u/desert_sunlily

I’m on the hunt for a new series that can suck me in, by the characters, story, emotions, and the world.

Series I’ve loved and/or rewatched many times:

The Last Kingdom

Game of Thrones

Jane the Virgin

You

The Empress

Bridgerton

This is Us

From scratch

Stranger things

Outlander (the first 4 seasons)

Dead to me

Who killed Sara

Untamed

Nobody wants this

Afterlife

Clearly I like time pieces and dramas/romance/comedy. Please share your recs if you’ve like similar shows to these!

My best friend’s daughter and my son are both about to turn one year old 🥲 I’m on the hunt for good age appropriate toys or items for them!

Would love any and all recommendations! What did your one year old love?

I feel like I am behind by not having already exposed my son to all the food allergens… he’ll be 9 months old in two days. When we started solids at 6 months, I introduced peanut butter right away. He has that 2-3x a week and loves it. By week 4 of solids I did egg, I was scared of this one. But he’s done great and eats egg daily. And then introduction to allergies stopped because my son was dealing with a rash (likely heat rash? It was just little red bumps under his neck area. Took him to ped and she was unsure the cause) anyway so for weeks I didn’t introduce any possible new allergens because I didn’t want him to have a reaction and not know if it was caused by the food. Weeks passed and I felt like I didn’t want to miss the window of introducing allergens early. So I gave him some wheat pasta. Well that day I noticed the little red bumps had spread towards his chest and down his stomach. Nothing severe, but still hadn’t noticed it there before. Unsure if it was like that before the pasta because I hadn’t taken his shift off that morning before feeding… so now I don’t know if the wheat caused the extension of the rash or if it was just correlation because he already had a similar rash prior to eating wheat, just in other spots like under neck, in creases behind knees and elbows, and back. Anyway he hasn’t had wheat since as I don’t want to dare risk it and him have an even worse reaction if by the slightest chance he does have an allergy to wheat… (I hope not) but we have an apt with an allergist next week to be sure before offering wheat again. Wish I had just waited for the rash to clear but it had been there for weeks and I felt like it wasn’t gonna clear and time was being wasted on trying allergens.

Anyway, rash everywhere has cleared up these last few weeks. So I introduced him to dairy, like cheese and yogurt. Did great. Yesterday soybeans, didn’t like them but no reactions. I plan to do salmon here in a few days too… I’m not sure how to do tree nuts? Does almond flour work? Almond butter? Still need to do sesame too (we eat a lot of sesame and soy in this house so i know he needs exposure consistently to them) and he needs to try shellfish too…

Anyway the TLDR of it is my son is 9 months old and hasn’t been exposed to all the food allergens still and I feel bad about it as they say to introduce as early and often as possible….

My son is 8.5 months old. Not every morning, but there are plenty of mornings where my son will wake up around 5am, and will then refuse to sleep any longer in his crib. He wants to be held and sleep in my arms. On mornings he doesn’t do this, he’ll sleep in his crib until 6:30-7am. He still wakes 1-2x a night to feed, will fall asleep while feeding and have no problem transferring and sleeping in crib for 3-7 hour stretches. But some mornings when he wakes around 5am and clearly still tired as he’ll sleep being held but then every time I try to transfer he wakes right up and starts crying. Other mornings he may wake around 5am, take a bottle and have no problem being set in the crib. So it’s not just a time of the morning thing….

On those mornings he refuses to go back to sleep in the crib I just sit in the chair holding him so he’ll sleep until his normal wake up time around 6:30/7am to keep him on his normal schedule. Otherwise I’m dealing with a cranky baby who didn’t get enough sleep, his naps are wonky and bed time gets moved up because of the early day. So I try to keep his wake time consistent but it means I’m starting my day even earlier….

Is it like this for anyone else??? Baby just refuses to sleep any longer alone in crib some mornings?

I feel like we all have parents hacks and tricks we’ve learned on the job — Share some of your trusty favorites :)

A few of ours:

we used our stroller + bassinet (UB vista) as baby’s sole and primary sleep space (if he wasn’t contact sleeping) until he was 3 months old and moved to his crib. We just wheeled him from room to room: right up next to our bed at night, into the living room, kitchen, bathroom, nursery. He could sleep anywhere in our home and we always had a safe place to set our newborn down wherever we needed to.

Vaseline. We have tried all the fancy baby balms and diaper creams, and Vaseline really does work the best for everything… we smother our baby up in Vaseline all over his body before bed every night. Hasn’t had a dry skin patch or diaper rash since.

Doggy poop bags for dirty clothes or diapers on the go.

Gerber cloth diapers make the best burp clothes, they’re way more absorbent than traditional burp rags.

