Another thought on this... of course he doesn't want a divorce. No abuser wants to lose their "supply". But someone who truly loves you won't do hurtful things to you trying to win you back, like shut off your phone and make threats or worse, actually try to harm you or your property. But as @thatfirstsip said, this is often how the cycle of abuse goes until the victim has had enough and is ready to move on without their abuser. One of my favorite songs is "Face Down" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. It really does describe well how I had to be "face down in the dirt, saying this doesn't hurt" before I was ready to tell him I had had enough of his bullsh*t.

In your update, she at least sounds reasonable. I would be on guard too if my LC came in saying I couldn't bf. As grandma, I might have gone Mama Bear on her on my dd's behalf lol. In the end, it is dd's insurance paying for this LC's help so if your dd wants to try a SNS system, I would encourage her to push for that. It's your dd's decision on whether it is too much work, not the LC's, ya know? Are they at least suggesting pumped milk or high calorie preemie formula as the supplemental feeding option? If not, I'd want to know why.

Also very worried here. She got an EPO for a reason. Feeling strongly that she should violate her own protective order is not something that the courts will look on kindly. If she ever needs the court's help again, she is unlikely to receive it. Very, very unwise move on her part. As a survivor of domestic and narcissistic abuse, I wish her the best of luck. I know it is hard to untangle yourself from that web and it will take her years to recover once she is finally strong enough to say enough is enough. I hope she is ready for that sooner than later. No one deserves to be treated the way he has treated her, even just what he has done since she left him IS abuse!

She sounds like the "lactation consultant" I had with my first son. I would get a second opinion from a LC of your own choosing (I'm assuming the doctor set up this appointment). Plenty of mommas successfully breastfeed twins. How old are the twins again? Have they regained their birth weight yet?

It always cracks me up when I hear people say things like this. It's 3 miles just to get to town and ds's bus stop from our house. 5 miles to Walmart and McDonalds. 10 miles to ds's school which I pick him up 4 days a week because he has afterschool activities. 90+ miles to Sam's Club, Lowe's Home Depot, Target and bigger Walmarts than our local one. Whole Foods and Trader Joe's is almost 150 miles away. I think there might be a Costco there, I don't remember. We usually only go to that city for medical appointments and emergencies. You know you live way out in the country when routine medical appointments require at least an hour drive and specialists require an overnight hotel stay lol.

Yes they can. I had over supply issues with my first and he had all the typical signs of watery stool and constantly wanting to nurse but never seeming to get full and happy. If she is pumping a lot she could absolutely be producing too much foremilk for tiny newborns to be able to stay on long enough to get hindmilk which is what gives them the calories and the carbohydrates to stay full. Hopefully the lactation consultant today has some common sense and can really tell if they are just healthy and small or actually struggling with nursing. It's probably too late now, but I always tried to make sure baby was very hungry and ready to eat for appointments like this. I'd let them sleep a little long just before the appointment or only give them a little bit if they insisted on nursing before the appointment just to make sure they were good and hungry for the nurse or whoever wanted to see them nurse. If the doctor or the LC really does insist on bottles after nursing sessions, you could always give expressed milk instead of formula and make sure it's rich in hind milk. I would pour off my fire hose style let downs which were all watery foremilk and just pump the hind milk after the let down and give that in the bottle. There is no shame in giving a baby a bottle if that is really what needs to be done. I did a combination of bottles and nursing with my kids. The ones that truly needed bottles like my dysphagia baby grew up just as well as the other kids. My nursers did fine with a bottle now and then and still nursed into toddlerhood. I know it's hard, especially in a hostile parenting environment like it sounds like the hospital and community in general are in your area but I would just support your dd as much as humanly possible. Maybe remind her that she knew what was best when she told the doctor that she was pushing that second baby out and nothing has changed. She still knows what is best for her babies. 🙂

All 6 of mine co-slept at least some of the time and everyone lived to adulthood. Second ds is the only one that slept better in the crib than co-sleeping. Co-sleeping has it's risks just like anything else but I think you have to do what is right for you and your babies. Some people sleep too hard to be aware of the baby in the bed with them. Some people sleep too lightly to get any sleep at all with a baby in the bed. A co-sleeper or a nest is definitely a good investment to try co-sleeping. I agree with Eos, we've co-slept with babies much longer than we've decided it's a bad thing.

