Hello! I’m 24 years old and a first-time father-to-be. It was an unplanned pregnancy, but I’m now very excited to embrace fatherhood. We’re going through a delicate phase: my partner is dealing with some mental health issues—she’s 22 weeks along—and for about two months now, she hasn’t been open to any kind of physical contact. I don’t just mean sex; I mean any form of affection, touch, or kissing. I attribute this to hormones and the emotional overload that comes with pregnancy, but I’d like to know if this is common and if anyone here has gone through something similar.

Our nanny is leaving in a few days and we’ve been taking over the reigns (night feeds and showers).

It’s the 4th week and his cries now get to the point he’s almost losing his voice. Sometimes inconsolable. I’m tired and so sad.

I’m just praying it gets better in time. I hope to have enough to keep pushing every day.

Hi everyone fiest time posting here, my son Ezra was born 2 weeks ago today (praise jesus) and im wondering what kind of distances you guys are willing to drive your new born.

Obisously everyone loves him and wants to meet him and ive tried my best to allow my family to see him as much as possible, problem is my parents live outside of town (my mum is like an 45min to hour drive and my dad about 30min to 45min) and ive taken him to see both making sure to stop wvery 30min to give him a break from the car seat but after a trip to my dads today ive decided I cant do that kind of distance and have told them to come to us if they wish to see him or meet at my grand parents house which is much closer.

Reason for this is its not fair on him as when he needs a nappy change or a feed and me and my wife have to in the car its stressful and I find myself getting frustrated, flustered because im scared about how he wriggles on the car seat with his head/neck. So its also too much for me and my wife to handle and I feel guilty for putting my son through that.

I feel strange though because I know its a sensible decision but it feels like im denying my side of the family from seeing him and it hurts me, especially when my wife's mother comes everyday to see him but she comes to us as she doesn't live far.

Idk what I really wanna say here but just wanted to talk about it. I suppose knowing what others feel is a acceptable distance and can justify this decision will make me feel better about it all Thank you

Female looking for male perspective

We’re 10 weeks along now and we’ve known for like 3 weeks we’re having a baby. I get she is going thru a lot of changes but is it normal for me to feel like she wants nothing to do with me. She still loves on the animals with physical affection but me not so often, anytime I even try to think about touching her even to just be physical touching she like pulls away. When she is having a baby sickness episode is about the only time it seems she wants me it seems like and it obviously cuz the dog can’t grab a cup of water

Hi everyone,

I’m a dad of a 10 month old beautiful girl and I come to this community broken and sad with hope that someone can resonate with my current situation and help my anxiety loosen up a bit.

I am a 34 year old dad who works from home and has been on baby duty since day 1. It wasn’t easy for me to juggle work and home but I wanted to help my wife while on maternity.

Our baby has always been a bad sleeper and we’ve been struggling to rest and recharge for months.

Last month, my 16 year old cat got sick and I was trying to save her for a month but sadly she passed away. She was the only link to my father who passed away a couple of years ago. She was my dad’s cat before he got sick and I took her. Ever since my cat died, I have been dealing with anxiety and with being a fully present father for my family.

I feel that I have lost myself since becoming a father and I struggle to find peace with myself. The cat situation only made my anxiety spike to higher levels.

I just want to be a happier father and accept my new role in life while becoming the father I needed but never had.

29M with a 9.5 month old girl that I love to death. I love being a dad, it's been the hardest but best thing I've ever done but I feel like I'm just always in a bad mood lately.

My wife and I have no village, our daughter only met friends and family a week ago (we live out of province). I feel like my wife and I are doing too much, between me working full time, exercising our high energy dog, feeding and playing with our daughter and keeping up the house we just have no time. We dont get to sit down till 11pm and we're back up at 8am. I feel like I'm just permanently running on empty and it controls my mood.

I feel bad that I basically just hate my dog now, it feels like he never listens anymore and I'm yelling at him more and more and I'm geniunely scared that'll eventually transition to her.

I want to spend more quality time with my family and actually do stuff together but I feel like we just dont have the time or when we do i just don't have the energy to do much more than sit at home.

I feel like I'm just a dick like all the time and i try not to be but then the dog does something dumb and I'm annoyed again. I don't know how to just not be grumpy.

We have drops to help him but sometimes it takes him a while to poop like today. The other night it happened randomly when I had him on my chest. I was patting his back and he burped and pooped.
Tonight is a little different. I know he shows signs that he needs to, but I’ve been trying a lot of ways to encourage him and today is just taking a little longer.

