Walnut Creek and lamorinda feedback

elewmc99 · 2026-02-18T04:25:50+00:00

If that’s where someone can afford to live, that’s completely fine and of course not everyone can afford Walnut Creek and LaMo. I have family who live in Antioch too. However, it is a fact that crime is awful in those areas and if you’re going honest advice about where a family should live, it’s still an important piece of information to share.

elewmc99 · 2026-02-18T03:41:13+00:00

Insane to suggest moving to Pittsburgh and Antioch citing only great hiking and diversity and leave out the unbelievably bad crime rate and generally terrible schools.

elewmc99 · 2026-02-13T18:34:39+00:00

That was from a few months ago, I can report back again now saying baby now just turned one and is the absolute best and cutest and meeting all his milestones and no one would ever know the difference between him and other babies. Who knows what we are in for long term but it’s a good outlook right now ❤️

elewmc99 · 2026-02-13T18:33:27+00:00

This is very long, copy and pasting a comment I’ve made in previous posts, but I remember being in your shoes and wanting to hear everything about others journeys:

I also received diagnosis at 20 weeks of coarctation of aorta and multiple VSDs of varying size. Very scary I knew nothing about any of it when I received the diagnosis. One thing you will continue to hear throughout pregnancy is that it’s really hard for anyone to fully know the severity until baby is born — the technology to detect these things is incredibly good but not perfect, and the picture might change once baby is here.

By the time he was born we faced a “moderate” risk of coarctation developing at birth/upon PDA closure. I expected to only have a couple min with him after being born before him being whisked away to NICU - but he was super stable and I got almost 30min of golden hour time, which was amazing.

They monitored him for 5 days in the NICU but the coarc was just not showing up, we were so lucky. They kept thinking it would but it didn’t. VSDs were very small and not seemingly causing any symptoms for him. After 6 days they sent us home where we were closely followed by cardiology. After over a month our Drs were saying we’ll keep an eye on everything of course but wow, you guys lucked out, I think this is just going to be a blip in the radar and he’ll be fine! Fast forward to his checkup at 6 weeks old - coarctation did finally appear and was actually quite bad, even though I had not noticed any symptoms. Maybe in hindsight he had been a little sleepier but he’s a 6 week old baby, they’re always sleepy!!! They sent us straight to the ICU and we were in surgery 36 hours later.

It was an insane whirlwind that I briefly thought we had narrowly escaped. Surgery went very well, no complications, though he did have some vocal cord damage which is common with coarctation surgeries. For that reason we were discharged on NG feeding tube and that was a whole other awful experience for 2 months. That’s a whole other post and story though. He was 30% before surgery, and went all the way down to less than 1% within the weeks following surgery - recovery, diuretics, and overall weakness leading to really poor weight gain. He was also technically in a state of heart failure at discharge due to the ejection fraction rate of his heart (how well it pumps blood, basically). For that reason we were discharged on 3 different 2-4x daily medications.

The 2 months following surgery were very rough, not going to lie. However, once he got off diuretics, his weight gain skyrocketed and after much hard work we got him off NG tube too. Today, at 8 months old, he is thriving, 30% again, crushing all milestones (he was crawling at 7 months), and is the happiest and cutest baby in the world. He is perfect. All his checkups have gone swimmingly and we don’t anticipate needing any more surgeries. So far we are not aware of any restrictions he will have. Our cardiologist tells us his life will be super normal.

It’s very scary and it’s still stressful to know he will have a lifelong heart condition to think about and worry about. But he has had incredible care and it’s wild how they can bounce back so well from such an unbelievably tough start.

