Maternity Monday: Open-Front Cardigan
This post may contain affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
I did not know Autumn Cashmere is sold at Macy’s! Years ago, this was one of my favorite cashmere sweaters I’ve ever bought, and so it’s really surprising to see that Macy’s has so many Autumn Cashmere open-front maternity cardigans for great prices. This one was originally $250 and is now $70, and there are a bunch of colors, including brown and olive and the black pictured here. Maternity Open-Front Cardigan
This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!
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 go back to work in a week and am freaking out about if I should have done more to improve the sleeping situation with her. She’s 16 weeks.
She sleeps every 1 to 1.5 hours for about 30 minutes in the day and goes down easily in her crib drowsy but awake after a book and rocking for 5 minutes between 630 to 700 pm. I pat her a few times in her crib and she’s asleep.
She sleeps well until about 10 pm, when she needs to eat. After 10, she’s up every 1 to 3 hours. The every 3 hour wakeup are manageable, but every hour feels unbearable some days. She eats for less than 5 minutes and immediately sleeps, so it’s not terrible but blah. It wears on me. I bring her to bed after midnight because walking across the hall to her room is too much.
She’s been rolling over both sides, so we use a zippadee zip rather than a traditional swaddle. No white noise because she seems to like it quiet.
How do I help her sleep better or longer or do we just slog through? I feel bad sleep training until after 6 months when i know she’s probably okay to not eat.
I can’t tell you how much this helps. I’m feeling incredibly encouraged by your and the kind poster’s feedback above. The example you gave resonated profoundly– I suspect we have multiple such miscommunications, which seems like such a nondescript thing, and yet can have devastating consequences, stacked on top of one another.
I will report back. I’m feeling much less hopeless. There is, and I hate to sound corny, so much kindness on this board.
Any Gottman trained therapist recommendations in Chicago? I found a website featuring a few but would love first hand recs.
CPA lady would you mind sharing how that worked? Did you set aside time each week to discuss? Thank you.
My husband and I cannot stop fighting. It’s been going on for years. We will have a few days, weeks – and sometimes a couple months – of total contentment and absolute pleasure in each other’s company, and then either out of nowhere we explode on each other, or start bickering and snapping and oozing contempt. I would say on average it’s a few fights a month. And they are not always nasty, but when they are we say the worst possible things to each other. I’ve gotten better – he will say that himself – but he has gotten worse. He is quicker to rage, and crueler in his remarks.
Neither of us remotely thrive on conflict –there are no makeup LGPs involved. We’re both depressed afterwards, and during. And there are much longer periods of no talk before resolution. I’m talking days – last time was a few weeks. It’s usually me that voices resolution, although he tends to take silent conciliatory actions along the way (making my lunch along with his, etc.)
I’m paralyzed. I love him very much. He’s an amazing father to our toddlers. But our fighting is terrible for them. I know this. But I also know divorce is terrible for them. Obviously, divorce is better than fights. What is most important to us both is our children. We want to stay together for their sake – but also for ours, because we love one another. I’m in this awful cognitive cycle of thinking that it’s selfish to stay in this marriage that could be toxic for our kids, but then I think it’s awful to give up our marriage when THAT would be destructive to our kids. I imagine that many people will understandably say that a toxic marriage is worse for kids, and they are right. I guess what I want to know is if it possible to change this horrible dynamic. I’d like to know if anyone has come back from this. We have tried counseling in the past. It obviously hasn’t worked. We may start John Gottman’s 7 Principles for Making Marriage Work.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? Is there any way of recovering? Thank you so much. I love my husband dearly, and want to stay with him – but, what trumps all is what is best for my children. At this point, both staying in the marriage and leaving the marriage sound selfish.
Today is my 2 year old’s first full day of “pre-school” (8-6). She had some ease-in days last week for a few hours, but today is the first full full FULL day. I’m finding it hard to concentrate on work because I’m worried about how my little baby is faring. I’m less scared that she’ll cry and more scared that she WON’T cry – she has a tendency to hold her feelings in and not get the hugs she needs. This is so hard!!!
I might be late posting today, but I’d love some thoughts from ‘rettes who have big extended families and how they handle family meals. My four siblings and I have seven kids total — all ages 7 and under. To say that family meals are a cluster is an understatement. With spouses, kids, and grandparents, we’re talking 20 people. There is so much commotion and chaos, and a majority of kids still need help from their parents. Because of the size of our houses and the number of people involved, we’ve mostly opted for buffet-style serving and letting the kids go first. Which means a) in a practical sense, we’re not eating all together or even at the same time because it takes FOREVER for everyone to go through the line; and b) the host/hostess is constantly getting up to grab something and doesn’t actually get to enjoy the meal. Help? How can I make this better, at least when it’s our turn to host? Is this just the stage of life we’re in?
At my house, the seating areas are divided up roughly like:
– 8 people at the main table in the kitchen – We try to save that for the grandparents, but usually a parent/kid pair ends up there, too. No dining room, unfortunately.
– A bunch of people sitting at card tables in our finished basement, which has a bar for drinks. – I hate splitting people up, but fitting both card tables upstairs is a stretch, space-wise. I do insist for Thanksgiving, though. ;)
– 3 more people (usually the 7-year-olds and 4-year-old) at the kitchen island.
– A table for drinks SOMEWHERE.
