@squirtgun oh no! hope she feels better!! Vicks makes awesome cool mist vaporizers that allow you to add a vicks strip to help with sleeping at night! We use it all winter but add the strips if DD gets sick.
@Squirtgun , I hope your daughter feels better soon! My son had RSV at 4 months and it was just sad to watch him and know there is nothing you can do about it but monitor and wait for it to pass.
@kat81 , agreed that video monitors are the way to go. We still use mine for my son who is 2.5. It's nice to know when he finally fell asleep/when he's waking up in the morning. And sometimes he'll scream out in his sleep and we take a quick look and realize he's totally fine. When he was younger, we used the video to gauge if he'd be ok falling back asleep when he woke up crying, etc. Kept us from going in there a million times unnecessarily.
I'm sorry @Squirtgun! I hope your DD feels better.
Speaking of video monitors, does anyone have any recommendations for monitors for 2 kids? Do people just buy two monitors, or are there good systems that you can use to monitor 2 kids. I'm less concerned about DS needing a monitor but he has always been right across the hall from us, and since we'll be moving down the hall once our renovation is done I'd like a little peace of mind to ensure I can still hear him.
Also, for those who are planning to formula feed or STM+ mom's who formula fed, what sort of supplies do I need to make FFing - especially MotN FFing - as easy as possible? Bottle warmers? Specific bottles? A mini-fridge in the nursery? We never did formula with DS and there is a good chance I will be doing it from day 1 with this baby and I'm pretty intimidated by the whole thing. Any advice would be much appreciated!
@RainyDays86 My SIL has always exclusively done formula and I know she had a pretty good system set up. She would pre-measure all the water in the bottles for the day/night and leave them out on the counter, that way they would be room temp and not cold. Then she would just have to add the scoops of formula to the water when it was time to feed. At night she would bring up the bottles she would need with the water ready to go and then the formula pre-measured in one of those formula dispensers so she would literally just have to dump and mix. No middle of the night measuring!
Married 03.09.09 Sweet Baby H 12.21.11 Sassy Baby P 03.26.14 Little Brother Due 05.22.17
@RainyDays86 Ask your pediatrician for as many free samples of formula they will give you! I know the pediatricians office I worked for would give them out all the time at the well-check visits as long as you asked for them. And sign up for the coupons through the formula company. I know Similac has pretty good coupons and Target often has gift card deals for the formula just like diapers and I see Cartwheel offers for them.
Married 03.09.09 Sweet Baby H 12.21.11 Sassy Baby P 03.26.14 Little Brother Due 05.22.17
@Squirtgun Oh, RSV is the worst. DD1 had it at 11 months and it was so sad. She had to do breathing treatments, are you having to do the same?
So far her lungs sounded clear enough that she doesn't need breathing treatments. They said it usually gets worse before it gets better, so we will just have to wait and see! Thanks for all your support everyone she's just snuggling into me and holding her pedialite cup. Sister's taking care of herself today
@RainyDays86 Yes, you can get tons of free formula "samples" (sometimes full cans) and coupons. I've heard the baby brezza is amazing for formula feeding.
@RainyDays86 I have a two camera Infant Optics system I like. Right now I use one for my son and the other as a travel monitor so I do t have to unhook his for trips but once baby comes it will go in her room.
Two camera systems should have a feature where it can scan between rooms so you aren't monitoring one or the other. Every X seconds it switches from camera 1 to camera 2 so you don't have to choose who is on and who is off.
@RainyDays86 DD needed to be supplemented with formula for a while. While in the hospital they brought us the little newborn bottles of formula (Similac). Every time they would bring us some, we would feed her one and the rest would go in our bag to take home. I continued to buy those little bottles once we were home; later we bought the tubs. And since they can't really be reused we had to throw out whatever she didn't eat, which was a lot in the beginning. Also, she was pretty good about taking her bottles any which way, room temp or straight out of the refrigerator, but I know not all babies are like that.
Be careful with the baby brezza. It sounds awesome and I was totally considering it for or first because I thought it would be easier for DH who does the night feeds (I'm a night shift worker). But the unit I work in bought one of our nurses one for her baby shower as she was planning to FF exclusively and she had tons of problems. The machine wasn't measuring out the formula correctly (which she didn't know) and she was feeding her LO essentially milk colored water for months. She was failure to thrive and did all these special, expensive tests because they thought something was wrong with her. I don't remember how they figured out it was the machine not giving enough powder but once they did, they started researching and found that it was a well known problem with it. The company refunded them the cost but her LO is still fighting to overcome what that first 6 months did to her and she's almost 2 now.
