@expandcontract OH I thought of something from the pull-up suggestion! Pampers easy-ups actually have NO tabs, they're literally like disposable underwear. I prefer them for DD2 since she's technically potty trained buts defiant, do......anyway, if you sized up on those to hold more that could be an option since they don't come off as easily.
So this is the first year for us living close to family, which is funny because we're still 1.5-3 hours from any of DHs extensions. But when we are at 18 hours, this seems like nothing. We were planning on doing Christmas morning at home then traveling to his parents (3 hours) but now are thinking we may go a few days before, since there's a football game (Bengals vs Browns) that DH wants to go to near his parents. Then we'd get a few days with his family before going to mine in Philly on the 26th (neither of my brothers have met 2.5 year old DD2!). We've done every other year driving up since we lived in Florida, we're just so excited to not have to drive 18 hours. I don't mind not having Christmas morning at home this year, we'll do it every other year to come. It doesn't seem stressful to me because after so long without being near family I'm just so grateful this is an option.
@imrachellea that's how I was the first couple of years. Now I'm over it. I miss MY family. His does things so weird. For Thanksgiving one year we did BBQ? I don't know. I'm too traditional. And I have traditions for Christmas I wanted to pass down to my kid and my mil is just super uptight about everything being perfect and it's stressful. I would rather stay home. I didn't mind them coming here as much as far as Christmas morning but we still had to wait for them to wake up and it was annoying.
@peachy13 - You're lucky your family is so easy-going but sorry your ILs are nuts! My grandparents are very rigid about Christmas and we do literally the same thing every year. My brothers and I told my wife how the schedule works beforehand and as everything happened in the sequence we told her she smirked. First it's cocktails, then family pictures by the tree, then hor d'oeuvres, then we open presents, then dinner, then dessert and coffee. MW is really good at making snarky comments that come across as really sincere and nice (it's hard to explain) so she kept saying things and my mom nearly snorted wine out her nose. The only way to know she's being sarcastic is if you really know her so it's extra funny when the person she's talking to thinks they're receiving a compliment. It's really an art. One of the things I admire most about her.
@eatinwatermelonseeds I saw your news about the house! Soooo exciting!! I will keep my fingers crossed everything goes smoothly! Owning a home is one of the BEST feelings.
*TW*
Me: 32 │ DH: 35 Married 8/16/13 BFP#1 DS 11/13/16 BFP# 2 MMC dx @ 13w 10/30/18 BFP# 3 Preemie DD born at 38w (IUGR) on 8/28/19 weighing 5.5lbs. Our little miracle
@zuuls_mom thank you!!! I'm freaking out a whole lot about it. But I'm SO excited! I'm in the process of getting everything figured out with the loan and tomorrow is our inspection 😬 ugh. So scary. Our appraisal will likely take the longest, lender said the VA is scheduling like 3 weeks out now. Not sure how common that is. How are you doing, lovely? Glad to see you.
So, I think I'm going to suggest doing a white elephant or something this year. And I'm going to talk to my husband about maybe going to their house later in the afternoon or evening on Christmas. Going to check normal traffic on Christmas. That might either go very well or very terribly lol.
All this talk about holidays makes me stressed out. I think we're just going to plan a trip for Thanksgiving. The worst part is that it shouldn't be stressful/guilt inducing at all, it should just be nice time laughing with family.
I hate that so many people feel stress around the holiday time with families. Our families are super flexible about it and my side does no presents (except for young kids) and DH's does a secret santa (again, except for children). The only issue we have is that MIL is competitive about amount of time we spend at my mom's house vs hers. They live close together (4 miles) and we're across the country. That's the most stressful part because she is just too much to take for more than a day or two at a time while in her house and my mom works so we get time to ourselves at her house. Plus MIL didn't let us stay at her house together until we were married so we have a decade of comfort of both of us at my mom's.
I hate how stressful it is too. I don't remember it being this stressful as a kid. We went to my uncle's for Christmas. Before that we just hung out at home the two of us. At my uncle's my aunt would make the best meal ever but before that we'd all just hang out, they'd play golf on the play station while I would play on the computer (on AIM 😂).
I just want to wake up in our own home. Especially with it being our new forever home. I'm going to mention that.
@eatinwatermelonseeds I'm doing ok! I had a wicked stomach bug on Tuesday and am now back to my pre-preg weight so, silver lining I guess? In all seriousness, I have my good days and bad. Had someone email me yesterday congratulating me again on my big news (I'd seen them a couple weeks before that) so that felt like a punch in the stomach, but overall I am hanging in there and FFTC: I am SO ready to be pregnant again. I feel super guilty feeling that way, but I have to stay positive and move forward! Miss you ladies SOOO much!!
