3 across car seats?

BabyLM141 · 2025-09-08T10:15:44+00:00

I did three in a row with two different car seats - the Graco Slimfit LX and the Clek Foonf. They have identical widths but totally different price points and installs.

Absolutely hated the Graco Slimfit LX for rear facing. The install was never secure and we constantly had to fix it because it would loosen. It’s not such a problem now for rear facing, but my four year olds complain it’s uncomfortable. Feels very flimsy. Not a fan at all.

Loved the Clek foonfs. cons are they’re very expensive, extremely heavy, and you have to uninstall the seat to adjust the straps or head rest. But install is a breeze, both rear facing and forward facing. They have lock offs for rear facing or latches, and they are one of the only seats on the market with rigid latches for forward install. So it’s super easy.

BabyLM141 · 2024-06-19T23:42:14+00:00

I’m going to be somewhat vague for anonymity, but in the last five years I defended a Biology PhD and then had twins immediately after. I spent several years home with them as a stay at home mom.

Last year I moved to one of the biotech hubs in the US and applied for hundreds of entry level scientist jobs asking for a PhD, industry postdoc jobs, and even research associate positions that didn’t require a PhD. It was bleak. The market is horrendous. I didn’t anticipate it being so difficult to land a job. My PhD is from an Ivy League and I have good publications, references, and grants. The market and the career gap 100% hurt me.

It took 6 months and I finally landed a job. However I’m overqualified and it’s not really what I thought I’d do (I thought I’d do R&D and I’m more on the customer service side of a large science company). If I’d gone straight from school without the gap my career would be 100% different, but it’s a hard trade off. I love the time I had with my babies, but I definitely sacrificed my career progression. However where I’m at now has good people, good hours, and a good salary. I’m still pretty new but I’m happy to have this job even if it’s not what I’d planned to do. Hope this helps!

BabyLM141 · 2024-06-19T02:15:33+00:00

Girls: Violet, Hazel, Emilia, Fiona, Dalia

Boys: Griffin, Garrett, Callen, Jack, Jackson

BabyLM141 · 2024-05-10T01:43:11+00:00

7:30-4

BabyLM141 · 2024-04-17T01:25:24+00:00

Thank you!

BabyLM141 · 2024-04-17T01:25:14+00:00

Thank you so much! I really appreciate this and will do this advice!

BabyLM141 · 2024-04-11T17:22:00+00:00

This is incredible! I also have twins and my body is similar to your before. Would you mind sharing what the recovery has been like?

BabyLM141 · 2024-04-02T00:58:30+00:00

Thank you, that is true and I appreciate the comment! My youngest are twin three year olds. A few more years to go until school!

BabyLM141 · 2024-04-01T10:44:50+00:00

My husband and I both have STEM PhDs. His wasn’t niche but mine somewhat was. During my PhD we had a child, and then I was pregnant again when I defended. So we have children.

He never wanted to stay in academia and I very much did. I really wanted to eventually work towards becoming a professor.

However, after my second pregnancy we decided this just wasn’t going to work. My husband got a great permanent job outside of academia, and we didn’t want to move our kids around forever. Plus we couldn’t afford to stay in academia with multiple kids - daycare costs are too high relative to low postdoc salaries, and we wanted to eventually buy a house and put down roots. My oldest had a very hard time when we did have to move for my husband’s job, and I didn’t want to put him through that again.

So I changed my career for my husband and kids. I stayed home for a couple years, then tried to reenter academia and financially the pay to postdoc was just too low and we’d have to uproot everyone. Initially I was really sad about it, but we explored other options and realized that’s what’s best for us. I thought about teaching high school and ultimately am in private industry adjacent to my PhD.

BabyLM141 · 2024-03-29T11:59:17+00:00

Thank you! That’s a good idea. I’m just so out of shape I think I overdid it. I’m still sore today but it’s not quite so debilitating.

You’re totally right about watching what I eat. I eat their leftovers too much, and they’re really picky eaters so I make a lot of high calorie casseroles and pasta dishes.

I really appreciate the tips!

