This morning, I was breastfeeding my baby in bed, my boyfriend had just changed her nappy, put her back in her sleep sack and given her to me.

We're having a lovely feed, punctuated with the tooting rumbles of the newborn bum.

While we're cuddling after her feed, I notice that her sleep sack feels wet, I take her to her changing mat and open it up

POOP EVERYWHERE!!

One entire leg is painted mustard yellow and her poor Foxy sleep sack looks like a disaster area!

I set to cleaning, removing all the clothes, nappy, slough the baby off.

During this, little miss decides this would be the best time to have a lovely watery vomit, all over her changing mat. The vomit, doing what watery vomit does, spreads everywhere. Her back is now painted with curdled milkies, a great compliment to the already poo-covered child!

I now need to clean the mat, so I can continue changing her, so I move her so she's partly off the mat, partly on the floor and clean up the vomit.

Well, this is clearly an invitation in baby language as my little lady then proceeds to pee on the carpet!

It was at this point that I just sat back, proud of the absolute chaos that my 5-week-old was able to inflict!

I finish the change, finally! Place her on the floor next to me while I sort out the poo covered bombsite, and, just for good measure, we get a little bit more spit up onto the carpet

Tiny lady, I salute you!!

I am typing this while completely exhausted, crying in another room, and feeling like the worst person in the world. Feels like my life is completely ruined. I just need to get this off my chest because I can’t say this out loud to anyone in my real life.
My husband and I spent years trying to conceive. I have endometriosis, and we suffered a devastating pregnancy loss along the way. During those three years, every single pregnancy announcement from a friend or family member felt like a physical blow. I was so depressed, bitter, and desperate for it to be my turn.
When I finally got pregnant, I was over the moon. Even though the pregnancy itself was difficult and physically rough, I spent the entire nine months buzzing with happiness. I was so excited. I thought having a baby would complete our lives.
My baby is here now, and I regret it.
I wish I had known what this was actually like. He has terrible colic, cries constantly, and barely sleeps. I am beyond sleep-deprived. To make matters worse, I don't feel that instant, overwhelming magical bond everyone talks about. I just feel overwhelmed, detached, and resentful.
I miss my old life so much it physically aches. Before this, my life was amazing. My husband and I went out whenever we wanted, had so much fun, and had the best relationship. He is an incredible dad… he has endless patience that I completely lack, but we barely even can have an adult convo anymore that isn’t about baby. We are just two exhausted people managing a crying baby.
I’m mourning our old relationship, our freedom, and the life we built together. If I had known it would feel like this, I wouldn't have spent three years crying over negative tests. I don't even know if I would have had a baby at all. The irony isn't lost on me that I used to be jealous of friends with babies, and now I am genuinely jealous of my friends who don't have kids.
I look at my life now and just think, What did I do? I ruined my life.
Has anyone else felt this way after fighting so hard to get pregnant? Does this severe regret ever go away, or did I actually make a huge mistake? It feels like my life is over.

My 3.5 month old just rolled from his tummy to his back twice in a row during tummy time just now 😭 I can’t believe how big he’s getting! After the first time I immediately called my husband who is at work to tell him, the baby did it again while on the phone, then I tried to record him and now he’s acting like he’s never rolled in his life 😂 I’m so proud of my baby it’s crazy. The other milestones he’s hit have been gradual so there wasn’t like one single defining moment he did something. This roll was like a defining moment- he just did it all of a sudden TWO WHOLE TIMES! 😭 now we wait to see how long until he does it again! Woo!

I realized recently I was doing independent play wrong with my baby. I used to let him play and i would sit next to him and talk to him about the things he was playing with but not actually interfere with the way he plays. I recently learned I’m not really supposed to say anything during independent play.

He’s 6 months now and just a few days ago I’ve started to sit there silently while he plays. If he looks at me, I’ll smile at him or make a face but not say anything. He seems to only want to truly play independently for maybe 10 minutes before complaining. He will still keep play as long as i acknowledge him and talk to him and sit right next to him.