Would family-style serving help? I’m always worried that it’ll be harder on the parents with toddlers, but it’s already hard, so … maybe it’s a wash? We had big family meals at my grandma’s growing up, and my mom has confirmed that they were not nearly as chaotic as ours seem to be now. In a few years, a dedicated kid table will definitely be more of an option, but I think my siblings would balk hard at having the 3-year-olds left to their own devices. In the meantime, does anyone have any bright ideas of how to get everyone served/fed in a timely way?
Someone posted this tip a few months ago and I’m using it, so wanted to say thanks!
Now that I’m pregnant, I’m looking ahead to when I’m home for 12 weeks (mostly unpaid) and the fact I’ll need to cook more to lower household costs. I’ve started writing down the things we regularly cook, as well as the required ingredients, on index cards. Every week we’ll pull out the index cards and use those to form the grocery list. It’s been very helpful!
I make sure to write out easy meals on there too, so that when I’m home/brain dead with a new baby I won’t forget about those options. For example, I even have a “grilled cheese and tomato soup” card!
Anyway, thanks to whoever posted that tip a few months ago!
Need some brains. My 13 month old has started to get up at 5am. This has resulted in a quick cat nap either just before we leave the house at 7:30am or crashing in the car on the (<5 min) drive to daycare. She's down to one nap in the afternoon so without the cat nap, she's an absolute wreck.
I've tried to let her cry.
I've tried going in, picking her up, ssssshhhhhing, saying "night night" and putting her back.
I've tried getting her, changing her, and putting her back.
I've tried getting her, changing her, giving her a pouch as a quick snack, putting her back.
She just looks at me, says "downstairs?" and points to the door. If I put her back, she fusses and will eventually just lay down for a bit after screaming, but never for more than 10 min.
I've tried moving bedtime earlier (she goes around 7:30). I've tried moving bedtime later. Same result.
And by 7:30 she's saying "nap nap nap."
Ideas?! Her sister slept until 8am when she went down to one nap, so this is totally new. FWIW she had been sleeping to around 7 when we switched to 1 nap. There's no house sound at 5am to wake her (I got up early and checked!)
Ladies – should we be weaning our 16 month old off the bottle for milk completely at this point? He gets a bottle (the standard Philips Avent kind) of milk in the morning and at night right before bed (after teeth brushing, oops. Will change that at some point…) During the day, he gets milk and water in a sippy cup. With us, he usually just has water from the sippy cup and doesn’t drink much milk from it. At daycare, they say he drinks milk from the sippy. We’re trying various straw bottles, but he doesn’t seem to want milk from those – will have some water from them though. I figure he will need braces at some point so not too concerned about that. Are there other reasons to get him off the bottle? Right now I think he likes the comfort aspects of having milk in a bottle.
Hope I’m not too late today for this – Does anyone here have the Rebecca Minkoff Julian bag (leather or nylon)? Is it worth the price, whatever that means to you? Other, similar backpack suggestions, especially for baby wearing with an outward facing baby? Thanks.
Oh friends… I am taking my 2.5 year old to Alaska for 10 days. (I am just totally outing myself here, but whatever.) And it’s a work trip for me too. Packing is going to be a nightmare.
It will be cold and wet, I expect, so that requires a lot of clothes for the toddler especially. Probably two pairs of sneakers and a pair of boots. A poofy coat and a rain coat and hoodies and a million pairs of leggings. And for me, fashion boots and sneakers and heels, I guess. Maybe two pairs of heels because there are so many different levels of formality for this event. And a formal dress and a dress for a themed party and suits and business casual and jeans for outdoorsy stuff…
The fact that I’m going to be there for 10 days with a toddler totally excuses bringing a huge suitcase, right?
Any advice on traveling somewhere cold and wet with a toddler? (She’s such a California girl. Last year this event was in the southwest and I put her in her stroller and pushed her outside and she said in her sweet baby voice, “wery cold!” — it was 60 degrees.)
Nanny thinks my husband’s job is so much more important/hard and it drives me crazy. I know it is petty and I need to get over it, but I work my but off and bring home 40% of the bacon and it just makes me feel insulted! ugh
Looking for recommendations for chore charts and morning-routine type charts. I have a 6.5 year old and 4 year old. My 6 year old is very much a rule-follower, and I think he would respond well to a chart listing out (in pictures or with words) what needs to happen in the morning versus me getting increasingly frustrated that he hasn’t put on his shoes yet. My 4 year old dresses herself and brushes her teeth before coming down for the morning, so I’m thinking the chore chart would be good for her. My preference would be to buy something as opposed to making it myself, but I’m open to a website where I pay for pieces to put it together (i.e. I don’t have the patience for Pinterest projects).
FET this afternoon. Suddenly feeling anxious about Everything. Please send sticky wishes, calming vibes, and even happy stories!
Apparently it is tie dye day at The Kid’s school on Friday for a Hurricane Irma benefit (last week’s benefit was crazy hats for Harvey). Their goal is 100% participation. I have a long sleeve tie dyed t-shirt for The Kid, but it is going to be 90 degrees here that day so I expect that is a non-starter. I am happy to send some money for The Kid to donate for things like this, but the clothes part is going to send me over the edge.
Is it wrong of me to take the position that if they want everyone to wear tie dye, then they should have a tie dying day at school? We already have had school color day and crazy hat day and apparently mismatched sock day is coming, but this is just beyond.