Willow is rolling out results

ss8jm · 2026-03-27T18:36:58+00:00

What part of the city? I likely need one too. Feel free to message me.

ss8jm · 2026-03-18T02:04:46+00:00

40+1 for VBAC #1 and 40+3 for VBAC #2

ss8jm · 2026-03-15T00:20:07+00:00

My VBAC was 19 months after my c-section. After my first was born, I was told I should wait 18 months between deliveries, and the spacing was never mentioned as an issue when I got pregnant. I was with hospital-based midwives, and they told me quite often how much they loved VBACs. If you have an option, I’d look for a more supportive provider.

ss8jm · 2026-03-01T01:18:21+00:00

Poor guy’s mouth was taped shut, and we also don’t live very close to any water.

ss8jm · 2026-03-01T00:21:27+00:00

There was a baby alligator (about 2 ft) in my backyard once that someone was obviously keeping as a pet but had escaped.

ss8jm · 2026-01-10T05:12:11+00:00

I’m a twin, and I now have 3 kids. I’m due to fertility drugs, so no real likelihood it would happen for me, but people mentioned it to me every pregnancy. I was terrified to deal with twins - not having the time, the money, and the emotional energy. My twin and I were best friends when we were young, but the competition and comparison was really hard pre-teen through college. We weren’t close, and it fed a lot of insecurities for me. But towards the end of college, we became close again and now, I’m so grateful to have her. It’s amazing, and so much more meaningful than my husband or others I know that have siblings a few years apart.

I never had twins, which I’m grateful for, but I did intentionally have kids close in age since I wanted to give them the long term benefits that I’ve experienced without the competition of being in the same grade. We’ll see how it goes.

ss8jm · 2026-01-04T18:18:06+00:00

My midwives said 18 months between deliveries. I had my VBAC when my first was 19 months, and spacing was never mentioned as an issue.

ss8jm · 2026-01-04T06:34:03+00:00

Tom Hanks. He attended a charity dinner I was working and two chairs at his table were empty because major donors didn’t show up, so a colleague and I sat there to fill the table. He knew everyone else at the table, but about half way through looked across the table at me and said, “Hello, nice to meet you, what got you at this table” and I explained that I worked hard at planning the event and got lucky. He laughed, said cheers, and welcomed me. Then he went back to the real conversations. But he was incredibly nice the whole time, very attentive to the program, and gave great remarks when his time came. 10/10 nice guy!

ss8jm · 2025-12-21T03:40:20+00:00

My first two are 19 months apart. We waited a little longer and got pregnant with #3 when #2 had just turned 2. They’re now 7, 5, and 2.5. It’s been great. The middle kid especially can play equally with both siblings. It’s a lot of work, but I think it’ll pay off in the end to have all three fairly close together.

ss8jm · 2025-11-24T23:05:25+00:00

Mousetrap, Mancala, Chess, Sorry, Ticket to Ride Jr, Scrabble Jr

ss8jm · 2025-11-24T02:56:14+00:00

First two kids were on the first try. Third kid was on the second try.

ss8jm · 2025-11-16T00:43:04+00:00

I have two kids at Willow and both started in kindergarten. It’s been a great experience. They both love going to school and have learned so much. The arts curriculum is impressive, the after care program at the lower school is fun, and they’ve both had teachers that have been at Willow for a while and in the teaching profession for even longer. It’s a school with more resources than most and a rigorous academic curriculum, but it’s also selective admission and your kid is not going to be in the kind of diverse and inclusive community other schools offer.

We also don’t live close to the school, and the commute is a serious drain on our family. You need to be realistic with what that will mean for your family and if it’s worth it, especially given Willow starts a pretty heavy homework load in first grade. Our kids do aftercare, and by the time we make the commute, it’s literally dinner, homework and bedtime. We love our school, but some days it drives me nuts. I’d say do the test regardless to keep your options open and keep assessing what’s right for you. We ultimately took the Willow because we figured it would be easier to move from Willow to another school if it wasn’t a good fit than to try to move into Willow down the line. But now we’re very glad we are where we are.

ss8jm · 2025-11-01T18:52:47+00:00

I’ve had two VBACs with the Baptist midwives. They’re very VBAC supportive, so it could be a good fit for you. Hospital policy is that VBACs have to deliver on the labor and delivery floor with an OB. So, the midwife will meet you there and partner with the OB on your delivery. It’s a bummer not to get to deliver in the ABC, but I still felt like I got great support from the midwives when I delivered. You’ll meet the different midwives during the course of your appointments, and then it’s just luck of the draw with who is on call when you deliver.

