Congrats!

Prometrium is synthetic progesterone. I took it because my progesterone levels were exceptionally low. Did your Dr tell you where your levels are? If the progesterone is low, I would definitely take it. If not, then I'd skip it.

Thanks PP. We already have a budget, home style in mind, and thought we were set on the Huntington area but then learning about PG schools got me thinking maybe we're limiting our options. I already know about the "Great Schools" ratings and I occasionally search for school-specific feedback on this site but it's really vague - like "oh, who sends their kids there?" That's not exactly useful feedback for me, so we're going to tour what would be the local elementary for the neighborhood we're looking at. Just wondering if there are any predictably good school districts in the area that make it worth considering buying a home there?

I am at a total loss of where to start. I am so overwhelmed when I think about AAP, charter school lotteries, language immersion programs, etc. We are in the process of identifying neighborhoods to buy in and obviously the school district would be an important consideration but how do you go about deciding when your neighborhood would be assigned to a set of elementary, middle, and high schools that may get redistricted before your kids graduate and you *may* get in on one of these lotteries, or your kids *may* pass whatever this AAP test is.

The specialty programs in PG county look great but there's of course no guarantee we'd get in - are the placement rates published anywhere? I know AAP takes the top 15% performers. We're in VA right now and like the area. We were looking to generally stay in the area but if there was some assurance that we could get into a fantastic, not just a good, school if we bought elsewhere, then we would consider it. That kind of rules out DC because the charter lottery seems like too much of a crapshoot for us to risk buying there.

Thanks for any tips!

Well there is some literature that describes baby "flirting" as in they make certain faces to get a positive reaction out of us, but it's not sexual in any way.

But the way your neighbors did it, I would not leave my child alone with them. I feel the same way when an older man goes out of his way to tell a grown woman how she looks like a baby, like a 12 year old, etc - all I can think of is wow, that's exactly how excited a pedophile would get too.

Ugh, I sympathize. That would seriously bug me too. What's the point of bringing in the milk after you've already turned the lights out and read them their story? Your DH should have redirected his parents' attention onto something else.

But my ILs are like yours and very interested in convincing DH to re-do things their way. In your situation, I would have whisked the kid out as soon as MIL said it depressed her that my 2.5 year old doesn't get a bottle anymore - maybe he would have tried the cup without such a large audience. Or maybe he wouldn't have, and that would have been fine. You could re-emerge either way without having to report out to the ILs what you decided. That way your kid isn't pressured to perform, your ILs don't have the opportunity to get depressed, and your DH doesn't get guilted into backing out of your decisions.

Decorating plan white onesies on the way in is nice - guests can pass by or doing something artsy if that's your thing.

Using yarn to guess the mom's circumference (you need a light hearted mama to be for that to work)

The only lame one I've seen is melted candy in a diaper - ewww

We also got most things second hand - we shopped consignment sales and started collecting baby gear in the 2nd trimester. Clothes, blankets, crib sheets, baby tub, towels, noise machine, swing, nursing pillows, baby carrier - these are all great to get second hand and the cloth parts definitely can go through the wash on the sanitize setting.

I think getting frozen meals is a great idea - once your freezer stocks up, then ask for people who offer to commit to doing a round of dishes for you in the first month, or something like that. People love buying cute baby outfits so if you say no gifts/no shower, you will probably get a lot of these, so I actually recommend getting a really minimal stash of onesies for the first 3 months and maybe 1 cute outfits for photos. We had enough cloths to dress twins even though we only bought half a dozen newborn outfits and we didn't register for any baby cloths.