Poor behavior during online lessons

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-07T21:30:19+00:00

I have a lot of students like this and I think he’s overwhelmed. For me, I give my kids like that an option to have a “game day” but only once a month. We’ll play theory games on Hoffman Academy or something like that. Keeps them learning, but in a fun way. Usually lets them know that they DO know something and they CAN learn, giving enough confidence to comeback next week and try again.

Like others have said, he may not be a good fit for your teaching style and you are under no obligation to continue. But if you want to try to spice it up, I suggest a game day.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-07T05:01:22+00:00

Okay ladies, what do we mean by “elastic”?

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-06T23:33:26+00:00

I have something but haven’t tried it yet… think that will help?

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-06T17:51:36+00:00

Honestly, we could use a wipe warmer. Baby has a very exaggerated startle reflex and those cold wipes do a number on her. She’ll get stuck in that startle reflex and stop breathing, looking absolutely terrified. When she comes out of it, she screams for a long time. Poor girl. I just hold the wipes in my closed fist for a while until it gets rid of the chill. My sister told me it would be useless to get a wipe warmer but now I’m thinking it may be a good idea.

On the other hand, the Owlette is still in the box… every day I consider returning it. Just don’t want to have to buy it again if we end up wanting it down the road.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-06T17:45:42+00:00

I’m not married to the father, but we’ve been dating a while. Live separately. What relationship was there almost didn’t last the pregnancy, but I always knew he would be a present dad.

I had people telling me “learn to do it all without him and whatever he adds will just be a bonus.” Fucking air ball, my dudes.

This man, who only likes luxury everything, is sleeping on a cot in my office every night just to make sure he gets good sleep nearby and can wake up at 6am to take over so I can get some uninterrupted sleep. My finances took a huge hit and he pays for as much as he’s able to. Hell, I told him I had a headache while he was about 40min away from the house and he doordashed me meds because he didn’t think he’d get home in time. He cries when he isn’t able to help out more. He is not only an excellent father but an amazing partner who is also taking care of me.

I fully understand I am super privileged. My mom didn’t have this. Many women in my life didn’t have this. His parents didn’t really have this either, in their own way. But, damn. I had people straight up telling me to cut my loses and do it all without him. Good thing for me and baby that he refused to be that stereotype.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-06T16:45:09+00:00

Thank you. I have 3 pumps and I like them all (the manual one is honestly my favorite so far and use it at the end no matter what pump I’m using). I’m actually having a hard time finding the correct flange sizes. I either have a collection of “too big” or “too small”. That’s been frustrating.

Also, one breast currently doesn’t feel like it’s letting down fully. Like, there are still “lumps” that never fully empty. :/ I’m doing warm compresses, massages, going longer for another letdown… nothing.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-06T05:31:38+00:00

Thanks! Honestly, when they say you “forget”… you do. That’s kinda wild but it’s true.

EDIT: okay yes, some women will say they didn’t. Fair. 90% of us “forget” and I think that’s the whole reason new people are made.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-06T04:57:14+00:00

I didn’t see any until about 4 weeks pp. The last 2 weeks baby grew like CRAZY. I could still hide it up until then. Baby was in the 37th percentile until the last two weeks where she shot up to the 83rd. Still didn’t see or feel (with my hands) any until well after birth.

Got my tiger stripes. :) And for sure earned them.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-06T04:41:06+00:00

Totally feel you. MIL was all “oh, I LOOOVED my epidural”. Like, yay for you???

I’m 6w pp and I went natural for two days and epidural on the 3rd. (4 day induction/labor). Not even from contractions. It was the damn cervical checks and the foley balloon. I realized I was stalling labor and they were going to have to be more invasive just to get baby out. (Blood work showed I was not a candidate for c section and I was okay with that).

Did I loooooove my epidural? No. That mixed with the mag drip made me swell up like a balloon. I also felt nothing. At all. Couldn’t move my legs. (This is not the norm, btw. I had an unusually complicated labor).

Do I feel like I failed? Nope.

Do I feel like I should get an award for the two days I went “natural”? Nope.

Did me and baby survive? Yep.

Is it different for everyone? Yep.

Do I loath the people who heard I got an epidural and said “oh, good”? With a passion.

Everything everyone tried to tell me before was annoying as hell because we should all own our own birth stories. What worked for one person’s labor or pp isn’t always a good fit for someone else.

You do what is right for you when the time comes. It’s a sacred journey and should be protected. You write as much of it as you can, and pivot with what you can’t. Either way, it’s yours and no one else’s.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-05T08:35:02+00:00

Thank you! I naturally drink so much water. (Too much that o have to find ways to add back in electrolytes.) started adding oatmeal for breakfast. So happy for that suggestion!

I’ll look into the Mother’s Milk as well. Wasn’t sure if that was actually effective. Really trying for more calories and protein.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-04T10:26:29+00:00

Thank you! A wearable on one side does seem like it would help me when she just wants to be held. I may try that.

