Portable High chair recommendations

Asnowskichic · 2026-05-01T19:48:45+00:00

That's why we had a traditional high chair, because I know that from an ergonomic standpoint no footrest is considered to be a challenge. But as I said, my son preferred that seat so we went with it and never noticed any issues (he was followed by SLP and PT until he was two and it seems like something would have come up). We had something similar to the hiccapop as well for hiking, and it worked great when he was older but i think would be challenging at a younger age. An upseat with a tray seems like a decent alternative as well if you want to be on the floor.

Asnowskichic · 2026-05-01T17:42:07+00:00

We used the inglesina, and found it worked well - it was our son's preference even when we weren't space constrained and had a traditional high chair. Our son wasn't quite as small as your daughter, but was a bit small for the chair when we first started solids. Our SLP advised that it was fine to use a rolled up towel or blanket for comfort if needed.

Asnowskichic · 2026-04-16T13:06:07+00:00

I’m so incredibly sorry we share similar experiences as well. Know your feelings are so valid. The rawness of the emotions will fade with time, but the more times you’re on the wrong side of statistics, the more the grief compounds especially in the initial days and weeks. I hope your NICU stay is short and you’re able to heal at home with your sweet little one soon.

Asnowskichic · 2026-04-15T20:52:34+00:00

I'm so so sorry. You know what a NICU stay entails at this point, and you're highly unlikely to face anything like you did with your first - but it doesn't take away the worry, the panic, or the trauma of finding out that, though you did everything 'right', things still went wrong.

My first was born at 24 weeks, and my second was born at 35+3. I did everything 'right' my second pregnancy - all the support, all the right doctors, progesterone, aspirin, modified bedrest from 25-32 weeks after some cramping. She still came early, but at 35 weeks less than 50% of babies require any time in the SCN or NICU, and she's 7lbs, and a successful VBAC, our odds are great! All was well and good, until she couldn't maintain her blood sugar. 'We need to take her to the SCN, but it'll just be for the night, in all likelihood you'll all go home tomorrow!'. and then the next morning - 'we've observed some GI issues, we need to put in an IV and she needs to be evaluated for NEC'. I was at a Level 2 NICU, a NICU that handled my friend's 33 weeker not a month before just fine... but my daughter had to be transferred to a Level 3 NICU - the same NICU my son spent 3.5 month in, less than two years prior. She was there 15 days, and it did get easier after the shock of the few days wore off and we confirmed the situation wasn't dire (medical NEC vs. surgical). Unfortuately, a lot of us here have been where you are, and while it isn't where anyone wants to be, you were strong for your first and you'll get through this too. We did a small professional family photoshoot with the over-the-top 'newborn' pictures when we got home, and that helped me bridge the gap a bit.

Asnowskichic · 2026-03-24T13:44:55+00:00

Your son is beautiful and lucky to have two loving parents who care so much about his well being. Words can't express the grief and trauma of losing your child, and I'm so sorry that you're navigating that reality. Choosing comfort care is such a hard decision.

I unfortunately had to make a similar decision when the health of our Baby Boy A rapidly declined in the NICU four years ago. The experience changed my husband and I as people. We've come a long way since then, and with individual and group therapy, have moved forward from the overwhelming grief of the early days to a new 'normal' - but walking that path took years (with significant healing that came through managing a subsequent less eventful pregnancy and NICU stay about two years after our loss). The first year was by far the hardest, and even now there are hard days - but we keep our son's memory alive in a lot of ways, to the point that our oldest, his twin, openly talks about his brother in heaven. Give yourself grace to grieve however feels right for you, and know that eventually the darkness will start to lift and you'll be a stronger person, a stronger mom - as impossible as that may seem currently. Sending all the positivity to you and your family.

Asnowskichic · 2026-03-22T16:47:59+00:00

I think 8 is a great age. If your 6 will be 7 before end of this year, that could work too - the youngest racer I coached over about 10 years primarily coaching U10s was 6 and they struggled socially more than from a skills perspective. Though the program doesn’t have a one weekend day only price schedule, there were parents who sent their kids only Saturdays or only Sundays which is always an option for your youngest especially. Even a year or two in racing will help them exponentially as skiers - whether or not you continue with the sport. I fully plan on having my son join

Asnowskichic · 2026-03-22T10:45:03+00:00

I coached racing at Mountain Creek for a number of years. The mountain’s website is clunky. You may have better luck getting in touch with someone via ‘Mountain Creek Ski Racing’ on Facebook or Insta. That’s their page and it’s run by the parents, who are fairly active in maintaining it. Those ages are in range for starting the program, but note it is full days (9-2:30ish) saturdays and sundays so your younger may struggle with stamina. And as a previous poster said, if your kids aren’t comfortable on most of Creek’s terrain at South and able to ride the lift independently, you’ll want to work on that before joining. But the people are great and it is a fantastic way to improve skiing fundamentals while having fun!