@MrsFreeman2010 oh my goodness that's so sad! I'm glad they figured out what was going on, but it seems crazy that the breeza is still on the market if that is happening!
@RainyDays86 - My son was primarily formula fed. We used the ready-made liquid Enfamil, which was convenient but expensive (he refused the powdered formula for some reason). I hoarded coupons and samples like crazy! If we are unable to nurse again this time, I plan on going the powdered route. I have friends who loved the Dr. Brown's pitcher, which allows you to make roughly a whole day's worth of formula to stick in the fridge. I don't know if there's a specific bottle that's better for FF than others, I would just say to make sure you have plenty of bottles so you don't have to constantly wash bottle parts all day. Invest in one of those little baskets to stick in your dishwasher for bottle parts and a nice drying rack. In the beginning, we also used the Medela steam bags to sterilize nipples at the end of the day. I'm not sure how necessary that was -- I was a crazy germaphobe those first few months. Now my kid eats food off the floor, and I don't always stop him (less for me to pick up).
I supplemented DS1 with formula at about 10 months and I got a storage container that had 3 compartments. I loved it for on the road and imagine it would work for MOTN feedings. You can premeasure the powder and have different amounts in each compartment and then pour into the bottle. I always liked having 2 oz servings, in case he got hungrier, but not enough to finish a bottle. That way not as much goes to waste.
@MrsFreeman2010 How aweful that happened. Good thing they figured out what was wrong. We used a baby brezza and had a wonderful experience. I would recommend it to anyone, but certainly verify your settings are right and that the formula mix coming out matches a hand mixed bottle so you know something like that isn't happening. It was a fabulous to us and our most used baby product last time and I anticipate using it again this time.
Im so exhausted. My dd is not a good sleeper and we've (by we i mean i) worked so hard on sleep training and finally quit any milk at night and some nights she does great and then there are nights like tonight where shes screaming her head off for hours regardless of whether i hold her or do the Ferber thing. Meanwhile my husband wakes for all of ten minutes, grabs her and brings her to our room rather than trying to stick to the ferber thing, fusses at me for not just getting a bottle, attempts to "help" by holding her for literally 2 minutes before basically saying screw this and going back to bed and i can hear him snoring away. So now i doubt what I'm doing and just listened to her scream on and off for what felt like forever which now seems pointless if i should just keep caving. I went back in our room to get my phone for a timer and accidentally knocked over our humidifier (the tiny cup kind so it was like 8 oz of warer) and dh woke up to loudly say " good going " which wakes my barely sleeping dd, so i tell him to stfu (whoops, i do feel bad) to which he replies "You need to get a new fing attitude." and rolls over back asleep. I'm so angry. More than food, these babies want sleep!
Great...can't wait to do nights with nb twins while he snores.
Jkp7749, that sounds exhausting! It must be so hard to sleep train when you husband isn't sticking to the same schedule. Hang in there, it sounds like you're doing a good job.
I'm up at 6am on a Saturday because I woke up having to pee and then was so hungry I couldn't go back to bed. Pregnant problems.
Me: 29, DH: 31 Married: October 2014 Began TTC: April 2015 BFP #1: 9/18/15. EDD 5/18/16. MC 10/26/15. (9w) BFP #2: 2/27/16. EDD 11/7/16. MC/D&E 4/20/16 (11w) BFP #3: 9/22/16. EDD 5/29/17. DS born 4/24/17 BFP #4: 5/20/18. EDD 1/23/19.
@Jkp7749 how old is your daughter? I have a very stubborn 2 year old and when he was little Ferber with check ins worked but eventually we realized they were making things worse actually. To get him to sttn I put him to bed one night and said I would not come in until the morning. Three nights later he was done with the wake ups and drama.
Might not work for everyone but I thought I would throw it out there.
@Jkp7749 Sleep training is the worst! but it won't last forever, I promise. Hang in there. You can do it! Try having a chat with your hubbs at a point in the day when you both are awake, not cranky or stressed, and willing to listen to each other. Share your feelings and ask for help. Ask him What can I say to you during the night to get you to wake up and help? (And if he says "I did wake up and help" you can say, "Yes, you did. But I was up for hours, and once in awhile I might need more than 10 minutes from you. How can we make that happen?" Approach it as a team.) The middle of the night is not the right time for that convo. Meanwhile, stay strong. I know that hearing the crying and screaming is beyond frustrating and raises self-doubt. Just remember, you're doing the right thing! Even if they are crying, they are safe in their cribs! It's okay! The sleep-filled nights (for you all!) will soon outweigh the rest. You can do it!