In the late 90s I had an 86 Oldsmobile Calais. It sounded like a tractor because of piston knock but it was mine and I was happy lol. My youngest was willed his grandpa's truck so even though he's still years from being able to drive it, he has custom 90's Ford pickup that is technically his. It's still running and in use and he loves telling people that it's his truck but he lets Grandma drive it lol.

My home midwife had a hanging scale that she just tied up a receiving blanket as the basket to put the baby in. It was digital and able to be zeroed out for the weight of the blanket. It was something like this. The baby felt comfortable and supported so they didn't wiggle so much and throw off the weight. If you can zero out the kitchen scale for the weight of a blanket or whatever you use to hold them still and the weight limit of the scale goes high enough (some kitchen scales don't go over a couple of pounds) then I'm sure it would work fine for home use.

Deviant Ollam is one he says he really likes to listen to on TED talks but he says just searching "cyber security TED talks" should turn up lots of good stuff.

Definitely see what local community colleges have to offer. My associate's degree is in IT information systems but dh's is in cyber security. Before he became disabled, he was studying to become a white hat hacker. If you want I can ask him if he has any recommendations but he likes to watch TED talks on cyber security related things all the time.

No I don't think they do lol. I wear them as everyday bras. They don't fit like a typical sports bra. I can't wear regular sports bras as they don't give enough support but these give plenty of support. I can't stand for my books to be pressed together like a typical sports bra does but these don't do that even though it says it's a sports bra. They do honor the free returns, I've accidentally bought the wrong size before and had to return it, so it might be worth a shot for you.

I really like these from Amazon. They support well (I wear 44DD). They wash well without a lot of fuss (I just run them through the regular wash with my clothes and through the dryer) And the last for years before they need replacing. I can't stand underwires either but these support just as well as an underwire bra.

Dh and I do a "let me know when you get there" text whenever we travel alone. I was 17 when the first time I flew by myself across the country and navigated an unfamiliar airport by myself for a layover. This was long before cell phones were a thing. I called my parents when I got to my destination but that was it. So that might be skewing my perception. I wouldn't be upset to not receive constant updates during the travel but I would like to know they made it there ok. I know other people like to keep much closer tabs on their friends and family than I do though.

We made our fair share of lapbooks to go with our Five In A Row studies. It was something tangible that I could show people to show we were learning but like someone else mentioned, the kids may or may not remember the information just because we made a lapbook. I actually preferred using the lapbook pieces to make notebook pages to have something to show for our work. Little less work for me since I usually needed to cut everything out and just let them fill out and paste into their notebook. Some people call these "interactive notebooks". You can really use the pieces interchangeably though. You could use interactive notebook pieces to make a lapbook or lapbook pieces to make an interactive notebook. I second the suggestion to use Homeschool Share and other sources of free lapbooks before buying any kits. You can find free and paid lapbooks and interactive notebooks on TpT too. Some of my kids enjoyed the process of making them, others would have just rather had a worksheet and be done with it. Every kiddo is different.

Definitely the Five In A Row books and most of the Before Five In A Row books are favorites here. Some of the Before books are suitable for kinders and maybe even first grade if you have one still learning to read. Katy-No-Pocket, The Red Carpet, Jenny's Surprise Summer (also printed under the title "Kittens For Keeps"), The Little Rabbit and others in the series and Angus Lost and its series all come to mind as Before books that carried us into kinder and first grade depending on the kid. Purple House Press specializes in reprinting classic picture books. You could let the children's librarian know that you are interested in the library purchasing from them if you don't have the budget to add them to your own library. No affiliation, I just enjoy their reprints.