Okay I don’t know much about these games, but I wanted to pick one up for my husband for his birthday. When he first got the PS5 he got it to play Diablo lV. And then I think the only AC game he has played is Valhalla, which he enjoyed. I got him it because we loved watching the show the last kingdom (so Vikings lol) and He liked the story and the world/graphics. So I think he’s a fan of AC games.

He is someone who really enjoys good story telling, character development, critical thinking, and beautiful scenery/design.

Originally I was thinking of getting Shadows, since Japan and Samurai are an interest of his. I’m unsure of how good the game is though?

Another one I’ve seen mentioned as a favorite here is Black Flag.

Any advice on what I should get him? Your favorite?

EDIT TO ADD: God of War (Ragnarok, I think?) was another game he played and enjoyed

We knew having a child would be expensive. But in this economy I honestly wonder how anyone manages more than one child financially??

Between health insurance, childcare, food, diapers, wipes, clothing, toys, any item they might need…. And we aren’t even at the stage of them needing education and doing hobbies/activities. Or the cost of an additional person should we dine out or go on a trip somewhere.

I always imagined having two children, but now, my biggest hang up on if we’ll have a second is, can we do it financially? Maybe? But we’d be stretched and it would mean my first born may not get as many opportunities since resources are divided among two children. Or maybe we’ll just have an only and he’ll grow up with more opportunities and experiences because we’ll have more resources… it’s just hard to reconcile this reality.

How do others do it? It’s wild when I see families with 4+ children.. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s your household yearly income and how many kids do you have??

My son is recently 8 months and I want to start trying BLW by offering him more than puréed foods, but I’m nervous. Chocking is an extreme fear of mine, so much so that even before we had a baby my husband and I bought one of those lifevacs should either of us ever been in a situation where we were home alone and choking… anyway, so I’ve got one of those as a back up plan.

But I am trying to think of what are some good foods to offer my son who has only eaten purées so far? So that he can start learning to bring food to his mouth (not just a spoon) and foods that are easy to eat and chew for someone with only two bottom teeth.

I have the solid starts app and look up how to prepare food for his age. But I just second guess his ability to eat it and get nervous.. anyone else struggle at first? Which foods did you find the easiest or make you the least nervous to let baby try??

TIA from a nervous mama who doesn’t wanna hold her son back because of her own fear

I know this will be different for all babies, but I’m just hoping for my backs sake it will slow down lol.

My son is 7.5 months old and already 22 lbs 😳 he has always measured in the 90+ percentile since like week 30 in the womb.

It’s just wild to me that my friends daughter is a year old and weighs 4 lbs less than him. But also I have two friends that each have a 2 year old and a 21 month old and their children are 27-28 lbs.

It’s already hard enough carrying him around all day, I worry I’m gonna have like a 40 lbs toddler… and that he’s gonna out grow car seat rear facing limits quickly.

So anyone else have experience with a larger baby? When does rate of weight gain slow down/even out? Do they continue to put on a lot of weight or just start to lean/stretch out? My son isn’t an overly chunky guy, he’s just very solid and tall.

I need to decide on a car seat quick as my 7.5 month old is a BIG baby and nearly outgrown his infant car seat. He’s 22 lbs as it is. We have the Nuna Pipa Rx currently and have loved it!

We have a Kia telluride and Honda CRV.

For the longest time I’ve been leaning toward the Nuna Rava. I’ve seen so many love it, it seems extra plush and has a high weight max for rear facing. My only hesitation is am I going to hate not having the rotating feature?? If you have the NUNA RAVA is it such a pain to get baby in and out?

Though I’ve heard that rotating seats sometimes aren’t as stable? I don’t know..

But so the other one I am considering is the Evenflo Revolve 360.

I just can’t choose because it’s such a financial commitment! I can’t afford to get something and if I don’t like it, get something else. So I want to be happy with what we choose the first time!

The primary car baby is in is the Kia Telluride so the nicest seat will be in there. I’m wondering should I get the same seat for the Honda? (He’s only in that car 1-3x a week when I drop him off on my way to work, otherwise we only take the telluride with him.) is there a less expensive but still great seat I should get for the Honda?

Please help me. I’m running down the wire on deciding.

We will be traveling with my 8 month old next month. I’m wondering about how sleeping in a pack and play will work? As those pads in them aren’t very thick or soft… he’s only ever slept in his crib (or contact nap on us) of course his crib mattress is firm, it’s a newton. But I assume it’s still softer than the “mattress” pad that comes with the 4moms pack and play.

When your baby sleeps during travel do they have no problem sleeping in a pack and play with the extra firm pad? Or do you buy a mattress pad to go in there that could be more comfortable for them? Is that even safe? Or do they even exist?