CorporetteMoms

Updated: Nov 1, 2018 39 Comments · by

Totally Tuesday: Qeepsake

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Qeepsake log-in pageReaders mentioned Qeepsake in the comments on our post about remembering the little things as a parent, and I’ve been trying it out and really like it. How it works: Qeepsake texts you a question about your kid(s) each day, and then you text an answer back. You can also send texts that aren’t responses to questions — plus edit the journal entries and add photos. I like being able to text my answers back and to know that there’s only one question a day for each kid. I don’t answer every question they send me, but a few examples include: whether H. has any nonverbal ways of communicating, whether J. has any bad habits, and what H. likes to do on weekends. It makes me feel like we’re preserving some of the little memories (even though they’re not always the things that I would preserve). Right now, there’s a 3- to 4-week waitlist to sign up, but if you get two friends to join the list, you can have immediate access to Qeepsake. The premium plan costs $35/year, and I believe there’s also a free plan that sends you one question per week. Qeepsake (L-all)

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. Anon says

    Eh. I signed up for the free trial and didn’t like it. On the free plan, there’s no way to to order a book or otherwise get a copy of your data. When you pay for a plan, you just get the ABILITY to order a book for $30 (plus more for addl pages), and the layout options are very limited in the book – literally they print one text answer per page. Since the $30 covers only 20 pages, that’s less than half a year if you only do one question per week.

    I also didn’t like that you had to buy the highest plan ($96/yr) to add a spouse. It seems to encourage the idea that this baby book crap is only one parent’s job.

    I did like the prompts though. They were good and not necessarily things I would think to do. But there’s a journal called “Q&A a Day for Moms” that has similar prompts, and you can get the whole book for $11 on Amazon. You could just periodically open the journal and fill it out, and get basically the same thing.

    • Em says

      Thank you for this recommendation! I am so bad about filling out my son’s baby book.

    • October says

      I feel like if I got a workbook I would just never open it, a la the nearly blank baby book sitting on my desk at home. I like the idea of a daily text that would prompt consistent action on my part. But maybe I just need a little more self-discipline.

    • Jeff McNeil says

      This is Jeff McNeil, Founder and CEO of Qeepsake. Thanks for the feedback! We’re working to make the add-a-spouse feature available for everyone. We’re also working to improve the design of the Qeepsake Book and make it available to all parents on Qeepsake, not just paid accountholders.

      • Anonymous says

        Very impressed you took time to comment on this site and provide some input on your product. Seems like a great concept that the marketplace needs.

  2. Early pregnancy ? says

    Did you change your diet / lifestyle in early pregnancy (besides the obvious)? I’ve read Expecting Better and don’t intend to put myself in a bubble but I’m just curious if there is anything you did to prepare yourself / feel better or stronger? Any particularly good books?

    • Anonymous says

      Your body will tell you what it needs, which is basically lots of sleep and food that doesn’t make you want to puke. And get more fresh air (for the sake of feeling less like you want to puke). And to slow down on the very strenuous exercise. At least that was the case for me. Aside from not drinking or eating the no- nos, that’s all I did. Pretty simple :)

      • H says

        +1. The weekend right after I found I was pregnant, I made all of these healthy snacks like veggies and dip, cut fruit for ease of eating at work, etc. Then week 5 started and all I wanted was potato chips and other greasy foods for the next 6 weeks.

    • POSITA says

      During early pregnancy? I just tried to survive. Morning sickness can be rough.

    • anne-on says

      I just tried to deal with my hyperemesis without getting fired. Other than learning how to gracefully throw up in airplane bathrooms, offices, trains, and airport terminals, no, not many changes.
      After about 5-6 months along, I felt ok enough to do some moderate exercise. I really really wished I had done more strength training though – carrying around an 8lb infant all day, plus wrestling with car seats and strollers was HARD on my arms/back/shoulders.

      • Anonymous says

        Strength training all the way! And get your partner to do it too! Both of our biggest regret.

    • Maddie Ross says

      I cut back on, but did not give up coffee (mind you, I drank 5 cups a day pre-pregnancy). Tried to drink more water. Otherwise, ate what I wanted (which was mostly carbs and some random cravings, like the one for red sauce on pasta all the time). I kept working out, doing my normal workouts, but only because they actually seemed to help my morning sickness.

