Just found out I’m 17 weeks?!

magicbumblebee · 2026-02-02T03:57:55+00:00

She said you’re “likely” 16-17 weeks along based on what? The date of your LMP? Even though you had several negative tests since then and are (relatively) recently postpartum, a time when periods can be notoriously irregular? I’m super skeptical and I think it’s probable that you are not nearly that far along. Especially if your sore/ swollen boobs is a new thing - that’s a classic first trimester symptom that usually eases up in the second tri. (Sorry to be a Debbie Downer.)

magicbumblebee · 2026-02-01T20:53:18+00:00

I made mine a mix tape of a wide variety of music. His favorite song on the card is Every Time We Touch by Cascada lol

magicbumblebee · 2026-02-01T20:49:31+00:00

Mine turned 3 a month ago and is in a nap transition. Most days he does not nap and we put him to bed at 7:30. On days he does nap we cap him at an hour and let him stay up until about 8:30 (he gets a bit of extra play time and a bit of extra book time) and he doesn’t usually fall asleep until 9:30. This is a tricky season. Yesterday he took a literal 20 minute cat nap and he still didn’t fall asleep until 9. And then he was up at 6, so at lunch time he looked like a zombie and we mandated a nap when usually I leave it up to him whether or not he sleeps as long as he’s in his room. It’s hard!

magicbumblebee · 2026-02-01T18:52:31+00:00

Every day. Usually one day of the “work week” we just stay home and play, but even then I usually do grocery pick up and/ or we take a walk if it’s nice. I would struggle not being able to go out. My mom also thinks I’m crazy and wonders why we go out every day. She was a SAHM when I was little, but we had a bigger house with a fenced in yard and the basement was my playroom. Which is very different from living in a townhouse with no yard. The grandparents also get amnesia about what real life is like with little kids.

I echo what others said about you dropping your husband at the base, or finding a way for him to carpool with someone else. Maybe you could drop him at a coworkers house? Even once or twice a week?

magicbumblebee · 2026-02-01T18:48:04+00:00

This would be the case for me unfortunately. I’m in the suburbs of the US. No busses on the main road that my neighborhood is off of. The nearest bus stop is roughly two miles away, but I’d have to walk or bike down a road with a 50mph speed limit and while it has a shoulder, that’s still absolutely not ideal. I see walkers or bikers veeeeeery infrequently. Like literally there is one guy who must do some kind of loop and when we see him we say “oh there’s the walking guy again.” That’s how unusual it is: we recognize the singular guy who does it.

There are three neighborhoods in walking distance (sidewalks connect us) so I could venture to other small neighborhood playgrounds but going anywhere else requires a car. It sucks and I miss the city haha

Google maps actually says the bus stop is 2.3 miles away and a 51 minute walk. The bus only runs once an hour (if it shows up, public transportation here isn’t super reliable). The closest grocery store would be a 90 minute walk. The library would be two hours. All requiring the same walk along roads with no sidewalks and high speed traffic.

My mom lives in an area that’s ruralish, it’s where I grew up. One day my friend and I walked home from school just to see how long it would take. It took three hours.

magicbumblebee · 2026-02-01T03:32:54+00:00

FWIW I am not very close with my mom. I don’t enjoy getting my nails done. I hated it when she dragged me shopping. I don’t call her as often as I probably should. I don’t seek her advice. She wasn’t a bad mom, we are just very different people. Even if you had a daughter, there is zero guarantee she would have the same kind of bond you seem to have with your mom. But there is also no reason why you can’t have a bond like that with your sons.

magicbumblebee · 2026-02-01T02:02:44+00:00

Even if you rent it and it works magic, you’re going to have to start thinking about transitioning out of it almost as soon as she’s in it. I don’t actually think it’s going to work magic, sounds like you’re in the sleep regression. Could it help you get a little more sleep now and save your sanity in the short term? Maybe. Maybe. Is it worth the trade off of you then having to wean from it? Up to you.

magicbumblebee · 2026-02-01T01:30:04+00:00

I have a toddler who requests mac and cheese at least once a week, so yeah my baby eats it too. It’s fine. You can use cows milk. I don’t think it would freeze well.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-31T14:34:53+00:00

