Accessory Tuesday: Reusable Shopping Bags

I’m coming up on being 23w with my first and in the past week or two, I’ve gotten extremely dizzy going on my little 1 mile walk around the neighborhood. It’s happened twice bad enough to need to stop and sit down on the side of the road so I didn’t fall over. It starts off not being able to really catch my breath and then it feels like my pulse shoots up, then crashes, and I get tunnel vision and can’t breathe.
I know blood pressure and cardio issues are a normal part of the strain of pregnancy, but I’m worried about actually fainting while out. I’m also worried that if I can’t even manage a walk around the block, how the heck am I going to get through birth. Does anyone have tips or exercise I could do in addition to my walking to keep fit? Or maybe just commiseration? I don’t want to give up the autonomy of my evening walk in this world of lost choice.
FWIW, I was quite fit before pregnancy and ran through my first trimester, until it started feeling uncomfortable. My blood pressure at my appointments has been fine.

My 2 year old is asking about her daycare friends and telling me she’s sad she can’t see them. Would it be weird to ask her teachers about a class hangout? Her class is a 0-2 year old classroom (although only a couple infants) so I realize most of the kids are unlikely to get much out of it. Her teachers are still in paid status and have been sending daily updates with videos of themselves reading and signing but nothing interactive. Or should I ask the teachers for a class list and contact other parents myself? I don’t want to burden teachers or other parents, but I think my kid would be really happy to see her friends.

I have a 4 year old who is highly verbal and very loud. her normal speaking voice is like an 8-9, if 5 is average and 10 is yelling. We’ve tried teaching her about inside/outside voices, demonstrating what appropriate volume sounds like, etc. but nothing has worked to help her keep her voice down. It’s driving us crazy. Because she’s extremely talkative AND loud, I feel like I’m constantly being yelled at. I hate telling her to stop talking or be quieter or talk less, because it feels so patriarchial? Or like we’re trying to stifle her? I want her to be confident and loud and speak up . . . just not constantly! Anyone have advice on how to handle this sensitively and with kindness and without crushing her soul?!

WWYD? I’m due in 3 weeks with our second. Looking back, I had some undiagnosed mental health issues/PPD after the birth of my first. Sleep deprivation was a huge factor in my mental health (I did 100% of all nights with our first), so I booked a night nurse to help with this second baby. Now we’re dealing with this pandemic and I’m trying to figure out what to do about our already booked night nurse (we already paid a $4k deposit; $4k balance remaining). For context, we have roughly 400 cases in our county. The night nurse would be working exclusively with our family for roughly 6ish weeks. She lives alone but has one adult child who visits/stays with her occasionally. My husband only gets one week of paternity leave and then he’s back to working full-time from home. I also have a 26 month old.

My husband is really risk averse and wants to cancel completely and says he’ll split night duty with me to ensure I get some sleep. However, his track record of actually doing this is incredibly poor (see: first child when I handled all night wakings solo because he was impossible to deal with in the middle of the night when I needed him). I am really concerned about anyone in our family getting sick but I’m also concerned about my postpartum mental health, especially during a global pandemic with an active toddler already.

What would you do? Cancel completely and eat the cost? Still have the night nurse come if she’s following social distancing/isolation rules? Try to reduce the hours so you’re only using the $4k you already paid for?

wwyd – we have soon to be 2 year old twins and we currently have a nanny who we love and plan on keeping regardless. we were planning on enrolling them in 3 days a week preschool for next school year primarily for the socialization benefits for them and for us (we are newish in town and still trying to meet people). financially it will be a tiny stretch. the school we’ve selected is affiliated with a synagogue. deposits are due this Friday, with an option to unenroll by May 1 (but lose your deposit). I reached out to the school to ask how they are handling Covid, (offering any tuition refunds, option to convert tuition to a donation, and plans are for next school year in case additional rounds of social distancing are required). This was their response to me: “if we are not able to have school within our building, we will still consider it “open” because we will continue with distance learning. We are confident in our distance learning plan, and feel that our young ones can continue to make progress in their developmental milestones for their age groups.” —> we are trying to decide if we should not enroll them at all for next year at any school, wait to try to enroll in a different school, etc. Any thoughts?

Another frivolous question also about bikes.

DH and I bought off craigslist two bikes maybe 10 years ago. They’re ok…? Never properly fitted to us at all, kind of rusty. We live in the burbs now and DD is 2. Not quite ready for her own bike but starting to show interest. We’ve thought about (a) selling the beater bikes and (b) buying relatively inexpensive ones for us.

Is Facebook marketplace the best place to sell these days? I expect college kids/locals in nearby Boston/Cambridge/Somerville would gobble these up quickly.

Where should we buy our new bikes? Target has some and there is a local bike store here. Just looking for something to take on (paved) trails and paths so we can ride along and with DD when she’s a little older. Not looking to spend $$$.

here’s a frivolous question: how do you carry your phone when you take your kids out for bike rides? In the winter, I wear a big coat, and put my phone and keys in the pockets but i have never figured out where to put my phone in the warmer months. I used a small cross-body purse from target last year…but didn’t love that option. These days, I am usually in athletic clothes when we go out…any ideas?