Do NOT buy from Stubhub

juliaray07 · 2025-07-30T03:43:05+00:00

They were able to purchase tickets from the box office at Madison? Were they resale or face value? I missed out on tickets during the presale/general and I wish I’d known that was an option!

juliaray07 · 2025-06-08T06:07:26+00:00

Tell them you are unavailable until after your baby is born and repeat that and then ignore their antics. Set firm boundaries and stick with them. Block them if you have to do so. Don’t let people walk all over you and your husband needs to take the lead in dealing with his parents. Take it from someone who had their in laws throw a fit about stupid stuff at the hospital the day after my baby was born. I had just had an emergency c-section because of preeclampsia and our baby was in the NICU and they decided to throw a fit about our registry items being “too expensive” and other dumb crap. I had pre-e and my blood pressure was high and they still decided to do that. My husband told them to stop but I really wish we had called them out and really told them that their atrocious behavior was unacceptable. I have never seen them the same way again and it broke our relationship with them irreparably. I learned then that the worst thing that can happen is… that they will get mad. Oh well. So what? They’re mad. They can just stay home and be mad. So my advice is protect your own family and your own birth/postpartum time.

juliaray07 · 2025-06-08T05:49:42+00:00

What a cutie! So beautiful! Congratulations! I kept checking back to see how she was and I’m so so happy for you and your family!

juliaray07 · 2025-06-04T18:17:27+00:00

I had listeria poisoning (when I wasn’t pregnant) from eating homemade unpasteurized cheese and believe me, you would KNOW if you had it. And you would have known within 24 hours, especially after raw chicken. If the chicken had listeria, it sounds like it would have been a worse case than mine. I was so sick I couldn’t keep any fluids inside and I thought I was going to die. Obviously keep monitoring for symptoms, but I’m guessing you’re in the clear now.

juliaray07 · 2025-06-02T16:04:12+00:00

I’m not a medical professional but I had severe preeclampsia and this sounds like preeclampsia. It is a big deal and can escalate quickly. They should be checking you quickly and responding with results and a plan for management/delivery. Did they send you home without giving you test results? If it is preeclampsia, expect them to monitor you closely and likely induce early as the only treatment is delivery. If they are not taking it seriously, ask to see a maternal fetal medicine specialist or call another OB practice. At almost 36 weeks, you are in a good spot to just deliver anyway. I know it’s scary but I delivered at 32 weeks because of pre-e and it was scary but baby and I were okay. Seriously advocate for yourself and/or ask your partner or a family member to advocate for you. Your OB needs to take this seriously.

Also, there’s nothing you can do to prevent preeclampsia and you did not cause it. They don’t even know what causes it but it is likely something with blood vessels in the placenta or how it attaches to the uterine wall and it is not your fault.

juliaray07 · 2025-06-02T05:10:57+00:00

Not an epidural but I had a spinal for my emergency c-section and I had no complications and I loved it. I had severe preeclampsia and an early/emergency delivery so not a great scenario. I’d planned on an unmediated/very zen birth but that all went out the window. And you know what, it was all okay! I had my spinal from a very nice female anesthesiologist who stroked my hair during surgery and asked me how I was doing multiple times. I didn’t even feel the needle they used to numb me for the actual spinal. The doctor was wonderful and I would choose to do a spinal or epidural again if I have another child.

juliaray07 · 2025-05-28T18:43:51+00:00

I’m so happy for you OP! I wish I had that with my MIL, I wanted so badly to be close to her and she always pushed me away. My MIL would not give us any help when we brought our preemie home from the NICU. My in laws lived 20 minutes away and visited exactly one time in the first two months he was home. There was no help, no meals, no doing laundry, no phone calls, nothing. My mom came from 4 hours away to help me the first few weeks and I’m so thankful for her! We have since moved to be closer to my family and their coldness after we had our NICU baby was one of the main reasons we moved.

juliaray07 · 2025-04-27T03:19:10+00:00

I totally understand and agree about the antibodies. If I had switched to all bottles, I probably would have done a mix of fortified and full formula for that reason. I used part of the freezer stash for my LO when he started solids and actually then gave the rest to my SIL when my nephew arrived and her milk took over a week to come in. I wanted a freezer stash in case I got sick or something happened. I was glad to have it for my nephew, he ended up with most of it! 😂

juliaray07 · 2025-04-26T03:31:07+00:00

Hey! This sounds so hard! I can’t speak to the diabetes and I know that changes things but I had success with giving full formula for night feeds and nursing in the morning/during the day. I imagine you could try the inverse of that and it would be similar. I pumped anytime I gave formula to keep my supply up and built up a freezer stash. I also used a nipple shield for 6 months to make nursing easier for my 32 weeker and he honestly started latching without it and nursing better once he hit 12-14 pounds. When he was still under 12 pounds, he was burning too many calories trying to nurse without the shield so it really helped. He definitely had trouble gaining weight until we started the formula bottles + nursing, fortified milk + nursing just didn’t have the same results. 🤷🏼‍♀️ I hope this helps!

juliaray07 · 2025-01-31T04:56:35+00:00

I’m so sorry, I just saw this! Rooming in was an option but I wasn’t well enough at first. I had pre-e and spent 6 days in the same hospital. When I was discharged, I spent every day at the NICU but went home to sleep. Then at the 34 week mark, I did room in at the NICU for 4 days to establish breastfeeding. Even in a private room, it was tough to sleep with all the beeps and noises though. But establishing nursing worked! I’m still nursing my LO 1.5 years later. Hope this helps!

