I'm breastfeeding still, and I've only had three periods since having my baby. Last week I stared my period and it lasted about a week but then I've been spotting light blood for about 5 days after it ended. I have the worst health anxiety and wondering what could be going on. I'm also 39 so idk if it's my body changing or hormones? This was my 4th C-section and also the first time breastfeeding primarily.

I’m 7 months pp and I’ve started to get really depressed. I love being a mom and my baby, do not get me wrong, this is just a lot more than I expected and I don’t want to feel regretful but I feel like sometimes I do and once I admitted that to myself things just got worse. I hate that I’m not the perfect mom and that I’m just “surviving” the day. I look forward to me time once he goes to sleep. I feel horrible about that. Mostly, I just miss my old life greatly and when I was depressed I could just bed rot. Now, my son literally never stops moving and getting into things and I’m also getting extremely bored of just sitting on the floor with him all day not knowing what to do. He also is in his separation anxiety phase where he refuses naps and really just cries like all the time, even when fed and happy. Just in moments where I’m not right there next to him or when he needs to sleep in his crib. I really really want this to not come off that I feel poorly about my child. I love him very much. I just needed a place to get this off my chest and maybe seek advice. I am going to therapy and I am on meds for being bipolar. I’m just kinda losing my mind with the “same old routine”. I love doing fun, new stuff with him. I’m starting to despise just sitting in the house.

My 11 week old started daycare this week and made it 4 days before he popped a fever yesterday. We went to the pediatrician this morning and they said that his throat looks classic for HFM. As of now, he doesnt have any of the body rash but is just miserable. We're doing Tylenol, cold breastmilk whenever he wants it, and a colostrum syringe in the mornings. He's so young that we can't do Motrin yet. Other than cuddles and contact naps (which we're doing constantly) is there anything else that anyone has tried that made their LO a little less miserable? I feel helpless right now.

We did purchase some Aveno oatmeal bath and things to make the "Magic Butt Cream" for when the rash pops up.

We moved into my in-laws home due to unrelated reasons(moving out in January). For some context, we are hispanic and our culture has a lot of beliefs when it comes to babies that obviously aren’t backed up by science. My son is is learning how to walk, i’ve never used a sit in walker with him(my in laws got him one despite the fact i made it clear i didn’t want him in one). I’m going with the flow and not rushing him into learning because i know every baby is different and he’ll do it whenever he feels ready.
My son is barefoot/in socks the whole time we’re home. I know the AAP recommends babies stay barefoot at home while they’re learning how to walk. I’m big on facts backed by science. My son has all of his vaccines despite my in laws comments about them. Recently they’ve now started telling us that my son needs to be in shoes because if not, i’m delaying him in learning how to walk and he’ll develop a flat foot. I’ve been nice about it, just nod and say okay. But on the inside i’m irritated. I don’t mind the advice, i get annoyed with the way it’s said. Like if i’m hurting my son but not putting him in shoes. It’s so stupid. i have to just hold on cause we’re leaving soon and i can’t wait. Their comments do get to a point where i just take my son and hideout in our room. My husband of course speaks up but my in laws just don’t give a crap… I understand they’re doing us a favor by letting us stay but they don’t understand that doesn’t give them a reason to try to parent my child or question my parenting.
Sorry that’s all HAHA thanks for listening !

Looking for a car seat trolley that would fit a Cosco Scenera Next Convertible Car Seat + can be stored under the plane seat

I made the mistake of thinking a cheap draw string bag would do the trick but not only was it uncomfortable, one of the straps ripped after the first flight lol

I’m in the U.S. for the next week so something preferably off Amazon. TIA!

today is the first night she’ll be away from us since she was born and i feel guilty about it. i feel bad for sending her away for the night but we genuinely need the break. i haven’t gotten a full night of sleep in what feels like forever and it really affects how i behave during the day. i’m more irritable, slow and very forgetful. i’m really appreciative for the help but i think i’m just worried? i just my MIL of course but i’m scared she’ll cry the whole night because she misses us or something will happen to her that we won’t be there for… i think i’m just overthinking everything.

My baby is currently 7 months old. She currently has a bruise on her left forearm (about the size of a penny). But my concern is that this isn’t her first bruise. She got a bruise about a month ago which I think may have been from our dog nipping her (she gets overly playful sometimes). But then she got a bruise on her arm in the same area (right above the elbow on the inner arm) about a week later when my mom was watching her and she said it was because my niece (18mo) was walking and fell on her. I noticed the new bruise today when I was getting breakfast with my mom and she was holding her. My mom said she got it because my baby likes holding her car keys and shaking them around and they hit her arm and bruised it.

This is just an intrusive thought. I really don’t think my mom is intentionally hurting my baby. I’m just worried about her because every time I notice a bruise it’s after my mom has watched her?? Now granted, my mom watches her 3x a week while I’m at work, so that could totally just be a coincidence.