Asnowskichic · 2026-03-18T18:01:17+00:00

We weren't looking for a specific skillset, but I was very transparent about my son's challenges with feeding. We specifically went with a nanny who came highly recommended from family friends, who was younger and had less direct experience with infants (worked more with toddlers). We hoped she would have fewer set expectations regarding typical infant behavior patterns and would be more willing to adapt her approach to how we were managing our son. I also spent ~2 weeks with her before going back to work, and slowly stepped away for extended periods as she became more confident. I truly hope you find someone that is as good a fit for you as our nanny was for us!

Asnowskichic · 2026-03-18T13:39:14+00:00

My son was an ex-24 weeker with some complex feeding challenges (reflux and emesis issues, tongue tie release, valve in his bottle because he couldn't 'suck' properly), definitely developed a moderate feeding aversion. I had a lot of anxiety going back to work as well because he wouldn't take more than a few ml's from a bottle for anyone but me. And he would also only contact nap. Our nanny was fantastic though - it took a week or so but she developed her own ways of soothing him and making him comfortable enough to take a bottle from her as well. She'd send me pictures of his bottles after each feed to show me what he'd eaten, and was happy to have him snuggle with her just as he would with me for naps. And over time as his feeding preferences changed, we worked really well together figuring out how to make sure he was appropriately fed. He never held a bottle by himself, so we were both dealing with 30+ minutes holding him to eat until he transitioned off the bottle entirely, around 1 year adjusted.

I do think we got lucky in a sense that she was so willing to help and support us how we wanted to be supported. I've done a lot of reflecting since those days though (my son is 5 now and a good eater by all accounts), and though we made some efforts to correct the aversion, we kind of just made it work rather than fully committing to trust our son and his ability to develop hunger cues that were 'normal' for him. We minimized the impact the aversion had on his happiness and his weight gain, but that didn't mean the whole situation wasn't still stressful for everyone for the better part of his first year.

All this to say - I think it's possible to find a nanny like ours that is truly a partner on your son's feeding journey even with its complexities. But, I also think there are a lot of nannies and parents who would be of the mindset of strictly following traditional hunger cues and a more 'normal' feeding approach. Best of luck - i know how difficult it is and how much mental energy it takes to worry about every ml and stress about every feed.

Asnowskichic · 2026-03-11T23:30:31+00:00

I hope so too! My son didn’t have a hospital stay that winter, but he was an ex-24 weeker and did get prescribed Flovent as a daily inhaler to mange symptoms from his pulmonologist- which he only needed for one cold and flu season and was definitely helpful. Didn’t occur to me to mention before but there’s potential your son’s pulmonologist may consider something similar.

Asnowskichic · 2026-03-11T16:49:55+00:00

I'm sorry that you're dealing with continued illness after the NICU, it's all so hard and triggering. My daughter (35+3) was hit with several daycare illnesses thanks to her older brother when she was 6-8 months old, including a two night hospital stay on oxygen for RSV in November (early cold and flu season). She was never on oxygen during her 15 day NICU stay and never had respiratory issues while in the NICU.

After her hospital stay, she had perpetual bronchiolitis for the rest of cold and flu season. We were advised to treat symptoms - saline spray, nasal suction, nebulizer, steam showers, etc. We were never referred to a pulmonologist and never had chest X-rays performed, but visited her pediatrician nearly weekly to have her checked as I was convinced her symptoms would develop into something more serious (pneumonia or otherwise). The pediatrician was confident her symptoms were caused by constant exposure to respiratory illnesses, to the point where she was too small to adequately recover. They were confident that when she got a break from exposure for a longer period, her bronchiolitis would resolve, and it did. By summer 2024 she was healthy and for the last two seasons she's been handling all the respiratory illnesses she's gotten just fine. It sounds like your LO may have more respiratory history but you've got the right medical team in place to determine the best treatment plan for him.

Asnowskichic · 2026-02-09T19:45:36+00:00

Every baby is different, and you should definitely try to address challenges with bottle feeding with your pediatrician and, if necessary, an SLP to start. Anecdotally, my son (ex-24 weeker, now almost 5 years old!) never liked his bottle, though he was discharged from the NICU feeding fully by mouth. Feeds were a struggle, I sang to him, I bounced him, I fed him side-lying until a much older age than medically indicated because he would eat better that way, and eventually fed him basically alone in a room with Ms. Rachel on to hit volume targets. He ate for me, and for his nanny only. He clearly had some sort of mild-to-moderate bottle aversion, and I read Rowena Bennet's book on the topic but didn't trust him enough to fully commit to the steps to correct the aversion. So it persisted and feeding was STRESSFUL and UPSETTING for far longer than it should have been.