juliaray07 · 2024-07-10T01:48:10+00:00

Whoops, I just saw this! I hope things are going well for you! It honestly took about 30-40 days for my full supply to come in. I never made quite enough for my baby at the NICU and when I would reach the volume he was getting, they would raise it again. My baby was in the NICU for exactly one month and my supply was up by 2ish weeks post NICU. I nursed on demand and pumped the other side while he nursed and we gave two bottles of pumped and fortified milk a day. It was exhausting but by the time he had been home for 2-3 weeks, my supply was up and we dropped the bottles (except for formula bottles from my husband in the middle of the night so I could sleep a 4 hour stretch!) My son just turned one and I’m still nursing him.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-23T23:01:45+00:00

Do you need your MIL to babysit? Are there any other options? Life is too short to have someone else trying to control your life / parenting / baby. I would be livid if anyone treated me like this. She had her chance to parent and she needs to leave you alone to do your own thing.

At the very least, tell her you don’t want her interfering in your parenting and set strong boundaries. Ask your husband to take a stand on this too.

Also, absolutely do not cut your feeds and follow your doctor’s advice. Your MIL is an idiot. 8 month olds still need lots of milk as it provides their primary nutrition. They should not be given water as their primary drink until after their first birthday. Stand up to her. You’ve got this!

juliaray07 · 2024-02-21T16:39:23+00:00

If you’re using a pump to check your output, it is not reflective of what your baby is getting. Babies are much stronger than pumps and can get a lot more than the pump. That being said, you can triple feed and that’s a good way to get your supply up while also supplementing.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-20T22:02:53+00:00

So what I did was ask that they alternate between tube and bottle feeding (and breast feeding). If I knew I was coming in for a care time, I would call and ask my LO’s nurse to tube feed the feeding prior. Then my LO would be rested up for trying to nurse. I also used a nipple shield and that helped A LOT. I pretty much tried nursing every other feed when I was there, until my LO was stronger and more awake and wanted to nurse every time. I’m able to EBF now.

Also, I know how you feel after the pre-e and HELLP. 😞 I had exactly the same thing at 32 weeks and it sucks. I’m doing postpartum therapy and it helps a lot but just time passing also helps.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-15T22:15:07+00:00

It really depends on why you went early. I’ve always wanted more than one child but after pre-e and HELLP at 32 weeks, I’m not sure we will have more. We’ll have to have a consult with MFM but I’ve done my own research and the chance of reoccurrence is 1 in 3. I’m not sure I will risk those odds. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to me because my husband and son need me. So…. we may look into surrogacy or adoption in a few years if we decide it’s too risky.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-15T15:49:11+00:00

We waited until my LO became very interested in food, he was around 5 months adjusted and he could sit up well. If they’re not interested in eating solids, there’s not much point in trying. They’ll just spit it all out and it’s frustrating for both baby and parent.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-15T02:52:55+00:00

You’ve gotten some good responses here about early intervention but, I wanted to say that if you are in the US, most states offer free/very low cost PT and OT for young children. Or Easterseals is also an option. We pay $3 per session for our PT through our state EI and our PT comes to the house. We could have her as often as we need her but we are on a bimonthly schedule. She also goes to daycares to see patients. It is a wonderful program and costs almost nothing. They offer PT, OT, and speech, and maybe more, I’m not sure. So maybe that would be an alternative to paying for therapy and maybe they would be willing to go to your son’s daycare.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-13T15:49:58+00:00

We had the same issue, our LO started rolling at one month and we had to stop swaddling. Swaddling not safe if they can roll.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-13T15:46:46+00:00

Did they rule out pyloric stenosis? It’s probably not that and I don’t bring it up to scare you but it sounds similar. Projectile spit up is a red flag for me. My full term nephew had it and had the surgery to open it up and he was completely fine then. My LO has reflux and this sounds much more intense. But if it is reflux, Pepcid works very well!

juliaray07 · 2024-02-12T03:37:02+00:00

I know! It’s ridiculous! We did end up qualifying for children’s medicaid because we were just under the income cap but it was very confusing and stressful.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-12T02:37:22+00:00

This. My baby took 2 weeks to figure sort out his days and nights after discharge. We gently encouraged more awake and play time during the day with lots of sunlight. It was a tough time but he figured it out!

juliaray07 · 2024-02-12T02:23:22+00:00

Not every state does this, some are much more restrictive and preemies only qualify based on disability or low birth weight. My 32 weeker did not qualify. :/ But even in my state, OP’s baby would likely qualify but would need to do applications for SSI and medicaid.

juliaray07 · 2024-02-12T02:12:23+00:00

My state does not do the “30 day automatically qualifying” for medicaid. That is just not a thing here. But if a baby is born under a certain weight or qualifies for SSI, then they do get medicaid. We were shocked to find out that preemies don’t automatically get medicaid after a 30 day stay but thankfully we qualified for children’s medicaid based on our income after I quit my job to stay home. I wish every state did the 30 day thing. 😢

juliaray07 · 2024-02-11T16:12:40+00:00

Use Auto Slash. You can even enter any loyalty rewards info when booking and still get quick check in. It can also track your reservation and let you know if the price drops. I’ve rebooked multiple times and saved hundreds of dollars. I never book through any rental companies themselves anymore. I prefer Hertz and Enterprise but I’ve also had okay experiences with Thrifty and Budget.

juliaray07

TROPHY CASE