It's the technical term for tongue tied. The pediatrician may have noticed it or may not have looked. You can always ask them specifically to check for it at the next check up. It can interfere with breastfeeding sometimes or some babies learn to work around it. It can also interfere with feeding and swallowing when they start solids and speech sound production. My youngest son's SLP just noticed it and he's 10yo now. Obviously he's managed to work around it for 10 years now but the SLP is suggesting we get it clipped. At his age, a dentist would do it but for babies, pediatricians can do it.

If I remember correctly, mine took 2 - 3 days total for all the paperwork, including an order of protection, to be processed, served and then have him escorted from the property by police. In the meantime, the children and I stayed in a domestic abuse safe house. But I agree with the poster above who said that it's going to vary based on a lot of variables.

Does she have Medicaid right now? That should pay for a new MRI to prove she has brain damage / cerebral palsy. She should be able to request one from her PCP. SSA is going to want one more recent than childhood anyways if she is going for SSI. A good disability lawyer should see her for free and only take a small portion of the back pay as their payment (there is a ceiling percentage of the backpay that they can take set by the SSA but I can't remember the exact number off the top of my head right now). The lawyer can help with gathering evidence to present as proof that she is eligible. Even if those old records are gone, she is still disabled. She might not get as much backpay as she would if she still had those records but she will at least get a monthly check.

I make roasted red pepper spaghetti sauce because I'm allergic to tomatoes and everyone loves it. They are surprised there aren't any tomatoes in it if they didn't know before hand. I use it to make lasagna without tomatoes too. I make tomato free ketchup and BBQ sauce as well. Dh says the ketchup tastes like cocktail sauce. Lol. Dh really likes when I make cheeseburger Mac from scratch. I prefer chili Mac from scratch. Ds10 likes my taco meat with homemade seasoning, black beans and green chilies.

Ended up not doing an ultrasound on Monday because insurance would not pre-approve it for whatever reason. Did another beta draw instead. Now it went down but barely, to 475 from 515. We decided to wait it out a little while and see if my body will take care of things on its own. I go back in two weeks for another draw and if I'm still not back down to non pregnant levels we will probably talk about d and c. This has been a wild ride to say the least. I just wanted to say thanks to you all for the support through all this.

Yes it does. You just have to scan or take a picture of your EBT card and submit it and, once it is approved, you will get the reduced price.

Aww, thanks. Just keeping busy... counting the hours until Monday lol

I've gotten pregnant twice on a paraguard copper IUD. Lost the baby the first time. The second time we removed the IUD early in the pregnancy but still lost the baby in the second trimester (16 weeks). No proof one way or the other if the IUD had any thing to do with the second loss. During neither loss was my life in imminent danger. I think the major threat to the woman's life is if the pregnancy is ectopic which is slightly more likely with an IUD of any kind but neither of my IUD pregnancies were ectopic. All that said however, I am once again considering an IUD. I've had 3 paraguards; two of which failed (I know for sure the second fail was due to faulty insertion. Make sure they check with an ultrasound that the device is properly inserted after the procedure). If I do get another IUD I am going to try Mirena this time. Not because the paraguards failed but because I'm having heavy periods (well before I got pregnant recently which by the way was not an IUD fail) that make me anemic and my doctor wants me to try it. All in all I would recommend an IUD if the person is a candidate for it despite my experience. My pain and discomfort with the paraguard was minimal. A little bit of pain going in (they always numb my cervix so maybe that's why? I don't know if that is standard or not to numb the cervix) but once the procedure was done the pain was gone. Periods were no more or less painful or heavy for me. They stayed the same as they were before the IUD. When the IUD was removed I have always been able to successfully conceive when I wanted to. My pregnancies on IUDs are a bit of an anomaly I'm told by my doctor. My experience, in that respect, is definitely not the norm.

Living room, dining room or kitchen only (it's all one big room anyways, open floor plan). No food in bedrooms, water is ok.