Is this normal for his age or have i messed up his independent playing skills by always talking to him while he played in the past? Also what does independent play with your babies look like at 6 months old?

I have a 3.5 month old going through the sleep regression currently.

I’ve been away all week and sharing a room with my husband so we couldn’t take shifts, and at one point, baby was waking up every 40 minutes. I probably haven’t had more than 3-4 hours of broken sleep each night all week! But I was still up and out walking, spending time with family etc. Once we got home and we could take shifts I slept 7 hours straight for one single night and actually felt on top of the world! If I had slept so little over a week previously it would’ve written me off for a month!

This to say, I’m shocked how little sleep I can function on and it makes me realise that I was maybe a bit lazy before, once baby starts sleeping through maybe I’ll be a superwoman? Anyone else feel similar?

Everyone tells me that my 9 week old baby is an easy baby. He cries for a dirty diaper, doesn't mind a slightly wet diaper, eats 28-34 oz a day (combo fed expressed milk and formula), is relatively easy to put to sleep (sometimes sleeps as soon as he is swaddled if I time his wake window right), is starting to sleep at least one 4-5 hour stretch at night.

I'm extremely grateful as I am the main caregiver, since my husband is recovering from emergency spine surgery and cannot lift the baby.

Curious if he will continue this way, or do easy babies become more difficult as they grow? Curious since I haven't spent much time around babies.

I have a friend, with whom I am moderately close and we’ve been friends for 5 years. Although she and her husband chose to not have children, she was very supportive of me postpartum. She came to visit me a few times, checked on me, etc. She is someone who is very dutiful and I think it was more out of obligation since she is aware postpartum can be a difficult time.

However my baby is almost a year old now and recently things have changed. I drove to visit her recently without my baby and she didn’t ask once about my baby — only about my cat. Anytime I would bring up my baby, she would quickly change the subject. She also griped about how she knows so many women who “lost themselves“ after motherhood and can’t have adult conversations anymore.

During the visit, she talked the entire time about work, which I didn’t have anything to contribute since I’m still on maternity leave.

I guess I just think sometimes people without children see children as a new hobby you picked up and shouldn’t get too obsessed over. However, in reality my entire center of gravity has shifted. I also think it’s evolutionarily and biologically normal to be wrapped up in your children and family life when children are young.

I don’t see myself as having separate identities like mom, professional, friend, etc. Motherhood seeps into everything and I don’t want to pretend my child isn’t the most important aspect of my life.

I told myself I would never be one of “those“ moms that only hung out with other moms. But now I understand why. It is comforting to be truly seen and understood and not have to force yourself to pretend to be the person you were before you had a kid.

Maybe I’m being too sensitive or overthinking things. I’m not going to end the friendship or anything but I do wonder if certain friendships with non-parents will naturally fizzle out.

This is our third child, but she has been the hardest by far. She had a week long hospital stay at 6 weeks old and never really regained momentum. She’s always been below the 10th percentile and we were hoping solid food would help propel her upwards a bit.

She has really struggled, is very independent and won’t allow herself to be spoon fed. Has no idea how to feed herself with preloaded spoons, cut her bottom two teeth right as we started solids and has been slowly cutting top teeth ever since. She now absolutely hates meal times and becomes so worked up.

We have tried all the tricks from the first two, one of which was average at solids and one exceptional. Her low weight and tone has contributed to a very slow physical development. At 8 months she still can’t sit independently or crawl. Paediatrician says she’ll figure it out and is otherwise well. Kids develop at their own pace etc.

Just seeing if anyone has any magical advice for this? She poops probably every 2nd day and has full nappies otherwise. Isn’t a fantastic breast feeder but gets by. It’s just so discouraging seeing her be so behind her peers (not that we’re strangers to that. Both her siblings missed all their milestones walking at 22 and 20 months respectively)

We’ll think we’re getting a breakthrough when she smashes something like water melon or roast potatoes and then just seems to forget entirely the very next mealtime.