      • Early pregnancy ? says

        I’m struggling with the caffeine – I was a 8+ cups a day tea drinker so have dropped down to three. I’m glad I didn’t cut it out early as we spent a fairly long time TTC but hot water and herbal tea just doesn’t cut it.

        • NewMomAnon says

          Have you tried hot chocolate? Or cold juice? Both of those helped me when I needed to restrict caffeine during pregnancy. My kiddo got aggressively mobile whenever I drank caffeine, so unless I wanted martial arts practice happening in my stomach, I had to find substitutes.

      • CLMom says

        Caffeine. I needed it. Plus, I wanted the coffee ‘ritual’. So, I had one cup of delicious, full flavored caffeinated brew, and unlimited amounts of decaf thereafter.

    • Em says

      I was already doing strength training and cardio 6 days a week and I continued that until I was around 6 1/2 months, at which point I got bad varicose veins (strength training exacerbates them). I switched to more pilates and yoga at that point. If you are already exercising you can continue, but I would be careful about starting a new, rigorous exercise plan – if you start anything, go slow.

    • JP says

      There’s a book called Eating Expectantly, written by a registered dietitian, that discusses the key foods/nutrients that are important for fetal development at each stage. It was helpful in theory, but once morning sickness subsided around 15 weeks (I’m 37 wks now), I’ve found that I genuinely want healthy/nutrient-dense food and have had very few cravings (aside from forbidden fruits like bagels w lox and cream cheese), so I decided to just trust my body and avoid the obvious no-nos.

      • PhilanthropyGirl says

        I really appreciated Nina Planck’s book Real Food for Mother and Baby – she also breaks down key nutrients by fetal development. I followed it much more closely in in 1st pregnancy than in my 2nd – but I found it particularly helpful in the 1st trimester when I needed to survive morning sickness. And aside from just about any version of pie every created – I also desired healthier foods and just trusted my body.

    • Lyssa says

      I agree with the above (and am fully on board the don’t make a huge deal out of pregnancy restrictions school of thought), but one change I would advise – to the extent that it doesn’t make you puke, try to vastly up your water and your fiber intake. Pregnancy constipation is no fun, so better to head it off before it becomes an issue.

      • Early pregnancy ? says

        That’s actually how I figured out I was pregnant. I was so uncomfortable, like more so than normal period time. I’ve been drinking loads of water, and fruit and veg but think I probably need some all-bran or something.

        • Meg Murry says

          Are you taking a prenatal vitamin? Some of them are harder on your system than others when it comes to this kind of thing, whereas others contain a stool softener to counteract the extra iron, etc.

    • Half baked says

      In early pregnancy? I went from eating really clean and doing intense bootcamp style exercising to eating mainly cinnamon toast crunch and going on walks during the day. NDP (nausea during pregnancy b/c morning sickness is a terribly deceiving misnomer) is no joke. I also NEEDED naps for the first time ever if my life during the first trimester (which I accomplished by “working from home” inbetween depos and appearances and making up the work before bedtime). Around 4 months I got my energy back and was able to resume a healthful eating pattern and slightly more rigorous workout routine. Pregnancy obviously effects everyone differently, but my advice is to feel as good as you can going into pregnancy and then ride the preganncy wave doing the best you can.

    • NewMomAnon says

      I wasn’t a super healthy eater pre-pregnancy, and once I got pregnant I was very conscious about adding vegetables (especially leafy greens), and consciously choosing protein instead of empty carbs when I needed a snack (err….mostly). But I avoided morning sickness for the most part, so my choices weren’t as limited. I ate a lot of yogurt, a lot of sauteed spinach (it was a weird craving), baked potatoes (another weird craving), grilled chicken, peanut butter, citrus fruit (craving) and lots of homemade beef stew.

      The one lifestyle change that made a huge difference was regular prenatal yoga. I swelled a lot while pregnant and had lots of hip and knee issues, and yoga kept me less puffy, strong and relatively limber (I painted my own toenails the day before my kid was born). I also walked a LOT the first 7 months of pregnancy. Strength training would have been helpful – I did not realize how heavy a newborn would feel after hours and hours of carrying her.

