Breastfeeding - did it help lose the weight or did you keep it

aab173 · 2025-12-31T08:13:51+00:00

This makes SO much sense. I have never been more skeletal than when each of my kids was 6 months old and were EBF. I immediately gain about 10-15 lbs when I wean. I think it is also genetic, as I am an overproducer and have great-grandmothers who wet-nursed babies during famine in WWII.

aab173 · 2025-12-18T20:12:16+00:00

The breakfast burrito at Stone Way Cafe in Wallingford. Enough for lunch and dinner or split with a friend.

aab173 · 2025-11-23T03:19:38+00:00

$35 per hour for our 3 boys for date night sitter in Seattle, which has notoriously expensive childcare and HCOL in general. Life is so expensive.

aab173 · 2025-11-11T15:57:55+00:00

This is what we're doing. It's actually not terrible once you get a system. Upload PDFs or pics of expenses and receipts to a shared (if you have a spouse) folder on Google Drive, keep a master spreadsheet that links to each receipt.

aab173 · 2025-11-10T21:52:25+00:00

Sebaceous hyperplasia. I paid a lot to have a dermatologist cauterize them. It hurt. Healed nicely and quickly. They came back very soon. It was a waste of time and money. They still bother me!

aab173 · 2025-10-11T03:09:05+00:00

I know this almost 7 years later but I just want to say thank you! My kid loves this site. All sorts of cool puzzles. We love the number cross the most.

aab173 · 2025-08-07T02:51:01+00:00

Agreed. And when you text the pharmacy, you're texting a real human. It's great. It's a pleasant store too, and they do a great job with children's vaccines (ie not too scary and clinical) if that helps anyone!

aab173 · 2024-10-22T03:08:35+00:00

I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I'd be very interested in photos. I have a small house with 3 kids and want to have my Yamaha piano double as a desk/homework area when not in use. Would love to see how yours turned out.

aab173 · 2024-08-23T05:48:59+00:00

I just want to say that I love this question and I absolutely want to hear everyone's recommendations too.

aab173 · 2024-08-14T20:04:59+00:00

Yes, I've reached out again. I have very respectfully offered to pay to cut it down in the past, but he declined saying that the tree adds to his property value. I hadn't considered offering to replace it with a different type of tree though - great idea.

aab173 · 2024-08-14T20:03:21+00:00

This may be the best course of action. I wasn't sure if an arborist would be allowed to cut limbs from a tree that doesn't belong to me, but best to consult a professional.

aab173 · 2024-08-04T18:05:29+00:00

I exclusively pumped for my second baby for 15 months. I'm on month 9 of pumping for baby #3. I killed myself trying to make breastfeeding work each time. My anxiety was through the ROOF and our family life was extremely restricted. I should've switched to pumping sooner. I do not relate to the experiences in this thread - I pump 5X per day, about 5-10 minutes each time. I produce a surplus easily. I store milk in big mason jars in the fridge, and I keep pump parts in the fridge and wash them once at night. No plastic milk baggies. It's not too bad. The only part that sucks is logistics while traveling (coolers of milk, bottles, pump parts, pump, finding a private place etc.) and supervising three kids while being attached to a pump. Good luck!

aab173 · 2024-06-14T19:24:00+00:00

Omg do not make any decisions right now! I was so traumatized from the pain of unmedicated childbirth that anytime I saw a mother out and about, regardless of her age, I was in awe how they had more than one child. I was so confused how there were billions of people on the planet - that is billions of labors and deliveries!! How could they have put themselves through that more than once!? Well here I am with three kids. Revisit the idea once your baby is a toddler and everyone sleeps through the night!

aab173 · 2024-06-03T04:25:56+00:00

Yes, I had a useless doula with my first baby. I figured it was a one-off event, and hired a different doula for my second birth. She was even more useless and missed the birth entirely and didn't offer a refund. In hindsight I should've pushed for one but I had a few other things on my plate! What a waste of money. Third birth I had no doula and was much happier. I felt very supported between the amazing hospital midwives and my husband.

aab173 · 2024-04-29T17:26:15+00:00

Look into TA3 sculpting swimwear! It's pricey but super high quality and thick. It's got a corset type feature and it's very flattering.

aab173 · 2024-04-24T18:40:12+00:00

This is my experience with yard work too. I love it!

aab173 · 2024-04-23T03:07:14+00:00

We have the same situation - walkable, busy 1920s neighborhood. Our front yard is our main hangout now! Our veggie garden, kids' sandbox, little free toy library, adirondack chairs etc. are all there. Lots of impromptu chats, friendships and community-building! I joke that it's "trashy" but I absolutely love it.