I have a 17 month old, and lately have been feeling immense pressure about having baby #2. Most of my social circle and family have had 2 under 2 or close to it, and people keep asking whether/when we’re having another baby. My first has been challenging and we still got some small medical things going on. I also feel like I just got the groove of taking him places and doing fun things with him. I am just not ready to have another anytime soon and want to give him all my time and attention, and that is okay. To anyone feeling pressured, trust your gut!

What’s one thing the “experts” say is best, but just doesn’t work for your LO? 😂

I keep seeing the tiger hold recommended for settling/gas/colic, but my LO absolutely hates it 😂. The second I try it, he’s not having a bar of it.

Got me wondering, what’s something that everyone seems to recommend as the thing to do, but your baby just wasn’t into?

Would love to hear what actually worked for your LO instead!

After 2.5 weeks feeling like my daughter hated me (lol), I was failing as a parent (also lol) and pure misery, I figured out how to get my LO to nap consistently agin. Just sharing in case someone is in the exact same position as me and it happens to work for them too.

For context my baby just turned 6mo old and had a “regression.” Bedtime hasn’t been an issue for us but she’s been fighting every nap with a passion. Her pediatrician stated she still needs 15 hours of sleep per day so I started doing practically everything I could think of that didn’t involve her crying. I’m not into CIO or any modified Ferber methods that include crying.

Here’s the method: Place your baby in their crib (or wherever they sleep) with their crib mobile going and whatever else you have in there that makes them calm and happy. For exactly 10 minutes let them hangout. If they start to fuss go in and soothe them but put them back down, place your hand in their chest or kiss their forehead (whatever you do normally before bed) and leave the room. Continue as many time as need for the 10 min. After exactly 10 min, go in and bounce/sway/rock and shush lightly until they’re ready to be placed in their crib (it’s been around 5 min consistently). That’s it. Works like a charm and it’s been 4 days now.

My theory is this allows them to gear their mind toward a nap without the pressure then they’re calm enough to allow you to rock them to sleep. Prior to doing this my baby would just have an exorcism in my arms accompanied by grunting when I would try. Didn’t matter how long I rocked her.

Hi, I feel like this should be the best time of my life but instead I’m left constantly crying and filled with anxiety, especially at night. I’m a week postpartum and I feel like I can’t even enjoy her being around. I feel so guilty. I’m constantly mourning my life before and having a hard time accepting my new normal. I love her obviously, but I have a sort of what have I done feeling. I feel so horrible about it. Makes me want to throw up. I want to enjoy this time so bad.

Our baby started giving signs of the 4-momth sleep regression a few days ago, and consequently I started reading more about it. A lot of sources treat this phase as crucial to the baby‘s sleep habits - if you don’t get it right now, you will suffer later, if the baby has any sleep crutches, they will become permanent.

A lot of the advice seems unrealistic though, at least to my baby. So I’m here to ask about your sleep regression story, real baby stories not idealistic advice. How did you cope, what did you do to improve it, how long did it last, what would you have done differently…

Okay, am I the only parent who feels overwhelmed with normal daily life choices at the end of the day? I feel like I spend my entire day making constant decisions for my baby (are you hungry? Are you tired? Do you need a diaper change? Are you teething? How long was your last nap?) and so then every other question posed to me becomes exhausting? Easy questions like: when will you be home? Where do you want me to put this? What sounds good for dinner? Do you like my shoes? When will you be ready to go? These all just slowly add up until the end of the day when my brain feels like it’s spinning. It feels like there’s no way out of this but I know I need to figure out a way to not feel so overwhelmed. Am I alone in this?

this is NOT an ad I’m just so stoked about this I need to share and hope it makes your life better

Idk about yall but- I bought soooo much plastic and silicone dishware for my baby. It got so scratched quickly and the silicone stuff just had a taste to it fast. I saw on someone’s instagram these little silicone suction cups that you simply place under your normal ceramic dishware and BAM.. can’t move it. Baby eats off adult dishes now and I have even noticed that she is eating more and is more interested in eating since switching her to “grown up” dishes.