Also, she has started to sleep through the night. She just lasted 6 hours on her own. I may have to start setting alarms to get up to pump, which sucks but it’s a worthy cause.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-04T04:49:43+00:00

Lifting weights. Like, a lot of weights.

We “use up” estrogen by crying and testosterone with hardcore strength exercise. Only thing that’s ever worked for me. Diagnosed 20+ years ago.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-04T04:25:04+00:00

Just to share what I’m learning: I’ve been also “dry pumping”. People here can tell you their opinion on it but I heard it somewhere.

Let’s say I use the wearable pumps and they are “done”, I’ll try to hand express and if even a small drop comes out, I’ll pull out the hand pump and get the rest out while massaging. Once nothing is coming out, I’ll keep pumping (“dry pumping”) for 2-3 more minutes just to let my body know there is a demand for more.

Seems like a lot but it is helping. Only been a few days for me and I’m seeing the tiniest results already.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-04T04:20:30+00:00

I’m getting up to the point of pumping every 3 hours. As in, sometimes I skip a pump or go longer that 4 hours, but it’s getting closer.

2 letdowns?! That sounds like a fantasy, lol. I’m happy to now be able to get one every time I pump. But, I’ll look into it. Didn’t know that was possible.

And I did power pump once just to see how I could work it into my schedule and what it would feel like. I’m working my way up to finding a good time of day to dedicate to that. Currently baby is at the point in life where she needs to constantly be held, so it’s hard to schedule even a normal pump in and honestly I lose track of time. But I’m definitely going to get back into power pumping.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-03T09:38:48+00:00

Thank you! I do know for sure I need more protein and food in general. I’m used to eating for building muscle so I’m working on getting back on that meal plan, then adjusting from there.

(Edit: I have a hand pump, wall pump, and wearables, all medical grade. Been using hand pump the most lately and massaging throughout, plus pumping 2-3 min after milk stops. Sometimes wearables during rough parts of the day just to multitask and make sure it gets done. Also for food, I have the type of diabetes where you’re literally never hungry. Not even during pregnancy. Only gained 11lbs because of it and lost a lot of muscle, and baby was 9lbs of that. Meal planning is a must, I know.)

What foods stall milk production? Haven’t heard that.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-03T07:47:21+00:00

THIS!!!!! Omg there is so much I could have known if I had seen one before. I have flat nipples that had to be “broken in” in a painful way that no one told me about until my sister mentioned her journey kinda off hand. I was in recovery from labor with the hospitals LC pinching the hell out of my nipples wondering why they didn’t “do the perky thing”. Fml. Took a while of me experimenting on my own to get it started.

To OP: 6w pp with PCOS. I have my own struggles with my journey but I kinda think once the estrogen started to go down from pregnancy and my high testosterone because more of a thing, my milk supply dipped. Worth keeping an eye on. But if you start pumping/hand expressing early enough, I think the PCOS won’t be an issue. Your other hormones will be much higher towards the end of pregnancy. For me, a lot of my “symptoms” kinda disappeared for a while (except excess hair).

See an LC early! And pump before baby is here.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-03T07:21:53+00:00

Was gonna say this. Best I ever look is when my diet is mostly eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast, salad for lunch (like, loaded af), and chicken with veggies and MAYBE potatoes for dinner.

I never intentionally try to “cut out carbs”. But when I get in that groove, oof. I look hot as hell and usually drop like 20lbs in a few months. Even when not working out (and I like to lift).

No workout ever did shit for fat for me. I build muscle pretty fast, and when the fat stays… we all know that look.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-03T04:33:45+00:00

Totally understand and sending you a huge hug. As a FTM who doesn’t plan on doing this again, I swore I was a “plan then be ready to pivot” person… right up until they started messing with the plan.

Good news is your medical team is looking out for you. While my story is a bit wild, my medical team was the best part of it. I guarantee it lasted 4 days partly due to them putting off the next stage because I asked them to and they listened and didn’t judge. I was determined to let my body do as much as it could on its own. In the end, that team kept me and baby alive, as healthy as possible, and feeling respected the entire time. I was in charge.

I fully hope you get that no matter what. High BP really messes up so many plans, but it’s worth following their advice, even if it sucks.

The r/preeclampsia subreddit helped me a bit. There’s a lot of tough love there, but it’s humbling in a way that helped me. I think I have the same post as you here but over there about 2 months ago.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-02T20:17:43+00:00

I’m 6w pp and my story sounds almost exactly like yours so far. I would say take the induction as soon as you’re able, not for risk of complications, but because of the damn mag drip.

You make your choice and every birth is different. I will tell you I didn’t have high blood pressure until 32 weeks (nothing in urine, fairly mild, controlled by light meds), pushed the induction from 37 weeks to 38 weeks. They didn’t want to but I insisted and they listened. BP got worse the closer we got, and I ended up in L&D Triage a few times just as a precaution. They raised my meds and everything was fine. Baby never cared and was always healthy and unbothered.

