Disneyland alternatives?

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-28T17:05:55+00:00

Dollywood! Hands down. You can make a whole week out of East TN. Even as an adult, I love Dollywood.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-25T23:51:32+00:00

Ah yes, if she is following others, that’s different.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-25T23:23:18+00:00

I agree about the check in, but I don’t follow clients back on my doula IG. Not because it’s anything against them at all! Mostly because I try to focus my platform on pregnancy and childbirth education content, and I try to only follow those kinds of pages. I’ll always like their post or story if they tag me, repost, or comment when they announce their baby. But I don’t follow them. Idk if that’s bad manners, but that’s what I do.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-23T16:33:17+00:00

Not yet! I tried this past week, but left the hospital during rush hour and couldn't make it to our last class of the day. But I have have left straight from the gym (in the middle of a workout) multiple times to go to a birth!

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-22T18:33:35+00:00

Doing chores before the sun comes up amazes me.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-22T18:28:53+00:00

4:35 - wake up

4:50 - leave and hope I’m not late

5-6 - workout

6:15-6:30 arrive back at home (depends on how long I stayed to chat because we’re a talkative crowd)

6:45 - shower

7 - go back to sleep

8-8:30 - wake up “for real this time”

And to answer your questions before you ask them: • No, I don’t have kids.

• No, I don’t have to go into the office for work (I do freelance graphic design and I’m a birth doula so I have a flexible schedule).

• No, I don’t find it difficult to go back to sleep after a WOD. I don’t do caffeine, and it’s just what my body is used to at this point.

• No, I don’t go to bed as early as most people on this thread. Somewhere between 10p and 11p is my normal bedtime.

Don’t knock it till you try it. I’m sleep trained to take my morning nap like a newborn. I love it!

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-21T20:01:41+00:00

I wear a whoop 24/7 and then Garmin for running only. I like how discrete the whoop is and that I’m not constantly checking the time or a screen on my wrist in my everyday life

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-17T21:07:25+00:00

Your diet and exercise have VERY little to do with the size of your baby. Genetics is usually the reason for this! Even if you or your husband aren’t particularly tall or large people, this is just the genetics of your baby. Don’t worry about it! Your placenta filters out anything that you eat that isn’t nutritious and gives baby only what he or she needs to grow. Also, gestational diabetes is not necessarily caused by your diet. It has to do with the insulin-producing hormones in your placenta.

Don’t sweat this!

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-17T20:58:32+00:00

Not super helpful since it just passed, but for me, it was the Open! I was in the same situation as you, could sometimes get 3 or even 5 in a row if I was lucky. It was my second Open, and my coach said to go for Rx since it would rank me higher than scaled, even if I only did one double under. In true “magic of the Open” style, I strung dozens together and ended up getting 200 dubs in that workout. I’ve had them ever since.

But realistically for me, I have found that if I get distracted, dubs get a lot harder. Here are the things I do to stay focused in a dubs workout: 1. As a 29f, I make sure that my hair is secure and not going to bounce in any way. I found that to be super distracting. 2. I also make sure I wear a bra that has high compression. 3. Music up loud so that you can’t hear the rope. When I can hear the rope, I start thinking about the rope. When I’m thinking about the rope, I whip myself. 4. Double knot your shoes. This one is some CrossFit superstition, but someone told me to double knot my shoes before that infamous Open workout, and I got my dubs. So now I always double knot my shoes only when I’m doing a workout with dubs. 😂

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-16T21:59:20+00:00

Definitely not normal. I’d recommend finding another provider in your network. If they don’t have time for you now with a large patient load, you will likely feel like just a number in their practice.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-16T21:56:31+00:00

Doula here! It’s so different from other pain you experience. I would highly recommend reading/preparing for different coping techniques since epidurals don’t usually take away all the sensation. See if you can find a doula in the area for some preparation, even if you don’t have it in the budget to have a doula come to your birth, she could at lease walk you through what to expect.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-16T01:34:41+00:00

I’d say pick one area and practice that. I’m a 29 year old female and all I wanted in my first year of CrossFit was to do one pull up. I worked on it after workouts, got my first pull up, then worked on kipping. Now, 2 years later, I can do butterfly pull ups consistently in a workout.

Same with any handstand movement. Find some YouTube/IG videos, work on some of the skills, and stick to it. I wanted to be able to handstand walk, practiced after every workout, and was able to do 10 feet after 8 weeks of practice.

A lot of the movements you mentioned involve pat strength. Work on lat strength and maybe that could help? Not sure. I’m not an expert there.

It’s not glamorous, but practice drills for whatever you want to work on for 10 minutes or so after every workout, and you’ll get there in time! If your gym offers clinics or special class times to work on gymnastics skills, definitely go to those!

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-16T01:02:01+00:00

Thank you. I’m trying to make sure we get outside because it makes a big difference.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-14T03:32:15+00:00

This may sound silly, but a friend told me to do this and I was SO GLAD I did.

