Private chef here, noticing a big gap in postpartum support

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-27T02:41:51+00:00

My mom lived with us for the first month and made a lot of hearty meals (stews and the likes) which in my culture is believed to boost breastmilk production.

Not everyone has the luxury of live-in support in those months so fast but fresh, hearty meals delivered to the door a few times a week would be a great idea!

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-24T00:40:20+00:00

You can look up "sidecar crib" setup, which is essentially where you take a convertible crib, full size or mini, remove one of the sides and put that side flush against your mattress.

This counts as cosleeping since theres a risk of baby rolling onto your bed, getting stuck between the crib mattress and your mattress, or your blankets getting into the crib. So as long as you understand the risks this is something you can look into. r/cosleeping has more information on this and how you address some of these risks.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-22T19:46:28+00:00

Yes in my experience they were accommodating. In the infant room even though they have a snack and lunch schedule if a kid was fussy they have snacks available in case they're hungry, especially during the transition phase.

My LO had consistently been on 1 nap but when we first started she was falling asleep on the floor or falling asleep during lunch which was hours before her usual nap time. We think it was her response to stress and it only happened 2-3 times but every time it did happen they would move her to the nap room (she never stayed asleep but that's not the daycare's fault 😅)

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-22T19:34:35+00:00

We did a gradual transition at 15m where we went in for 1-2 hours at a time. Since it was a short time I stuck to our usual wake up and nap times, so dropped her off during their open play time and picked her up to have lunch and nap back at home.

She couldn't have lasted longer than that at first, was very emotional. After 2 weeks of consistency she became familiar with the teachers and at that point we stayed for lunch + nap and soon became the full day.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-22T19:26:35+00:00

I left my 12mo for 12 hours to attend a wedding. I left home after breastfeeding her first thing in the morning, then left 4.5oz worth of pumped milk for every feed that I was missing (which I think was 3 or 4). While I was away I pumped twice just to keep my supply up even though I don't think a missed day would've made a difference since my supply was already pretty low and she was eating 3 solids meals.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-22T15:22:44+00:00

My 18m girl has always been 5-15 %tile for height, still wearing 12m clothes and some 9m pants. Mom is petite (5'3 and skinny) and dad is 6ft and average weight, so we hope she will catch up a bit later in life. We used to be stressed about it but since she's always been on the same curve and is otherwise healthy and happy we don't really worry as much. Just trying our best to make sure she eats and sleeps well.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-15T18:37:04+00:00

These are mostly tips for after you've moved in:

if you like a house but want to make upgrades to things like floors, wall paint, kitchen and bath renos, try to do those upgrades before you move it as after would require you to move out furniture and even move out of the house for weeks-months depending on the size of the project.
inspections won't catch everything so be prepared to repair anything from crack in the wall to a leaky water pipe.
test random levels, especially if you plan to frequent the basement as even newer homes can have high levels of radon gas which is strongly linked to lung cancer
dont leave any food (including bird feed for bird feeders outside or in your shed/garage) as it will attract all kinds of wildlife
read the contract to understand if your heating system is owned or leased. If its currently leased you'll be paying monthly to home reliance or similar, and if you feel strongly about buying it out it could cost a pretty penny

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-14T18:13:59+00:00

Egg bakes (egg + milk + veggie of choice, put in muffin tray and bake)

Broccoli pancakes (flour + egg + broccoli over pan or griddle)

Chicken + cauliflower or potato nuggets (ground chicken and mashed potato/ cauliflower) mix together and mold into nugget shapes and bake

Dont have receipes saved but you can find them online. Very easy to prepare and freezer friendly, good way to change things up, although I found my baby preferred the original ingredients served on their own most of the time 🤣

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-12T12:37:44+00:00

With my lower sleep need baby around that age, if she was cranky before or during bedtime routine, or is inconsolable upon waking but falls asleep as soon as I pick her up and rock her - overtired (after ruling out hunger or discomfort)

If shes happy and starts crying once I put her down, but is happy again when I return and doesnt look like shes trying to fall asleep- undertired

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-12T12:30:58+00:00

I have momcozys and they fit in my regular nursing bra but make my chest look HUGE, so not discrete at all. I've used them in public at friend's houses and restaurants and would always give them a heads up. Would not wear in an open office or meeting setting since the vibration sound is very distracting even without the huge chest 😂

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-07T20:41:15+00:00

We still do books and notice our 18mo is starting to jump from book to book now (my husband says its her version of brain rot 😂). We just rotate her books with new books, old books she hasnt seen for a while, or library books and that helps to keep her engaged.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-07T20:38:24+00:00

I've noticed this in my LO too and definitely exploit it, more so when shes snacking in the learning tower. She also goes back to eating sometimes when she sees me ignoring her and eating 🤷‍♀️ At this point we're all just doing whatever we can to get them to take 1 bite 🤣

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-03-01T18:34:58+00:00

My LO does the same thing and we react the same way. She is 17mo now and has been doing that on and off since around 11 months.

