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Updated: Nov 1, 2018 47 Comments · by

Nursing Tuesday: Printed Nursing Dress with Tie

Nursing· Pump-friendly· Recent Recs

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print nursing dressOooh: I always love a good print (and, let’s face it, a nice blue dress), and this very functional nursing dress looks amazing. I love the high neckline (wrap-style nursing dresses were always a bit obscene on me without a camisole), and the price is great: it’s $38 (was $49), with sizes XS-XL still left. Milk Nursingwear Printed Nursing Dress with Tie (L-0)

Sales of note for 9.10.24

(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)

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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Comments

  1. Hire me please says

    Hi ladies,

    I have a job searching while pregnant question. I am unemployed after completing my Master’s degree and have been job searching for 6 months. While I’ve had interviews during this time period, nothing has worked out to date. I am also 6 weeks pregnant (exciting but nerve-wracking!) . From a monetary and insurance standpoint, my husband and I are fine, but from a career standpoint, I haven’t worked full-time in over two years and I think this may be hurting my prospects. Recognizing the current situation, I see several options.

    1) Keep applying until I get a full-time job. Recognize that I may be waiting a while.
    2) Keep applying until I get a full-time job and try to pick up some temp/volunteer work in the meantime so that my skills aren’t getting rusty.
    3) Keep applying until I am obviously showing (and out of the danger zone, maybe 3.5 months) and then try for a short-term consulting/temp position until baby is born.
    4) Start looking for short-term positions now.
    5) Some combination of all of the above.

    As a note, short-term and contract work in common in my industry, so I don’t think that it would be seen as a negative. Pregnancy-wise, I am exhausted, but otherwise feel okay. I recognize that could change though!

    Thoughts?

    • Meg Murry says

      Lots of questions:
      Do you have work experience from before your Master’s degree or did you go straight through from undergrad? Is it at all related to your master’s work, or did you go get the degree to change fields? Do you want to work after baby is born, or do you want to be a SAHP?

      But basically, I think what it boils down to is that if you want to work, you should be applying to any/all of the above. I don’t think you need to be killing yourself doing applications, and since you can afford not to work right now you can be a little bit selective in what you apply for, but a job isn’t going to fall in your lap without at least trying. I don’t think you need to jump into temp positions or crappy jobs you are obviously overqualified for and would be under paid for just for the sake of not being unemployed, but you should at least try.

      I’d especially look at getting back in touch with your contacts from before you went for your Masters, because then you would be a known entity to them and wouldn’t have to work so hard at proving yourself if you start to feel terrible while pregnant. Or they may be able to hook you up with contract, work from home or less than full time options that would be easier to juggle while pregnant.

      If you do get an offer for a full-time job, I think you should disclose at the offer stage or just before, but many companies aren’t going to say “nope, nevermind” just because you are pregnant, although you might not get very much leave, you also might be pleasantly surprised.

      Now, if you really don’t actually want to work but would rather be a SAHP, but think you *should* be looking for a job, that is a different thought, but I think it would be best to try to get some work on your resume if you can and consider at least working part time once baby is a little older.

      • Hire me please says

        Thanks for your response. I worked for 8 years before going to graduate school in a niche industry, though the actual work I was doing is applicable across most fields (i.e. my titles included project manager, special assistant, chief of staff ) . I went to graduate school to broaden my skill set and be able to work in more fields. My graduate degree is in something broad that exists in multiple industries, so not unrelated to my prior work experience but not as close as getting your CPA after being a staff accountant.

        I do want to work after the baby is born, I loved having a career. The irony is that my husband would prefer to be the primary parent during the early years. In the best possible scenario, we’d both have jobs with flexibility for the first child and he might be a SAHP until elementary school if we are lucky enough to have another. I’m in touch with many of my former colleagues though I have mostly been inquiring about full-time positions. And the first 4 months of job searching were hard-core looking in another city so maybe I just need to give it time. I will see if I can drum up some short-term work in the meanwhile. Thank you.

    • S says

      I think you should aim to look for short term work right away, as that will fill some of the gap and address the resume break concern. In addition, I’d use any spare time to search for full time roles, but maybe stop doing that from 8 months pregnant through 2 months post partum.

