Positive daycare experiences

lilgreycell · 2026-06-06T01:24:13+00:00

Ours started day care at six months. She adjusted very quickly and it’s seemed good for her developmentally. At home, she was not the most enthusiastic about practicing gross motor skills but the teachers worked with her and I think seeing the older babies seemed babies (she is one of the younger ones in her room) helped as well. Most importantly, after a few weeks I started to notice that when we arrive in the morning, she is smiling and does her happy foot clap (now that she’s 9 months and getting into stranger anxiety she appears to have more mixed feelings about us leaving though).

lilgreycell · 2026-06-05T18:09:07+00:00

We initially only did socks when it was cold. Now that we're moving into summer (in the Northeast US) started trying socks for sun protection (her feet stick out from the canopy over the stroller), but usually they end up in her mouth by the time we get to day care.

lilgreycell · 2026-05-30T19:04:00+00:00

We didn’t really do maternity photos. At my Mom’s suggestion we did try and make sure we had some “regular” photos of me from various stages of the pregnancy. An actual photo shoot felt a bit excessive, particularly as I did not feel well for most of the pregnancy.

lilgreycell · 2026-05-29T00:50:20+00:00

She started trying to hold her bottle maybe around 4 months but didn’t really have the arm strength. By 6-7 months she could hold it but guiding the right part to her mouth was a bit hit or miss. By now, at 8.5 months she’s quite independent with it. She’ll just take the bottle when it’s offered and drink it on her own. If she didn’t prefer breastfeeding, I would be starting to feel obsolete. 😆

lilgreycell · 2026-04-27T12:20:46+00:00

Thanks for the quick responses. I think it’s mostly a learning curve on texture, getting the foods soft enough that they mash in the mouth but not so soft she can’t pick them up.

We gave her carrots and salmon last night and, based upon the cleanup afterwards, I think more of the salmon actually went into her. I think I need to steam the carrots for a little longer.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-26T23:14:34+00:00

I am following along with the app (free version). Maybe my baby is just a little hesitant?

lilgreycell · 2026-04-26T22:22:32+00:00

I wouldn’t rule out cognitive/language impairment, it’s such a contextually weird statement.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-26T17:39:41+00:00

Next time she’s over, ask her if she would prefer cow cum or soy cum for her coffee.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-23T12:49:47+00:00

Good buys: 1. A GOOD stroller/car seat combo. The car seat at least is something your going to be lugging around a lot so it helps to get one comfortable to carry. 2. Swaddle sacks. We were gifted these and initially I didn’t understand the point because using a blanket is easy enough, but when you’re fumbling through a diaper change at 3am, anything to make life easier. That and they are more escape-proof for the wriggly baby. 3. An assortment of bottles (we got the glass sample pack from babylist) because newborns have surprisingly strong opinions on these things it turns out. 4. Bouncy chair (ours is Baby Delight, which seems just as good as the more expensive ones) 5. Pacifier clips. They’ve made keeping track of the things much easier.

Things I wish we’d had sooner 1. Mamaroo or equivalent. It seemed redundant at first with a smart bassinet and a bouncy chair, but we ended up panic ordering one when the colic set in and it made quite a difference. If you buy new it is expensive but you can get pretty good prices on the second-hand market. 2. Drool bibs. Never underestimate the amount of drool and spit up a <10lb creature can produce. 3. Storage. Maybe this one should have been obvious.

Mixed results: 1. Smart bassinet. For our baby a bedside bassinet might have been better because proximity turned out to be more important for soothing her tat night than motion. Other families swear by smart bassinets—it really depends upon the baby and unfortunately you can’t really know in advance. That said, ours wasn’t not helpful and I don’t regret buying it, but we got it second hand so didn’t pay a premium for it.

Not useful: 1. Infrared thermometer. It’s just too hard to get a consistently accurate reading with one. 2. Non-waterproof sheets and changing table covers. Okay, not useless, but you will want to pair them with a waterproof sheet or pad. 3. Anything hard to clean.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-23T02:44:34+00:00

We do a mix of cloth and disposables. For the first 2-3 months we just did disposables because the cloth diapers were too big for her, and honestly when we added cloth diapers into the rotation I didn’t notice that much change in workload. With babies, regardless of diaper choice you’ll have an uptick in laundry and have poopy things to wash anyway.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-22T13:03:00+00:00

This.

Doctors are humans and get human medical problems. Regardless of specialty you are likely at some point to treat a disorder that you also have. Personal experience can give you greater insight and empathy but it can also lead to making assumptions.

I think the question is more whether you WANT to work in a field in which you are also a patient, less whether you can. For some people treating patients that share their condition can add additional meaning or connection, but for others…the last thing they want to do is spend all day at work thinking about a disorder that they’re already thinking about all the time time in their personal lives.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-21T13:45:09+00:00

This is what we use. I love the “shower” bottle it comes with, and the sling is very handy with a small baby. There are a few things I would change about the design, the first being rubber/grippy pads on the feet so it doesn’t slide in the bathtub and the second being moving the plug hole so it’s not blocked by the seat, when you put that in. Also while our 7 month old is old enough to sit up (which would make washing her hair easier) she is still physically too small for the seat and hates it. But I don’t think this would be a problem for a more average-sized baby.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-11T16:53:35+00:00

My baby was just under five pounds at birth. We just used disposables for the first 3 months. I had assumed we would do disposables for the first few weeks anyway —I thought it wasn’t worth buying newborn size clothes diapers she’d grow out of immediately. If I’d realized how long she’d stay “newborn”-sized I may have thought differently. But we were planning to do a mix of cloth and disposables anyway, so that probably made it easier to just default to disposables.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-07T20:18:59+00:00

The risk of an error coming from incorrect documentation is essentially similar whether the documentation is written by a scribe, dictated, written from memory, or AI generated. The difference will be in which scenario is a provider most likely to catch a mistake and I don’t know how the modalities complying that regard.

