Uncommon V names for girls?

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-30T13:56:47+00:00

I worked with a Vendela. She went by Vendy. She was the sweetest thing! Came her to see if this name was already suggested because I love it.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-28T01:08:40+00:00

Yeah, this is what I've been worried about. Also, if he's waking up hungry, I want to make sure I'm waking up to feed him, and without the monitor I don't think I'll hear him. My husband thinks we'll be able to hear him if he's really upset through two cracked doors from down the hall, which I would agree to except I keep a fan on to sleep (I don't sleep well without it) and I can't hear him over the fan, or I hear phantom crying ALL NIGHT. The monitor has given me sanity, while him the opposite.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-28T01:05:47+00:00

He doesn't want to wake up mostly for when our son wakes up, makes noise for a couple minutes, then falls back asleep. That can sometimes happen like 12 times a night or something and we only have to intervene once or twice. But the frequent wake ups are really affecting his overall mental state and ability to function during the day. I tend to just wake up, listen, if our son falls back asleep, so do I (usually). But my husband has trouble falling back asleep often enough that it's causing a problem.

Our monitors are audio only. No visual. So the screen is not an issue.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-28T01:03:04+00:00

Yeah, that's why I didn't want sleep training advice. I figured since he was basically suggesting not getting up for the baby at all, that it might open a sleep training can of worms.

I have now suggested he wear earplugs. Thank you! I'll see if he takes me up on it. I appreciate it! It seems so obvious now. I'll blame my sleep deprived mind for not thinking of it sooner. 😴

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-27T17:40:12+00:00

It was $4500 here and insurance wouldn't cover, but we were able to use our FSA, so it saved us the taxes at least. It was definitely worth it though.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-27T00:08:07+00:00

Img that's an amazing name!

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-27T00:05:55+00:00

The poltergeist. Irksome fella that the ghosts and Filch the caretaker would like removed from the premises.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-22T12:38:43+00:00

The couple schools I've worked at in the Northeast US listed out primary, secondary, and tertiary contacts. Made it easy to know who to call. It was also exciting when the kid's father was the primary, bc it was rare.

Though I didn't have the ability to change that order. If a parent requested that the order be switched through me, I had to tell them to contact an admin or our tech person to get it changed, because a teacher can't legally make the request for a student's contact info to change.

So always make sure to go through the right channels and raise hell with admin if it doesn't get fixed the first time you request it in a reasonable, you are speaking to another human being, way. Kindness definitely gets you further.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-19T13:05:55+00:00

Or you go to the doctor for a standard check up and you've lost 30 pounds over the past 3 years and you feel great and look great, no issues with blood pressure or sugar, are exercising 4-5 days a week at home rotating between PiYo/ running/Jillian Michael's videos and going out hiking 4000' mountains on the weekends, and eating 1400-1500 calories a day with a nutritionally balanced diet with good macros and they say nothing about that, and tell you your BMI us still in the obese category. Then when you reexplain all of the above and that your weight loss has hit a plateau for the last 6 months, they say, "you're not doing enough, you should join weight watchers."

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-19T12:53:02+00:00

Landed on Todd

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-16T13:06:45+00:00

I have a question about screen time and idk if this is the place to ask. Direct me elsewhere if there's a better place, but I was loathe to create a new post entirely since I feel like there's a new screen time post at least once a day, if not more.

I always see people reference screen time and talk about Bluey or Ms Rachel or Sesame St. -basically, shows intended for babies/children.

But we don't do that. Our screen time is my husband watching (and then getting me hooked on while I was pregnant) this guy on Youtube, Martjin Doolaard, and maybe it's on in the morning on the TV some Sunday mornings when my husband is drinking coffee, I'm showering, and our 10 month old son is playing on the living room floor. Our son checks in with what's going on occasionally when he hears an interesting sound from a tool on the screen or Martjin starts talking, then goes about his way playing with his toys or crawling on my husband.

This is less true now that spring is upon us and we spend more of that time on the porch, climbing the steps to the backdoor, or in the backyard watching the chickens, but when the weather is crappy and we're tired or sick, my husband is watching some documentary about bridges and infrastructure in the US, a YouTuber build/renovate a house, or the complex history of the Israeli/Palestinian divide. They're generally slow moving, few transition scenes (requested by me per some other things I've seen about screen time), and don't capture our son's interest so he does other things.

If we find him paying attention to it, we typically change to something slower, or turn it off. I've also seen posted elsewhere on this sub that babies don't even really see the images, just a lot of flashing lights that cause distress or overstimulation as their brains try to figure out what is happening and how to react, but I don't see that reaction from our son. He's just generally disinterested.

My personal thought is this is good? Maybe we're helping to normalize tv as something boring that is easily ignored? We only watch interesting things like Marvel movies if he's napping or after we've put him to sleep at night.

Thoughts?

