Maternity Monday: Skinny Ponte Maternity Pants

I am the high school teacher who posted last week about my school just going back as normal and no masks (rural midwest). I just got more details and this post is more about my daughter. My daughter will be in first grade. For the elementary, no masks, lunch in cafeteria as normal, and recess as normal (this part only concerns me when it is inside, because the kids are all packed in a gym). The school will have a room that students can go to if they have covid symptoms (!!). If we don’t want the in-class option, she can stay home and do teacher-created elearning. Because it is a low population area, the entire district is in one building–so while the elementary is small, K-12 is in one building–about 1,000 people total. The town is rural, but has a bunch of tourist attractions and most students work at the tourist places.

I’m not optimistic the elearning will be great–especially since teachers will have to create in-class lesson plans and elearning (who has time for that??!). Regardless, my daughter hated elearning last spring. My daughter was also really, really looking forward to having the teacher she has been assigned. But, my other child is watched by my in-laws who are 67 and 81–and the younger in-law has some pre-existing health conditions. My in-laws have told me they would prefer to homeschool my daughter than be exposed to her germs from school. I may be able to work something out with the teacher that I could do a lot of my own created materials for the elearning instead–legally she isn’t even required to be in school at her age, so that would at least keep the state funding for her with the school even if I’m technically homeschooling her. Obviously, my girls will be in contact with me since I have to be at school and no masks, but at least I have more control over how I wash/sanitize throughout the day and I plan on wearing a face shield

So…what would you do? We have a low infection rate here so far and while we have been cautious, I don’t think extremely so (though, for the area, yes–no one here is cautious!). I would have been happy if they had required masks at school–I would have been ok if they had just kept each classroom isolated (so no cafeteria/combined recess)–but I’m not okay with doing nothing, especially since there are a lot of teachers at the school who think it’s a hoax, so this just emboldens them to follow unsafe practices.

I’ll be talking to our doctor about this too for advice. I just feel like both options are terrible. And thank you for listening. I feel like I can’t publically post about this because I work for the school.

Do 32-33 inch tall toddlers fit in pack n plays? We never bought one but are contemplating travel to see my parents this summer and so we will need something for kiddo to sleep in. Kiddo will be about 15 months at the time we go. But I see the height limit on the Pack n Play is 35 inches. Will kiddo fit? And even if kiddo fits this summer, I assume that within 3-6 months it would be outgrown (based on the 35 inch limit and the fact kiddo is growing about 0.5 to 0.75 inch a month). Is there something that would be a better investment / fit her longer? Googling I found the KidCo Peapod Plus and the Joovy Glow Large which look like they fit taller toddlers. Has anyone used these and have thoughts you could share?

Y’all I gave my toddler bangs and she looks like a medieval peasant and/or tonsured monk, but also … it’s totally growing on me and I love it???? Am I losing it?

Please help me! My 7 month old will not nap independently for more than 20-30 minutes max. Typically, we rock and pat him until he falls asleep and then set him down in his crib. We use a sound machine, blackout curtains, make sure he’s fed and it’s not too warm or cold. We tried letting him cry when he woke up, we’ve tried putting him down awake–both result in screaming for at least 20 min (that’s the longest we let him cry before giving up). He is sleep trained for night sleep and that’s going well, maybe cries a few nights a week for no more than 15 minutes, and then sometimes wakes up once at night to be fed. How do we get him to nap? What are we doing wrong? Work from home is already hard, but the nap thing makes it unbelievably frustrating and we feel like we are losing our minds!

4 year old is going back to preschool next week. For the last 3 months, she’s been watching like 3-4 hours of videos a day so that we can get work done. She loves her school but is not happy about going back due to the pending loss of daily video marathons! How have others helped this transition? Cold turkey?

Has anyone tried Yumi foods for babies? I keep getting Instagram ads for them, and they seem to be a good option when we cannot puree our own food. I would appreciate any thoughts from anyone who has used them.

I posted awhile ago about finding it difficult to work in our small space with a 3 year and 1 year old. My husband works in biglaw, I work part-time (25 hours a week). Normally, the grandmas provide care for the baby while 3 year old is in school and I’m working. However, we live in a southern state where cases are rising rapidly and I’m not sure that it makes sense for us to send my 3 year old to preschool this fall. I just don’t think I make enough $$ or my career trajectory is such that it really matters if I scale way back for 6 months to a year that it’s going to be the worth the fear and hassle of sending her to preschool this fall. I really don’t love staying home, but I really don’t love the idea of going in daily not knowing if she’s picking up anything and passing it to grandparents who are caregivers for the baby. Thoughts? WWYD?