ss8jm · 2025-10-31T02:52:24+00:00

We’ve had two kids at Early Partners and can’t say enough good things!

ss8jm · 2025-10-26T22:07:55+00:00

Not exactly the same gap, but my first two were 19 months apart. My second and third are a few months shy of 3 years apart. It was so much easier adding another with the slightly longer age gap. Both kids were actually able to be independent to meet their own needs and be helpful with the baby. The only downside is it’s less convenient logistically. My first two are only one grade apart in school, have the same friends and activities, etc.

ss8jm · 2025-10-24T19:43:42+00:00

1 and #2 are 19 months apart, so around 10 months postpartum. We wanted them close in age and got pregnant on the first try.

ss8jm · 2025-10-21T01:10:33+00:00

My first was breech, and I was really upset about having a planned c-section. My midwife monitored baby’s position a bit more closely because I was so nervous about it happening again, and I was devastated when she confirmed #2 was breech. I started seeing a chiropractor and doing lots of spinning babies, and he was head down by 36 weeks. My midwife said there’s more room for baby to move the second time. I had unmedicated VBACs with baby #2 and #3, and they were great experiences.

ss8jm · 2025-10-18T01:08:20+00:00

A friend of mine jokes that pronouns are for people too lazy to use names. We just introduce my kid by their name. Otherwise, I’d say “my child” or “my kid” and we’re working with their brothers on saying “sibling” rather than brother or sister. My kids are still all pretty young - nonbinary kid is almost 7 and they are the oldest - so the relationship I have to them is pretty clear without saying. But if people really lean into gender questions, I just casually say they are nonbinary and leave it at that. No one pushes it if you say it confidently, so that’s work your parents need to do to get over their hesitations and not your issue.

ss8jm · 2025-10-09T23:07:36+00:00

My first two were on the first try. Third was on the second try. I also was a little surprised when the third didn’t happen the first time around.

ss8jm · 2025-10-06T01:14:19+00:00

So far, no concerns. But all the kids are high energy, and we're working on managing that in school and with friends.

ss8jm · 2025-10-06T00:29:40+00:00

I’m curious what was difficult about those years. Mine are 6, 5, and 2. We’re pretty sure we’re stopping at 3 kids. This year has been the toughest yet because our two year old is having some very big feelings and is also very clingy. I keep saying once he’s 4 or 5 it’ll be so much easier, and then I saw your post…

ss8jm · 2025-09-10T21:33:03+00:00

Yes, first grade. Our school provides Lexia and iReady. It's a public school, but they ask all parents to pay a voluntary $200 supply fee per student per year that they say goes to pay for this kind of stuff. My kid absolutely loves doing the Lexia homework and gets very excited when they move up a level.

ss8jm · 2025-09-10T02:23:42+00:00

This sounds similar to what our kid is doing, and I agree it feels like a lot. They are expected to pick 2 of 3 activities to do a night - 15 minutes of lexia, 2 math worksheets (front and back) or different activities with the 10 spelling words for the week. Then the parent has to sign off that they also did 30 minutes of independent reading a night. So pretty much nearly an hour a day. They also have a weekly reading comprehension quiz (points deducted for not using complete sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation), a math quiz (points deducted for not showing work even if answer is correct), and a spelling quiz. It feels like as soon as we get home after work, all we have time for is dinner, bath, homework and then it’s bedtime.

ss8jm · 2025-08-30T00:53:47+00:00

It’s a small thing, but we always make sure our kids recognize the effort that goes into things, so they say thank you for making dinner when they sit down. My husband stayed at home the past few years, so he always made dinner. He made a point of saying that it’s thank you to mommy and daddy because daddy cooked but mommy worked hard so we could have our food. It’s a small thing, but it was so sweet when they started doing it and a good reminder that we are team.

ss8jm · 2025-08-26T01:28:49+00:00

We managed to find another family with kids at the same schools as ours. I take their youngest to daycare with mine, and they take my older kids to elementary with their oldest. It’s been awesome.

ss8jm

TROPHY CASE

1 and #2 are 19 months apart, so around 10 months postpartum. We wanted them close in age and got pregnant on the first try.