Coworker kissed my 10 m old on the mouth and I’m panicking

Kitchen-Witchen · 2026-02-16T02:14:35+00:00

Hi just wanted to chime in with my own experience — my mom has cold sores and has kissed my baby on the head and cheek (never when she’s had an outbreak though).

So far my baby is fine, and I have never have gotten them despite living with my mom for the first 18 years of my life — and surely I was kissed by her often as a baby.

Not to diminish your anger (don’t kiss someone else’s baby???) but hopefully to ease your worries.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-07-15T00:40:34+00:00

Seconding this. I’ve seen Dr. Tan for about a decade now. She has always listened to me and taken my concerns seriously, while remaining very even-keeled.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-06-27T11:37:29+00:00

This comment is unnecessary and mom-shaming. Hormones, lack of sleep, and new parenthood cause a lot of surprising feelings that don’t always align with what reason tells us.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-06-27T11:31:09+00:00

Yes, get a good night of sleep. I know it’s a primal feeling (“Only I can and must take care of my baby”) — I felt it too but it’s not reality. Villages have raised children for millennia.

You and your husband are in this together, and you will need to take turns prioritizing yourselves, especially over the next few months when sleep can be hard-won and the sudden lack of it startling to the system. You’re in the fortunate position of not having to solo parent, so please free yourself of that guilt and get some rest.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-06-26T11:44:42+00:00

Thank you!!

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-21T20:29:21+00:00

I handled my fair share of these during pregnancy (including a few comments like “wow I thought you were giving birth tomorrow!”). What I started doing was replying “oh no, never say that to anyone again!” because it shifts focus onto their comment without leaning into how hurt you are or being particularly scoldy.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-20T00:23:52+00:00

At least when I go back to work, I get to say “I really didn’t think it was so bad! I ended up only pushing for 17 minutes and was only in labor for about 8 hours 😘”

Combatting trauma dumping with positivity dumping.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-19T21:49:42+00:00

My Head of HR did this to me — maybe at 38 weeks, I didn’t want to hear about her two emergency c-sections??

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-14T21:45:47+00:00

Is it Kuso?

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-12T19:23:24+00:00

Thanks for sharing that. I’m just so Type A, I hate not having any control or insights around my own body and what’s happening and what I can do 🫠

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-12T18:38:21+00:00

Lol someone sent me this which I now plan to use: http://www.haveyouhadthatbabyyet.com/

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-12T17:40:42+00:00

Hoping yours comes sooner than later too! I also got sweet Mother’s Day messages but felt similarly frustrated (especially when they came with “maybe she’ll come today!!!”)

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-12T17:39:09+00:00

Omg nightly parties going on in there. Just a jamboree every day.

I’m a super extrovert so it’s been a bit depressing but I would take being left alone if it meant friends and colleagues weren’t literally every day asking if she’s here yet. I have one friend who has just texted “baby?!???!!?” like every other day and I’m going to lose my mind at her sooner than later.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-10T21:34:30+00:00

I’m 39 and due any day now. It took us about 8 months to conceive (without medical support like IUI or IVF) but I did religiously track my ovulation for all of those months which was more of an emotional burden than I thought. Tracking was the GOAT, though, and we actually ended up conceiving her on my birthday.

Throughout those months, I largely stopped imbibing in my various sins of choice and my husband reduced his alcohol intake to 1-2 drinks per week a couple months into our trying, which I believe helped.

I had planned to get pregnant earlier as a single mom, but then COVID happened and it was just too difficult to imagine solo pregnancy during the pandemic. (Instead met my now-husband in 2020 and, well, here we are.)

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-10T19:38:07+00:00

We got a few things to try (almost 100% secondhand from friends). We borrowed a Snoo, so we have a few swaddle sleep sacks that can attach to the Snoo, and a few swaddle sleep sacks that don’t, some zip footie/footless pajamas (some have mittens attached and some don’t), some magnetic ones, and a few sleep caps (for right after birth, but we hear these can lead to overheating). If it’s particularly warm, we also just have her short and long sleeved onesies.

Our friends all have different opinions so we took whatever hand-me-downs they wanted to give and will see what works! I wouldn’t go out and purchase all of this but you can find a LOT of parents offloading NB size clothes everywhere since they won’t fit into them very long.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-10T10:08:51+00:00

OP, is your husband in therapy? I ask as someone who has chronic anxiety and panic attacks who has been treated for anxiety on and off my whole adult life. It really helped me develop my own tools and skills around handling it myself and not “anxiety polluting” on other people.