  2. Anon in NYC says

    My daughter’s daycare sent a letter to parents late last week saying that a kid in the infant program (there are 3 different classrooms) had chicken pox. We were out for two days last week, so I spoke to her teacher last night and the teacher told me that all the kids and teachers in two of the three infant classrooms have been sent home for two weeks as a precaution. This is my first experience with anything like this, so is that normal or overly cautious? I have no idea what I would do for backup care for two weeks!

    • Meg Murry says

      Two weeks?!? I would be screwed. If my child actually came down with chicken pox, that would be covered under FMLA, and while it would suck I could figure it out – but 2 weeks off, and then maybe more time if they actually do get chicken pox? Ugh.

      I’d call your pediatrician and ask for advice. The recommended age for the first chicken pox vaccine is 12-15 weeks, so if your child is close to that maybe the doctor would want them to get it early? Not a doctor, so you need to let them make that call, obviously. But I suspect that if a kid in the infant room has it, especially if s/he has siblings, it’s going to sweep around the daycare.

      My sister had shingles when she had a really young baby, and the pediatrician put them on a monitoring routine where she brought the baby in for a basic vitals check (and maybe further lab work? not sure) once or twice a week to make sure that if the baby showed signs of catching it they were able to jump on it early to keep her from spiking a high fever, etc. Luckily, the shingles rash stayed in areas where she could keep it covered with clothing and the baby never caught it.

      Maybe they are also closing for 2 weeks to do a thorough cleaning? Ugh though, I feel you, that sucks. Can you work on making sure your work is transition ready like you did pre-maternity leave in case you and your partner have to scramble for baby coverage?

      • Meg Murry says

        Oops, 12-15 months, not weeks. Duh.

        For absolute worst-case scenario, is there a family member you could fly in a week or a few days to help with baby? A retired grandparent or aunt, etc?

      • Anonymous says

        Just an FYI re: getting the Chickenpox vaccine (or any other vaccine) early.

        If you live in an area where children are required to be vaccinated in order to attend school consider getting the vaccine early very carefully. In some places the children are required to be vaccinated on a certain schedule. So getting a shot early means it doesn’t follow the schedule and therefore doesn’t count so the school will consider your child not fully up to date on their vaccines. If this happened you would have to get them vaccinated again in order to keep them in school. If you weren’t comfortable with your child getting vaccinated again you would have submit a philosophical/religious exemption. An exemption allows the child to attend school but if there is an outbreak of something all unvaccinated/not up to date children will be sent home until the outbreak is over.

        Just wanted to give you a heads up because this same situation happened to me. There was an outbreak of something at my son’s daycare and we got him a certain vaccine a month early so he would have protection. But when we went to enroll him in school he was considered to be not up to date because the one shot was done too early. We had to have him vaccinated again because we didn’t want to go the route of an exemption and possibly have him sent home later on.

        • Anonymous says

          Do you mind sharing what state you are in? This is the first time I’ve heard of this and I’m wondering if it might be an issue in my school district as well. Thanks!

          • Anonymous says

            I am in New York. I know other places have similar requirements, my sister lives in Ontario, Canada and she ran into a similar issue. I have a cousin in California where it’s likely going to be the same thing now that they have changed the law their and gotten rid of the philosophical exemption.

    • NewMomAnon says

      I have never heard of that! My daughter’s school had a case of shigella (a stomach bug?) and instituted a policy that a child would be sent home after the first diarrhea diaper (usually they wait until the 3rd), and that kids who were sent home needed a doctor’s note and negative test results before they could come back to school. But I don’t know what you could do about it if the school just sent everyone home….

      Maybe ask the infant teachers if any of them would be available to sit if the school were closed for a long period of time?

      • Spirograph says

        +1 Our daycare had a similar rule when there was a stomach bug going around. But I’ve never heard of just shutting down for an extended period. What a logistical nightmare for the parents. Is chicken pox THAT contagious? We’ve been through 2 hand foot and mouth outbreaks at daycare, and both times it stayed open, the teachers stayed later to sanitize everything, and only a couple kids were ultimately affected.

    • Anon in NYC says

      I’m glad this seems to be the exception, not the rule. I’ll speak with the director of the school tonight and find out more and if there are special circumstances why these two classrooms are shut down for such an extended period of time. We do have retired grandparents that could pitch in for a bit, but due to distance they could only do so much (and we don’t have room for them to stay). That’s a good suggestion about asking one of the teachers if she could babysit. This does seem like such a logistical nightmare for the parents – especially if your kid turns out to be perfectly fine!