@RainyDays86 - He was never too picky about temp, so we'd prep night bottles ahead of time, take them out of the fridge and warm them just for a few minutes. We started out with a couple of fancy bottle warmers, both of which broke. In the end, we used a flower vase...just filled it with warm water and plopped a bottle in while we changed his diaper. So, I'd skip the bottle warmer.
This pic came up on my Ovia app this morning. Everything about this makes me laugh. This is definitely an accurate portrayal of labor.
@Jkp7749 - Sleep training is so rough! DD is two and we still go through periods of time when she has a hard time going to bed or sttn. Just in December she started waking up at night saying that her diaper was wet so I would go in there and it was only wet half of the time. She was also having a hard time going down at night so after 2-3 weeks of almost nightly wakings, I did what @WombThereItIs said and just told her that I was going to bed and not coming back until the morning and after a 2-3 nighttime crying sessions and about as many at night, she started sleeping well again. I agree that sometimes checking in repeatedly can make things worse, especially when they have been rewarded by being pulled out of the crib at times. Sorry you're dealing with this! Especially with no help from your h!
Me: 38 DH: 36 Married 8/27/2011 BFP #1 9/28/2011 DS born 5/22/2012 BFP #2 4/24/2013 m/c 4/25/2013 at 4w BFP #3 1/31/2014 DD born 10/14/2014 BFP #4 1/20/2016 m/c 2/12/2014 at 7w2d BFP #5 8/19/2016 DS2 born 4/29/2017 BFP #6 3/7/2018 EDD 11/18/2018
@Jkp7749 Sleep training is the worst! but it won't last forever, I promise. Hang in there. You can do it! Try having a chat with your hubbs at a point in the day when you both are awake, not cranky or stressed, and willing to listen to each other. Share your feelings and ask for help. Ask him What can I say to you during the night to get you to wake up and help? (And if he says "I did wake up and help" you can say, "Yes, you did. But I was up for hours, and once in awhile I might need more than 10 minutes from you. How can we make that happen?" Approach it as a team.) The middle of the night is not the right time for that convo. Meanwhile, stay strong. I know that hearing the crying and screaming is beyond frustrating and raises self-doubt. Just remember, you're doing the right thing! Even if they are crying, they are safe in their cribs! It's okay! The sleep-filled nights (for you all!) will soon outweigh the rest. You can do it!
This. You became parents together, not just you. I resented mine a lot because I was handling the MOTN wakeups at least 90% the time. It got to a point where I was just constantly tired and having multiple breakdowns that he realized we needed to be a team and do sleep training together. The state I was in was hurting our relationship. Granted, this was by the age of 6 months but it shouldn't matter how old the child is. Plus he should realize you need to rest while pregnant!
Sending sleepy vibes your way, I hope you have better nights very shortly ahead.
Lots of ladies have offered great advice on sleep training. Sleep training and different types of sleep training are not for everyone. We do not sleep train and I have very strong opinions on Ferber and extinction crying. My DD also sucked at sleeping, but if left to cry it out, she would get so worked up she'd throw up and would not settle down. We rocked her to sleep until 2 and she sleeps amazingly now. I know not everyone wants to do that. I'll set that aside for the purposes of this post.
First, I would have said more than STFU, but like others have said, motn is not the best time to work these things out. During the day, tell you DH it's time to be more involved in the night parenting. You are growing 2 kids and adding 2 more to the mix soon. He needs to take a major role here. If he disagrees with sleep training, you need to work together to reach an agreeable solution.
Second, if your kid is under one, give her milk.
Third, sleep training feelings aside, maybe there is a different type of training to try. No cry sleep solution or something like that or something else (I don't know all the various methods out there) might work better for your DD and DH.
@Jkp7749 this is my first so I don't have any advice on the sleep training. However I did want to commend you on how little you said to DH and that he is still living. I would have lost my ever loving mind at my DH for that and " stfu" would have been a nice sentiment from me at that point! Mega props for being so much more calm than I ever could!!
@kayemjay2 haha to that Ovia pic! I don't know about you but I'm totally gonna look that great during the "natural" parts to my labor! I won't look that good in between contractions let alone during!