      And the one nutritional thing I wish I had done; my kiddo’s pediatrician asked me to take fish oil supplements while nursing because the DHA is helpful for brain development. He was a little upset that nobody had told me that while I was pregnant. So I wish I had taken fish oil supplements with my prenatal vitamins.

      • TBK says

        Oh man, green vegetables were on my “no” list early on. And the biggest “no,” the thing that made me sick just to think about it, was chicken. So a super healthy salad topped with chicken? No, barf. I couldn’t eat chicken until about 20 weeks. Microwave sausage pizza was the only thing I wanted.

        • PhilanthropyGirl says

          The smell of cooking green vegetables was total barf for me. I wanted so badly to eat healthfully and but the only thing i could stomach was Arby’s roast beef. And frozen mangoes.

        • avocado says

          I couldn’t eat fish or green vegetables either, or meat or fish or anything with added sugar. For nine months I subsisted on quesadillas, eggs, cheese, plain bagels, cottage cheese, nuts, and certain fruits.

          I took DHA supplements made from algae. No fish burps.

          • avocado says

            That was supposed to be “I couldn’t eat chicken or green vegetables either…”

        • NewMomAnon says

          Yeah, I lucked out on the morning sickness. I think I had the one in a million nausea-free pregnancy.

      • Anonymous says

        Oh man… fish oil was not for me! I never experienced any morning sickness with either pregnancy but the one time I tried to take a supplement I almost barfed in the car on the way to work. It was a pill but gave me fishy burps. I just couldn’t stomach it and stuck to regular pre-natals.

        • Anon in NYC says

          This was why I was willing to pay for prescription pre-natals that contained DHA. I had a friend try to sell me on the idea of swigs of lemon-flavored fish oil. My OB blanched at the thought!

          As for me, a pretty healthy eater / exerciser pre-preg, I could only subsist on pizza for a few weeks. Roasted broccoli (one of my favorite foods) made my throat close up. I couldn’t eat meat at all, with the exception of ground beef (like in hamburgers), deli ham, and bacon. Although I made sure the bacon was nitrate-free, lol. I still exercised, but had to cut back a fair bit (no spin) due to some sciatica. Most just a lot of long walks, pilates, and strength training.

          • Katala says

            I actually don’t find the lemon-flavored fish oil that bad. With morning sickness, no, but it’s just a tablespoon so I would take it like a shot and chase with juice. No burps like the pills. Honest co. DHA hasn’t given me fish burps this time, either.

            Both pregnancies, I’ve almost completely stopped exercising. It’s terrible, and I want to do it, but I just don’t have the energy/motivation. Work plus helping out a tiny bit around the house (and now with kid #1) is all I can muster the energy for. Not what I would advise, but know you’re not alone if you can’t get in exercise, and you’ll be ok.

        • PhilanthropyGirl says

          I started taking mine at night before I went to bed. i gag taking capsules anyway, and morning sickness made it so bad i couldn’t get fish oil or prenatals down. taking them at night meant my nausea was way better and then I could just go to sleep to escape the fishy burps.

  3. Anonymous says

    May repost tomorrow/next week since it’s late in the day, but anyone know of any prenatal/pregnancy/mom classes and groups offered by a local organization or shop in the Raleigh-Durham area? I’m thinking of something like the Happy Bambino in Madison, which is where a lot of my college friends met their mom friends when they got pregnant. Or just general recs for where to meet fellow moms-to-be during pregnancy in this area?

    • Anonymous says

      Hmm I went to a prenatal fitness class at the Y on Hillsborough St when I lived there. I can’t say I made any life-long connections, but it’s a great place. I assume you’ve got your OB practice and hospital sorted out, but I can’t say enough great things about mine if you want recs. (I’ve since moved away, but am obviously nostalgic!)

  4. Ldybug379 says

    Thanks for the information. I do the free question and love it ans have been thinking about upgrading to add pictures and get the book but knowing the books layout is limited and for 40 dollars just for a 20 pg book $29 plus $10 shipping I think I am better pulling off the messages. from my phone and making my own.

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