      I’m so so glad my daughter has apparently not been affected! Oftentimes at the end of the day the infant rooms will combine as kids get picked up to conserve resources… fortunately my LO was not in the same classroom at the same time as the sick kid.

  3. Spirograph says

    This dress looks like something Ms Frizzle would wear in the book/episode where the Magic School Bus explores the ocean.

    Upon closer inspection, I’m not sure what that print is, but it looked like a coral reef to me at first, and now I can’t un-see it.

  4. Cc says

    Another daycare question for everyone. I need to decide on childcare options for my 3 month old. We’re on a wait list for a daycare near home, but still unclear if we will get off the wait list anytime soon (despite putting baby on the wait list when 8 weeks pregnant, ugh).

    Option 1, daycare by husband’s work. Husband drives 30-40 mins to work each way. I don’t love the idea of baby being in the car so long each day, but it’s 5 mins from husbands work so if any issues he can pick baby up quickly. Daycare by my work isn’t an option due to long wait lists.

    Option 2, nanny which we’ll have to find. Issue with nanny is its more than double the cost and I like the idea of baby playing with other babies which doesn’t happen as much with a nanny.

    Any thoughts/considerations between the two options? Does anyone else drive their baby to daycare that is 30-40 mins away?

    Thanks!

    • Spirograph says

      We had a nanny for my oldest at first because we hadn’t made it to the top of any daycare wait lists yet, and it was really, really convenient. With full time jobs and still figuring out the parenting juggle, it was nice not to add the logistics of getting baby out of the house and that the nanny kept the house much cleaner than we otherwise would have managed. Some thoughts:
      1. 3-month old babies do not play with each other, so I don’t see that as a negative for a nanny at this point. You’ll probably get into a daycare within the next 6 months, right? That will be when socialization becomes more important.
      2. A long drive is probably not going to bother a young baby; baby is likely to sleep, and extra naps are never a problem in my book. If not, though, that’s a long drive for your husband with an unhappy baby.
      3. Does your husband ever travel for work? Is he ever sick? If he’s not going to the office one day for whatever reason, can you take baby instead or is this totally impractical? What would your back-up care option be?
      4. How do you feel about a nanny in general? Are you ok with someone being in your house alone with your baby all day?
      5. Have you looked into in-home daycares in your area? I would choose an in-home daycare near my house over a daycare 5 minutes from one parent’s work any day, and they often have much shorter (or non-existent) waiting lists.

      Honestly, if money is not a huge issue, I’d look for a short-term nanny. With summer vacation coming up, you can probably easily find a college student who won’t mind the temporary nature of the gig. But fair warning, paying over-the-table is a pain.

      • Anons says

        +1. We ended up needing to hire a nanny for our daughter. I thought we would take a daycare spot around 1 year, but when it opened up we decided to keep our nanny. It was so much more convenient, and my daughter thrived with the one on one attention. The expense is totally worth it, for our family. We went through an agency and got someone with tons of experience. I would do that again.

        • Anons says

          Anons, again. I’m also going to add that the nanny was so familiar with our baby, that we were comfortable having date nights earlier and more frequently than many of our friends that use daycare. This has been a huge plus for our marriage, and wasn’t something I was thinking about when hiring the nanny, but turned out to be one of the biggest benefits.

    • Lkl says

      My husband drives our baby to a daycare 5 min from his work that is 30-45 minutes from our house. I don’t love the extra car time for the baby, but it’s the best solution for us (since we work in two different directions and neither of us can get home until pretty late) and has generally worked great. It means I never go to daycare, but it also means my husband has ownership over a whole area of the baby’s life and gets one on one time every day. At the beginning, the baby did fall asleep in the car in the morning sometimes and that affected morning nap a bit, but he outgrew that pretty quickly. The drive home was perfect for months 7-9 when he still needed a third nap but it didn’t need to be very long. Now he just hangs out and babbles and talks to my husband. It helps that we love our daycare.