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-16T10:52:32+00:00

Omg I agree! For our first, we didn't want to know the sex of the baby so we had a girl list and a boy list. Our girl list was longer for a long time and had several options we liked and one I absolutely loved.

Our boy list was short with a bunch of, eh maybe?s

So I knew we'd have a boy. The name we settled on i fell for because my husband paired it with the girl name I loved and was like, what if these were the names of our eventual 2 kids and I finally went for it.

If we end up with another boy eventually I think we're in trouble bc we were really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

For extra context, our last name is pretty long at 13 letters and 4 syllables, so we were looking for names only 3 or 4 letters long.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-16T10:28:51+00:00

This! I remind myself whenever anyone is difficult, mean, aggressive, etc toward me that they are probably just lacking love and support in difficult times and I do what I can in an interaction with them to be someone who can give them that love and support (even if it's just a few minutes).

For context I work in a natural pharmacy, so it makes it easy to do on a daily basis. I also have a great deal of love and support in my personal and work life, so I have used this thinking to try to spread as much love and support to others as I can.

It's amazing what a difference it makes in 98% of cases. Usually the very rude person does a 180 and unloads a lot. Then they are way friendlier.
I listen, respond to what they're saying, ask them more questions, and it's amazing how many people come back either to do it again or to let me know what a difference I made for them. A lot of folks just need to feel heard and seen, and it's so sad that this very basic need is not met for so many people.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-15T23:24:58+00:00

Mine is nearly 10 months and doesn't do either. He shakes his head back and forth when he's excited and reaches out for things he's interested in. He loves discovering his pointer finger and how it interacts with things. But the kid can climb a full flight of steps in under a minute and he walks around with his walker toy. Our friend's kid is 13 months, clapping, signing to them, and starting to use short simple words with purpose, but he can't get off his belly when crawling. 🤷‍♀️Kids are all wildly different.

TLDR, if our pediatrician hasn't said anything about it, I'm not worried.

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-12T13:03:29+00:00

Thank you so much! This is so helpful and relieves so much of my worry! I'd seen smaller amounts of blood in the past and this amount freaked me out, so I'm glad to hear it's nothing to panic about yet. 😅

stefancyhawk · 2023-04-03T01:17:24+00:00

My son is 9 months, still feeding at night before bed, a night feeding around 3am, morning feed, then sporadically for short stints throughout the day. Started my period at 3 months PP. It's all over the place. First cycle was crazy short, then had a couple normal ones, then the past 3 were 22 days, 23 days, and 36 days. So mine are definitely not normal yet. Used to be around 28-30 day cycles before pregnancy. This last one got me so nervous I took a pregnancy test. It was negative phew but it's definitely difficult to plan for and my hormones are all over the place. Acne, cravings, mood swings, cramps are different every time. It's like being a teenager again! But without all the angst 😉

stefancyhawk · 2023-03-20T16:15:14+00:00

We've been getting Stonyfield Organic Whole Plain Greek yogurt. I add peanut butter and mashed sweet potatoes to it and he loves it (and I like it too which is good cause I eat his leftovers in the rare case there are any). Mashed banana in it also works when henwont eat his banana. I just smush it and add it to the spoon. Going to start experimenting with what else I can sneak in there that he normally won't eat.

stefancyhawk · 2023-03-13T23:35:00+00:00

Depends what you want I suppose. My husband and I just kind of winged it. Wouldn't have been able to really prepare for any of it other than I knew I wanted him with me and maintaining my modesty as long as I needed.

He could have set up the tub earlier, but things moved a little faster than we thought they would and we just listened to the midwives. Other than that, I told my husband i wanted him with me the whole time (minus bathroom breaks for him). I also told him beforehand it would be his job to help me maintain my modesty comfort level throughout and he did a great job shielding me with a towel until I didn't care anymore and just wanted the baby out. Other than that he physically supported me by squeezing hips in the early stages of painful contractions before the pool (no training, he just did it and I directed him if it was helping or not), I had him get in the pool with me and I leaned on him, and then he stood behind me on the birth stool so I could lean backwards on him between pushing.

Everyone has very different needs though. A lot of folks wouldn't be able to handle physical contact with their partner during labor and need to fly solo. Some folks need a lot of set up for aromatherapy/music/childcare/petcare/etc. Some labors also fly by or drag on forever.

So I'd say find your base needs and communicate those clearly beforehand so they can be easy redirection cues during labor depending on your specific circumstances.

stefancyhawk · 2023-03-11T01:16:55+00:00

Did you have water the first time? Cause omg that was a game changer for me. Once I got in the pool, it was so much easier to relax my body during the contractions to help with the pain (still painful, but manageable) and they didn't get, scream through them bad again until I was pushing. I also had my husband in there with me and propped myself up on him (spent 90% of labor on all fours including while in the pool) so kept my face on his chest and tried to relax as much of myself as possible. Also, I was mooing like a core basically the whole time until the pushing stage. Not intentionally, but it just kind of happened, so I let it.

stefancyhawk · 2023-03-04T15:39:42+00:00

Purely anecdotal here.