Whoops, accident post! I don't have anything to add on sleep training except we've definitely dealt with some tense moments in the MOTN as well. I totally agree that waiting until you're both somewhat rested is a much better time to have a come to Jesus talk.
Sleep training sounds like a joy. I'm already worried I may have a battle on my hands in the nighttime duty department. My husband sleeps through everything.
All this talk of sleep training has got this FTM a little scared.
Sleep stuff is honestly hard. You just adjust to it though. We never actually sleep trained DD, and while bedtime is still really hard, she mostly sleeps through the night and has for a long time (she's 3). Like everything, rough night times are a phase of parenting.
@starphish18, I really recommend having a talk with him about helping you in the middle of the night. You might be off work on maternity leave, but your job of taking care of this new little person is just as if not more important than his job. Having DH get up too was seriously a life saver in those first few months for me.
May Siggy Challenge: Labor Memes
Me:31 DH:32 Married 11/06/10 DD: Born 8/23/13 (clomid+ovidrel+IUI) BFP 9/9/16 EDD 5/19/17
She was very easy to sleep train once we learned about ferber and until we took the middle of the nght milk- i waited too long bc i never minded it. Don't let it scare you, it only took her 3 nights to learn to sleep in her big girl bed!
Dh is a horrible communicator - he agrees- and we seriously need to talk but its so hard for him. Any way as a sahm i expected that i would do nights so he would be rested for work however I've done every night for 18 months except 2 when i had the flu. Vacations, weekends, its always me and i really need him to help more but he doesn't see it. When she's off while were travel for thanksgiving its me who misses hours of time bc im trying to get her to sleep while he drinks and hangs out. How do other sahm divide duties? Also dh somehow got used to going to work but then not doing ANYTHING around here bc hes tired.... Which i understand d but some things i can't do- clean out attic, paint the bathroom that was remodeled and has fresh sheetrock, that sort of thing. If you stay home, does your husband still help some at home?
Eta- i know there are tons of typos but i honestly don't feel like going back and fixing them
@rosemarylaff: Don't sweat it until you're dealing with it! Take it one day at a time with the newborn, and you'll develop a routine and habits that work for you. Sleep training doesn't happen til months and months down the road. Cross that bridge later.
Speaking of night time duties, I was thinking about feedings and have a question for moms who've breastfed. How quickly did you also introduce a bottle?
@Jkp7749 Do you have a book that you're using for sleep training? My husband tends to do better when he understands the "why" of doing things with the kids, instead of just the "how." When we did the sleep training thing, he was super confused by why I thought it would work, and didn't want daughter to be crying. I just handed him the book and told him which chapter to read (the one we had was broken down by ages). He read the whole book (he's not even a huge reader!) and came back to me totally ready to do sleep training. He was so on board that he kept me in line when I was getting frustrated with it, and it took less than a week with each of our kids. Maybe making sure he understands the why might help you? Or just understanding what he doesn't like about it and how you could come to a different way of doing things that would work better for all of you.
As as for the division of duties when you're a stay at home parent- that one is hard!! I'm a SAHM, and we just have to constantly have open communication about what is working and what isn't. There are occasional fights, and occasionally one of us kind of sulks and doesn't want to talk about what's bothering them, but communication is so important. I know that sounds like a cliché, but it's so true. For example, for a while it worked well that I would do dishes most days, and husband would do them on the weekends. And then he started having a lot more work that comes home on the weekends, and we had to have a conversation about it again. With laundry, it's easier for me to throw in a load every day if he remembers to put his dirty clothes in the hamper, so when he slacks there, I nag him those kinds of things. He usually washes his work clothes, because he's very specific about how he wants them done. He also tends to just throw a load in when he's just thinking of it and has a minute. I do think that somehow weekends are the hardest, because everyone thinks that they deserve a break on the weekends, and parents really don't ever get breaks. For vacations, it's really unfair if you are still totally parenting and he is vacationing. Vacations are really hard when you have little ones, especially little ones who are used to routine. When on vacations, we do our best to totally share parenting duties. Other people I know always vacation with another family, and take turns with the other family so everyone gets some adult relaxation time. It's good that your husband knows that he's bad at communication, so maybe you can have a conversation about what works best for both of you as far as communication goes. Heat of the moment is never good. But, should you both write out expectations and compare? Do you need a "time out" option when things get heated? Would it be good to get a babysitter and spend some good quality time together without worry of having to stop mid conversation?
And once again my response is super long.
TLDR- parenting is really hard, you've got to be able to communicate with your partner.