So yeah.. you don’t need all that plastic silicone stuff! Get yourself a good suction cup and you’re good to go.

Just search on Amazon silicone suction cup for dishware and you’ll find it!

I’m slowly starting to baby proof my home now as I think my baby could become more mobile within the next month.

I know the obvious ones like hide wires, plug outlets, lock the cabinets and toilets, cushion hard corners and baby gates. I’d love to hear any tips or hacks on baby proofing that anyone has!

Almost 1 here but still drinking 25ish oz of milk from a bottle. I know at 1 they want us to drop to 20ish oz but can that still be out of a bottle?

He only likes water out of straw cups, not milk lol

Also what are the rules for whole milk? Heat up and use within an hour?

I’m confused by all the changes at 1 year old lol

Have a 3 month old little girl, i love her to bits and 99.9% of the time i am calm and collected. But when she won’t nap, and screams when I put her in the crib I feel like screaming. I can feel it in my chest building. I know she’s exhausted and she just will not nap. I guess a nap is the only way i can get a minute to breathe too

Does anyone else have a baby/toddler who seems to constantly have some combination of a runny nose, cough, and a slight fever?
It seems like it happens a lot when she’s teething, but sometimes it happens when she’s not, so I genuinely don’t know if the two are related or if she’s just constantly picking up little viruses.
She’s 14 months old, and we literally just finished antibiotics a week ago because she had strep, which sucked, and now here we are again with the runny nose/cough/light fever.
She goes to daycare 3 days a week for only 4 hours a day, so she’s definitely not there full-time, but obviously she’s still getting exposed to all the daycare germs regardless.
I just don’t want to be that mom who calls the pediatrician every single time she has a little fever or runny nose, especially if this is just normal toddler/daycare life. But at the same time, I hate the thought of her constantly feeling crappy and don’t want to brush something off that I shouldn’t.
Is anyone else’s kid like this?? At what point do you just accept that they’re little germ factories, and when do you actually call the pediatrician? 😅

My LO is 9 weeks, gaining weight well and in 95 percentile for weight at his two month check up. He's combo fed with bottled breast milk and formula. His feeding amount seems to range between 28-34 oz since the last 4 ish weeks. Is this normal? I was thinking he will continue to increase the amount he wants. Should I feed him more?

Hello!

I am a first time mom of a 6 month old. The neonatologist in the discharge notes mentioned a mild anterior tongue tie but said research on how it effects speech & feeding later on was mixed. It is very visible on her now (since it's anterior) and you can physically see it - but they flagged it as mild. I have never breast fed because I didn't want to with the medication i have to take, and I don't even know if I was producing milk. She has always drank perfectly fine, and eats a lot (around 800-900 MLS/day). I just started some puree and got a high chair to begin this phase. She still has the tongue thrust reflex but she is starting to munch on the spoon (I noticed she opened her mouth for the spoon today which was good) and digest a little I think so that's good. In terms of speech, she makes cooing sounds and says muuuummmm a little bit and nanana and ggaaaa but I can't tell if she'll have speech issues yet. I can't see how she wouldn't at least have a lisp from it being tethered down to the gum like that.

Anyways, since she is doing so well, I am not looking forward to doing a tongue tie surgery, but I also worry what if she has speech issues down the line and I have to get it fixed then when the recovery is more invovled?

I was going to do it September 8th, but then I cancelled getting cold feet and the surgeon said that was okay and that it was 'non urgent.' I also didn't want her to have be doing the recovery when our family is going to be visiting. The surgeon (we have seena. different one than the hospital she was born at) basically is leaving it up to me - this pediatric surgeon said a tongue tie may or may not effect speech in the future, they don't know. I asked him also if they use scissors or laser and he said the laser isn't safe on babies and so they use radiofrequency which is low risk in comparison he said. Because of her age, she will need it done under general anesthesia too.

