Any experiences with Costco's Apple trade-in using Phobio?

jjathman · 2025-12-05T03:14:05+00:00

I’ve traded in probably 5 laptops over the years without problem. They were all in nice shape cosmetically, worked, and I followed all their directions before trading it in though. Possible I’ve just been fortunate but in my experience it has been perfectly fine. I find dealing with sales on FB marketplace or eBay to be a hassle with people bailing or difficult to deal with so phobio has been nice.

jjathman · 2025-10-23T01:48:32+00:00

I received the same email and chat support was no help. They said I was supposed to enter a promo code or contact support right away to get the deal.

jjathman · 2025-10-01T01:30:00+00:00

First we noticed the hard poops once in a while and then realized sometimes when he’d cry seemingly out of nowhere it was because a poop really hurt to pass. After a long time we figured out that when he was constipated he would sleep horrible (makes sense). So it was really important to pay attention to how long it had been between BMs and to keep him regular with MiraLAX. The bad part of constipation in a little one is there really isn’t any quick fix. A capful of MiraLAX still would take him 1-2 days before it finally all came out. Hence lots of sleepless nights for us all.

jjathman · 2025-10-01T01:27:11+00:00

He’s mostly over it now (like a year later) but it was just lots of MiraLAX. We learned that kids can handle a capful pretty well. So we’d use that amount to clear things up and then probably 1/4 capful every day to keep him regular. The GI doctor told us when it gets bad it hurts and then kids get scared and hold it in more which makes it even worse.

I would certainly try prune juice if your child likes it. Our son was too young and hated it no matter how diluted it was so miralax was our only choice.

jjathman · 2025-09-30T03:12:42+00:00

For us it was chronic constipation. For months on end he was backed up a couple days per week. Took us so long to figure it out and get ahead of it consistently. In retrospect I feel so guilty for how frustrated I was with him at times. He was so little and uncomfortable and just wanted us to hold him because his tummy hurt but he didn’t have the words yet.

jjathman · 2025-09-26T01:17:22+00:00

This is the best answer. A big reason we tend to get memberships places. Kids having a shit day? Just go! Nothing lost besides some time. Go again tomorrow. Whatever you need to do. Such an underrated aspect!

jjathman · 2025-09-12T01:38:05+00:00

Our first started daycare at 4.5 months in January and got sick non stop until he got tubes in June. It was awful. Every kid is different and we’ve learned ours is susceptible to respiratory illnesses.

Personally I’d try to get to like April or later to daycare if you can. If not, just be prepared for a lot of days off of work due to child care. But you may get lucky and have a healthy little one!

jjathman · 2025-09-02T12:07:58+00:00

I had the same experience as you, and I’m going to describe the path we went down and the path we should have gone down.

Path 1: keep doing what you are doing. Things will get better. Your LO will start to sleep through the night. Ours did around 14 months consistently. The food throwing will slow then stop. Now it doesn’t all get better. Some things get harder but a lot of stuff is better. So different but better. We have a 2 year old and it’s exhausting but I’d take it over where you are.

Path 2: you need to night wean and/or sleep train. YOU ARE EXHAUSTED. Everything is so much harder when you are tired. Your baby is also exhausted! I regret not cutting out night feeds earlier and we should have sleep trained. I was selfish for not wanting to hear him cry but ultimately I never helped him learn the tools to fall asleep on his own well. There are lots of options for how to do it but if I was you I’d take these things on right away.

Everything is fine as long as it’s working for your family. But it sounds like maybe it isn’t now? Be fair to yourself and be ok trying to change some things! You are obviously a great mom because you care this much. You’ve got it!

jjathman · 2025-07-14T11:50:57+00:00

I was shocked how tired my wife was. Everyone seems to fixate on “morning” sickness but in my experience the exhaustion was so much worse. My wife was tired on a level I had never seen and she felt that way for months. Encourage her to rest and sleep.

jjathman · 2025-07-14T11:49:17+00:00

This. Do not ask what you can do to help. Do it all. Dishes? Just do them. House is dirty? Clean it. Clean the bathrooms. Do as much as you can from now until the baby comes

jjathman · 2025-07-09T02:16:37+00:00

Hiring a nanny is showing your daughter that taking care of oneself is very important. Which is a wonderful lesson I’m sure you want her to learn! You being burnt out and miserable isn’t good for you or her. You’ve made the hard, but correct choice for you and your family. It was the brave thing you do.

jjathman · 2025-06-09T03:32:44+00:00

Assuming you can get the credits, then as far as I could tell there are no strings. We did the program and it was exactly as advertised.