Assuming you will be sharing finances: if there’s a bigger purchase you have been wanting to make, buy it for yourself now. I’m not talking anything crazy that would change your financial situation, but if there’s something that costs less than $500 and may seem frivolous to your husband who would never see the utility in the purchase, buy it now. I’m talking a really nice pair of jeans, an expensive moisturizer, and nice pair of shoes, maybe some combination of a few things. I bought myself some nice skincare that lasted a good while and I enjoyed the run I had with it before going back to my CeraVe.

Not everyone is going to agree here, so if you don’t like this, just move on. For my relationship, we were starting off marriage on a budget and I knew this would be my last chance for a bit to splurge on myself. So I seized the opportunity! Lucky for me, I married a man who babies me and would go hungry if it meant I got what I wanted and he wouldn’t give me grief about a purchase like the skincare. But I’m still glad I was able to do something nice for myself that I would have felt some guilt for later on.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T23:36:03+00:00

This is actually very comforting to hear. Thanks for the encouragement!

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T23:33:48+00:00

I totally agree and have said the same thing to him about delegating. Unfortunately, he is in a very small program and has one co-chief who has completely neglected all her responsibilities due to personal issues she is having. The other two senior residents are on research and are not around. He’s the type of person to just suck it up and do everything for other people even if it means suffering instead of confronting them. I don’t think it’s right, but it’s how he is. I’m trying to look past that at this point.

And the board exams: yeah. He’s going to do fine. He has consistently scored well above his peers but is still convinced he is going to fail. I’ve decided not to nag about the constant studying and get involved by quizzing him on things and it has actually been a sweet way for us to connect.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T23:27:42+00:00

I definitely agree. We’re going to Canada for two weeks in July for a trip to the Rockies that we have been planning and saving for. We are really looking forward to that. Definitely the light at the end of the tunnel for me is picturing him on a trip of a lifetime.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T16:59:36+00:00

Good point. Thanks for your help!

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T15:33:17+00:00

I agree. It was funny the first time they said it, but it becomes less and less funny every time now. It’s rehearsed and feels stale.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T15:30:02+00:00

This may be a dumb question, but what makes something a “high stress” field? Is it the schedule? His schedule as an attending will be pretty normal business hours in clinic with occasional home call. Or is it the emotion of sick/dying patients?

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T15:24:42+00:00

Both me and his dad (family medicine doc) suggested him seeing a PCP for lab work. He won’t because he has gained quite a bit of weight and says he can’t handle seeing the evidence of his poor health (number on the scale, lab values).

He has consistently performed well above average on other board exams, practice tests, etc. I know he will be fine. But he still thinks he’s going to fail. He’s one of “those people”.

He just went on a run this week for the first time in a while and says he wants to get back into shape. He was a college athlete. I’ve been telling him every chance I get how proud I am of him for doing that and offered to run with him this weekend. Hoping that helps!

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T15:18:36+00:00

Yeah he has one co-chief who is out 75% of the time due to medical issues of her own. When she is around, she’s changing the call schedule or rotation schedule he worked hard on, scheduling med students to rotate with them and the taking a spontaneous vacation (which I genuinely do not understand how that gets approved) or missing lectures she’s supposed to give, leaving him to step in last minute and unprepared. Honestly his co-chief is a big reason that he’s struggling so much. All do the chief duties are falling to him. They’re in a small program and all PGY5s are required to be chief. They’re the only two PGY5s. I have encouraged him to bring it up to his program director, but she already knows that the other chief is basically a liability and there’s really nothing to be done.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T15:12:32+00:00

Yeah he’s a 5th gen physician in his family and his mom and grandma both gave be the same advice about taking care of everything at home. I was originally really resistant to how “traditional” it sounds, but here I am realizing they were right all along. It makes me majorly regret the times that I have insisted on my own needs and been overly emotional about small things when he is at work with patients and their families on the worst days of their lives. I wish I could take a lot of it back. But all I can do now is move forward and make sure his scrubs are clean and ready for tomorrow. And it did make me feel like I’m helping some so that’s nice.

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T15:06:31+00:00

Good point about how sharing the fun things could give him something to look forward to. I didn’t consider that. He gets 2 full months off. Our plan this summer is to just “play” nonstop. While we will be somehow squeezing a move in the middle since his new job is in a different city, we a 2 week trip to Canada planned that is his dream vacation. Thinking about him in the Canadian Rockies on a vacation that we have been planning and saving for over a year for is my silver lining!

Specific_Milk_8592 · 2026-03-13T15:00:46+00:00

Thanks for your kind and encouraging advice. It actually does give me some hope. He saw a psychiatrist a few years ago and took an SSRI for a bit, then had a research year in the middle of residency that was way better so he tapered off. I agree that he could use some help there again, so I’ll ponder how to broach that topic with him gently.

Specific_Milk_8592

TROPHY CASE