lack of planning on our part. We stayed pretty far outside the city so everything was A Production to go anywhere, and due to bear sightings we couldn’t do anything outside on the property we rented. The locals were not concerned with the bears whenever we told them (Us: “We saw a bear!” Locals: “Yeah, that happens”)but DH and BIL refused to allow the women and children outside lest we be eaten (lol).
PLAYDATE HELP!
My son is in first grade and has seriously had 2 play dates with a school friend that entire time. He has friends at school and his after school care program, gets invited to birthday parties etc. but I can’t seem to bridge that gap into playdates. When I (rarely) meet the other moms they’ll often say “Oh you’re ______’s mom! so and so loves to play with him on the playground!” However, it seems most of the moms at his school don’t work full time if they work, so it’s hard to get an “in”.
A lot of this comes from being insecure, I start thinking “omg they’re all friends already and they’re going to talk about me behind my back if I try to get a playdate and I”ll be so mortified if they say no and what if I break an unwritten rule?”
Anyway, to bridge this communication gap, I thought about getting come cards printed that say “Anon In NOVA (_____’s mom)” with my phone number and email. Then my son could give them to a friend who is interested in a playdate so their mom could contact me. Is that weird? He often comes home and says such and such friend wants a playdate, but I have no way to reach their mom!
Advice?
Thanks ladies
Has anyone here bought furniture from Land of Nod? I’m specifically looking at their Taylor bed, but wondering about the quality of their wooden furniture, in general.