Speaking of night time duties, I was thinking about feedings and have a question for moms who've breastfed. How quickly did you also introduce a bottle?
People are going to be all over the place on this I can promise. For us I had planned on waiting until closer to when I would start him in daycare but my son was such an atrocious sleeper and colicy mess that I ended up pumping and making bottles my mom could give him when she was here to help in just the first few weeks. Pumping early isn't ideal because it can screw with establishing and regulating your supply but you do what you have to do.
Speaking of night time duties, I was thinking about feedings and have a question for moms who've breastfed. How quickly did you also introduce a bottle?
Everyone is so different. I think after a week or two I gave my son a bottle.. He had reflux and was spitting up so much we wanted to see how much he was taking in then I got ductal thrush .. Anyway ...After that point he went back and forth between bottle and breast. I found that it was just easier to breastfeed at night because if I didn't then I would have to get up and pump anyway. If you have baby next to your bed Its so much easier to lean over, grab baby and breast feed laying down. Then roll back over and put baby back . once I figured out how to not actually have to get out of bed it made things easier. For a long time I was getting out of bed and warming up my breast milk then pumping and then going back to bed and it was such a pain and I was exhausted. Basically it's hard to say what will work for you until you get to that point and try out a couple options.
I'm not a SAHM so I can't speak to division of labor. But I think it's important for your husband to understand that you are working the same amount of time he is working. For the "non-work" hours, DH and I try to split everything. We try to take turns cooking dinner but he ends up with most week nights since he gets home earlier. I try to cook on the weekends. We eventually got a house cleaner because we were struggling to keep up with the scrubbing stuff (bathrooms, floors, etc.). DH does a lot of the picking up because he's a cleaner person than me. For bedtime duty, we do 2 nights on and 2 nights off. DD bathes every other night so that gives us each a bath night and a non-bath night. Before she turned one, I got up with her for feedings. I never gave a bottle at night as I had to conserve the pumped milk for daycare. DH did the non-feeding stuff such as getting DD if she was in the nursery, changing diapers, and/or soothing her once she was full. Once DD turned one, DH took over most of the night stuff because I was trying to wean her at night and if I went in, she only wanted to BF.
@NotAPlaya-JustCrushAlot has a really great point about one's SO helping out during feedings, even if not doing the actual feedings. Diaper changes, swaddling, soothing, singing/humming... all these things can be done by any person, at any time of day. It's helpful to have that extra set of hands nearby for the random "can you grab me a glass of water" or "can you burp him afterward?" Great point to keep in mind.
Re: Randoms and Questions 01.09 the - 01.15
@kat81 , agreed that video monitors are the way to go. We still use mine for my son who is 2.5. It's nice to know when he finally fell asleep/when he's waking up in the morning. And sometimes he'll scream out in his sleep and we take a quick look and realize he's totally fine. When he was younger, we used the video to gauge if he'd be ok falling back asleep when he woke up crying, etc. Kept us from going in there a million times unnecessarily.
Me:31 DH:32 Married 11/06/10
DD: Born 8/23/13 (clomid+ovidrel+IUI)
BFP 9/9/16 EDD 5/19/17
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17
Speaking of video monitors, does anyone have any recommendations for monitors for 2 kids? Do people just buy two monitors, or are there good systems that you can use to monitor 2 kids. I'm less concerned about DS needing a monitor but he has always been right across the hall from us, and since we'll be moving down the hall once our renovation is done I'd like a little peace of mind to ensure I can still hear him.
Also, for those who are planning to formula feed or STM+ mom's who formula fed, what sort of supplies do I need to make FFing - especially MotN FFing - as easy as possible? Bottle warmers? Specific bottles? A mini-fridge in the nursery? We never did formula with DS and there is a good chance I will be doing it from day 1 with this baby and I'm pretty intimidated by the whole thing. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17
Sweet Baby H 12.21.11
Sassy Baby P 03.26.14
Little Brother Due 05.22.17
Thanks for all your support everyone
1st Baby 5/12/17, Henry
Two camera systems should have a feature where it can scan between rooms so you aren't monitoring one or the other. Every X seconds it switches from camera 1 to camera 2 so you don't have to choose who is on and who is off.
May '17 labor memes
11.2011 - DS1
02.2013 - loss at 6 wks
06.2014 - DS2
10.2015 - loss at 12 wks
03.2017 - DD
@MrsFreeman2010 How aweful that happened. Good thing they figured out what was wrong. We used a baby brezza and had a wonderful experience. I would recommend it to anyone, but certainly verify your settings are right and that the formula mix coming out matches a hand mixed bottle so you know something like that isn't happening. It was a fabulous to us and our most used baby product last time and I anticipate using it again this time.