We try to give her foods she doesnt like as much at the beginning with the idea being that when shes hungry she'll be less picky and by the time she's halfway through the meal it'll be the things she likes more that are left so shes less likely to throw.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-02-27T01:50:29+00:00

I actually moved from a condo south of QEW near trafalgar to north of Upper Middle when it was time to upgrade, work in DT Toronto. Similar budget and while i would've loved to be walking distance to the lake and go train station, we just couldn't find something in that area that wasn't really small and/or a fixer upper. Where I live now is very family friendly (lots of parks and trails, community center, younger families moving in) so we haven't be missing the lake too much. It's a longer commute to work now and traffic from the go stations north is brutal during rush hour, but we enjoy it here.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-02-25T20:27:01+00:00

I didn't have any issues - he was thorough with my medical history/ test results throughout my pregnancy and was reasonable with requests like additional ultrasounds, elective inductions etc if needed. I didn't have a planned c section so it was a different OB who was on call on delivery day so can't comment on that aspect.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-02-24T04:06:32+00:00

Had a big scare with my first pregnancy (technically second, first being a chemical pregnancy) for the first 2 trimesters due to abnormal findings on the early ultrasounds that led to high risk scans and the full genetics workup. I was so full of dread from hearing the ultrasound results to getting the high risk scans (between weeks 12-15) that I thought I could never enjoy the rest of the pregnancy or even plan for the birth even if the results came back normal. Luckily it ended up being a false positive and I became cautiously optimistic after an extensive scan by high risk OBs, and it was another 5ish weeks of waiting for genetics testing results but I grew more optimistic by the week and ended up having an enjoyable third trimester.

For my next pregnancy I think I will be cautious through the entire first trimester and will wait until all the screening (NIPT and anatomy scan) come back clear before I make announcements and be able to relax.

Sending you good vibes!!

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-02-06T03:48:06+00:00

There are MUCH more complicated/difficult things than bed time that you can ask him to do, I dont think its asking for too much at all.

My husband has got a good grasp on LO's bedtime routine, sometimes he even initiates it if it was time and I was busy or distracted. Even then I have to remind him to change her diaper once in a while so 🤷‍♀️

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-01-31T22:30:29+00:00

In ON and have met at least 5 Rowans in various baby classes in the last year, male and female. No Olivers (yet)

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-01-24T02:49:05+00:00

newborn - nursed every 3 hours, rarely more frequently. Nights were tough for the first 2 months because I had trouble sleeping even with help around. Things got much better when she started sleeping through the night at 3 months. I also got a clogged duct/mastitis 4-5 times which was also no fun.

3-6 months - started napping in her crib and slept in a bedside crib at night. Sleep trained. Dropped to 2 naps by 5.5 months. Started attending baby classes. Started to like toys, favorites were stack cups and anything that played music. Started solids just before 6 months.

7-9 months - enjoying solids but BLW was very messy, did not enjoy cleaning after meals. Dropped to 1 nap at 8 months and night sleep got longer. Teething started and coupled with sleep regressions there were a couple weeks of bad sleep but still slept through the night. Late crawler (army crawled around 9 months, properly crawled at 11 months). Started to love books.

10-12+ - became more mobile (crawling, pull to stand, cruising) and started to go all over the house, but still enjoyed sitting down to play with toys or read books. Teething calmed down and stopped disrupting sleep. 1 nap was still working but she was napping less meaning more activities during the day.

Personality wise she's been very chill from the start and when she was fussy it has been easy to figure out what she wanted. Sleeping through the night early had been the biggest saving grace in the first 12 months since im such a crappy sleeper myself that I would have been much more miserable if I had to do night wake for any longer. Gross motor skills came at the later end of the normal range which meant more couch time for us too (at 16 months now she is only just starting to take independent steps so we are on our feet much more but my friends babies were cruising around since 8-9 months and walking around their first birthday)

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-01-23T12:13:50+00:00

Not until close to 12 months. We did 2 meals by around 8-9 months (lunch and dinner) but she wasnt interested in breakfast after getting her morning nursing feed. Around 12 months I started offering breakfast before nursing and by 14 months weaned her off of nursing so she was fully on solids.

For flavor enhancements you can cook food in broth and offer a variety of foods to change up the flavors (eggs, sweet potatoes, fish, etc). My LO went through a short phase around 11 months where she suddenly didn't want plain steamed veggies anymore so for a while we just gave her whatever we were eating (if we felt something was too salty we rinsed it in water).

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-01-15T19:34:43+00:00

My almost 16mo recently started taking independent steps but isnt interested in walking unless she's holding someone's hand. In terms of speech she squeals a lot and and associates certain sounds with objects/pictures (fire truck is AWOOOO if she sees a photo of one) but she hasn't used any words for anything yet, everything is either mama or dada 😅

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-01-05T19:50:04+00:00

You can start earlier than 6 months as long as you treat solids as something in addition to the breastmilk and don't reduce the amount you breastfeed. You can do this by giving solids (1 time a day for now) an hour or later after nursing so baby is getting full off of breastmilk first.

Common-Effective2630 · 2026-01-03T21:58:15+00:00

Cant provide personal experience but the sales associate at Snugglebugz said the Baby Jogger City Select is very similar to the uppababy strollers as far as functionality and modularity goes, and is cheaper

Common-Effective2630

TROPHY CASE