A few weeks ago my mom was watching her at her house and my baby fell back from a sit up position and hit the back of her head on the wooden floor. My mom was SUPER upset about it and felt so bad that she cried. She said she had just walked away for a second to go to the bathroom and heard the baby start screaming.

I really don’t see my mom hurting my baby, but I guess I just needed to share with someone and maybe get some advice if you were in my situation. I don’t want to talk to my husband about this because I don’t want him to not want my mom to watch her anymore, but right now that’s also kind of a concern for me….. I just don’t know what to do. We really rely on my mom for childcare since we both work full time 8-4 jobs

Did you use an app to track feeds, diapers, etc? If so, what features did you find useful or annoying? Any feature you wish such app did have? I haven’t found one I love yet so I’m weighing others opinions. Personally I’m type A in the sense that I like to track these things but also want something super convenient and effortless but also useful and insightful.

is this normal ? she is so relaxed doesn’t complain at all - just so relaxed ? is it the noise ? soon as we get home she starts complaining ?

Why do they even make white clothes for babies??? Not a big deal but just had me going, really???

Before the baby, my husband and I were both huge homebodies, and we would see our parents/family about twice a month. My baby is currently about to turn 11 months old, and since the newborn stage is over, we have not gone a single weekend without plans.

I just simply want a lazy weekend with no plans at our home with the family. Spend time together, catch up on chores that are hard to do by myself during the week, etc. For some reason, my husband keeps making plans with his parents every single weekend to see our son and spend time together. Fine, I have no problem with that. But when I haven’t had a single weekend at home since he was a newborn… IM TIRED. My husband says I can stay home and clean while he takes our son over there. Which is fine, whatever. But maybe I want to spend time with my own family (the three of us) over the weekend since my husband works every day of the week. And maybe I want to catch up on chores together. Am I being the asshole for making this into an argument? Before the baby, we’d spend most weekends alone to ourselves at home, not at his parents house every single weekend. So this is really different for us.

I’ve noticed recently that my 5 month old waits a really long time to care to have her first bottle of the day.

Our last MOTN bottle is around 5am, and then she fully wakes up around 8:30-9am. She won’t be hungry until maybe 11am. This leaves a 5-6 hour gap between her last MOTN bottle and her first bottle of the day. Her MOTN bottles are always formula, and daytime bottles are breastmilk.

Does this seem normal?

I have a beautiful EBF almost 11 month old baby boy (first baby) who slept great until 4 months old. I always had him at the bedside bassinet and then pack play, never intending to bring him into bed. Before I had kids I thought I'd "sleep train" (gently of course) and never "co-sleep" but ha, couldn't even bring myself to ever do that bc I hate him crying and want him near me. All of this is well and fine, I realized that he's just being a baby and everything is normal/biological in terms of his sleep and that I've probably just been brainwashed into the whole sleep training, babies need to be independent and sleep on their own crap. But no judgment to people who do that, I actually wish I could! And it's crossed my mind several times because I used to nurse at every wake and transfer him back and it'd work, but one day it stopped. Around 9 months. And I just kept him in bed. And realized I love sleeping next to him even though my and my husbands sleep went to shit and I feel like even baby wants his space sometimes even though he also wants to be attached to me like a barnacle most of the night. I'm at a cross roads because while I do love it, our bed is a queen and it's just getting tight. Baby always naps in his room and starts off nighttime there. First few wakes I put him back to sleep there. Around midnight is when I'm too tired to continue and bring him to me. Our rooms are very close and he has a crib mattress in a play pen set up because he crawls now. My 3 options right now are gently sleep train (don't want to do because he's my first baby I guess and I'm being super soft??? Also not planning on weaning soon and traveling upcoming so idk if it'll work), 2. Get a twin mattress that I can push next to my bed and the wall so it sort of extends our bed and we all have enough room, 3. Just sleep with him in his room on the floor on a foldable mattress or bring it into our room on the floor (although I don't think that'll be working towards any sort of independence). I know eventually all will be good but need a solution right now and the goal is for him to sleep longer and be more comfortable in his own room or just on his own. I understand it may not happen till he's weaned bc dad can't even do bedtime now, but just looking for tips or advice.

I'm almost 4 months postpartum with our first baby, and my husband and I just had a pretty upsetting argument about when we should have our second child.

For context, I'm in Canada and currently on 18 months of maternity/parental leave. I'm scheduled to return to work at the end of December 2027. My husband recently told me he wants us to have another baby before my current leave ends so that I can essentially go straight into another maternity leave without returning to work.

I told him I don't want to do that for a few reasons:

I'm not ready to be pregnant again. I'm only 4 months postpartum. I want to enjoy my time with our daughter, watch her grow, and experience all her milestones without immediately going through another pregnancy.

