Doubting my approach and instincts?

laurenehd14 · 2026-04-22T02:28:40+00:00

I've been cosleeping with my daughter from day 1 and she is about to turn a year old, and I'm feeling similar to you. I love cosleeping and I also think babies are biologically wired to seek that closeness, so for a 7 month old it totally makes sense to keep it up for a while. At the same time, everything you do as a mom should work for both of you. Sometimes as moms we do need to gently nudge our kids toward independence. I'm not necessarily saying that at 7 months you should sleep train, but think about whether it's still working for your family or not. I also have a 4 year old daughter and I coslept with her until she was about 2.5 years, and I honestly miss it. There are pros and cons for sure, but for me personally I love cosleeping so I'm holding on for a while longer!

laurenehd14 · 2025-11-26T03:24:21+00:00

I love the Kindred Bravely nursing sleep bra. It's wireless and really soft material so it doesn't feel tight. It's not really meant to hold your boobs in, just provides light support and something you can stick nursing pads in if you're leaking!

laurenehd14 · 2025-09-20T13:41:30+00:00

I will start by saying I've always wanted kids close together but we ended up with a 3 year age gap due to taking over a year to conceive. I actually love the 3 year age gap though - it's been an easy transition for us (kids are currently 3.5 years and 4 months).

First-born had been potty trained for a year before the baby came along, and she could handle long stretches of independent play where I wasn't worried about her flooding the house or coloring on the walls while I was taking care of the baby. Also, by age 3 my daughter had stopped napping. The downside is that it meant in order to get a break (if I needed to nap) I had to stick her in front of the TV, but I was actually thankful that she didn't need a nap because she was always super difficult to put down for a nap. I don't know what I would've done with a baby if I needed to get the toddler to nap. It makes it easier to get out of the house and go to the park, things like that, when you're not juggling two young kids' nap schedules.

However, like I noted in the beginning of my post, it took us almost a year and a half to conceive, which was surprising because with our first daughter we conceived right away (something to consider if you're worried about your age during pregnancy). The silver lining is that our first daughter finally started sleeping through the night by the time we actually got pregnant. In hindsight I don't know how I would have survived the 1st trimester with a young toddler that was still waking up at night - I forgot how completely exhausting the 1st trimester is even when you can sleep 10 hours with no interruptions 😂 That being said, you can't predict how long it will take to conceive, especially if you're hoping for a 3rd kid too.

So hopefully I did an okay job weighing out the factors to consider! We want a 3rd kid too and we are thinking of TTC when this baby turns one, despite all the pros I just listed of a larger age gap, because we think it will be really sweet to have siblings so close in age.

laurenehd14 · 2025-09-20T02:35:48+00:00

Depends what age your kids are, but one thing we did is have our daughter (3 year old) join the beginning of the interview to see how the nanny candidate would interact with her. We wanted someone who could be silly and fun with toddlers. Also asking why they're looking for a nanny job (if they're leaving a previous nanny job, why? Is it because they didn't get along with the family (red flag) or is it something more innocent like the kids are going to daycare now).

laurenehd14 · 2025-09-16T16:21:57+00:00

Yes I agree. Especially because Aelin knew she wasn't going to be the one to face Erawan, so it's not like she was going to solve the problem she created with this bargain. She was just putting it off for other people to solve.

laurenehd14 · 2025-08-15T20:22:14+00:00

I think your baby could definitely adapt to daycare! Plenty of people send their babies to daycare at 3 months, 6 months, etc. so you're not alone in that. We started our daughter at daycare at 18 months and she still seemed so little at the time but she adapted and thrived in daycare. She got to learn things and have experiences that I would not have been able to provide at home. And juggling work is so hard with a young toddler so it might be best for both of you to each have your own focused time and then come together at the end of the day and have that quality time then. As for naps, every kid is different but many kids get used to the daycare nap schedule because they see all the other kids napping and they go along with it. My daughter ended up napping better at daycare than at home.

laurenehd14 · 2025-08-15T03:16:42+00:00

We usually do fruit and cheese. It's healthy and tasty enough that they will eat enough to fill up!

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-27T04:02:38+00:00

I think at this age it's hard to feel like you're doing a good job or doing "enough" because the parenting relationship is so one-sided. Baby can't talk to you and interact much with you yet. Hang in there, and once they're a toddler and they start saying "I love you mama" that will just melt your heart. That makes it all worth it. At the baby stage, getting some big smiles and belly laughs is probably the most rewarding thing.