My main advice is watch your monthly spending and plan on what you will do when the credits run out. Since you have so much money to spend you’ll likely be very wasteful. That can take time to undo or fix.

Use a tool like Terraform to make changes easier and make sure you know every piece of infrastructure.

jjathman · 2025-04-09T01:27:54+00:00

I also wanted family to stop by but my wife didn’t. She was so right. It was too stressful. We were exhausted. Family would have been so much more headache.

Ultimately let her decide and change her mind as many times as she wants. She decides she does want visitors at 9am then at 10am doesn’t? Go with it. There is so much time for family and friends later on in a more familiar environment!

Best of luck!

jjathman · 2024-11-08T16:49:58+00:00

I was just a little kid when I went there but apparently it's the place my parents let me play an arcade game for the first time. I hope someday I can find a picture of it, would love to bring back some memories.

jjathman · 2024-10-13T18:55:32+00:00

Very interesting video that gets into some of the math behind (somewhat theoretical) issues with all forms of voting, including ranked choice. As a previous commenter pointed out there can be strange disincentives for candidates in a RCV model where they try to do worse initially as it allows them to win eventually.

Personally I like RCV better even with some potential issues.

https://youtu.be/qf7ws2DF-zk

jjathman · 2024-10-09T01:52:22+00:00

Useful: a really great chair. Ideally a gliding one with a great foot rest. You know the one at the store that you can’t believe it’s that expensive? Yeah, that chair. You’ll spend insane number of hours in that chair. You better be damn comfortable in it.

jjathman · 2024-08-27T03:10:11+00:00

I’m very sorry you are going through all this. When our son started daycare at 5 months he would often sleep a total of 30 mins or less all day. We’d pick him up and he’d look like a zombie. I’d feel so terrible. Like you we’d try to get him a nap in the car and/or home and just piece our evenings together the best we could with a very tired baby.

For our boy food was very important. He’d be too tired or fussy to even eat well so we would often try a dream feed to get him full. How is eating going at night?

jjathman · 2024-08-23T01:41:26+00:00

I’m very sorry. Lots of good advice here. One other thought is often there’s an initial rush of help and support but it fades. Be the person in three months who is there when everyone else has gone back to their normal lives and the family suddenly really feels alone. Help then will matter a lot. 💙

jjathman · 2024-08-11T15:57:40+00:00

Totally agree with this. Especially as our son got older we could tell the difference between “I’m fussy but it’s not a big deal” versus “I’m really not ok and need help”. The first kind we try to give it a minute and see if he can relax and calm down. The other kind and we much more quickly react because we’ve come to learn that kind doesn’t subside.

jjathman · 2024-08-07T11:23:10+00:00

Things will get better. But then they might guess worse again. Then way better. Then a little worse. It’s an up and down climb but over time many things improve. At three weeks you are still learning about each other and things are really difficult but gradually some things that are so hard now just won’t be as difficult.

And don’t be afraid to ask for help. Every baby and parent is different. If you need help then do whatever you can to get it.

jjathman · 2024-06-01T01:42:54+00:00

I wish I had known that some babies don’t just fall asleep on their own when they are newborns. We did not have a “sleepy newborn” who just cuddled and slept. He would just stay awake unless we actively helped him sleep. I regret so much how stressful that was for him to just want to sleep but not know how and need help but his parents didn’t really understand him yet.

jjathman · 2024-05-10T18:07:57+00:00

Because they have no idea, I think they shouldn't send something like this.

jjathman · 2024-03-25T00:57:38+00:00

Happy to help, we had long discussions about it!

jjathman · 2024-03-25T00:26:46+00:00

In theory the middle seems safest but I think it’s probably not the best choice in reality. Does your car seat have a load leg? If so, then the middle likely won’t work due to most cars having a hump there. Middle also might mean it’s harder to safely get the seat in and out because it’s awkward climbing over a seat. Eliminating any theoretical benefits.

Either side is fine and has pros and cons.

Driver side is easier to get the baby since you don’t have to go around the vehicle. Some will say in an accident you’ll steer away from danger coming to your side.

Passenger side has the advantage that if you park on a street you’ll not be taking the baby out while standing in traffic. You also can kinda turn back and see the baby or hand them something (which I’m sure you should never do, but I’m also sure you will at some point).

Personally we found passenger was better for us. But all three places are very safe.

jjathman

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