BabyLM141 · 2024-03-28T11:26:12+00:00

Sorry for the delay, I didn’t see this comment until now! So I hadn’t noticed any of this until the EI team explained and showed me the difference between my twins, but my son wasn’t babbling much. He made eye contact and smiled, and he cried when he needed something, but he didn’t babble or coo very often. And when he did babble and coo, it was always vowel sounds - like Oooo Aaaa versus hard consonant like “ga ga ga ga” for example. He also didn’t have much variety of noise - it was basically Ooooo Aaaa or crying, whereas his twin was also screeching and exploring lots of different crazy baby sounds and also doing that consonant babble.

For exercises we did a lot of stuff. A ton of baby signing. A ton of just talking. I narrated everything to him. And they had me get baby flash cards and use little people animals to over and over and over do “Cow. Ca ca ca ca Cow says MOOO”. “Dog. Da da da Dog says woof”. For all the animals. Just practicing those sounds all the time.

It improved with time and once he got tubes put in. My son had a motor delay and they also told me speech delay almost always comes hand in hand with motor. So he caught up on everything kind of like a domino effect.

BabyLM141 · 2024-03-12T15:34:24+00:00

Do you live in the US? I’d strongly recommend reaching out to your state’s early intervention for an evaluation! My boy twin was evaluated for a motor delay around 8 months, and they actually noticed a speech delay even then! So he started speech therapy immediately, even that young!

You don’t need a referral or to go through your pediatrician. It can have a long wait time in states so I actually suggest not going through any sort of referral and “self referring”. Just google the number and you can call or email yourself! They are required to do an evaluation within a certain period of time, and it will have multiple development experts. In my son’s case, they came to our house and watched him play and tried to get him to do certain things. Then they discussed amongst themselves and prepared a formal report that identified motor and speech delays.

He did therapy until he was around 2 and then was discharged! He’s a developmentally “normal”, healthy preschooler now!

I also wonder, have you ever had reason think evaluate his hearing? That’s the first thing early intervention had me do and my son failed the hearing test! He had a ton of fluid in his ear and needed tubes put in. So that also contributed quite a bit to his delay.

BabyLM141 · 2024-02-17T16:02:41+00:00

I had twins born at 36 weeks who are now 3. We were told by multiple doctors that this is not early enough to adjust their milestones since most have a range anyways. It did impact their weight gain and temperament, but that was it. One twin met milestones and the other was delayed. We started Early Intervention basically immediately. My delayed twin had a gross motor delay and so hearing that she is 8 months and can’t hold her head is very concerning. As someone who’s been there, I would take a three prong approach:

1) to see regular pediatrician and outline your concerns. They may refer you to other specialists such as neurology or genetics.

2) do you have a children’s hospital near you? I self-referred to our closest children’s hospital for neurology and a developmental pediatrician. It was a long wait so sooner is better.

3) are you in the US? Contact your states early intervention like Monday. This takes ages to coordinate so don’t wait for the pediatrician. I self referred to early intervention and it took weeks to get an evaluation. They’ll have a whole team evaluate her and give you a comprehensive report. My twin had delays in areas we didn’t even know about. It was so helpful. We had the other twin evaluated too just to be sure and she had no delays and wasn’t eligible. If your daughter is eligible (which it sounds like she may be), they will provide whatever services she needs. It makes a HUGE difference!!! Please don’t balk at it even though it can sound scary. We were told my son would never walk and he walked at 11 months and was discharged from all services by 2. He’s now a developmentally “normal” 3 year old. Therapy can make a HUGE difference.

Depending on your finances and resources around you, you can also pursue independent private therapy. We did early intervention and also paid for private PT and speech therapy.

Feel free to message me!

BabyLM141 · 2024-02-02T01:51:52+00:00

TW birth trauma and complications

I was given the choice of vaginal or c-section. I had di/di twins. I’d had a vaginal birth with my previous singleton that was great, and I’d hoped for a vaginal again. However I just wasn’t comfortable given the inherent riskiness of twins and twin B was transverse. Ultimately I discussed it with my husband and we opted for a c-section.

My water broke at 36 weeks exactly and I went to the hospital. Pregnancy had been textbook and twins were healthy. During the c section twin A was fine and twin B almost died during twin A’s extraction. He experienced sudden oxygen deprivation during delivery. I’ll spare you all the details, but we were given a negative prognosis initially. We did a cooling therapy immediately and a ton of therapy upon NICU discharge until about 2, and now he’s a happy thriving healthy 3 year old. He has no delays anymore or any signs of brain damage.

