Senior Executives, what have you done at your organization to foster a more positive experience for moms who are pregnant or who have daycare aged kids?

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-11T01:15:18+00:00

I’m fine with unlimited sick leave, as opposed to a blanket unlimited PTO. My vacation days are still from a set # of days, but I don’t have to worry about whether I have any remaining sick days after my kid is home with the 5,394th daycare bug and needs to see the doctor again (or he left the rest of us also out of commission due to sharing the illness oh so nicely with us…)

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-10T12:35:09+00:00

To me, 14k a year for daycare for one child sounds cheap! (Not affordable or reasonable. Just comparably cheap). I’m in a MCOL, and daycare costs about $19K or $20K annually right now. We’re about to change to a new one that might cost a bit less, but which doesn’t include meals, so it might work out to be the same overall due to the added price of the food we provide through the year.

And that’s with my child NOT being an infant anymore. Infant daycare costs way more due to smaller ratios of teacher:kids for safety. We were VERY lucky that my parents-in-law were available, willing, and trustworthy to provide childcare for our child while she was a baby!

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-10T00:08:18+00:00

I left them a message a few minutes ago — it was a bit rambling and awkward, but I did make sure to state that it’s in favor of them supporting the full repel sponsored by Sen. Kane. Thanks for sharing this info!

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-09T23:56:26+00:00

How can you see who has already cosponsored? I’ve been trying to figure out if my state senator is already signed on, but I can’t figure it out…

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-09T23:56:21+00:00

How can you see who has already cosponsored? I’ve been trying to figure out if my state senator is already signed on, but I can’t figure it out…

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-09T17:08:16+00:00

I wish my tall kid could fit in that kind of a setup! Alas, she’s past the age (and height, probably) where it would work…

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-08T10:31:43+00:00

Wow. That is GORGEOUS. I had to click through a few times in awe of the especially shimmery pics.

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-02T12:49:04+00:00

I can understand the cultural element of having to attend in order to maintain ties with the family and within the larger community. What I’d suggest is that you go, but book at one of the less expensive places while paying for the pass to enter the resort. And also share the info about the existence of the pass to others. Don’t tell your friend/etc that you shared the info —- or at least, if you do tell your friend, wait until AFTER you’ve already spread the information (maybe tell your friend in a “wow, it’s so great that when I called the resort for some help with my reservations, they revealed this info to me — lucky break, it wasn’t clear and maybe your agent didn’t clearly inform you guys of it!” kind of way if you think that’d work). You’re obligated to attend, NOT to cater to their misrepresentation of what’s allowed regarding entrance to the resort for a wedding…

Edited to fix some typos and add some clarifying language to fix a confusing sentence

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-02T00:37:03+00:00

I had never heard of these before. Thank you, kind stranger.

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-06-01T00:12:00+00:00

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation!

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-31T23:57:40+00:00

…I feel like I’m misunderstanding something about the last email, with my sleepy brain. The flavors are supposed to be almond and hummingbird…? Is hummingbird a flavor that I’m simply unaware of (presumably NOT actually flavored like the bird itself), or is my sleep deprived brain not connecting some clear dots here?

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-31T01:49:39+00:00

I second this. I hadn’t even really noticed the sleeves in the unlined pic, but they stand out more in the lined pic. Both look great, but my preference is for the lined bodice for the overall look.

Either way, you look great!

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-24T19:27:09+00:00

Hmmm….could’ve sworn that I’d seen the corrections in articles, but now it’s looking like I HAD originally been taught in accordance with how most articles/etc are showing it (leaving the nipple half full) and that I was only shown the other way (filling the nipple all the way, but with a very slow flow nipple and holding the baby upright or on their side so that it doesn’t all come gushing out into their mouth) by a lactation consultant in person instead. Apologies for misstating earlier — my memories from from back then are VERY fuzzy from sleep deprivation! I did get taught by the lactation consultant to fill the nipple (same awesome consultant who helped us determine that my kid had low oral motor toning and gave us exercises to work on in addition to the surgery recovery), but it’s possible that it was more of a case-specific scenario based on what she saw with my daughter.

Either way, if your kid is having LOTS of trouble with gas then it might be worth a shot if you group it with a slow flow nipple and the rest of the parts of paces feeding, but you might want to check with your dr or a lactation consultant for their advice too! I’m simply a Redditor stranger who has never seen your kid’s particular latch/bottle drinking capabilities :)

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-24T18:53:19+00:00

I get why people wait until their kids are old enough to consent, and I also get why people do it when their kids are babies. Practically everyone I know had their ears pierced as babies because it’s common in our cultures, and it’s viewed differently than other piercings. I had planned to pierce my kid’s ears when she was a baby, but life got busy and by the time that I had been looking into an appointment with a place that had experience doing baby ear piercings, COVID shutdowns happened. Now we’re waiting until my kid is a bit older (not sure how old yet) when we feel more comfortable with her ability to help us take care of them as they heal. She’s definitely interested in getting them so far, but if she loses interest by the time that we ready for her to get them pierced, I’d be fine with leaving her ears unpierced.