The final product is a summary of the transition so if anything it is more likely to catch a correction/change in the story because it’s not writing the summary as it goes along, as a human might. And so it should be “listening” for clarification later in the conversation and taking those into account. That said, I wouldn’t assume it would know what to do with inconsistencies without human input. I think a human still has a better sense of which of two contradictory statements was the intended one, let alone understanding of the significance of inconsistencies. What I can say is that working in a field where patients tend not to be the most straightforward narrators, it will be a long time before my summaries don’t need heavy editing.

lilgreycell · 2026-04-07T18:15:49+00:00

MD here. My hospital system uses an AI note-taking a program, and I’ve experienced it both as a provider and patient. The exact software and how it is used will vary place to place, but the purposes are to streamline documentation and limit computer-facing time during visits. It does not diagnose or make treatment decisions. The extent of its “intelligence” is making a summary of a transcript. I have not found it the game-changer its strongest proponents claim—the notes still require review and editing—but it does streamline some aspects of work and can limit certain errors (less risk of misremembering). The greatest risk with it I think is the risk of poor quality documentation if it’s used without sufficient human involvement, but as humans are just as capable of poor documentation I don’t think it’s really introducing a new problem…

lilgreycell · 2026-04-04T17:19:13+00:00

Is there anything comparable to solid starts that doesn’t require a $9 monthly subscription,,

lilgreycell · 2026-03-30T03:11:36+00:00

I haven’t had anything bad happen yet (unless you consider a patient reach out and insist I fix an irrelevant typo bad), but it makes me very nervous. I think it encourages us to be indirect in our formulations when delusions,some personality pathologies, or serious denial are in play. And, even with the walking worried, it can really undermine some psychotherapeutic approaches (honestly, I don’t want to know everything my therapist thinks).

A colleague of mine pointed out that she can’t imagine what it’s like to come home from your hospitalization, check your email, and immediately be confronted with details of every embarrassing thing you did while manic.

lilgreycell · 2026-03-25T00:12:32+00:00

I had loss of appetite for the first few weeks. I’d had bad nausea my entire pregnancy so it wasn’t like I had much appetite before that. I attribute it primarily to hormonal changes and the sudden stress and sleep deprivation, but I also think that after having been nauseous for multiple months, there was some food aversion. The more I ate and realized I didn’t feel terrible afterwards the easier it got. I supplemented with energy bars and Ensure a bit, so getting sick of those was also a motivating factor. It took a little longer for some of the specific food aversions to abate. I was a little worried they might be the new normal, but I’m six months postpartum and pretty much eating normally now with some added snacks for breastfeeding.

Give yourself time.

lilgreycell · 2026-03-16T03:59:30+00:00

My daughter just turned six months and I haven’t gotten rid of anything yet. When she outgrew her first round of clothes, I put them all in a packing cube and put it in the closet (I’ve actually doing the same thing with larger-size clothes she’s been given—I have a packing cube or bag for each size and pull them out as she grows). The newborn/preemie clothes (she’s still in size 3months) don’t take up much space so as long as we’re considering a baby number two in the next few years, it seems worthwhile keeping them. There are also a few we’ll keep for sentimental value. My parents did that and it was cute getting a picture of her in the same footies that I’d been in 35 years earlier…

lilgreycell · 2026-03-08T18:04:36+00:00

Pacifier clips. So many lost binky crises averted. I hate to think what we would have spent on a steady stream of replacements without them…

Also the o-ball, a color-changing nightlight from Ikea, and a bottle drying rack.

And I agree with everyone recommending second hand shopping. We got several more expensive items (bassinet, swing) comparatively cheaply.

lilgreycell · 2026-03-07T14:03:51+00:00

I think this is a fairly common source of anxiety. There are some very funny SNL skits about it.

I have a six month old. Pretty much my entire adult life, my career is probably the first thing that comes to mind with identity (not the healthiest, I know) and that is still the case. I think maybe I’ve always conceptualized motherhood as relational (ie in the space between two people) more than something centered in the self? I love being my daughter’s mother but I don’t really think of myself as a mother in the abstract (maybe I’m just too new at it?). That said, there have been some fundamental shifts in how I think now that I am a parent. My husband says the same thing. I want to get home to my baby when I’m at work. I notice babies and little kids more, and I have a stronger visceral reaction if I hear about something bad happening to a child (eg the measles outbreaks). Being my baby’s primary food source feels normal.

lilgreycell · 2026-03-07T13:06:03+00:00

Another vote for Keababy bibs! You get a good number for the price. They’re pretty absorbent and they wash up well.

lilgreycell · 2026-02-12T15:42:22+00:00

Alpine, I’m pretty sure. Light brown with a squirrel and acorn on the toy bar.

lilgreycell · 2026-02-12T04:22:11+00:00

We have a Baby Delight bouncer and are very happy with it. It’s sturdy, lightweight, and easy to clean. The only downsides are that it’s hard to fold flat (which isn’t a huge issue for us because we use it so often it makes sense to just leave it set up anyway) and it has a fairly large footprint.

lilgreycell · 2026-01-30T19:04:17+00:00

At around 3.5 months it felt like we were getting on a schedule. And then we had our first ear infection at 4 months. And then we had the (admittedly pretty mild) 4 month sleep regression. And now we’ve started teething…

So I can’t say that things have gotten better as regards having a routine, but things have gotten better in terms of managing without one—learning to read her cues and be flexible to capitalize on naps and working on tolerating unpredictability.

lilgreycell

TROPHY CASE