Maternity Monday: Selby Maternity Blazer

Anyone make their own baby food? Is it ‘worth’ it?

Baby girl is starting solids. We’re starting off with purees but will take a stab at baby led weaning (i.e., actual solids) when she’s six months or so. I bought some Level 1 purees to get us started as we introduce foods. I’m thinking about trying to make some homemade purees — we have a Magic Bullet and can steam fruits and veggies in the microwave or stove top. But laziness usually wins out when it comes to food in our house, so I’m not sure if we’d stick with it.

I recently hired a women who is approx my age and has a kiddo approx my kiddo’s age. I work remotely. She works remotely as well, and this is her first remote position. ABout once a week, she texts me or calls me or IMs me to let me know she’ll be “out of pocket” a bit during the day because of Kid Related Thing. I feel her–I really, truely do; her kid gets sick, has chronic pinkeye and ear infections, went through a puke-y thing, she got into a car accident picking him up from daycare…the list goes on. And I know the list, because I have the same one.

Thing is- it’s always on *her* to take care of the kiddo. In my world, if my kid is sick/snowday’d, whatever, I have a few back-up childcare plans, not the least of which is my husband (she has a husband, but his job is travel heavy so he isn’t an option). It’s rare (but it does happen) that I have to work at home WITH the baby at home. When I do, I take full-out PTO and send a note saying “I’m on PTO and will do my best to answer your email.” This woman does a great job, and always manages to make up for the time off at night or on weekends. She hasn’t (so far) asked for a ton of vacation time. Our company has a VERY generous PTO policy that makes it pretty much unlimited (with manager approval). I can’t quite say this is affecting her job performance, but it is impacting her ability to be “present” (remotely) during the work day, which is having a sort of downstream effect on how quickly she can get things done, and building relationships/being available and totally focused on work.

What I’d really like to talk to her about is trying to get some back-up care in place–even though I am SUPER working mom friendly (or- trying to be- and I FEEL HER. I do!). It rubs me wrong in a way I can’t quite put a finger on. I also have a team of 10 others, several with children, for which this is not an issue (some are remote, some are not.)

Thoughts on this? Am I just nit picking? She is a great employee that does excellent work and I don’t want to approach this conversation in a way that makes her regret her choice to come work for me :)

How do you scold other people’s kids when they’re being jerks to your kid?

So, “scold” and “jerks” are the wrong words, but you know what I’m saying. We go to an open play place that is busy with kids during these cold winter months and naturally there are territory issues over toys and space. My kid is little– just a year old– and I totally get it that she gums up the works when older (2-4 year olds) are playing. E.g. she doesn’t know how to build towers, only how to knock them down. This particular playplace is filled with hovering parents, so its never really been an issue since usually the parent will swoop in a redirect their kid who yells at/ swats at/ or yanks things out of my kid’s hands. But generally speaking, what are your gentle words for an unknown child when you want to help them learn to be nice/ generous/ patient with the baby, but also totally get it that she is messing up your stuff? I’m also, obviously, hanging close by to try to stop her from messing with the older kids’ precious projects (because I understand! how frustrating to be dedicated to building the world’s best train, or organizing the world’s best plastic food picnic only to have some dumb baby mess it up?) but I also want to let her explore and interact without constant interruption. Advice on what to say to a 3 year old who says, “NO, she can’t have that” or some such words or actions?

Relatedly, recs on good discipline methods books/websites? I’m realizing I don’t know anything yet about discipline and need to learn!

Shopping help needed, ladies.

I’m 27 weeks PG and suddenly am having a fairly epic bra situation. When I first got knocked up, the ladies exploded overnight and I bought a much, much larger regular bra at Nordstrom, which I’ve been wearing pretty much nonstop. Now suddenly the underwire is incredibly painful, even with the bra extender I purchased to try to solve this problem.

The saga continues when I bought a Cake nursing bra on Amazon, thinking that the no-underwire elastic approach would solve my back and under-boob pain. Unfortunately, the tight band around my ribcage doesn’t feel any better than the traditional bra, except with the added bonus that I have to jerry-rig a solution for n*pple coverage (that was a fun moment in the office bathroom, HELLO THESE ARE MY N*PPLES EVERYONE) and it’s depressingly ugly to boot. I’ve ordered some foam cups to solve this problem, except again, it’s not any more comfortable than the old underwire.

I am really frugal about underwear because my DH doesn’t notice it and in general I’m not one to be spendy on something that isn’t an investment piece. Also my dog eats underwear.

Can anyone give me some recs for this bra-related back pain issue? I know it’s the bra, because I just spent all weekend in a tank top with a shelf bra and my back didn’t hurt at all. The ladies are currently hovering somewhere around a 40 DD or DDD, if that matters. I’m in agony this morning after 4 hours of bra-wearing again.

I’m having my 2nd this spring, followed quickly by Mother’s Day and my birthday. I’m thinking of requesting birthstone jewelry with my kids’ birthstones on it, maybe family-style with my husband’s and/or mine, too. Something small, not tacky, not too suburban SAHM, but not loud I’M A MOM. So, no Origami Owl.

Any ideas?

And to the bigger question – is something like this appropriate for work? It would probably not be bigger or more noticeable than my semi-usual religious symbol necklace, or the wedding ring around my necklace right now thanks to pregnancy chub. Do you wear something like this, do professional women wear birthstone necklaces celebrating their kids?

I am done pumping!!! Which means I get to return to the world of real bras, of which I have none. For moms who have been there, should I wait a few weeks/months to invest in good ones? I feel like I’m still fluctuating a lot in size. I am still nursing first thing in the morning and before bed at night and plan to keep doing that as long as it works for both of us. Thanks!