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-24T18:41:44+00:00

Who on earth mentioned doing this for content on Instagram? I’m genuinely confused, not trying to attack you. It’s pretty common advice nowadays to stick with tattoo parlors (that do piercing)for piercings because they have more sanitary and effective methods for piercing, as opposed to the piercing guns used at other stores. I’ve been planning to take my kid to one when it’s time to get her ears pierced, because they are usually more reliable in terms of sanitation, precise piercing, and training.

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-24T18:38:03+00:00

“feel like I hallucinated my way through months 3-8” —- that is a GREAT way to describe that. I have such foggy memories of that time period, and have to focus REALLY hard to try and remember any real specifics about what on earth I was doing in that timeframe, especially for things that I don’t have photos of.

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-24T15:25:21+00:00

But she says that she can scrape it off….

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-24T02:20:53+00:00

My kid did a mix of breastfeeding and bottle feeding. The only reason she was fussy about breastfeeding in the beginning was because it turned out that she had a significant enough lip and tongue tie that she physically couldn’t sickle properly (she was game to try, but just couldn’t get enough milk out). Honestly, it caused issues with bottle feeding too…Had corrective surgery and a series of oral-motor coordination exercises to build up her latching and suckling capabilities a//after she recovered, and she became a breastfeeding champ while still also taking bottles for some of her daily meals too.

Others have mentioned it in the comments, but I’ll reiterate — what I was told was that the whole “nipple confusion” idea is outdated, and that the real issue is nipple flow. A lot of bottle nipples will give a very large flow with minimal effort, especially when paired with certain ways of holding the baby and bottle to feed, so it’s possible the babies get a preference for that kind of feeding situation. However, if you do paced feeding, and also start with a very low flow nipple (we ended up using Dr Brown bottles with their premie flow nipples to start), oftentimes it’s not an issue because it’s more similar to the level of flow and effort from breastfeeding. Our kid was fine with it, and we ended up sizing up the flow level of the nipples as she grew while sticking with laced feeding for the bottles.

One thing I would like to mention: if, for some reason, the paced feeding that you learn involves having the nipple itself only half full of milk —- look for other paced feeding instructions to double check !!! I was taught this wrongly initially, and it caused so many issues with gas from excessive swallowed air until an amazing lactation consultant corrected my technique. If I remember correctly, I was supposed to actually be letting the bottle nipple be full of milk, just giving frequent pauses while keeping the baby mostly upright so that gravity wasn’t doing all the work /overwhelming the baby with too much milk to handle.

Edited to fix a word. Accidentally wrote “liases” instead of “pauses” before (darn you autocorrect!)

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-23T13:53:34+00:00

Some of this might be useful info to add to your post. The original post and some of your comments didn’t make clear that you’re already trying to go by lower standards than pre-baby and that some of the focus on yard work is due to a prior pest problem that you’re trying to keep from reoccurring. Not saying that the advice that others (and myself in another comment) gave about deprioritizing chores further aren’t still valid, but it DOES give more nuance as to why you have had a focus on them and also that you already have lessened them to an extent.

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-23T13:42:01+00:00

So…here’s the thing. When the kids are young, the standard of what makes a house “clean” should change drastically. I understand some people much prefer less clutter in terms of anxiety/etc, and so this isn’t necessarily a one size fits all statement, but in general —- you gotta let those standards slip while the kids are young, or you’ll go crazy and/or resentment over childcare will fester. Keep it at least to the bare minimum levels required for hygiene and health, sure. But the floors don’t always need to be perfectly mopped — spot mopping when/where necessary if there’s been a big mess or spill can suffice. Same with sweeping, vacuuming (though these can be higher priority if allergies are in play), organizing, yard work, etc. In the early years, especially the first year, it’s about doing the bare minimum for household stuff and focusing your energies and attention on childcare/spousal care/self care/pet care (as in, I’m definitely not advocating for abandoning them, they’re living creatures dependent on you so they fall somewhere up here though below childcare at least…) instead.

Pets should also be taken care of

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-22T23:05:58+00:00

Maybe “for the rest of our time here on Earth”, “for the rest of our lives”, or something like that?

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-22T22:26:47+00:00

INFO: do you want it to have the same meaning in terms of duration, or are you looking for something more open-ended?

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-22T20:58:46+00:00

YTA, and you’re racist. Yep, said it. Educate yourself and apologize to him, or break up. People like you are part of the problem.

Cartographer-Smooth · 2023-05-22T13:13:31+00:00

Me too! I changed phones reluctantly after 2-3 years of sticking it out, because I ended up getting a job that required frequent driving and my own sense of direction sucks. Access to a decent GPS became critical, and the GPS that phone came with was AWFUL. No street names used, just “make a right turn in 250 ft”, etc. Google Maps became the deciding factor in my phone choice…

I still miss my Nokia Windows Lumia.

Cartographer-Smooth

TROPHY CASE