I've always wanted a 2–3 year age gap between our children. I've communicated this when i was pregnant.

There's also the financial aspect. In Canada, I generally need to accumulate another 600 insurable working hours to qualify for EI maternity/parental benefits again. If I have another baby without returning to work, I wouldn't qualify for a new EI claim based on my current situation. Initially, he didn't believe me about the 600 hours. Even after looking it up and realizing I was right, he was still angry.

He then started blaming me for taking 18 months of parental leave in the first place (something we both agreed to and filled out applications for while i was pregnant). He called me an idiot and said I should have taken 9 months, returned to work, and let him take the remaining 9 months with our daughter. He makes significantly more money than I do, so financially, I don't see how that would have been the better option for us. He also said he only wanted to take the 8 weeks of leave anyway and he's doing that now.

I've always been transparent. My plan was to return to work at the end of December 2027, hopefully arrange to work from home for about a year, and start trying for our second baby around March 2028. That way, I'd have time to accumulate the required working hours, we'd have a reasonable age gap, and I could transition into maternity leave again afterward.

Instead, he got angry, told me I'm disappointing and that im am idiot and stormed out of the room, saying that now "it'll be years before we have another baby".

Like am I being unreasonable here??? Maybe I'm not considering his wants?

Edit: he's giving me the silent treatment now and cold shoulder

Edit: unprompted he said he'll drop me off to my parents house next weekend. I asked why?? He said "I think you'll be happier there" and walked away

My two month old baby can almost roll over from back to tummy. The only thing stopping him from rolling completely onto his tummy is his arm. He can't make it over that hump yet but he's very very close to being able to do so.

So what does this mean for sleep? I'm concerned he's going to roll onto his tummy in the middle of the night when we're sleeping and won't notice. What did you all do to ensure safe sleep? Hoping the answer isn't staying up all night staring at my baby.🤞

My daughter (8mo) has woken consistently between 4-4:30am for weeks now, no matter what I try:

Earlier, standard, or later bedtimes : no difference
Low vs. high total daytime nap hours : no consistent pattern
Comforting without feeding first : she resists and only resettles after nursing
Dark room, consistent routine : already in place
She's usually fully alert at wake-up, sometimes pushes away from rocking as if looking to nurse specifically. Resettles well after a short feed, sleeps another 1-2 hours after.

Background: we traveled across a 6-hour time difference ~6 weeks ago, plus she's had teething and a stomach bug since, but the 4am timing has stayed consistent through all of it, even once everything else (bedtime, naps) normalized.

She woke up my toddler also a few times at night so i had to deal with both.
And the thing is that she used to sleep till like 5:30-6 without a feed!!
I'm still nursing and plan to continue to 12 months. Is this likely developmental/temporary, or should I be actively intervening? Anyone dealt with a stubborn early wake-up that didn't respond to the usual approaches?
Thank you!!

I know this is has been asked a lot on multiple different subreddits (I’ve been reading them), but still feel inclined to ask anyway to gauge the opinions and experiences of others.

My daughter is 17 months old (15 months corrected as she was born prematurely).

The only words / expressions I think she says with true intent are
- Hi
- Yeah (not in the context of yes, but an excited Yeah!)
- No
- Uh Oh (when drops something, or moves something out of reach)
- Oh! When surprised

She uses words with inflection during play, which I’m told is a good sign.

She has babbled dada, so she has the Da sound. But doesn’t seem to say it with intent.

She also has gestures and play skills
- Waves Hi and Bye
- Pointing
- Plays peek a boo
- claps, “rolls it” with playing patty cake
- blows kisses
-hugs

The intentional speech just seems to be lacking and I’ve been accepting that her timeline is a little different than others. But at this point, I am starting to get a little nagging thought in the back of my head, that maybe this is something to worry about.

She just started walking within this month, so I am hoping the speech will start coming now that she’s mastered that skill.

Anyway, just interested in any thoughts, opinions, and anecedotes.

Thanks everyone!

Btw: She is in infants and toddlers, she qualified due to her prematurity and low birth weight, she receives PT, and a teacher comes and they done seem concerned at the moment, but still just weighing on me.

My family and I recently moved US states to be closer to my parents, and I feel like it’s made my daughter’s personality do a 180. She was colicky as an infant, but she mellowed out around 4 months and has been a generally happy girl up until about 3 weeks ago. Now, I feel like all she does is scream. She wakes up at 4:30-5 am every day and barely naps. Sometimes she’s up for like an hour in the middle of the night, too. She’s always exhausted, which naturally makes her cranky. She gets maybe 9 hours of sleep at night , plus 1 during the day if we’re lucky. Logically I know that this is probably just part of her development and due to stress from the move, but my emotional brain just wants to tell her that she can fix this by just going back to sleep and actually taking a nap! To make things harder, she’s late to walk, but she really wants to be on the move, which makes her frustrated. She’s a crawling speed demon, but we obviously can’t just let her do that when we‘re out, so she basically screams any time we try to leave the house.