*TW*
Me: 32 │ DH: 35 Married 8/16/13 BFP#1 DS 11/13/16 BFP# 2 MMC dx @ 13w 10/30/18 BFP# 3 Preemie DD born at 38w (IUGR) on 8/28/19 weighing 5.5lbs. Our little miracle
Holidays with Dh’s is pretty stress free other than not knowing what we are doing until right before. One year for Thanksgiving, MIL and SIL both thought they were hosting and bought turkeys. How that happens, I have no clue. Christmas Eve, we all get together and just hang out. Christmas morning I make breakfast just for us and we open presents. At around 11, we head over to MIL’s and just spend the rest of the day there. We eat and open presents at some point. Pretty low key and relaxing.
My parents live across country so we never see them. Someday we will make it there for Christmas. We have been doing a big combined trip to England, with them every other year, so that generally taps our vacation funds. They go every year so they don’t generally make many trips out here.
Ivy: July 2010 | Stella: Dec 2012 | BFP#3: MMC at 11Wk's, July 2017 | Wyatt: April 2019 | BFP#5: Twin Girls due Sept 2020
Just got back from the OB. Heard the heartbeat on the Doppler, which never gets old! Scheduled the anatomy scan for 12/20. The weeks are starting to really tick by. Oh and my pregnancy pillow arrived last night. Love it already!
Ivy: July 2010 | Stella: Dec 2012 | BFP#3: MMC at 11Wk's, July 2017 | Wyatt: April 2019 | BFP#5: Twin Girls due Sept 2020
I used to love the holidays but ever since I married my husband the holidays have been crazy stressful. We live in Michigan but my mom lives in North Florida, my MIL lives in New Jersey, and my FIL lives in South Florida. We usually drive out to NJ for Thanksgiving with MIL which is about a 12 hour drive.
Then for Christmas we fly to FL for two weeks. Airline tickets and a rental car are always super expensive that time of year and it generally costs us around $3,000 just to be there. Add to that the fact that my mom refuses to let up on the gift giving part of the holiday and fills the place with more presents then we can ever fit in our suitcases going home, which in turn puts the pressure on us to spend equally as much. Needless to say Christmas is super expensive for us every year.
My MIL comes down to Fl so she can spend Christmas with us too, which prevents us from having to alternate between spending Christmas with my mom and with my MIL, but has the side effect of always causing my mom to complain that we see my MIL more then her. My mom has always been invited to come up to NJ for Thanksgiving, but complains it’s too far to travel, which fair enough but don’t then complain about us seeing her more then. The whole situation has gotten to the point where there’s so much tension that we never really enjoy ourselves while there.
After baby is born I think I’m going to put my foot down and make everyone come to us for the holidays. At least then we can save ourselves the expense and headache of all that travel.
H's parents are divorced and we dont have s good relationship with his dad and step mom but this year his aunt called and begged us to come to Christmas. They do a white elephant for adults and usually everyone brings a gift for the kids. But here's the thing...I dont know them. And really dont have the $$ to get each one a gift. I thought maybe I'd bring treats but idk.
@bumbly_b are the kids school age? I normally do like DQ or frozen yogurt gift cards when we have parties for school friends. I have no clue what they like and parents seem to always being complaining their kids have too many toys.
Ivy: July 2010 | Stella: Dec 2012 | BFP#3: MMC at 11Wk's, July 2017 | Wyatt: April 2019 | BFP#5: Twin Girls due Sept 2020
@bumbly_b how about a bakery-made gourmet gingerbread house? My parent's friends used to come to our house for Christmas dessert and drinks and would bring us a gingerbread house and we loved it and understood it was a gift from them.
Me: 33 DH: 34 Married: Oct 2015 TTC #1: Sept 2016 BFP: 10/19/16 ~ blighted ovum ~ D&C 11/23/16 BFP: 3/24/17 DD1 born 12/2/17 TTC #2: July 2018 BFP: 8/26/18 DD2 born 5/16/19
We had the home inspection and it went *okay* but there are a few problems we're going to be asking the sellers to fix. One is pretty big and I think may end up delaying this process quite a bit. I'm stressed and overwhelmed with the process. I really hope the sellers agree to fix everything.
@bumbly_b thanks. I feel like realistically if they wanted to back out because of this request they're just going to run into the same thing with the next buyers. It's not necessarily one expensive fix, but multiple moderately priced fixes.
Im overdue for a hair color touchup. I was planning on going today but it's literally freezing outside and I'm not brave enough. 😭 Can I just have a driver warm up the car for me, drop me off at the front and pick me back up in a nice toasty car?
Im overdue for a hair color touchup. I was planning on going today but it's literally freezing outside and I'm not brave enough. 😭 Can I just have a driver warm up the car for me, drop me off at the front and pick me back up in a nice toasty car?
