Amy

I have a 5 week old baby. She's underweight and has been in the hospital because she wasn't feeding enough. We finally figured out that she has a malformation of her mouth that makes it hard for her to pull out breast milk. Unfortunately, this means that she has to be at my breast constantly to not lose weight.

My mother-in-law is a wonderful, sweet, and very baby crazy lady. I respect her a lot. But she and her husband have been having a hard time not being the baby's primary caretakers. They stayed after the birth for a week and a half, and now for a week. I hand the baby to them as often as I can, but that's not very much because the baby is always hungry. When I go to take her back, she does things like take a long time or says she'll try to comfort her or asks me if I'm sure she's hungry, says I look tired and that she can watch her longer, etc.

I'm very hormonal right now, and the feeding/low supply issues have only made things worse. I know that she just does these things because she's crazy about the little girl, which is great. But when she does stuff like that, I feel irrationally angry with her, to the point that I almost feel hopeless and depressed. The stress that her presence introduces just makes my supply worse, and them staying here just holds off when I'll be able to establish a routine with having a baby.

I need a book or article or website or anything that's going to help me figure out how to respectfully and politely set boundaries with her. Thanks.

I'm suddenly facing a totally unexpected pregnancy. I'm 26 and unmarried, but the father and I are both engineers and have probably close to $200k in assets and make over $150k a year, so we're fine financially. Apart from that, it looked like we were headed for breaking up when we found out, and I truly hate my job, so I admit I feel completely terrified and frankly saddened by this pregnancy. I'd always desperately hoped to be a mother someday, but when I found out I was going to be one, I couldn't stop shaking and crying.

How can I raise a child that the father and I didn't want to conceive? How can I ever answer the child honestly how everyone reacted to the news of their imminent birth? ("We were all devastated, sweetheart.") Before we found out, I had just angrily told my boyfriend (I was already pregnant and totally hormonal), that I needed to move on if he didn't want to get married, and he was so upset about it that he told his parents. How can I ever have a good relationship with them now that I look like I trapped him into this?

I very much need some reassurance and help from someone who's been where I am now, but I don't know anyone where this situation worked out. I need some hard, quick advice: don't say x your boyfriend's parents, say y to your parents like this, and yes you will love this baby, and no you're not going to be a bad mom, and no your baby won't hate you. Are there support groups out there like that? Parenting counselors? Lawyers?!

I've been with the same person for four years. He's become my best friend. I know how much he's been through and I know he's a good person. I love him in the sense I want the best for him and I would do anything for him. But I don't feel in love with him anymore. I don't particularly like being physical with him (though I am anyway because I feel like I need it to stay sane) and I don't feel like saying things that make me vulnerable to him.

Is this just the natural progression of a relationship? Is this what people talk about when they say the honeymoon phase leaves eventually? I feel like something is wrong, but maybe I'm just growing up. Intelligent responses only please.

I've never flown with this airline, but it has terrible reviews for the $25 carry on baggage fee (among other things). Will I even be charged that if I come on the plane just carrying a purse? What about a backpack?

I was in a hit and run recently, and the police have been so far unable to locate the owner of the car that drove away. We got the licence plate number and the type of car, with 14 witnesses who also called the police and have a description of the man, but they haven't figured out who it was!

I'm worried they can't find him is the same reason he ran away - no insurance. The complicating issue is that his plates weren't from my state. I have no idea what to do. Unless we find him, we'll lose a ton of money (car has EXTENSIVE damage) because we only had liability insurance. Help!

I'm a senior undergraduate right now, majoring in electrical engineering and minoring in math. I may choose to stay an extra semester and turn my minor into a major. My math minor GPA is much higher than my engineering GPA, but I'm still above average. I can program in C, C++, Java, Matlab, machine language, and VHDL, and I have a year experience in a robotics lab.

I recently spoke with the finance director at my university and he said I'd be a shoe-in for a finance masters if I want one. He actually said an electrical engineering degree does more to prepare someone for finance in graduate school than one in finance. I'll ask him as well, but I'd like to ask here: What sort of jobs can I expect to do, especially considering my heavy quantitative background?

Thanks!