      • Lkl says

        To add: occasionally my husband needs to stay at work late, and that is a total pain because there is practically no way for me to pick up the baby (we have only one car, but even with a second, driving from my downtown office to far suburban daycare at rush hour would be a 2 hour affair). So sometimes I will take transit to near the daycare, husband will pick up baby and pick me up, then I’ll drop him off at work and go home with baby. But this is only maybe 4x/year.

      • Anonymous says

        I drove my son to a daycare by my office (45 minutes to 1.5 hours from home depending on traffic) for the first year of his life. I did not enjoy it because:
        (1) He cried in the car the whole way home almost daily while I fought my way through rush hour traffic. It was not a pleasant way to end a work day.
        (2) I had no flexibility to go in early or work late when needed. Likewise, I couldn’t go to happy hour with coworkers or do any networking after work.
        (3) When I traveled, it was a logistical nightmare as my husband’s job was 2 hours in the opposite direction, so we had to hire a babysitter if I was out of town or sick.
        (4) As a result of my son spending working hours near my office, his doctor had to be there, so medical appointments were all my responsibility as well. And if he got sent home sick from daycare, I had to drop everything and leave work no matter what. We had an HMO so if he was sick we had to drive him an hour from home for medical care.

        After I got a new job and we moved we enrolled my son in a preschool a block from our house. I cannot find words to describe what an improvement it is. I would get a nanny until a spot opens up in a daycare where you can share responsibilities with your spouse.

    • anon says

      We have a nanny and I was worried about interaction but the nanny takes her to a neighborhood park or the children’s museum (which has a toddler play area) on days when it is raining. They are out of the house every day and especially at the park they see the same kiddos and my kiddo gets to play with her park buddies. Nannies want to get out of the house and like seeing other nannies – it’s their own playgroup. Her sister is also a nanny and regularly brings the kids she watches over who are older so my daughter gets to “play” with big kids too, which is nice. I didn’t anticipate any of this when we hired her, but I think that sort of thing is pretty common.

      Also, at a year old, she’s still BARELY interacting with other kids. Like, I like it in theory, but I don’t think it matters much for development at all at this stage. Maybe at 18 months? So look into that.

      • Anonymous says

        All of this – my kid is about the same age and our nanny is at the park or library with her just about every day.

    • Anonymous says

      I am a HUGE fan of daycare generally, and I just want to chime in and say socialization is a joke until 6 months, and it’s not even a real thing until 9-12 months. You can give your baby plenty of socialization if you go to Gymboree once a week (or have Nanny take baby to gymboree once a week). Agree completely with other posters suggesting short-term nanny until a spot at daycare near home opens up.

    • Anonymous says

      Get a nanny if you can swing it. We found it much easier on us and the baby to have in-home care when our daughter was that age. When you get into a closer daycare, then make the switch. Commuting with a kiddo is not fun.

    • Anonymous says

      I would do nanny because you don’t have to get baby dressed/ready before leaving in the morning and baby is much less likely to get sick compared to attending daycare. Baby will probably eat and sleep better because they are in their own environment and kept on their usual routine vs having in adapt to daycare’s routine. If you want the nanny to get out of the house with the baby, a stroll to the local playground in the spring time to watch other kids play is totally enough at that age. Around 18 months- 2 years is prime time for daycare as they really enjoy having other kids around.

    • NewMomAnon says

      I would do a nanny since it’s a short-term thing. I did the 30 minute commute with baby for a while, and it was really hard on my career and my sanity – all it took was an especially bad traffic jam or snow storm, and we would be in the car for 1 hr + which would result in a hungry, angry, screaming infant. I found myself acutely aware of the safety issues involving vehicles too; my ex had a mid-winter fender bender with baby in the car, and that was so scary.

      I would say my kiddo didn’t benefit from daycare socialization until 6 months or so, and she had some significant nap issues at daycare that a nanny could have helped resolve. Also, you will appreciate having a few months to come back after maternity leave without needing to pick up a sick baby from daycare.

    • Momata says

      As a mom to a kid who hated the car until around 14 months – like, screaming hysterical hated the car – I would absolutely recommend you do not commit to driving the baby in the car 40 minutes 2x a day. If you can swing a nanny until you get off the waitlist, I recommend that. Second what everyone else said about babies not socializing (as in, not even noticing other kids) until at LEAST 9 months.

