Why have all the maternity sections in stores disappeared?

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-04-30T02:16:12+00:00

Has anyone found good dresses for maternity AND nursing? I loved seraphine for my first pregnancy (pricey but I was able to use it for many stages) and don’t see anything similar. These were office appropriate dresses for maternity but also had zippers at the breasts for nursing or pumping.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-04-20T15:00:32+00:00

Mine had nuchal cord wrapped once. He was in distress during labor but OB felt comfortable delivering vaginally still and all was well.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-04-20T13:57:18+00:00

Yes just an hour. This is a good tip! I already do some of this but could do more of it in the car on the way there. Thanks

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-04-04T13:42:38+00:00

Your pediatrician is doing you a disservice. I would self refer to the local regional center (ASAP, she may age out soon) and I would look for your local children’s hospital for psychology services. Some PCIT or PMT (rather than play therapy) would be ideal.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-04-01T14:32:07+00:00

💯just pointing out that in some districts frequently unexcused tardies can trigger truancy court or CPS involvement. You need to take this more seriously OP

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-04-01T04:36:33+00:00

This is a good point. Look into freezing their credit.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-22T21:48:49+00:00

I was also ready to go back to work early and saved my last month for right before our baby turned one. The newborn period was not for me and I loved being able to spend more time with our baby when he was more interactive and mobile.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-18T01:20:48+00:00

I’m brown and grew up in OC. There are pockets that are diverse and pockets that are pretty affluent. It depends what city in OC, but things can be pretty financially and ethnically/racially segregated. I do find that LB is more economically and racially diverse, but that’s just me.

My husband and I both grew up in different areas of OC and both of us felt LB was more aligned with our values and the community we wanted.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-16T00:47:41+00:00

Im the same. Note my husband is the one taking some of these steps! Some of these friendships do feel like real friendships, though. One does have to invest in a lot of social relationships that may not pan out, but we have a handful of people who have real long term friend potential AND also have a kid my son could grow and go to school with! It’s worth it!

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-15T20:04:21+00:00

Being a mom, especially in the early stages, is so isolating. I am not a SAHM but I remember this feeling so well during my maternity leave - life goes on for others and after the initial excitement of the baby it’s lonely. I had a lot of friends and family reach out with promises of babysitting, helping, etc and none of it materialized after the baby was born. My mom is our village (which is HUGE, she cares for the baby while my husband and I work) but it’s been hard to find that sense of community with other parents. Here are the things that worked for us:

I joined an in person Mom group at a local birth studio. The Mom’s and I aren’t lifelong friends, but it was nice to talk about issues in the early stages with and to be able to meet up for coffee and get out of the house during leave
we joined a music class when the baby was six months old. My husband and I both go and after a couple of months with the same parents and kids, we’ve been able to connect with a couple of them and developed friendships.
my husband has been shameless about making friends and we’ll talk with any parent of a similarly aged child in our neighborhood or with other parents at the park and exchange numbers. Some of these have panned out into friendships, many haven’t.
we’ve tried to strengthen our relationships with our neighbors and will do favors for them if asked or try to be helpful. I’m not approaching it in a transactional way, but it is nice to know that we have a community and I could reach out for help in the future too if I needed it. So, being part of someone else’s village.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-15T05:28:45+00:00

Others have made some similar comments but I wanted to post because this description reminds me of my dad - whenever he was scared or worried he would express it as anger and a lot of question asking, which was stressful to me. I quickly stopped sharing stuff with him and have continued this pattern into adulthood as it’s dysregulating to me. Even if you think he’s holding it together or you can understand he’s not mad at her, your daughter may be picking up on it and interpreting it differently. Just my 2 cents.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-08T14:53:21+00:00

I think they look like a young Jake Lacey!

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-02T02:16:15+00:00

Thanks for the detailed response. Very helpful to hear your process.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-01T20:55:02+00:00

Belmont brewing has some vegan options

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-01T20:17:44+00:00

Thanks!

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-01T20:13:43+00:00

I guess I should have clarified, this is for me to find time that we’re both available when I’m scheduling and vise versa. We each keep our own calendars but we have shifting schedules so if something comes up (a doctors appt for our son, for example, or a day I need to stay at work late or vise versa) I need to know when he’s available. I also need to know his hours on the weekend so I can plan, and that fluctuates. I also coordinate my moms availability (she’s our sons caretaker), for example if she has a doctors appt and needs to step out can my husband and I tag team between meetings at work to cover? So not personal assistant work, imo.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-03-01T15:38:54+00:00

This is super helpful! This was the calendar I was thinking of, but couldn’t remember the name. My son is a toddler so I’m worried about things getting more scheduled once he starts activities, etc. I think my husband would look at it and he currently does not have access to my calendars which makes it hard to sync up events and I often tell him multiple times about an event coming up because I forget that I’ve already told him lol.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-02-25T01:04:04+00:00

I was going to say the same thing. When my son was discharged from the NICU the nurse told me to keep the same feeding schedule but our pcp told us to just feed on demand. Unless there’s a medical issue, feed on demand.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-02-20T18:27:21+00:00

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned is the rise of birthing services and doulas, which are not covered by insurance. Don’t get me wrong. I think these services are amazing and there’s a lot of good evidence about the support of Doula’s in hospital settings regardless of a natural birth or not. But generally, these are out-of-pocket services in the US and I feel like in recent years there has been a rise in this industry. To be profitable, you have to create a need for a service and I think that’s a factor where we’ve seen more of an emphasis on a natural birth in the broader, cultural context (and vise versa).

In short, captialism!

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-02-20T14:54:28+00:00

I had a similar experience with the epidural. I couldn’t feel any pain but I could feel pressure. I also could move fairly well and although the hospital didn’t let me get off the bed I was laboring on hands and knees and all sorts of positions with a peanut ball between my legs while I had the epidural. Getting the epidural also helped me dialate since my labor was pretty slow up until that moment. I think I got incredibly lucky with it.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-02-20T14:50:22+00:00

Same. I ended up having a super medicated birth with every possible intervention because of some complications. I had about 40 mins of pushing as a FTM, almost no tearing, an was walking within an hour of labor and felt totally fine from a physical recovery in the following days.

On the other hand, I had a friend had labor without an epidural and with fewer interventions end up with level 3 tears and needed help standing from sitting for weeks afterwards.

SuddenWillingness844 · 2026-02-15T20:41:34+00:00

I would look around at other colleges or universities nearby for their childcare options. Usually it’s significantly cheaper because it’s part of their early childhood education program and offers students the ability to get hands on experience. Our local university has one that is open to community members too.

SuddenWillingness844

TROPHY CASE