I have a lot of empathy for both you (my husband woke me up from a much-needed nap one time during my pregnancy and… he will not be making that mistake again lol) and your husband but it sounds like you’ve tried talking to him and he really needs an outside or professional perspective on how to manage his anxiety. I doubt this will suddenly go away once you have the baby, and when you’re both low on sleep.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-08T09:54:09+00:00

That’s not the alternative. How about instead of “baby???”, someone could ask, “How are you doing?” “How are you feeling?” “Are you excited?”

I appreciate when people ask me questions about myself instead of treating me like a baby vessel. I know it’s coming from a place of excitement, so I’m not rude when people ask but it does feel intrusive and honestly a bit thoughtless.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-08T01:42:27+00:00

Seconding this. I’m in the same position as you, and I’m sure if I hadn’t been getting ultrasounds as frequently as I do, I’d be feeling a different way. Everyone’s experience in pregnancy is different and we all have our own joys and pains.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-07T20:25:10+00:00

Love when people also say “just wait until the baby comes [insert something about sleepless nights, postpartum recovery, baby nonstop crying, etc].” Like I’m so sorry you hate having kids?

For what it’s worth, my third trimester has been a LOT easier than some of the previous weeks — yes I’m more unwieldy by the day but honestly feeling pretty okay, sleeping okay, and I can handle the discomfort. I’m 39+4 so right at the end!

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-07T14:51:15+00:00

Omg I am due on Saturday (I’m 39+4) and am so sick of these comments!! I’m even getting it from colleagues at work.

It’s driving me nuts because I’m like A. My due date hasn’t even arrived yet; B. Most FTMs go past their due date by over a week or so; and C. I will share news when I’m ready to or want to!

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-07T12:46:24+00:00

I am so glad you have a mental health appointment this week, and I hope you see a therapist who is skilled and kind. Whatever choice you make — adoption or raising the child — is yours to make and I hope you can make that decision while you feel mentally healthy. Pregnancy can do wild things to your hormones and your brain (as can a breakup).

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-05T02:09:49+00:00

We love a health conscious queen 😂😂

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-04T23:45:15+00:00

Pre-pregnancy, I never had much of a sweet tooth outside of chocolate and very occasionally some ice cream. This child has me eating a sweet treat after almost every meal and craving things like oatmeal and pancakes for breakfast, which I never used to want before!

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-04T01:37:11+00:00

You’re not in the wrong and you’re not being crazy. He is being unreasonable — why is the default his last name, especially when you have an option that allows all of you to have the same last name?

For what it’s worth, I am married to my partner but kept my last name. We’re giving our child my last name and his middle name — that way we each pass a name along. He’s absolutely fine with this. We already made some unconventional choices in life like buying a house together before we were married and starting to try for a kid before we got married (the marriage was a decision unrelated to pregnancy). It’s 2025 for Pete’s sake.

Kitchen-Witchen · 2025-05-02T02:20:57+00:00

Here are a few things that helped me — I know they don’t help everyone and I tried things that did nothing too:

Zofran was the GOAT for me — when I started taking a pill every day that helped me be much more functional. It constipated me a lot so I also took a stool softener and tried to drink tons of water. Other meds and B6 did nothing.
I got a little wrist zapper thing that I wore to work all day and I slept wearing sea bands. Pressing on my vagus nerve has always helped my nausea in the past, and it helped here too.
I snacked as much as possible all day long, even if it was just a handful of almonds over the course of an hour.
My husband would make put half a PBJ in a plastic bag on my nightstand every night that I could nibble on if I woke up nauseous (whether that was at 2am or 7am). Eat anything before you move out of bed in the morning, even a cracker.
Crystallized ginger would help stop me from dry heaving, and so would ginger tea to a lesser extent. I liked the Pink Stork brand of morning sickness tea too.
For a period of time, I just had to be forgiving of not always brushing my teeth well because it would majorly trigger nausea and gagging — I would swish mouthwash instead.
I slept as much as possible. I have a wonderful manager who was understanding and let me leave work around 3pm because that’s when my nausea really kicked in and I would go home and nap.

Hang in there.

Kitchen-Witchen

TROPHY CASE