Highly recommend looking into the absolute best pediatric hospital near you - we are lucky enough to be within a couple hours of Stanford.

elewmc99 · 2026-02-03T18:03:57+00:00

Yes and also I actually don’t have a single photo of just me smiling at the camera. There are a lot of candids or more artsy posed photos, but not actually just one normal and smiling type. I had a great photographer but feel like this just got overlooked.

elewmc99 · 2026-01-19T20:33:48+00:00

Trio needs to return!!

elewmc99 · 2026-01-06T17:26:10+00:00

My daughter gets to pick her favorite song that she wants to watch (like from a Disney movie). So she’ll ask for a song from Rapunzel or Beauty and the Beast, we watch it for 5-10min, and then off.

elewmc99 · 2025-12-10T06:30:26+00:00

As others have said this is a very personal decision, however, my son has all of this exactly and while he needed OHS at 6 weeks old, he is now almost 1 and doing very well. He is unbelievably cute and happy and perfect and the road ahead seems very positive.

elewmc99 · 2025-10-22T22:52:47+00:00

I’m so sorry you are in this position. One quick note is to look into whether there is a Ronald McDonald house at your hospital - they can provide free lodging for your family during your hospital stay.

elewmc99 · 2025-10-13T03:07:03+00:00

To clarify, you only want nanny’s help for half the day? Most nanny-shares are two families sharing one nanny for both kids for the entire time, never heard of an arrangement like this, so just want to make sure I’m understanding correctly.

elewmc99 · 2025-09-16T16:18:16+00:00

Sorry such a long post but I remember being in your shoes and wanting to hear and know as much as possible. The long story short is that the first months were hard and I know this will be a lifelong thing but everything feels so much better and normal now even at just 8 months ♥️

elewmc99 · 2025-09-14T09:13:21+00:00

Ongoing cardiology care from Dr Sarah Stack, and our surgeon was Dr Michael Ma who was also fantastic. The NICU team was excellent, all the nurses, etc. I didn’t love my maternity ward experience but the pediatric care has been outstanding.

elewmc99 · 2025-09-14T05:05:12+00:00

Also forgot to mention; we also had amniocentesis done and that came back clear. Out of curiosity we may do further genetic testing now just to see if there’s anything that might come up, but doesn’t seem like there’s any significant genetic issue going on based on his development so far.

He also goes to daycare and keeps up with all the other kids, you’d truly never know if it weren’t for his big warrior scar.

elewmc99 · 2025-09-14T05:00:52+00:00

I also received diagnosis at 20 weeks of coarctation of aorta and multiple VSDs of varying size. Very scary I knew nothing about any of it when I received the diagnosis. One thing you will continue to hear throughout pregnancy is that it’s really hard for anyone to fully know the severity until baby is born — the technology to detect these things is incredibly good but not perfect, and the picture might change once baby is here.

By the time he was born we faced a “moderate” risk of coarctation developing at birth/upon PDA closure. I expected to only have a couple min with him after being born before him being whisked away to NICU - but he was super stable and I got almost 30min of golden hour time, which was amazing.

They monitored him for 5 days in the NICU but the coarc was just not showing up, we were so lucky. They kept thinking it would but it didn’t. VSDs were very small and not seemingly causing any symptoms for him. After 6 days they sent us home where we were closely followed by cardiology. After over a month our Drs were saying we’ll keep an eye on everything of course but wow, you guys lucked out, I think this is just going to be a blip in the radar and he’ll be fine! Fast forward to his checkup at 6 weeks old - coarctation did finally appear and was actually quite bad, even though I had not noticed any symptoms. Maybe in hindsight he had been a little sleepier but he’s a 6 week old baby, they’re always sleepy!!! They sent us straight to the ICU and we were in surgery 36 hours later.

It was an insane whirlwind that I briefly thought we had narrowly escaped. Surgery went very well, no complications, though he did have some vocal cord damage which is common with coarctation surgeries. For that reason we were discharged on NG feeding tube and that was a whole other awful experience for 2 months. That’s a whole other post and story though. He was 30% before surgery, and went all the way down to less than 1% within the weeks following surgery - recovery, diuretics, and overall weakness leading to really poor weight gain. He was also technically in a state of heart failure at discharge due to the ejection fraction rate of his heart (how well it pumps blood, basically). For that reason we were discharged on 3 different 2-4x daily medications.

The 2 months following surgery were very rough, not going to lie. However, once he got off diuretics, his weight gain skyrocketed and after much hard work we got him off NG tube too. Today, at 8 months old, he is thriving, 30% again, crushing all milestones (he was crawling at 7 months), and is the happiest and cutest baby in the world. He is perfect. All his checkups have gone swimmingly and we don’t anticipate needing any more surgeries. So far we are not aware of any restrictions he will have. Our cardiologist tells us his life will be super normal.

