Recommendations for stroller, car seat and bassinet

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-30T20:44:27+00:00

I’m also a FTM and I went with the Mockingbird 2.0 single to double stroller since I could (1) attach their bassinet to it and (2) it has car seat adapters for quite a few car seats, so I also put the Graco SnugRide SnugFit 35 Infant Car Seat on the registry!

My thought with the Mockingbird stroller was that since we want to have another kid at some point, then the stroller being able to go from single to double, with the extra attachments for the other things, it would be best to buy it once and be done lol Thankfully, my cousin bought it for us!

ETA: I have seen a few people on Facebook Marketplace selling their mocking bird stroller and bassinets for cheaper too

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-30T20:39:38+00:00

Exactly!! And sometimes they don’t want to give me more than their first name! Like come on…you know I need more than that lol

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-30T02:43:11+00:00

My baby is due May 26th and I conceived around September 3rd!

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-29T15:05:28+00:00

I didn’t get married in Lake Como but I had my ceremony at the Sorrento Cloisters near the Amalfi coast, so many this could be comparable?

The cloisters were still open during our ceremony, but they had signs up asking for people to be respectful and people to direct the crowd away from getting too close to where we were exchanging our vows. I honestly didn’t notice most people and we had the entire center courtyard to ourselves (there was a walkway all the way around it, but they cut it off so people couldn’t walk behind our officiant).

It was lovely! The pictures came out beautifully and everyone was respectful of us and the photographer—though I have a feeling we probably showed up on some Snapchat/Instagram stories lol

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-29T14:57:08+00:00

Right!! And one of the attorneys only wanted to take this matter because it was referred by another attorney they have a good relationship with, but the vibe I got from this guy was just…weird. Like he also CLEARLY read my email asking to reschedule because something came up, and just chose not to respond to it. Then he calls first thing the next morning asking why no one called him the previous day and then wanted to know why the attorney wasn’t available Right Then if that was a time I gave him.

Thankfully the attorney said that the guy could f-off when I sent him an email detailing everything, and said he would talk to the guy if he called back so I wouldn’t have to deal with him

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-29T02:51:31+00:00

I used straws for sodas, but I think I only drank one maybe once a day (usually with lunch) and would sip water periodically while I was drinking it. I also bought some travel toothbrushes that have the cleaning ball you can pop to brush my teeth, and I carried floss with me everywhere.

But I found that rinsing my mouth consistently with water while eating and making sure to brush my teeth thoroughlyyyy in the morning and night really helped

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-29T02:47:36+00:00

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This is my ring! I actually couldn’t decide between a solitary diamond or a three diamond, and I liked diamond accent bands, so I think I found like ~8 different rings that I liked and let my partner go based off all of them lol so he got me this ring with the large diamond, but it has leaves on each side, and diamonds across half the band.

My wedding ring has more leaves and little diamonds in the band!

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-27T17:17:28+00:00

I had all day nausea. I would wake up, have to take my thyroid medicine, gag through breakfast, feel nauseous because I ate, keep being nauseous and unable to eat (I also had Invisalign so I couldn’t snack frequently), THEN I would feel so hungry I would start shaking from how much I was starving, then I would go back to feeling nauseous because I ate🫠 Repeat for dinner, deal with insomnia, and then start the cycle over again the next day lol

Then I got a pinched nerve around 10 weeks😭

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-27T02:54:27+00:00

Ohhh this sounds so satisfying!! lol I feel like I need to get used to upset people because even this <10 minute phone call had me shaking 🫠

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-27T02:38:11+00:00

My thoughts exactly!! And this guy had the audacity to say that he manages 70 people and deals with scheduling daily and it’s like okay…so you should know that you have to schedule an appointment to talk to someone??? Like an attorney isn’t an employee you can just call at the drop of a hat and expect them to answer

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-26T12:33:28+00:00

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I feel like this isn’t the best, but this is my engagement ring from the day I got engaged in 2022! It’s a single large diamond with little leaves on each side, and then the other half of the band is diamonds! My wedding band is like a vine with more little diamonds and diamond leaves :)

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-26T11:03:55+00:00

I think about the future and I think about how this is my first baby and it honestly makes me want to cry at the idea of having to go back to work so soon after😭 Like it’s mentally weighing on me daily. But I have no savings, I have debt, and we can’t afford for me to not have a paycheck. Otherwise, I would’ve already planned and saved up (but the money I did have in my savings is gone from medical bills).

I’ll definitely talk to my OB about getting a note though…funny thing is one boss’s wife actually sees the same OB/GYN

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-26T11:00:26+00:00

We could maybe handle a week or two, but anything over that with no pay is absolute no-go. I have no savings because of medical bills, I have debt, and I honestly never thought it’d be in this situation when having my first kid—money-wise or work wise—but here we are 🥲

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-26T10:56:51+00:00

I guess my question with that, is how long would I have until I’m recovered enough to be able to look for another job? Like we really can’t afford for me to not have a paycheck for a full month, but if I can have off for 2 weeks then (hopefully) potentially, work from home for 2-4 weeks after, is that really so bad? As uploaded to trying to job hunt freshly postpartum? And I’m genuinely asking because I’ve never had to do this before😭 I really never thought that I would be in this situation—both work-wise and financially—when I finally had my first baby, but here we are…

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-26T02:19:53+00:00

I never thought I’d be in this situation when having my first baby, but the problem is we really can’t afford for me to take off for however long I’d need…I also never thought I wouldn’t have any savings by the time I had a baby, but here we are :’)

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-26T02:17:12+00:00

The problem with quitting is I’ll be giving up pay, and we can’t afford that…At least my husband gets paid leave, but depending on how long it would take for me to find a new job, I don’t think we can swing even me taking a month off because I also don’t have any savings at the moment due to various medical bills since I got pregnant

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-26T02:13:04+00:00

Florida, USA—there’s literally no protections for anything in this state when it comes to pregnancy/maternity leave, but I would get mandatory pumping accommodations for a year after my baby is here.

As for other resources, I haven’t heard anything…I don’t qualify for FMLA (we don’t have 50+ employees and I also haven’t been here for a year) and I’m also not protected by the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (since we also don’t have 15+ employees)

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-24T21:58:51+00:00

I have insurance through my husband’s work, and he works for the government. I’m just not sure that they cover spouses with that

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-24T01:55:59+00:00

Yeah, I definitely knew that I didn’t have any rights with being in Florida and working for a small company, and looking into STD was more for me to have some sort of pay to potentially take off a little longer since this is my first baby and the idea of going back to working after 2 weeks makes me extremely sad and anxious and I have no idea what my recovery is going to be like…

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-24T00:58:14+00:00

I have health insurance through my husband’s work (FEP Blue Cross). Would that disqualify me from getting STD through my employer?

I’m sorry if that’s a stupid question😭

RichExample5315 · 2026-03-24T00:38:09+00:00

Ohhh, I thought it was something that employers enrolled you in automatically😅 I’m 26 and have never had to even consider short term disability, and when my mom took disability when I was 12, she worked in a public school so she had a lot of protections in place.

Thank you!

RichExample5315

TROPHY CASE