DS2 5/17
#3 Due 9/20
Great...can't wait to do nights with nb twins while he snores.
I'm up at 6am on a Saturday because I woke up having to pee and then was so hungry I couldn't go back to bed. Pregnant problems.
Married: October 2014
Began TTC: April 2015
BFP #1: 9/18/15. EDD 5/18/16. MC 10/26/15. (9w)
BFP #2: 2/27/16. EDD 11/7/16. MC/D&E 4/20/16 (11w)
BFP #3: 9/22/16. EDD 5/29/17. DS born 4/24/17
BFP #4: 5/20/18. EDD 1/23/19.
Might not work for everyone but I thought I would throw it out there.
May '17 labor memes
This pic came up on my Ovia app this morning. Everything about this makes me laugh. This is definitely an accurate portrayal of labor.
Human sons: 11/2015 & 05/2017
*formerly kayemjay*
Married 8/27/2011
BFP #1 9/28/2011 DS born 5/22/2012
BFP #2 4/24/2013 m/c 4/25/2013 at 4w
BFP #3 1/31/2014 DD born 10/14/2014
BFP #4 1/20/2016 m/c 2/12/2014 at 7w2d
BFP #5 8/19/2016 DS2 born 4/29/2017
BFP #6 3/7/2018 EDD 11/18/2018
Sending sleepy vibes your way, I hope you have better nights very shortly ahead.
#1 DD Aug 2014 @39weeks via CS
#2 Due May 2,2017 hopeful VBAC
First, I would have said more than STFU, but like others have said, motn is not the best time to work these things out. During the day, tell you DH it's time to be more involved in the night parenting. You are growing 2 kids and adding 2 more to the mix soon. He needs to take a major role here. If he disagrees with sleep training, you need to work together to reach an agreeable solution.
Second, if your kid is under one, give her milk.
Third, sleep training feelings aside, maybe there is a different type of training to try. No cry sleep solution or something like that or something else (I don't know all the various methods out there) might work better for your DD and DH.
May17 Siggy Challenge
Labor
DH for that and " stfu" would have been a nice sentiment from me at that point! Mega props for being so much more calm than I ever could!!
@kayemjay2 haha to that Ovia pic! I don't know about you but I'm totally gonna look that great during the "natural" parts to my labor! I won't look that good in between contractions let alone during!
@starphish18, I really recommend having a talk with him about helping you in the middle of the night. You might be off work on maternity leave, but your job of taking care of this new little person is just as if not more important than his job. Having DH get up too was seriously a life saver in those first few months for me.
Me:31 DH:32 Married 11/06/10
DD: Born 8/23/13 (clomid+ovidrel+IUI)
BFP 9/9/16 EDD 5/19/17
Dh is a horrible communicator - he agrees- and we seriously need to talk but its so hard for him. Any way as a sahm i expected that i would do nights so he would be rested for work however I've done every night for 18 months except 2 when i had the flu. Vacations, weekends, its always me and i really need him to help more but he doesn't see it. When she's off while were travel for thanksgiving its me who misses hours of time bc im trying to get her to sleep while he drinks and hangs out. How do other sahm divide duties? Also dh somehow got used to going to work but then not doing ANYTHING around here bc hes tired.... Which i understand d but some things i can't do- clean out attic, paint the bathroom that was remodeled and has fresh sheetrock, that sort of thing. If you stay home, does your husband still help some at home?
Eta- i know there are tons of typos but i honestly don't feel like going back and fixing them
As as for the division of duties when you're a stay at home parent- that one is hard!! I'm a SAHM, and we just have to constantly have open communication about what is working and what isn't. There are occasional fights, and occasionally one of us kind of sulks and doesn't want to talk about what's bothering them, but communication is so important. I know that sounds like a cliché, but it's so true. For example, for a while it worked well that I would do dishes most days, and husband would do them on the weekends. And then he started having a lot more work that comes home on the weekends, and we had to have a conversation about it again. With laundry, it's easier for me to throw in a load every day if he remembers to put his dirty clothes in the hamper, so when he slacks there, I nag him
And once again my response is super long.
TLDR- parenting is really hard, you've got to be able to communicate with your partner.
May '17 labor memes
May17 Siggy Challenge
Labor