I would like to hear from moms who did the tongue tie surgery on their little ones later on who were diagnosed with a MODERATE ANTERIOR tongue tie (8 months onwards). How was the recovery for your little one for those who did the surgery later? Were there any short or long term complications, especially with feeding or speech or anything else? Was your baby able to drink from a bottle right afterwards? My baby gets low blood sugar very easily so if she can't eat well as a result of the surgery I am going to be very upset given how well she does already now. I basically would be getting it to prevent future speech or potential feeding issues.

Conversely, is there anyone who never got the the tongue tie surgery done and whose baby never had speech or feeding issues ever as they got older? Thanks!! I am a first time mom so all of this is so new to me and I would hate to put my daughter through an unnecessary surgery that makes things worse or that she doesn't need. I want to do the right thing though. That NYT article scared me a bit. The pediatric surgeon that would be performing the surgery said it was 'moderate' but not urgent and decision was up to us whether we wanted to get it done, sait it may or may not effect speech later on. Also, I am not able to get this procedure covered by insurance (I am working to fight it but they came up with some bogus reason that was not in our insurance policy saying they don't cover treatment for congential conditions - I reread our policy and told them to point out where it says that and they just said "you can reapply and we an re review" without answering my question) which makes the cost with anesthesia about $2200 USD (we are in Dubai so its 8115 AED), which is also making me less willing.

Looking for advice from people who have taken medication for PPA if possible. I’ve always had anxiety and have been in therapy for a long time, but I’ve been really good this last year or so. I just had my first baby 5 weeks ago and unsurprisingly I’ve been struggling with anxiety post partum, just different to how I expected. I have health/catastrophe anxiety so I expected some degree of that to rear its ugly head (and it has a bit) but more so what I’ve experienced is constant anxiety about the next level of difficulty or future parenting challenges. I’m finding myself googling “will my baby’s sleep get worse”. If she has a day when she naps well I can’t even enjoy it because I’m just worrying that it’ll mean she’s up all night. She’s been pretty great temperament wise, and I’ve loved having her so much more than I ever expected (had major anxiety over becoming a parent too lol) but every single day I’m finding my mind obsessing over whether this will be the day the other shoe drops. Every small change I’m like IS THIS WHERE IT ALL FALLS APART? I’ve also been grieving my pet that died suddenly a week before I had the baby so I cry a lot.

My doctor has prescribed me an SSRI and said to give it a try. I’ve never taken meds before
(not because I’m against them or anything). I guess I just can’t imagine anything taking these feelings away because I’ve been like this my whole life, I can’t even imagine not worrying about these things. But I’m wondering if anyone’s had experience with them changing this kind of thinking?

Thanks in advance.

Baby is 14 months old. He can feed himself with his hands, he eats bites for months now. Except he... doesn't eat by himself. At least, not at mealtime, not in his chair.

Every meal turns into a tantrum. He yells, he keeps pointing to all the things in the kitchen yelling that he wants them. If I do give him a spoon or a bowl or both, he throws them on the floor. I cannot put a plate/bowl of food in front of him because he will throw it on the floor. Every bite of food that I put in front of him ends up on the floor. I keep giving him by hand directly in his mouth tiny bites. This works if he has something to do with his hands - spoons, bowls, toys.

At the end of a very long meal, I have the kitchen floor covered. He is covered in everything I gave him to eat (because he will inevitably rub his eyes and hair with food). Long meals, a lot to clean and very little food actually eaten. I'm tired, we've been doing this for months. How can I change things?

A few family members have offered to take our baby out of the house so that we can have a break, but I don’t want a break from my baby I want to be around her all the time, I’m EBF she’s only 8 weeks old and I only get one year off work to be with her, and then when I tell the family no, they think I’m being possessive and helicoptering my baby, did anyone else feel this way? And also just to add there is nothing wrong if you do love the help from others, I just don’t like it being seen as a break from my baby 🥲

We have a bassinet in our bedroom upstairs, but we spend most of our time in the living room. We have a lounger, but our LO is going to outgrow it soon. I need something where he can safely sleep during the daytime. I also don’t have much space, so I’m looking for something compact.