    • HSAL says

      My husband and I both work downtown (30+ minutes from home) and chose a daycare 5 minutes from home (and the pediatrician). We can always get to her in the hour they give us to come pick her up if she’s ill, and it’s SO nice to not have to worry about traffic jams, weather, inadvertent nap screwing with bedtime, etc. Get the nanny if you can swing it.

      • HSAL says

        Oh, and a secondary selfish benefit – I can stop home before I pick her up and if I leave work a few minutes early, I can watch an hour of television. :)

    • Cc says

      Thank you for all the input! This group is such an awesome source for advice.

      We’re not sure if we will get into our close to home daycare in 6 months because siblings get priority and there are so few spots. He should get in by the time he’s a year since there are more spots for that age range. So we could do a nanny for 8 months. But really not looking forward to the over the table/being an employer part.

      Right now baby loves the car and either falls asleep or enjoys the light from the window. But it sounds like that could change and would not be fun for my husband.

      I have some back-up child care options which would cover for rare times husband is sick or traveling for work. So that part I’m not worried about, but based on all the feedback likely will start the nanny search. Thanks again!

      • Anons says

        If you decide to go with the nanny, I’d recommend two things. First, use an agency or references from friends, if you can, to find the nanny. It is so much better to work with candidates that are pre-screened. Second, use a payroll service. It is a little bit of work on the front end, but they make things easy.

        • Anonymous says

          +10000 to payroll service. The extra few hundred dollars a year is well worth outsourcing that headache!

  5. EP-er says

    Morning routine comes up around here a lot & people seem to stress about getting their children dressed & fed in the morning before daycare. I confess, a lot of time I take my preschooler to school in her PJs with a yogurt. I am paying a lot of money for day care and she isn’t an early riser most of the time….so I figure they can help her get dressed. And they already have breakfast available until 8:30 at her center, so she’ll always get some fruit and cereal/waffle/etc with the yogurt. And it makes my life so much easier when I have an early morning at work & she decides to sleep in. I never thought it was so odd, but I don’t really hear this as an option. Throwing it out there if it helps! (And please tell me if I am off-base on this one….)

    • NewMomAnon says

      I’ve come to the very zen realization that mornings can be as hectic as I want them to be. If I’m just not feeling it, daycare opens at 6 am and serves breakfast; all I have to do is nebulizer (and honestly, daycare can do this too as long as she doesn’t wake up wheezing) and pack appropriate clothes. If I’m wanting the time with my kiddo, we can do the whole cuddle/get dressed/eat breakfast together thing. To everyone considering whether to do daycare near your house or near your work; this is the benefit of keeping daycare close to home. I can drop her off, then come home and get myself ready.

    • Clementine says

      Yo, this seems very reasonable to me and this is pretty close to my plan.

      One of my coworkers told me that she bathes her kids at night and then just puts them in the clothes she’s going to send them to daycare in. She only changed this when her daughter was old enough to request more complicated clothing and be reasonably helpful in dressing herself.

      My friend’s daycare does a toothbrushing session with the toddlers. Be still my heart!! After lunch, the kids (in sets of 3 or 4) brush their teeth.

      • Anonymous says

        Mine does this, too! Or at least I assume they do, because there’s a giant rack of toothbrushes in a clear plastic case next to the sinks in my son’s classroom. I kid you not, I didn’t notice this until probably last month, despite the fact that I supervise hand-washing in that sink every morning that I drop him off, and he’s been in that room since last summer. So yeah, when son refused to brush his teeth this morning, that was not a battle I found worth fighting.

    • Meg Murry says

      We used to do this when my son was in a infant bucket seat pretty regularly – we just kept him in the “sleep and play” type of rompers and didn’t bother changing him before daycare if his outfit wasn’t soiled or stained (he got an outfit change no less than once every 24 hours, usually 12 hours was the maximum).

      With my toddler we save taking him to school in jammies for only the most chaotic days, and change him as soon as he gets there. Dropoff is a chaotic time and I don’t want to make too much more work for the teacher. We do try to avoid feeding him at home if we can get him to wait for school breakfast, but sometimes we give him a snack if he’s up early and cranky.

      I also have a stash of sweatpants and other clothes that I have him convinced “these can be daytime OR jammie clothes!” so if I know I need to get him out of the house early I have that option, or if I have to change him in the middle of the night from bedwetting its one less step in the morning.

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