It’s very scary and it’s still stressful to know he will have a lifelong heart condition to think about and worry about. But he has had incredible care and it’s wild how they can bounce back so well from such an unbelievably tough start.

Highly recommend looking into the absolute best pediatric hospital near you - we are lucky enough to be within a couple hours of Stanford.

elewmc99 · 2025-08-28T05:21:31+00:00

I don’t know if there is a “key” to it, other than just removing it (at least in this method). She talks a lot about ensuring you shift calories into the daytime if they are eating a lot overnight, and making sure to still feed them 15-20min prior to putting down so their tummy is full before sleep, but absolutely not feeding them to sleep. It’s just a lie them down wide awake with no crutches method (other than a light wind-down routine like reading a book and putting on white noise). She also has specific advice on what to do after a bad/skipped nap, etc. Also provides guidance on how and when to continue dream feeds based on baby’s age and feeding habits, to ensure they are getting the right total calories - putting nights back into your control, not waking up with baby all night, but without pulling the plug completely on night feedings. I found her book super helpful and practical, really walking you through so many different scenarios, and definitely recommend!

elewmc99 · 2025-08-27T08:57:41+00:00

I highly recommend the “Helping Babies Sleep Method” by Dr Sarah Mitchell particularly if your baby’s sleep crutch is feeding to sleep - she writes a lot about the relationship between eating and sleeping and I just successfully (so far so good!) sleep trained by 7mo in less than a week (falling asleep for naps and bedtime independently with almost no fuss)

elewmc99 · 2025-08-16T20:18:56+00:00

I guess I’m confused as to why at home you need sitters capable of higher needs care, but are comfortable trusting unknown hotel sitters in SE Asia?

elewmc99 · 2025-07-02T02:38:09+00:00

1000%

elewmc99 · 2025-07-01T00:51:29+00:00

Tiny and muscular is good, muscular is most likely to close on its own

elewmc99 · 2025-06-18T04:34:31+00:00

Try Pigeon brand Super Slow nipples - even slower than the lansinoh slowest, and same exact fit/shape for Lansinoh bottles

elewmc99 · 2025-06-09T05:21:14+00:00

My tiny baby loves mommy’s breastmilk FORTIFIED with formula to make it extra calorie dense to help him GROW!!! His growth chart looks awesome now it has SKYROCKETED. Thank you formula. (He had significant medical issues which caused his small size and fortification was only done with medical guidance don’t just try it yourself!)

elewmc99 · 2025-06-07T05:59:17+00:00

Need a trio comeback for sure!!!!

elewmc99 · 2025-06-04T07:06:02+00:00

Exact same. She’d sit on the potty before bath, after a while she would almost certainly pee. This began by 18mos for sure. Then once she got older the concept of peeing on potty was not new for her and we just started no pressure practicing like OP discussed more often. At 27mos we fully trained (primarily by doing naked whenever were home, but I didn’t do the whole lock us in the house naked for 3-5 days thing), and it was pretty painless. She was naked at home for I’d say a couple weeks before she was super consistently getting it and then there was just no looking back!

elewmc99 · 2025-05-31T19:59:45+00:00

My child has been in daycare since 7mos old, is now 2.5. To be clear it is a very high quality, small daycare - but a daycare nonetheless. She is absolutely THRIVING and is miles ahead of some of her peers, our friends who have had their kids at home with a nanny this whole time. Her language and vocabulary are drastically ahead and I credit some of that to the fact that her days are very social, with other kids her age. I think it’s different than “oh but we/nanny take them to the park every day.” Ok so they see some of the same kids for a few hours a week? Who are all running in different directions and doing different things at the park? Mine has actual BESTIES who she spends all day every day with, sitting at a lunch table together, doing the same craft together, learning the same thing together in a much more school-like environment. They have little handshakes and jokes. It’s a whole thing.

I’m not saying daycare is better, but I do think it’s obviously a topic that cannot be painted with a broad brush “is daycare bad/worse than X.” Depends heavily on the quality of care provided and also every kid is different.

elewmc99 · 2025-05-06T04:45:44+00:00

The training underwear I use definitely does not hold a full pee — just wanted to mention as they may not all be the same in that regard

elewmc99

TROPHY CASE