I'm having trouble with my oregano and mint shriveling up in the hot sun here in Zone 11. I can't tell if it's too much sun, too much heat, or something else. The mint leaves wilt then fall off, and the oregano leaves turn brown, starting from the edges, and then fall off. Plus I was recently given the mint, and it had some brown parts on some of the leaves. I don't know how to remedy them. Any hints or pointers would be great!

My mom's Brazilian but she never taught me Portuguese, and I wanted to joke that I finally learned how to say the important things in Portuguese. Can you please translate this for me? I already know the vocabulary, but I get tripped up on the grammar.

Where can I find the cute dresses?

How are their prices?

I trust your judgement.

Muito obrigado!

"Where can I find the cute dresses?"

'And what are their prices like?"

"You're very helpful. I trust your judgement."

I want to make my Brazilian aunts and mom laugh by joking that I learned how to say all the important things in Portuguese. And I do understand a lot, so I'll know if you try to trick me!

Obrigado muito!

When I was a kid, maybe 3rd grade, for a little while I had a best friend who was black. One day she stopped returning my calls, and I got really upset. When she finally picked up and I asked her why, she said I couldn't be friends with her because I wasn't black. She said I would never understand her and we'd never be "good friends". She actually got mad when I called her my best friend, which is why she stopped returning my calls.

What would your reaction have been if you were her mother? What would you tell your daughter if she came home telling a story like this? Do you agree with what my friend said?

I started getting sick yesterday morning with what appears to be the common cold, and I decided to try some "natural remedies". Learning that raw garlic works best, I had 10 cloves last night for dinner (with other stuff of course). I found it made my symptoms worse, probably because the garlic was extremely spicy and burned the inside of my already raw throat. It was only sore at the time but now it burns and hurts so bad I can't sleep! :(

I understand that I'm supposed to crush up garlic to get as many "allicins" as possible, so how do I avoid the throat burn associated with consuming it that way opposed to whole?

Are you happy that they'll be a democratic state now, or are you sad that they're probably going to elect a fascist Islamic state all over again?

90% percent of Egyptions support sharia law. They're our second biggest beneficiaries of foreign aid. I'm happy for their democratic victory, and at the same time afraid that Islamofacism will only grow stronger.

I'm trying to understand why one would be more convenient than the other, or if there are cases where for whatever reason one (or both) cannot be used. Thanks.

So, I have some sort of growth on one of my ovaries. Maybe a cyst, fibroid, or whatever else can grow on an ovary. I have no pain, I'm not bleeding, and I want to have sex. My boyfriend refuses because he doesn't want to "seriously damage" anything inside me. So I did research and I found that it's safe to have sex with an ovarian cyst and/or fibroid. Basically, the only situations I found where it's not safe to have sex are if you've just had surgery or in some rare cases if you're pregnant (like, at a high risk for pre-eclampsia, for example). I'm not pregnant and I haven't just had surgery. Am I okay to have sex?

Please help- I've had a ruptured ovarian cyst three times since I got to college (never before), and they all occurred during finals week. Clearly stress is a big factor, but that's a lot harder to control than what kind of pill you take. The reason I say that is because I've only ever had ruptured ovarian cysts while I was on birth control. Is there any study or finding related to this? I'm so sick of having ruptured cysts during finals I may just stop taking them in the weeks leading up to finals. Thanks!

hmm...

Additionally, she had a condition where the produced far too much amniotic fluid for weeks before her delivery (maybe even months), and she had previously had a cesarean section. I'm young and have never been pregnant before. Thanks!

The things she says are so hilariously ridiculous that it's almost nice. She should get a TLC show at least, or something. Thoughts?

My boyfriend and I are debating about a probability question, and it's getting bad. Please save our relationship.

What is the probability of having two children born on the same day?

Me:

The probability is 1/365, because the probability of your first child being born on whatever day he's going to be born on is 100%. Unlike his brother, it doesn't have to be fixed on a certain day. The next baby being born on that day is fixed to the first baby's birthday, so the probability of that event is 1/365. Since they're independent, you multiply them by each other, for a grand total of 0.27% chance.

My Boyfriend:

1/(365x365) because they're two independent events, and they each have a probability of 1/365. The grand total is 0.00075%.

What's the answer? I mean, you have to really, really, really know.

I've heard of places implementing taxes on the overweight and obese, or on unhealthy food, but has anyone heard of having tax cuts for those who weigh a healthy amount?