Washable Workwear Wednesday: Oversized Shawl Belted Coat

Do your daycare centers allow kids to be pulled out whenever or do they make a big deal about kids attending all day every day for routine?

We’re looking for childcare for our daughter soon. None of the daycares in our area have part time programs and we want full time care anyway so we have the option to send her in whenever we need to. But I have a zillion vacation days, my husband works weird hours and we have a local grandma who would like to spend a couple of afternoons per week with her, so it’s likely that in a typical week we’d want to only send her in four days per week and probably a couple of them would be half days. Of course we’d pay full time tuition but daycares seem to be balking at this plan. Is it really such an unreasonable request?

There’s been some suggestions on here recently to have a mid to late afternoon espresso to be more productive in the evening. This is intriguing to me a couple times per week, but likely depends on how your body reacts to caffeine. Do these folks have this coffee daily? Are you consuming other caffeine, too? With one exception, I haven’t had caffeine in over three years. I tend to rebound after it and then just want more. So if I have a morning coffee, then I just have an awful afternoon slump or drink a bunch more. And I got such terrible headaches and flu-like symptoms when I quit that I got pretty freaked out about what it was doing to my body if I had to withdraw like that. To anyone who is only having caffeine in the afternoon, do you get headaches in the morning without it? How has your body adapted? Do you have it every day? Now that I have the demands of motherhood, I am intrigued!

Somewhere along the way I developed a stage fright I didn’t have in my younger days, and it’s really stuck. I get randomly nervous now before presenting, even in small meetings.
It is such a drag, and I’m working on various techniques to overcome this. I’m just wondering if anyone’s gone from dreading public speaking to actually enjoying it now? I could use the inspiration!

Last night my husband told me that for the last 6 months he has felt completely empty inside, numb, and cries almost every day while driving to work. My first thought was that this was depression and asked if he was open to seeing a therapist. He comes from a rural background where mental health issues are “not a thing” but was open to it, likely because I have dealt with mild depression and severe anxiety so it has been somewhat normalized for him. He said he had twice visited a co-worker’s wife who had worked in the psychiatric field and answered a bunch of questions and she told him he was in a bad marriage (without ever meeting me). I asked him if there were aspects of our marriage he was unhappy with, as I was open to working on them, and he couldn’t name anything. He says that he realizes that objectively his job is pretty good and our life is great, but that he just feels empty and numb. Nothing changed 6 months ago (our son was over 18 months at the time so I don’t think it was PPD), so there is no obvious trigger. The part I am struggling with is that I had no idea any of this was going on. He admits that he has been putting on a good face because he didn’t want to tell me, but how do I not know that my husband is miserable for 6 months?? He is making appointments with a therapist as well has his GP. What am I supposed to be doing, though?

Speaking of coats, any recommendations for toddler raincoats? I’m debating between getting a cheap $18 Target one or a $40 LL Bean one, but maybe there is something else I should consider. It will be handed down.

Hi ladies– I know we’ve discussed this before, but I need help with strollers. We have our first kid on the way in September, in NYC. I know so much of this is personal preference, but I need someone to just tell me what to buy.

From my research (and past threads here) I know the options are frame stroller, lightweight stroller (like the City Mini GT), or full-size stroller (like Uppababy Cruz or Vista). I think we’re pretty set on NOT starting with a full-size, but should we place both a frame stroller and the CityMini on our registry? Or, if we’re getting the CityMini, is the frame stroller redundant? Should we start with only the frame stroller and get the lightweight later? If possible, with your suggestion, could you also recommend a carseat?

I want to take advantage of the fact that several people have already expressed interest in buying larger items from our registry, but I’m also trying to keep our baby stuff as minimal as possible– we have a small apt. So I’m not sure if we should start with only the frame stroller or go ahead and get the lightweight now too.

Ugh but the maternity coat is wool! Anyone have any recommendations for cute maternity jackets that are not super casual military inspired or beige trenchcoats?