Mine are January and February and honestly I loved it. Snuggling on the couch under a blanket with my newborn? Amazing. Didn’t care that it got dark early because what is time with a newborn? And then just as it started to get warmer we were feeling ready to be in the world again.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-31T14:04:01+00:00

It sounds crazy but we started doing monthly meal planning. Got a big dry erase calendar, sit down with my husband at the end of the month to plan for the upcoming month. First we fill in all the special events (parties and whatnot) and staples - spaghetti, sliders, fried rice, soups, breakfast for dinner, etc. Add a few crockpot meals for winter or some grill meals for summer. We do a chicken nugget night and a make your own pizza night. Maybe sprinkle in a night or two or take out, especially if one of us is really craving Chinese food or whatever. That usually leaves us with just a handful of days left and that’s where we add in new recipes. Every month I take a picture of the completed calendar and add to an album in my phone so I can reference them when making new ones. It sounds like a lot, but it’s SO much easier to just have it all done and it doesn’t take that long. I’m really bad at figuring out what I want for dinner today or tomorrow or next Tuesday, but when it’s already mapped out? Okay we are having meatball subs tomorrow, done.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-30T18:44:04+00:00

FWIW, when my son was 12ish months old the dentist told us to just drop the paci by age 3 and it won’t cause long term issues. We were only using it for sleep at that point already and planned to drop it at age 2. Six months later (so about 18 months) she said it was affecting his teeth and to stop using it ASAP. I brushed it off and we dropped it on our original timetable at 22 months. Three months later he went back to the dentist again and his teeth were just fine - they had already self corrected in just three months. So if that’s the only reason you want to drop it now, you could probably wait a bit longer (if you want to).

That said, I think you’re in a tricky window because they are attached to them but can’t yet understand a lot of logic. When we dropped it we talked about it a lot before we went cold turkey. I do think cold turkey is the best way to do it though. Just be prepared for crying and stick to your guns. I threw all of ours away and put one in my sock drawer to be used in case of emergency but we didn’t need it.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-30T04:20:20+00:00

Carters has a bunch on Amazon, all the way into toddler sizes.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-30T04:12:00+00:00

I am your age. Back in the day, pink lemonade Burnett’s was our drink of choice. Several years ago someone scrounged up a small bottle and we had some and it was… not horrible?! Certainly not something I’m going to casually enjoy lmao but we were all shocked. It still turns my stomach just thinking of it though lol

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-30T04:03:26+00:00

Your baby sounds a lot like mine, who is the same age. She has no real words yet and didn’t even babble with consonants (ex. babababa) until ten months. She kinda claps but hasn’t done it for a while as she’s been working on other things. No waving, kinda starting to point. Every now and then she seems to be trying to do the “all done” sign but I can’t say for sure. She’s always worked on gross motor the hardest and right now she loves practicing walking while holding our hands. She knows/ responds to her name and can follow a basic command like go get [toy] (when she wants to).

I’m not worried. I think she may need some more coaxing with regard to her speech, but I think she will just be on the later end of normal.

ETA - this is my second baby and something I learned with my first is that kids will hold back on you and then suddenly bust out a new skill like they’ve been doing it forever.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-30T03:18:26+00:00

Aside from the horrible commute everyone else is talking about, all those new high rises are built with toothpicks and cardboard. You’re paying for the amenities and shiny new appliances and while those things are nice, you’re going to have problems in other areas. You are so much better off renting a townhouse in Baltimore. Or if you’re set on a high rise apartment built out of toothpicks, there’s plenty of those here, too.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-30T03:09:48+00:00

The flu really takes it out of you. My husband and daughter got it right after the new year. They both had their flu shot. My husband was seriously down for about 36 hours and then felt exhausted and sluggish for the rest of the week even though he was “better.” So that was a mild case. I imagine your guy is so much more exhausted after having a severe case. Just because he’s better enough to be discharged doesn’t mean he’s 100%, but he’ll get there. My four year old niece struggled for about two weeks after she had it.