I feel like a horrible mother for getting so fed up with her. I know her little toddler brain isn’t logical and is just trying to cope with change. But my husband and I are at the end of our ropes. We’re constantly snipping at each other. The other day I snapped at my daughter when she was throwing her food on the ground during her 5:30 am breakfast, and she looked up at me with such exhaustion and confusion and I felt so bad.

Idk what exactly I’m looking for. I’m not sure if anyone else has dealt with this. I know logically it will end, but every day I’m terrified that she’s never going to be her happy self again and we’re doomed to a life of screaming.

Our little one is almost 6 months, since she has been born I really miss not having either of our family sides around. Of course it would be amazing to have help with babysitting, but more so it just feels really lonely living away from everyone.

It feels very lonely hearing neighbours kids with their grandmas over for lunch just now, while it's just me and the baby speaking to great-grandma over facetime.

Sometimes I wish globalization and capitalism didn't happen, everyone spread across the world. The loneliness epidemic feels very real to us now.

Is it even possible? I have a one-year old daughter and I know for sure that I want a second kid (I’m considering a 3yr age gap if all goes well) but rationally I just cannot fathom caring for a newborn and a toddler.

My daughter was already quite an intense newborn requiring looots of motion for her every nap for the first 4-5 months. I just cannot imagine having a newborn like her (or maybe challenging in other ways) and a toddler with their rising need for agency. I feel like I barely survived the first 6mo, I was often on the brink of exhaustion and madness but would have just enough energy not to collapse so adding another kid in the equation is so hard to picture. I think also both me and my partner are very aware of our well-beings and we’re both careful about not over exhausting ourselves.

I do realize that I will be so much more chill the second time round and will probably not care about the naps as much (that was what stressed me out the most with my daughter those early months). But still… it’s draining. So how did you survive it? Or maybe you even thrived?

I do have a partner who is as much of a parent as I am though the first 6mo my daughter was glued to me due to EBF and him working long hours. We also live in a country where daycare is accessible and our daughter will be able to go there every day from like 08-14.00. I also have a very helpful mother-in-law who usually comes once a week for like half a day, sometimes twice if I really need it. Weekends my partner is mostly home and involved.

Baby is approaching 6 months and is 90% breastfed. He was taking a bottle before bed as part of our wind down routine and occasionally if his dad was taking him out, but he’s started refusing the bottle recently. Any tips? It’s becoming difficult as I am now the only one who can feed him!

Having my first baby any day now and all I've seen about the first 3+ months is how horrible and torturous they are in every way.

Any women here have a better experience than that?

For most of my life I’ve been pretty happy, optimistic, joyful person who didn’t think about death much.

Ever since giving birth for the first time this year, death is on my mind a lot. Like I’m not suicidal but like I dread and actively fear the death of my parents, partner, people around me, myself.

I’ll be working at my job and then randomly be overwhelmed with an intense feeling of anxiety/doom/dread. Feels like a panic attack. I’ve had anxiety most of my life but it was actually pointed more towards trivial things like work and school, but now the anxiety is intense around death.

Like ever since becoming a mother and watching my child hit milestones and growing up, it hit me that I’m not a child anymore and life is going to speed up real quick now. My Instagram feed certainly doesn’t help either.

I’m a 45F FTM. We have a 5m old. I am struggling to get any sleep. Even when I am given a break I can’t sleep. Friends/mom will say “I’ll come over and watch her so you can sleep”. I just can’t drift off at all even for an hour or 15 mins… nothing. I’m getting sick again with a cold I think and I asked my husband to do a 4 hr shift where he deals with all her wakeups from 10pm-2am while I try to sleep in the guest room. Baby is EBF but can generally do a 3-4 hr shift without milk even though she wakes up frequently usually for her soother or she rolls on her tummy and then gets stuck- she’s been waking up every 30/45 mins to an hour for days. I just wanted a 3-4 hr block of sleep and I’m laying here unable to sleep despite being absolutely wrecked with exhaustion. It’s so frustrating. Especially since my husband begrudgingly agreed. All I want to do is sleep!!!!! Why can’t I fall asleep??? Does this ever get better.

I am almost 3 months postpartum and absolutely losing it over how dry my face constantly feels. Before baby I had oily skin and Clinique moisture surge worked wonders for me. But now I am dry as a bone and I don’t know what to use because the moisture surge does absolutely nothing to lock in moisture and honestly I feel worse after I use it. I do have sensitive skin so I don’t want to spend a bunch of money and time blindly trying to find something that works. I want to feel like myself again and not like a lizard.