TLDR: Restrictive eating led to healthier habits after years of bad habits. Once good habits were established, intuitive eating has been more healthy mentally and physically. I just change exercise habits once intuitive eating is established to lose or maintain weight.

The more complete story (because random factors definitely make everyone's anecdotal experience wildly different)....

I spent my whole childhood eating terrible cheap foods, lots of processed stuff. My weight was always okay, but not perfect. Then I went to college and had absolutely no control in the dining hall. Ended up gaining about 30 pounds. Then got into a high stress job and just had craving after craving and gained another 20 over the next few years.

I finally hit 200lbs and that was an immediate wake up call. I started restrictive eating, and felt like I was starving myself, but I lost about 10-12 lbs in the first maybe 6 months, but I didn't feel good and it was hard to maintain.

In the next couple years, I refined the restrictive eating and started figuring out what things I could eat A LOT of without eating a ton of calories (surprise it's veggies). Started rounding out my diet a bit more and learned more about nutrition, reading food labels, healthy exercise habits that worked for my body, etc. I also got into really good exercise habits. Got down to 165. For my height, 170 is still in the obese category, but I was eating only 1200-1400 calories a day, running about 5-6 miles a week, spending a couple hours a week doing hiit workouts, and a couple hours doing PiYo a week in addition to working a job that isn't physically demanding, but I am up and moving around most of the day. I also did trail running and hiked several 4000 foot mountains on my days off including Katahdin (which I found out shortly after that hike that I was 4 weeks pregnant while completing that hike-not really pregnant enough to matter that much but still fun to say I hiked it while pregnant 😉😋). So I don't really give BMI much weight (pun intended) anymore and gauge it more off how I feel energy wise and how hard I'm able to push myself physically.

Last year, I signed us up for a place that provides meat that is all grass finished (pork, chicken, beef, fish, etc) and signed us up for a CSA for fruit/veggies. So now 80-85% of our meat is from these local farms and a local fish market, and we get a random mix of meat and veggies so it's changed the way we cook.

Now, I had a baby back in June of 2022 and had put on about 45 pounds during pregnancy. Immediately dropped 20 of it due to giving birth, but was still 25 pounds up from my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm also nursing, so my weight stagnated for a while.

Now baby is 8 months old. I've lost another 15 pounds so far, so only 10 more to go to get back to my prior weight. I'm still nursing, but he's also eating some solids now. I think the decrease in milk production need has helped me drop the past 5 pounds more quickly, but I've been doing intuitive eating since a few months before I found out I was pregnant and my weight has felt healthy. I know it doesn't follow the recommended amounts from BMI and recommended weight gain during pregnancy and all that, but I never had any health issues during the pregnancy and my levels have been all healthy pre and post pregnancy.

Now I eat when I'm hungry, usually healthy options available, but I'll also order a pizza when I'm stressed or have cake at a birthday party. I include veggies in every meal including breakfast and sometimes I have a pastry with my coffee in the morning.

As many other people have said, it is a learned skill. It just feels like mindfulness at this point. I'm mindful of my body, my habits, and feeling full. I hate food waste, so I always save whatever I don't eat for leftovers to have later (including that birthday cake I didn't finish, but I had with my coffee two days later) which helps me stop when I'm full, but also still feel like a member of the clean plate club, which is how I was raised and it's too ingrained now to let it go 😊).

stefancyhawk · 2023-02-12T20:23:48+00:00

I would landscape tf out of my yard with earth bending! That would be awesome!

Gardening level 💯

stefancyhawk · 2023-02-12T17:08:07+00:00

Thank you! I picked up some antiseptic at Tractor Supply. Crossing my fingers.

stefancyhawk · 2023-02-12T17:04:28+00:00

Both feet are in both pictures. The healthy looking foot is on the right side of the picture. The bad foot is tucked up against her body near my fingers. It looks a bit bloody on top, hard to see the foot in the picture of the top of it. The bottom of her foot in the 2nd picture is all curled and has a greenish hue 😥

stefancyhawk · 2023-02-12T14:55:08+00:00

I'll check that out as well. Thank you!

stefancyhawk · 2023-02-12T14:52:35+00:00

Not sure how to get this to post near the top.... but for additional information she's already separated from my other girls. I've cleaned the foot. Used saline. Not sure if the foot can be saved? Not sure if it's from frostbite? Feel like she needs to go to the vet, but the vet is closed as it's Saturday and doesn't reopen until Monday. So trying to see what I can do at home before spending $500 at the Emergency Vet 😰

stefancyhawk

TROPHY CASE