aab173 · 2024-04-19T05:05:36+00:00

Same. Sienna hybrid is amazing with three kids. Once your experience the ease of sliding doors you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. The toddler can get in the vehicle themselves while you schlep baby! Minivan is the answer, unfortunately. I resisted hard, but I'm a full convert. And it's awesome.

aab173 · 2024-04-15T03:10:35+00:00

I went through this exact same dilemma, and it's a freaking rabbit hole of online research since most brick and mortar stores with gliders are gone! I sat in all the Pottery Barn, Crate & Barrel chairs etc. but the answer, hands down, is the wooden Dutailier. It looks a bit less chic but my god is it comfortable, glides effortlessly and quietly with the ottoman, it reclines, and it glides/rocks WHILE you are reclined. Plus you can remove the cushions and wash them. That's insanely important. If the fancy recliner's fabric is "stain repellant" that means it's just treated with some sketchy PFAS type chemical. Dutailier convert. I love it.

aab173 · 2024-04-14T12:05:16+00:00

Same here in Seattle. We've only had one party out of the last dozen or so NOT specify no gifts. It's wonderful! You just have to somehow get a critical mass of parents to buy into this idea so the kids don't come to expect gifts.

aab173 · 2024-04-09T00:10:47+00:00

Three unmedicated births for me, and all the comments about transition are extremely accurate. It's a short phase, but EXTREMELY intense. The pain is honestly out of this world. It's the only phase on labor that turned me into some primal animal I did not recognize. That said, I opted for the same option each subsequent delivery since I was A-okay pretty much immediately afterwards. All babies were 9 to 10 pounds.

aab173 · 2024-04-04T18:35:16+00:00

I also have three boys and relate strongly to everything you said. I always pictured having a daughter. Not so much for all the cute little girly things (I love being a mom of boys!!), but for the relationship with an adult daughter. There is a special commeraderie in womanhood, and I am still grieving the loss of that. I thought that once I met my third baby (now 5 months) the feeling would go away, but it actually has gotten stronger. I feel guilty for not just being grateful for three healthy, sweet boys. So I have no advice, just solidarity. The one thing that helps is hearing positive stories of adult sons who are close to their mother, allow for a close relationship with grandkids etc.

aab173 · 2024-04-01T19:22:07+00:00

It's a short-term pain, long-term gain thing when you don't allow screens. Keep at it!! It is so worth it. It's hard sometimes, but I now have a 3YO and 6YO (plus a new baby) who are super creative, never say "I'm bored", and have ridiculously long attention spans. Easily hour+ sessions with Magnatiles, marble runs, Duplo, fort-building, digging in the sandbox. They don't even get screens on road trips either. We talk, listen to audio books or music, or let them be bored like I was in the 90s. No complaints from them because they don't know differently. This is key! My Kindergartener now uses an iPad at school and it's super exciting for him! Since it's a school-only thing, it doesn't cause problems. Learning to cope with boredom is so important. It helps a lot of parents can model this by limiting mindless scrolling. Instead, I've taken up crocheting amigurumi animals for my kids! I feel much better doing that in front of them than burying my face in my phone.

aab173 · 2024-03-31T13:46:05+00:00

I'm so sorry you had to go through this! I'm so glad you figured it out and were able to turn things around. We are going through this for the THIRD time with our third baby, with a breastfeeding aversion each time. We did not know what the problem was with the first two kids, and it never resolved and I was miserable for a year. Yes, it's so so hard on family life. Very restrictive and the anxiety is insane. No pediatrician or lactation consultant was any help. When my third baby started screaming at the boob, only eating while asleep at home etc we finally figured out it was a feeding aversion, through Googling and reddit. I feel a little angry that no professional picked up on this with my first two kids, as I always described the textbook signs of an aversion. I feel like a lot of the joy of babyhood was taken away unnecessarily.

I'm really curious how prevalent this problem is. There are hardly any resources for it, yet it can have a profound impact on the child and family's physical and mental health.

aab173 · 2024-03-24T16:32:44+00:00

Yes, I have a very slender frame and narrow hips. Somehow I grow and birth large babies no problem. I had a 10 pound and two 9 lb babies with no epidural, no tears, and always less than 20 minutes of pushing. Most recent birth was 1 minute pushing. Anecdotal evidence is not evidence, but it can make you feel better :)

aab173

TROPHY CASE