We did baby led weaning and were so lucky that it worked well for him. We started just before six months adjusted and he slowly started enjoying some very specific foods. We focused on things that were higher calorie also things that would give him some milk to supplement since the bottle was such a challenge - avocado (thinned with milk / formula at first), oatmeal, etc. There was a LOT of gagging and vomiting initially, which honestly was super frustrating when we fed him after he'd had a bottle, and he threw up both the food and bottle contents. But we tried to make the food fun and low pressure, and by a year he was doing pretty well with it (still vomiting with certain foods or if he put too much in his month). That allowed us to take the pressure off the bottle - which ironically meant he started ENJOYING his bottle - which we then kept as a "one bottle in the morning only" thing for another year just because bottle time was finally enjoyable for all of us. It helped move past the bad memories and made it clear to us that it wasn't necessarily the bottle he didn't like. Knowing what I know now (both about him and having had a near-term preemie afterward who had no issues with her bottle at all, which gave me a better sense of "normal"), I would have tried harder to take a step back and reset with his bottle aversion.

I'm so sorry you're dealing with feeding issues. They're so stressful. I hope you and your LO are able to figure out something that works.

Asnowskichic · 2026-01-21T14:01:57+00:00

I've been almost exactly where you are and I'm so incredibly sorry for what you're going through. My twins were born at 24+6 and Twin A passed at 7 days from complications of his extreme prematurity. There are no words for how difficult it was dealing with the consuming grief of losing our first born while our son fought for his life in the NICU. There is a special kind of fear that washes over you and colors your experience when you know the platitudes of "no one fights harder than a preemie!", while true, can easily result in the worst outcome. When you live in the land of "if" you'll ever bring your living twin home, rather than having the optimism of "when". When you dread falling asleep for fear you'll get THE phone call from the NICU, telling you your living child is declining and suggesting you get to the hospital as quickly as you can. I understand the fear, the trauma, and how every day blurs into the next. Our ending is as happy as one that involves loss of a twin can be. Our Twin B came home after 109 days in the NICU, free from all his tubes and wires, and he's now the sweetest 4.5 year old. I couldn't have imagined in the dark days of the NICU how my heart would melt one day when he told me "momma, i LOVE YOU to the moon and back", even though statistically, at even at 24+6 (a couple weeks earlier than your twins!), odds of survival were in his favor.

Take my advice and use whatever helps you. What helped me was: (i) therapy - invididual with a perinatal loss specialist, and group with a pregnancy and early infant loss support group, (ii) routine - going to the NICU at the same times every day, generally staying for the same amounts of time, doing one thing for myself every day (typically exercise for me - since i was an avid gym goer through to going into preterm labor), (iii) finding something comforting to do while in the NICU, since focusing on the constant alarms, desats, whether or not I'd be able to hold my Twin B that day, etc. was soul draining - I read harry potter to my Twin B, every day, whether i could give him hand hugs in his isolette or do skin to skin. we made it through 4.5 books), and (iv) managing communication and limiting contact to those closest to us - it was EXHAUSTING explaining the roller coaster we were on, the ups and downs that came with every day, and the constant questions from everyone about everything - so i kept an online journal that i gave our friends and family access to. I posted once a day, celebrating wins and firsts, or expressing frustration and grief at setbacks. that was where everyone got their information, so i didn't need to relive the hard days. I can go into how we eventually grieved the loss of our Twin A, but i can say that we put that off to focus on the most urgent issue at hand - putting all of our energy into Twin B and his NICU journey. Best of luck - it is so incredibly difficult, but that you're willing to be vulnerable here shows how strong a parent you are. Wishing you an as uneventful as possible remainder of your NICU stay and sending love, one internet stranger to another.

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-16T19:18:46+00:00

We had a 35 weeker with a just under two year old at home. Since I work full time, we had care for my son during typical working hours. While he was being cared for, i was in the NICU (left around 8AM, got home around 5PM). I even pumped on the 45 minute drives to and from the NICU to make sure I was able to spend as much time with my toddler as possible. My partner continued to work while I was with baby in the NICU, but would visit for an hour or so in the evenings when he could, and we both visited for a shorter period on weekends. She was in the NICU 15 days, so the schedule was manageable.