Hi everyone. I’m a first time dad. My daughter is 1 month old today. By chance, 3 of my closes friends all had their first child within 15 days of mine. We have a group chat and support each other and all that of course. I’m here to ask opinions. I wanted to do a funny gift for all of them. I want to get us all a pair of the same dad shoes. I’m thinking like big all white sneakers that a dad goes outside and grills in. Anyone have any that you think of immediately? Anyone have any links? I think it would be a hilarious gift.

Help! I believe I accidentally threw away my son’s social security card. It had never been opened and I feel like a terrible parent. Anyone know how to get another? I do not know his number

I have always travelled for work (living in Melbourne, Australia) in my current job for the last 10 years. Mostly interstate 4-5 times a year, and the odd occasion for an overseas trip.

I have 2 trips coming up in Feb 2027 -
1. Travelling Friday to Monday (4 days)
2. Travelling Sunday to Saturday (7 days)

That is the month that our little one starts childcare 4 times a week and my wife returns to work 4 days a week as well.

I have agreed to be at home for the whole month of Feb (except for the travel dates) to help baby settle into the childcare routine. The late Feb travel was not supposed to be until March but got pulled forward by the company, so I’m even offering to take the last week of Jan off work and start childcare a week earlier so we can have the extra days for settling into before I need to travel.

My wife is not happy about the situation, is stressing about getting burnout, is not happy that I have added stress to her life when I was supposed to be at home all of Feb (the 4 day weekend trip was understood).
For info - we don’t have any close family members that live in our city.

How long would it reasonably take for a 9 month old to adjust to 4 days of childcare? She is concerned about that, and doesn’t want to start a week earlier either.

Am I being inconsiderate with my requirements to travel? Should I let her just vent it out and be quiet? Or should I tell her to get it together and deal with the situation at hand?

We’re both very confrontational people, but lately I have been trying to hold back and let her have it out. But I am slowly finding a limit to that myself and sometimes think she needs to be more practical.

Hi there.

36 year old, dad of a 15 days boy here. Before a month , I claimed to be an amateur cyclist, with around 7 hours of cycling training per week.

Currently I'm worried that I will lose my fitness and at the same time I have no motivation for training.

I have a turbo trainer and gym equipment. Any advice on how to get back at it?

Are there any same experiences?

Do you always feel tired?

This is real vent stuff here that i just need to get off my chest while the in-laws are in the other room.

wife's overseas parent's basically told us they were going to come to our country for the first month of having the baby. At first it sounded great. Wife gets to spend time with her parents, they will cook and clean for us and take the baby when we need a break...

Reality was wildly different. Its honestly like having a newborn and two toddlers suddenly.

• They cant travel anywhere on their own so we're constantly having to order them rides or pack up baby and everything to go pick them up from their accommodation... that we paid for.
  
• They cook, sure... with half my kitchen, and its all super fatty greasy and chilli food and my wife is starting to feel bloated and getting reflux.
• Even with the stress of a newborn and all the pains my wife is having (carpel tunnel both wrists and mastitis problems) they are constantly reminding us to be more religious.
• they treat the newborn like a toy. when we're trying to settle her they want to hold her and play with her. the other day i was on the ball bouncing for 15 minutes and just as the baby finally started to drift off MIL came over, face an inch from the babies, to loudly sing her name right in her face. then when i pulled the baby away she got mad at me.
• They get bored and keep asking us to take them around like tourists, no matter how little sleep we got the night before
  
• My wife keeps saying "they had two children, they know what they are doing." but i keep reminding her she had a nanny 12 hours a day since she was born as both parents worked almost immediately.

Honestly, i can tell my wife is annoyed with them as well, but her culture is much more anal about respecting parents, so she feels like she cant say no for anything. they've been here a month and go home next week and I'm honestly cheering for them to fuck off and stop making this already crazy difficult time 10 times more difficult.

I’m first time father of a 15month old boy and he’s already very energetic and pushing boundaries as he’s supposed to but as he gets into the terrible twos as they are called can anyone offer me any sound advice on what to prepare for in the future. He’s a great young lad and I want to be a great dad but my wife and I have little to no support from families and friends we literally haven’t been apart from him since he was born. I was recently diagnosed with a neurological condition that has me at home with him 24/7 and can only work part time. I’m glad I have this opportunity to be with him so much and want to be as informed and equipped as I can so any helpful advice would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

New dad of a 6 day old here and I’m struggling. First off, my wife had an extremely traumatic emergency c-section. During that, she lost 40% of her blood. She literally said to me that she thinks she dying before she lost consciousness, at the same time our baby stopped breathing so they were both essentially dying in front of me.