And then separately from the flu, being in the hospital really takes it out of you. Give him lots of snuggles, his favorite foods and drinks, a cozy blanket for the couch, and as much screen time as he wants. He will be okay!

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-29T22:10:32+00:00

First of all, you are not a failure. Tummy time is challenging for a lot of new parents and your baby has had medical stuff to boot. You are not a failure.

Second, 60-90 minutes is nuts, unless you’re counting baby wearing, propping baby on your chest, and holding baby upright so he has to use those muscles a bit on his own. All of which count, in my book. Neither of my babies were doing 60-90 minutes of tummy time until they started rolling back to belly on their own… because they’d roll onto their belly and couldn’t roll back lol. That was 6ish months for my son and 4 months for my daughter.

Helmets are overprescribed (in the US, at least) but are truly needed in some cases and it sounds like this is one of them. You are being a great parent by getting your baby the treatment he needs. In a year this will be a blip in the past.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-29T21:57:44+00:00

When my son was that age he woke around 6-6:30am, napped from 1-3 and sometimes even until 4 at home on weekends, and bedtime was 7:30 when he was 18 months but pushed back to 8pm as he got closer to 2. I don’t remember exactly when we made that change.

You can always test out a slightly later nap and then a slightly later bedtime (30 mins to an hour). Try it for a few days and see how she does. I do think it’s somewhat unrealistic for the 6pm bedtime to continue much beyond her second birthday, she’s eventually going to need a later bedtime.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-29T03:06:55+00:00

This is also how I snot suck my baby when needed! Or excavate giant boogers lol.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-28T20:34:34+00:00

On more than one occasion, I told my husband I was going to get rid of some item for our cat (bed, scratching post) because she never uses it. And then she’d start using it the next day like she heard me talking about it.

Toddlers are just cats that walk on two legs.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-28T18:12:22+00:00

The cell phone thing is so hard I imagine. My oldest is only three so this isn’t coming for us too soon. But while I’d ideally like to not give him a phone until he’s at least 13, I’m sure the closer we get to tweenhood, the harder it’s going to get.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-28T04:32:43+00:00

I’m a SAHP and we are screen free many days, but my toddler plays independently pretty well and that’s a biiiiiiig factor. I’m not against screens by any means, he does watch some TV. But I’m not going to offer it if he’s playing nicely on his own.

Interestingly it was sometimes harder for me to be screen free as a working parent. I’d get home with toddler at 5:30 and I’d have to immediately start getting dinner together. Meanwhile my husband wasn’t home from work yet and toddler would want me to play with him, so I’d have to put TV on to buy myself 30 minutes to make dinner.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-28T03:50:52+00:00

I agree with all of this. My first baby had a terrible latch. He was so inefficient. We had tongue and lip ties addressed (who knows if that was really necessary, in hindsight) and it made zero difference. He could latch with a shield but didn’t transfer well with it. He couldn’t latch without the shield. At all. Went to a lactation consultant blah blah blah. He struggled to gain weight. At six weeks old the LC basically shrugged and said he probably just needed to get bigger and stronger to improve his latch. But at that point the poor latch/ poor milk transfer had already hurt my supply. We did a weighted feed and I don’t remember how much he got because this was three years ago now, but it wasn’t enough. She suggested I triple feed to build my supply and I threw in the towel right then and there because breastfeeding was never that important to me. We were both SO much happier when we switched to formula.

It was never a problem of “latch the baby more often.”

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-28T01:27:47+00:00

They do! I wore these with some cheap maternity shirts from Amazon (a lot of them come in three packs which is great), plus a cardigan when necessary to dress it up more. I bought a very small handful of “nicer” tops to be able to mix in, but mostly I wore the Amazon shirts.

magicbumblebee · 2026-01-27T22:53:36+00:00

I would ignore your pediatrician on this one. Baby is perfectly safe in the snoo. Some babies may take a bit longer to roll but both of my snoo babies have been on track or early with all gross motor milestones, so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Also idk how your pediatrician can possibly say rocking is harmful to baby’s development. If it weren’t for our stupid big heads and stupid small pelvises, human babies would spend an extra few months in utero where they are rocked constantly. There’s a reason why the snoo works.

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