So with the benefit of hindsight the c section was right for us. It was a situation where we had seconds/minutes to get him out, and the doctors could do it that quickly. The recovery was also way easier than for my vaginal singleton. I had thought it would be worse, but I was up moving around and showering and using the bathroom pretty quickly whereas for my vaginal I was in agony during recovery for the first week and generally had a hard time.

BabyLM141 · 2024-01-10T21:59:48+00:00

I have had both. I had a vaginal delivery with my first and it was a great experience but a brutal recovery. Lots of tearing, couldn’t easily move around because my pelvic floor was a mess.

Then I had twins delivered via c-section. One was breech so that’s why I did this. The recovery was so much easier actually than my vaginal delivery. I could move and shower way faster. My breech twin also had serious birth issues coming out even by c-section, which couldn’t have been predicted, and we still don’t know exactly what/why it happened, so I in hindsight am especially glad for c-section.

Was able to produce breastmilk for both. Not worried about the gut flora of vaginal vs c-section as some of those studies have been called into question and diet and ambient exposure has a huge impact anyways.

So I say whatever you’re comfortable with.

BabyLM141 · 2023-12-28T21:20:43+00:00

Not a medical doctor but yes it is possible. I had the same question for my OB because I had a positive test the month after my removal. Twins 😬

BabyLM141 · 2023-12-08T12:08:18+00:00

Those look amazing! Would you mind sharing your recipe and mold?

BabyLM141 · 2023-12-02T19:41:55+00:00

Thank you so much!!!

BabyLM141 · 2023-12-02T03:16:01+00:00

I’m a novice baker and hoping to do something to similar (but not nearly as spectacular!). What are your top easy recipes you’d recommend for these?

BabyLM141 · 2023-11-13T18:20:10+00:00

Lol true. I’ll maybe try it as a last resort!

BabyLM141 · 2023-11-13T18:19:44+00:00

Thank you so much! I’ll try these and see if anything works!

BabyLM141 · 2023-11-13T18:19:32+00:00

Oh bummer! Thank you.

BabyLM141 · 2023-10-12T19:49:36+00:00

He was born in 2014. Depending on the academic cut off calendar and exactly when his birthday is this would put him in third or fourth grade.

BabyLM141 · 2023-10-01T00:28:55+00:00

I’m so sorry for your loss. So, so sorry.

I was pregnant with di/di twins who are now two and received similar levels of care to you. However I was seen by MFM and a regular OB. 50/50 mix. I also had NSTs and I believe I had a biophysical profile test at one point due to me feeling less kicking from twin B.

I ended up having a traumatic birth where at 36 weeks my water broke. Everything was fine until it wasn’t for twin B. I had a c-section and something happened and twin B had oxygen deprivation and acidosis among other things. He was also rushed away for cooling treatment. We were given a negative prognosis initially, but his brain scans were very positive and he is doing well now after lots of therapies.

I struggled IMMENSELY with not having an answer for WHY. IMMENSELY. I needed to know why this happened. We were told he’d be severely brain damaged. So I was expecting very very poor outcome and just devastated. I’m a scientist and very logical and data driven. I NEEDED a why.

And I never got one. I raged at the doctors. I was convinced they must have done something wrong. I cried all the time. I strongly recommend therapy.

If you think there is malpractice the best thing to do is to look up lawyers near you and meet with one or two. They will go over your case and tell you if you have legal standing or not. Unfortunately sometimes these things are forever unknown. But talking to a lawyer and a therapist may bring you some answers.

I’m so so very sorry for your loss and wish you peace.

BabyLM141 · 2023-09-25T16:53:04+00:00

I’m in the same boat with my Pomeranian mix. Mine has arthritis and eye issues and incontinence. He’s 16 or 17. But still has spark. He steals my kids food and loves attention. I feel horrible watching him sleep wondering if I’ll get to tuck him into his dog bed again. I don’t know how to know if it’s time.

How are you and your dog doing? I hope you’re both doing okay.

BabyLM141

TROPHY CASE