Make My Life Easier Thursday: Over-Door Space-Saver Clothes Drying Rack

So my six month old STILL isn’t sleeping great at night. We’ve accomplished the putting him down wide awake thing for naps and at night, but with a paci. I’m thinking we have to lose the paci in order for him not to call out at night and put himself back to sleep. But I seriously love the paci. We only use it for sleep and occasional fussiness in public, and it’s so convenient. So do I white knuckle it until he can replace it on his own or do we just need to deal with the paci now?

Anon, because this outs me to all the people I complained to IRL…

My son puked all over me in the middle of the night last night. The I-don’-t-have-molars-yet-so-here’s-exactly-what-I-ate-for-dinner-except-stinkier-and-more-disgusting kind of puke. He was uncharacteristically screaming around 2am, so I picked him up out of his crib to comfort him and blaaaaaahhhh multiple waves of puke on my shoulder, in my hair, down my back, down my chest, all over him, all over the rug. Once I got over the shock, I literally got in the shower with both of us still clothed and kicked chunks down the drain while husband cleaned up the floor in the nursery. And of course son was still pretty sad and wouldn’t settle down in his crib afterward, so I had to hold him while we dozed in and out for the next 3 hours.

There was so much vomit. And it smelled so, so bad. I washed my hair really well, but I still keep catching phantom whiffs of it. He seemed fine this morning, though, so I took him to daycare and I’m mainlining coffee to get through work.

Babies are so great, amirite?!

Thank you– this is very helpful especially coming from someone who chose a drug free birth. You are spot on with the “transcendent earth mother” thing. Like, I’m not very earth-mother at all but did wonder if it was a unique experience that I should try to have– even with the awareness that it is a painful, kind of sucky experience. Other than potentially missing the labor/birth experience, I actually prefer a c-section this time, mostly because for me it is a known quantity now (I know how comfortable/painful it will be, I know what recovery is like, I know I’ll have an incision but at least won’t have to worry about the V area, etc). I only considered VBAC because of the experience itself– which it sounds like I shouldn’t worry about. Thanks for this advice!

Any tips for dealing with dizziness during pregnancy? I seem to be having a few spells this time around and the other day really felt like I was about to faint. I’m trying to take it a bit easier now, drink more water, make sure I eat something small frequently, but curious if anyone has other suggestions.

Our daycare/preschool generally moves kids in cohorts up to the next classroom in mid-August. For a variety of reasons, my son moved up about a month early to the 3-4 year old classroom. He has been thrilled with exploring the toys in the new classroom and hanging out with the “big” kids. The problem is that next week all the “big” kids are going to move up to the Pre-K classroom, and all of his old classmates from the 2-3 year old class are going to move into my son’s classroom.

We have been trying to talk to him about this and convince him that he can be the “class leader” and an “ambassador” when his old classmates join his classroom but he is having none of it. He keeps saying that he’ll tell his old classmates “No no no!” and “Get out of here!” when he sees them. Any tips/thoughts on how to get him to accept the change/be friendlier?

I would love to get people’s views on this issue with my 3 year old. Her daycare nurse pulled me aside the other day and said she has noticed my daughter is not playing with the other kids on the playground, but sitting by herself, and she recommended getting her tested for autism. The nurse said a lot of other things in the conversation that, frankly, made me question her judgment.

I really don’t think my daughter is on the spectrum, not least because she is always screened at her well child pediatrician visits with no red flags ever being raised. She’s also exceeding verbal, loves to play pretend, and is very adroit at identifying feelings in herself and others. (E.g. the other day I asked if she was feeling angry, and she said, “No, I’m frustrated.”) However she is somewhat “high-needs.” I’m not even sure how to describe it other than that she is the opposite of going with the flow. She often doesn’t want to participate in large group activities, like she spent the first 6 months of a weekly dance class refusing to participate, but told us she liked the the class. Lately she’s been getting upset and crying at drop-off time at daycare. She doesn’t like loud noises, like a toilet flushing. She hates getting her clothes even slightly damp. I could go on, but you get the idea.

I want to have a conversation with her teachers at daycare and then a conversation with the pediatrician about all of this. Does anyone have suggestions about information I should be soliciting from the teachers in order to give the pediatrician a good picture of how she is interacting with people at school?

I bought a couple pairs of Riviera pants/Marisa fit from Loft to return to work post-partum. They are now saggy baggy messes on me and I need to buy another couple of pairs. Any favorite brands at this price point but with a little more stretch and shape? I like Loft’s dresses and blouses on me, but I feel like their pants are not terribly fashionable on my body. Gap? Express? BR?