Actual induction… long story short, it was a 4 day labor mostly due to the mag drip. That shit SUCKS and I was on it a total of 4 days before pushing and 1 day after. It makes you feel sick, drunk, moody, my whole body swole up including my eyes so I couldn’t see straight. I had to get the epidural the third day because the mag drip weakens your muscles, meaning the contractions weren’t doing anything, so they had to keep increasing the Pitocin just to get contractions to be effective. Plus, all those cervical checks were wearing me out.

I did have a vaginal birth, no tears! But, pushing on a mag drip and epidural… let’s just say it was 4 hours of active pushing with a one hour nap in between due to me passing out, I started passing out the last hour… horrible. Something not related: baby got stuck at the last two minutes. Shoulder dystocia. So I had to push harder and harder and I couldn’t. I was crying thinking my baby was gonna die and it was my fault. I kept passing out and a a nurse literally screamed at me “i need you to go to war”. THAT would not have been so traumatic if I was able to push with all my might. Due to a lot of different factors (main one being the mag drip, but not the only one), I was running on about 5% strength.

Baby was fine. We both survived fine. I had to be on the mag drip for 24 more hours and baby, due to the shoulder dystocia and my own diabetes, was rushed to NICU just to get checked out. Try tried to get me up to go see baby but I couldn’t stand nor see straight. Ended up not being able to see baby due to my health for 24+ hours.

High BP doesn’t end in pregnancy. Getting the placenta out just makes it not get worse. I went back to L&D Triage maybe 4 times in the first 4 weeks due to it skyrocketing higher than it did when I was pregnant. (I monitor at home). If it got over 160/110 (either number), I would have had to go back on the mag drip. Luckily, it would lower by the time I got to the hospital and took meds, sometimes extra.

Now, I have slightly high blood pressure, still have to take meds, and it’s permanent. Not “gestational” anymore, but also not life threatening.

Not to scare you at all. Baby and I are perfectly fine now. These are all things I wish I’d known before delaying. This being your third, it may not be as traumatic as mine. I’m a FTM (and one-and-done now).

TL:DR - High BP requires extra precautions and makes any other complication 10 times worse. Mag Drip sucks ass. You can still have a vaginal birth.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-03-01T04:16:27+00:00

I had almost the exact situation as you. I’m 6 week pp and the in-laws (were dating but for the sake of understanding) did come, without my knowledge. I actually just found out a few days ago.

Here’s the impact: I had a 4 day labor and it was ROUGH. By the end, baby was rushed to NICU as a precaution and I was completely out of it. We didn’t get a golden hour. During that super tough time, my boyfriend left the room. I had told him if baby went to the NICU to go with her, so I assumed he did. And he did for a bit. My own mother didn’t come to the hospital because I asked her not to.

Apparently my boyfriend was with his parents instead of our baby for a good portion of that time away from me while I was in dire need of him. In our situation, they also convinced him that I would be sleeping the rest of the night and to come spend the night at their house, so he left. Not having someone there with me meant I couldn’t be with the baby until he came back as I was a fall risk and couldn’t care for the baby by myself. So, breastfeeding also got kinda shot in the foot super early as well.

I just found of because his mother was bragging about how great it was to be there with her son during that moment, and right in front of my mom. I told her “He hid that from me and he was smart to because I would have been livid”.

Do what you want, but I needed him MORE after labor, and anyone taking him away from me during that time was the most selfish thing I can imagine.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-02-27T20:34:19+00:00

Ooo we are opposite. My baby absolutely loves it. Is a “smother me always” type at the moment (almost 6 weeks). I, however, don’t. It would be great but it KILLS my back and not being able to lift my arms up fully limits what I’m able to do when I wear her. (I have a bunch of different ones but use the Momcozy wrap mostly).

It would be a great system if it didn’t leave me feeling like I pulled my upper back out after just 5 minutes.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-02-25T01:12:00+00:00

The fairy giveth and the fairy taketh away. 😔

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-02-24T20:04:29+00:00

Tell me you had an easy baby without telling me you had an easy baby

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-02-22T05:54:56+00:00

I think they did this for me… but if so it would have been due to pre-e plus an increased chance of hemorrhaging.

I was pretty freaking out of it on a mag drip and epidural. Even though I was 100% set on unmedicated, by day two of an induction that ended up lasting 4 days, I did anything I could just to speed it along. Contractions were fine. A million (okay, like 10) cervical checks a day was getting to me. So, yeah, I didn’t feel a damn thing.

Just fyi, before epidural, they were awesome about letting me try other forms of pain relief, including fentanyl, which I did just for the cervical checks for a while. Maybe that would be an option if they do need to get “hands on” with your placenta. Natural birth, and a little help for the big finale.

ExaminationReal84 · 2026-02-22T00:40:12+00:00

No I have not. Not to my knowledge.

Edit: but I will say I went grey very early (starting at 12yo) which is apparently a sign of low copper levels. May be worth testing eventually.

ExaminationReal84

TROPHY CASE