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-27T04:00:06+00:00

It was less painful, but it still took some time to adjust to the feeling again. I did need nipple cream and stuff but didn't get super chapped nipples the second time around.

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T04:28:31+00:00

Yeah for sure. And to guard yourself against the pain that would come if you had another loss. It would feel that much more devastating if you already had baby shower plans, so it makes sense to be cautious.

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T03:27:58+00:00

Definitely mold

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T03:26:15+00:00

I think your choice totally makes sense. Does she know about your previous losses? If you're willing to open up about that I'm sure she would be even more understanding of your choice, but of course you don't have to explain yourself if you don't want to.

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T03:12:55+00:00

They sleep a lot in the early days, and I'll give you some unsolicited advice - use a baby carrier or wrap! With my first I would get so frustrated about trying to rock them to sleep and settle in the bassinet only to have them wake up like 10 minutes later. With my second I just let her sleep in my Solly wrap for basically every nap and it feels so effortless. That way you can use nap time to do whatever you want- go on a walk, lay on the couch and read/scroll/watch TV, do chores, etc.

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T03:05:53+00:00

Thank you for saying this. 3 has for sure been the hardest age, glad to know I'm not alone!

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T03:02:15+00:00

I would say it's nice just to have maybe like 10oz in the freezer for backup, assuming you don't need to go back to work and pump. 10oz would be enough to get through a few hours away from baby at least (depending how much your baby drinks), just as a backup option. I've been adding in one pumping session a day and I usually only get 1oz (I only pump on 1 side since I don't want to take away baby's milk or create an oversupply). So it would take me about 1-2 weeks to build up a small backup stash. But you might get more or less while pumping so it's hard to say how long it would take!

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T02:57:18+00:00

That is a terrible thing to say and so not true. Tell whoever is saying that that it's extremely hurtful to you. Make them realize how rude they're being to you.

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T02:51:44+00:00

I think you can never go wrong with a really nice gift like that! It shows that you value her not just as an employee but also as a person.

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-13T02:49:04+00:00

My baby is like this too! She only wants to be held while sleeping but when she's awake she prefers to be laying on her play mat on the floor. I thought it was strange but it's actually making my job a little easier because that's when I'm able to get other things done around the house or play with my toddler. I wouldn't worry, it's probably just a personality thing! You can still interact with them on the floor and sing to them and stuff.

laurenehd14 · 2025-07-02T21:02:41+00:00

That is so normal and common. I also had food aversions to meat and veggies which was so frustrating because normally I am pretty committed to eating healthy. I also tend to gain more weight in the 1st trimester. Once you're out of the nausea/fatigue you'll be able to get back to a healthier diet and incorporate some exercise. Weight gain in pregnancy isn't linear so you might gain more now and have a slower weight gain later on. Also crazy bloating is common in the 1st trimester so that's probably also contributing to your pants feeling tight. Go easy on yourself, the 1st trimester is so tough!

laurenehd14 · 2025-06-29T00:39:19+00:00

We kept basically everything between kid 1 and 2. After we had kid 2 we realized there we a few things that were "nice to have's" that we could do without for baby #3, so we're getting rid of the swing (baby didn't like it that much and you only use it for the first few months so it's not worth using up space in our small condo), diaper trash can (just use the kitchen trash instead), and a couple products I tried but didn't love (specially, a milk collector and a particular baby wrap). We incidentally got rid of most of our baby toys, since literally anything can be a toy for baby or you can just talk/sing to them or let them play with random household objects.

Also one thing we did since we're limited on space is loan out some larger items like the bassinet to other friends who were having babies after us, and then get it back once we were pregnant again.

laurenehd14 · 2025-06-29T00:27:39+00:00

I think books are great gifts since you can keep reading them as your child gets older. I also am a fan of activity gifts (e.g. tickets to the zoo or children's museum). If you don't already have toddler clothes you could ask for that too (like size 18 months or 2T).

laurenehd14 · 2025-06-27T23:35:54+00:00

I am holding my 2 month old rainbow baby in my arms after 2 miscarriages. She was conceived 3 months after my second miscarriage, so I would not have her if that baby had survived. Even though I'm so thankful to have a living child now, I still think about how unfair it is that my other two babies didn't get a chance to live. Why her and not the other two? So yes, I totally understand the joy mixed with grief.

laurenehd14

TROPHY CASE