My cousin in Boston says the trick is just not to look either way, and just go. ::horrified::

Me either, but we have always closed doors at night so the kids would sleep better. Or sleep at all, in dd's case.

Yes, it was such a hard time in my family's life, so perhaps I took her reply too personally.

Thank you for such a thoughtful post! This has taught me an important lesson about sharing personal stories here.

Maybe they are trying to marry her off young because she is boy crazy and they want to have her married before she gets pregnant.

If they are chaste, I'll eat my hat. If they want to find time and a place alone together, they will. And she would be easy to convince because she is a CHILD.

In the state where dh and i were landlords, if the tenants break the lease, they are responsible for paying until you get another renter in there. We had to prove that we had advertised for new tenants in good faith. As far as the hotel for yours, I would find a decent one and pay for it myself, or they could go to a really expensive hotel and eat out of the mini fridge or from room service. I would not reimburse for food, that's ridiculous. They can eat out cheaply if they want. We decided never to be landlords again after we had renters in an old Victorian that we had renovated and split into a duplex years ago. Heat was included in the rent because it was impossible to split the oil bills up fairly. This is when heating oil and gas prices were astronomical, so our monthly oil bill was in the 4 figures (big old 4 story house). Not to mention the mortgage, which was covered ny the rent--or should have been. They stopped paying rent that November. In that state, it is illegal to evict tenants in the winter, so they did not pay from November until April. They made more money than we did. Tenant's brother was a lawyer, and he advised them all the way. We were not rich; in fact were struggling in a tiny condo with a new baby and a 3 year old. The tenants called in people to see if there was asbestos, lead paint, and radon gas. In a house built in 1888. Luckily, all was safe, and they couldn't sue for that, but we lost all our savings and were so broke, we lived on rice and beans. My daughter remembers my digging in couch cushions for change to put gas in the car. :(

They closed the pain clinics in Florida a few years ago, so now we have this huge heroin epidemic. These clinics were on every corner of the cities, and people walked in with a spine mri they got online, and walked out with a huge bottle of oxycontin. These pills had no Tylenol like percocets do, they were tiny and so easily crushable, not like normal pills. Easily crushable for snorting or shooting up. We lost so many young people here to these. The drug company definitely formulated these on purpose to be basically heroin in a pill. I would see people right in the parking lot of the pain clinics selling half the bottle to another. I worked in the NICU then, and one of the docs was doing a study, and they drug tested all the babies in the NICU. FORTY-TWO PERCENT tested positive for opioids (not counting the babies who had been given pain meds or whose breastfeeding mother had.) This study helped get the lawmakers off their behinds to clean things up. But now what? Heroin addicts and suffering post-op patients. It all really started when some idiot decided that "pain is the fifth vital sign", and we nurses were to assess pain extremely frequently. If the patient said 4 out of 10 on the pain scale, one percocet. If they said 5 or above, 2 percs. When I was working postpartum, 2 percs were given every four hours to women who had given birth vaginally and were intact, if they said they were cramping. The medical industry and the pharmaceutical companies created this epidemic. One recent study shows that if you give 10 postop patients 10 days worth of opioids, SIX of those patients will still be taking narcotics A YEAR later. Addiction is easy with these meds. ETA sorry I repeated a bunch of stuff before I read the whole thread.

This times a million.

Back labor, ugh. Both of mine were posterior as well, with big heads lol. Now in their 20s and I still remember dh using counter pressure on my lower back during labor.

Sex. Does not sound fun at 40 weeks,I know :D The prostoglandins in semen can help jumpstart labor by softening the cervix, and orgasm (yours) can help as well. (Sorry for graphicness, I'm a nurse who went 12 days over with dd and 17(!) days over with ds) Best wishes for an easy labor and delivery and a sweet baby.

That sounds so much fun!!