Two words, Command Start. Lol. We live in Canada and it's basically a necessity. I am so grateful for a heated garage and remote start on my vehicle. Now that you can control it all from an app on your phone its even better, I don't even have to be within clicker range to make sure my vehicle is warmed up when we leave the mall or a restaurant on a -30*C day.
@expandcontract its barely even an "option" up here anymore. Even vehicles with minimal features seem to be coming equipped with one. But its definitely one of those luxuries that once you are used to it its really hard to live without.
Re: Weekly Randoms 11/5
So this is the first year for us living close to family, which is funny because we're still 1.5-3 hours from any of DHs extensions. But when we are at 18 hours, this seems like nothing. We were planning on doing Christmas morning at home then traveling to his parents (3 hours) but now are thinking we may go a few days before, since there's a football game (Bengals vs Browns) that DH wants to go to near his parents. Then we'd get a few days with his family before going to mine in Philly on the 26th (neither of my brothers have met 2.5 year old DD2!). We've done every other year driving up since we lived in Florida, we're just so excited to not have to drive 18 hours. I don't mind not having Christmas morning at home this year, we'll do it every other year to come. It doesn't seem stressful to me because after so long without being near family I'm just so grateful this is an option.
@eatinwatermelonseeds I saw your news about the house! Soooo exciting!! I will keep my fingers crossed everything goes smoothly! Owning a home is one of the BEST feelings.
Married 8/16/13
BFP#1 DS 11/13/16
BFP# 2 MMC dx @ 13w 10/30/18
BFP# 3 Preemie DD born at 38w (IUGR) on 8/28/19 weighing 5.5lbs. Our little miracle
So, I think I'm going to suggest doing a white elephant or something this year. And I'm going to talk to my husband about maybe going to their house later in the afternoon or evening on Christmas. Going to check normal traffic on Christmas. That might either go very well or very terribly lol.
I just want to wake up in our own home. Especially with it being our new forever home. I'm going to mention that.
Married 8/16/13
BFP#1 DS 11/13/16
BFP# 2 MMC dx @ 13w 10/30/18
BFP# 3 Preemie DD born at 38w (IUGR) on 8/28/19 weighing 5.5lbs. Our little miracle
Married: Oct 2015
TTC #1: Sept 2016
BFP: 10/19/16 ~ blighted ovum ~ D&C 11/23/16
BFP: 3/24/17
TTC #2: July 2018
BFP: 8/26/18
My parents live across country so we never see them. Someday we will make it there for Christmas. We have been doing a big combined trip to England, with them every other year, so that generally taps our vacation funds. They go every year so they don’t generally make many trips out here.
Then for Christmas we fly to FL for two weeks. Airline tickets and a rental car are always super expensive that time of year and it generally costs us around $3,000 just to be there. Add to that the fact that my mom refuses to let up on the gift giving part of the holiday and fills the place with more presents then we can ever fit in our suitcases going home, which in turn puts the pressure on us to spend equally as much. Needless to say Christmas is super expensive for us every year.
My MIL comes down to Fl so she can spend Christmas with us too, which prevents us from having to alternate between spending Christmas with my mom and with my MIL, but has the side effect of always causing my mom to complain that we see my MIL more then her. My mom has always been invited to come up to NJ for Thanksgiving, but complains it’s too far to travel, which fair enough but don’t then complain about us seeing her more then. The whole situation has gotten to the point where there’s so much tension that we never really enjoy ourselves while there.
After baby is born I think I’m going to put my foot down and make everyone come to us for the holidays. At least then we can save ourselves the expense and headache of all that travel.
H's parents are divorced and we dont have s good relationship with his dad and step mom but this year his aunt called and begged us to come to Christmas. They do a white elephant for adults and usually everyone brings a gift for the kids. But here's the thing...I dont know them. And really dont have the $$ to get each one a gift. I thought maybe I'd bring treats but idk.
Would you just not bring anything??
@zuuls_mom you've been on my mind a lot lately. I felt the same way. I tend to dwell and knew it would only hurt more if we waited.
Praying you get your rainbow baby very soon!! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
, 💙💙💙💙💙💙
Me: 31 Him: 32
BFP #1 12/30/15 - CP
BFP #2 3/11/16 - DD born 11/16
TFAS since April 2018
Married: Oct 2015
TTC #1: Sept 2016
BFP: 10/19/16 ~ blighted ovum ~ D&C 11/23/16
BFP: 3/24/17
TTC #2: July 2018
BFP: 8/26/18
Can I just have a driver warm up the car for me, drop me off at the front and pick me back up in a nice toasty car?
Two words, Command Start. Lol. We live in Canada and it's basically a necessity. I am so grateful for a heated garage and remote start on my vehicle. Now that you can control it all from an app on your phone its even better, I don't even have to be within clicker range to make sure my vehicle is warmed up when we leave the mall or a restaurant on a -30*C day.