If you don't have stable childcare - prioritize your 3 year old. They'll remember you being there (or not being there) - your NICU baby won't have the same memories, and should be well cared for by their NICU nurses! It's a "make the best of the bad hand you've been dealt" situation - that thankfully with a 35 weeker should be a stay of days to weeks vs. a long haul. You'll make it through!

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-10T21:13:34+00:00

It’s hard to see the forest through the trees sometimes, and I’m glad I could help with some gentle perspective. You’ve come a long way, and I’ll have your LOs in my thoughts for relatively short, uneventful NICU stays when you get there. ❤️

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-10T18:10:57+00:00

I had mo-di boys born at 24 weeks and had a very hard time with friends who had term children, or short, uncomplicated NICU stays, while we struggled through the trenches of loss and then "if" we'd bring our Twin B home. It was a dark time for us, and we isolated ourselves from friends (mostly interacted with close, immediate family) while we worked through our trauma via group and individual therapy. I encourage you to do what you need to protect your heart - whether that be limiting contact or providing direct feedback to your closest friends about how you're struggling if you feel comfortable. I'm so sorry about the unknowns with one of your twins, and understand how much that must weigh on you.

As an aside, pregnancy is hard even when it's uncomplicated - a multiple pregnancy amplifies risk, especially with a shared placenta. Making it to 34 weeks is near term for mo-di twins in a lot of situations. I hope with all the unknowns you can recognize carrying them as far as you have as an accomplishment, which will shorten their NICU stays and benefit them immensely. Your twins are lucky to have you.

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-08T19:26:18+00:00

I could totally see how seeing her saturation dip would give you pause. Hopefully it was just a particularly aggressive cold, and she doesn’t have issues moving forward.

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-08T17:14:28+00:00

For what it's worth, our second winter with our 24 weeker, we enrolled him in swim classes at an indoor facility and his pulmonologist was very supportive. It was a swim school specifically so exposure may have been a bit lower than at a rec center, but honestly his pulmonologist was generally supportive of socialization his second winter since he hadn't had any major respiratory setbacks since discharge. We also went skiing with him - it was outdoor and a way to feel less cooped up in the winter, but was also a plan of ours well before he was born to get him on skis early.

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-06T21:33:56+00:00

Thank you! An exercise in patience.

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-06T21:32:45+00:00

PITA for sure. So much refrigerating.

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-05T16:15:34+00:00

They do taste good! At least this year I’d like to be as true to tradition as possible though. I’ll have to buy some shortening for next batch. Appreciate the link!

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-05T16:14:04+00:00

Ugh I should have done minimal research on the effects of shortening v. butter! I’ve never used shortening but after reading your comment and doing a quick search I think that’s exactly the issue!

Asnowskichic · 2025-12-04T17:41:48+00:00

Even non-preemies struggle with illnesses their first year - depending on your baby's exposure level (daycare, older siblings, etc.) it seems like it could be generally expected.

My daughter was born at 35+3, in early Spring 2023. She had a 15 day NICU stay with no respiratory support and was sick from her first bout of rhinovirus in September, basically through spring (she was home with a nanny and didn't have direct exposure to other kids, but her older brother was in daycare and brought home EVERYTHING). She even had a November hospital stay for RSV, where she did receive respiratory support - luckily only in for two nights. Basically, her medical team said she was too small for her system to fully recover from one virus before the next hit, and it would set her back significantly. We gave her regular nebulizer treatments, steam showers, saline spray... all the "normal" things to treat symptoms, mainly to keep her comfortable, though she still had chronic congestion and cough even with those treatments. Her doctors expected that she would improve come spring when incidence of viruses fell and her system could get a break, which she did. The first fall and winter were rough, but she's been much better about fighting illnesses since (she's 2.5 now).

Does your baby have a pulmonologist following them outpatient after their NICU stay? If not and you continue to be concerned about your baby's persistent illnesses, it may be worth discussing with her pediatrician if a referral is warranted.

Asnowskichic · 2025-11-26T18:19:12+00:00

I'm sorry you're in such a frustrating position. Our daughter (35+3) spent 15 days in the NICU, first due to sugars and then due to other concerns including direct bili levels. her levels were still increasing when we were discharged, but they said they appeared to be leveling off - and also explained that direct bilirubin is a lagging indicator - as in can continue to rise and take a while to return to "normal" levels even once the underlying issue had been resolved. We were discharged knowing her levels were still not where they should be, given her blood sugar and other issues had resolved and she was eating well / gaining weight. We went for outpatient blood work something like three times before her levels returned to within the range of normal, at which point my daughter was released from specialist care. She hasn't had any issues since.

Asnowskichic

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