Godwin's law--in all caps, no less

I would check her a few hours after she took the benadryl, as the allergy symptoms can return. Was her throat itchy? If so, more than likely food related. I would take her to a pediatric allergist (board certified) and have her tested. If you had gone to urgent care when it happened, she would likely have been given a few days worth of steroids along with benadryl, and a prescription for a )really expensive) epipen, which you are going to need in any case. Subsequent reactions are often more severe.

Zofran is not as often prescribed anymore for morning sickness due to a current lawsuit. More commonly Diclegis is, though zofran still is used for severe morning sickness or hyperemesis.

I think that lying for six or seven years every time he says the oath does not show good citizenship. The scout troops and leaders should abide by the rules, making them clear to the scouts so they are not denied the Eagle Scout award after having worked toward it. It's on the scout leader if the boy ready to get his Eagle award is denied because he was not informed about all the requirements. Do the scouts accept tax dollars? If not, they are allowed to make and enforce any rules they wish, as a private organization.

Why try to teach Christians about religion when you are a non-believer and seem so angry about it? Every spiritual person is not a Protestant, you know. Many Protestant sects (sorry if this is the wrong noun) do not believe that everyone besides them goes to hell. Neither do Roman Catholics. Possibly Muslims do, but I'm not familiar with many Muslim beliefs. Why do you keep bringing up paganism? I don't think today's Christians are very concerned about pagans. I'm Buddhist, so maybe it's just not my fight. I kinda wanted to discuss girls in boy scouts, since it is a big change and new, but I guess this is now another BSA vs atheism thread argument to skip.

Here's a (lengthy but good) blog on the atheism/BSA issue. https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/10/03/belief-in-god-scouting/

This is an excellent post, thank you.

Yes, the sea bands help a lot of women. There are ones that have a place to put essential oil so the mom can sniff it if needed. They're called NO MO' Nausea and are sold online.

Congratulations! Sorry about the morning sickness. Small portions of food frequently help, and no water on an empty stomach in the morning; eat a little something and then wait 5 minutes to drink fluids. For some reason, eating and drinking at different times helps the nausea. Some women do well with brown rice, or rice noodles, some better with fruits. Anything with a strong smell is usually not tolerated well. Some women need to add more salt than usual to their foods. If you're taking prenatal vitamins and your iron levels (hemoglobin/hematocrit) are ok, you could switch to a prenatal vitamin without iron just until your morning sickness ends. (OTC prenatal gummies are easy to take and have the folic acid you want). There is a regimen that some OBs reccomend for morning sickness: vitamin B6: 50mg three times a day and an over-the-counter sleep medication called unisom at bedtime. (Dramamine can be subbed for unisom: same thing.) There's a prescription med called Diclegis that contains the above ingredients in time-release form. It is $$ (for no reason!!) and many insurances require that you try the OTC b6/unisom combo first. Some people are helped by sniffing essential oils like peppermint. (Peppermint tea can help too btw). They sell bracelets and necklaces that you can put a drop of essential oil in and sniff during the day when needed. Hope the nausea passes soon. <3

Pit of Danger, I have one of those too! [emoji23]

I think she means that some of the female boy scouts may be mothering the boys. Telling them not to do 'dangerous' things, etc.

You'd be surprised! I made all kinds of foods for my kids' friends, and had pretty good reviews. I make Thai green curry often, everyone loves that. I also use whole grain breads and pastas and brown or purple rice. Also quinoa, takes 2 seconds to make. The kids mostly liked trying new stuff, talking about weird veggies. Some of the choosy kids didn't eat much dinner, but I'm sure they didn't starve because....I like to bake. [emoji15]I'm making the best chocolate cake again this Halloween. :D It's a pain, I usually make easy stuff, but this is truly great. http://chefchloe.com/recipes/sweets/haunted-halloween-layer-cake.html

[emoji23] I'd rather watch netflix most times myself! :D I do like to cook, though, and feed people. That's why I always fed my kids' friends. It was also a good way for me to keep track of the kinds of kids they were hanging around with. [emoji102]