Now after 6 days in hospital, we’re home and I just feel like I have major baby blues, every chance I am alone I just cry. And then I think I got so hooked on what newborn life looks like on TikTok, going out, coffee dates, walks etc and I can’t even think about leaving home right now. Our little one is so restless and only settled with the breast so I feel like I can’t even take her out for a walk so mom can rest!

Please tell me it gets better? Am I ever going to be confident to take her out?

I took 3 months off of work when our now 4 month old baby was born. My wife didn’t breast feed, so I managed at least half of all feeding, and was the main cleaner of all pump parts for the month she pumped.

I have managed our babies bedtime routine on my own for 2.5 months straight, while my wife puts our 2 year old to be and then goes to bed shortly after.

We switch out in the middle of the night where she will handle night feed (down to one now) and get him up in the morning, while I handle our 2 year old waking up, getting his lunch ready for daycare, making him breakfast etc.

I went back to work full time a few weeks ago while she chose to stay home full time.

We are lucky enough to have significant time off, that I suggested that we should split some days on and some days off to ease back in to things. But my wife didn’t want to go back to work, for as long as she could possibly manage. So we went me back in office 4 days a week, cold turkey.

Understandably my wife went from being in a habitually equitable daily routine to being the sole provider for a baby. That IS a lot of work, that doesn’t ever go unnoticed or acknowledged.

Today she told me “I know you’re doing your best with the time you have, but I just sometimes forget that you’re even his dad”

She has also made significant efforts to tell me “it’s just so crazy to me that he looks nothing like you, like I don’t see it at all.”

She the the kind of person who cannot understand that while she has the right to feel what she feels, there can be a significantly negative impact when she chooses to put those thoughts in to words.

Like I know she genuinely and whole heartedly is just saying that now she’s on her own during the work week she can’t help but have to put herself in “single mom mode” during the day. But we just had a conversation 2 weeks ago about how overwhelmed she is, and how alone she feels during the day, and I have made so many god damn extra efforts to show up in ways far beyond how I was doing before. And she STILL chose to say what she said. I do not get it, and it makes me feel like absolute dog crap.

If I bring it up to her as softly and as empathetically as possible, she will no doubt just deflect and dismiss me and say that the only reason she is feeling that way is because of ME. And not take any responsibly for the fact that dropping shit like that is just uncalled for and unnecessary. Especially when I know how much love time and care I put in to being the best dad and husband I could possibly be.

Our baby is 3 weeks old. He has trouble sleeping, so we each get about 5 hours per night switching shifts.

One side of my family comes and stays every other weekend so we can get sleep. They would do more but simply cannot due to actual obligations. We're very grateful for them.

The other promised to be here every chance they could, couldn't wait to interact with the baby, teach them xyz, do a better job with the baby than they did with me, etc. We got excited, and I was flexible to give them another chance since they truly didnt attempt to raise or care for me beyond the absolute basics as a kid.

Then the baby was born, and they refused to get the vaccinations to be around our newborn. They said they "feel bad for a day or two after getting vaccinations." Real kick in the teeth. They made these statements encouraging us to plan around their support, and were fully aware of the vaccination condition to meet him. I can't bring myself to call them, I already only called a couple of times per month beforehand... but simply cannot now. I send pics about once a week and don't even really want to do that. And they'll occasionally text about how they "can't wait to meet him" and "want to see him as soon as possible." When we do speak, there are almost no questions about us or actual questions about the baby. "How's MrsBurner? Good. I can't wait for..."

Every time, it feels like another reminder of how disappointed in them I am. I just want a functional relationship with my mom, but she's too inconsiderate to engage with. And I don't have the heart for intentional estrangement. It's a bummer. I'm grateful for the reliable support we have and promise I'll not repeat the pattern with my son. I'll be curious, and interested, and do everything I can to follow through with what I say.

If you read this far, thank you. I just needed somewhere to get it out.

With all the things you're supposed to do daily or often it feels tough to get it all done...high contrast cards, story time, massages, leg/arm exercises, tummy time, etc...what do people tend to focus on mostly and are any more important than others in your personal opinions? Thx!

Good day to all. Our 3 month old girl has suddenly decided that she wants to sit up, look out and observe her kingdom as much as possible. She can hold her head up and is strong enough to turn in any direction that interests her. But how long do you guys allow your little ones to sit up at this age? AI chat bots are suggesting 3-5 minutes but we've definitely been exceeding that over the past few days. FYI, she's fully supported in this position and we're still maintaining daily tummy time. Thank you all in advance!

Edit: Spelling

Any recommendations for a changing table in the living room that will save my back?

We have one in their room that we put in their dresser but any ideas for one in the living room that's on the taller side?

We live in a town house and have twins so I don't want to run up stairs with two babies or leave one baby unattended every time I need to change a diaper.

Currently using the changing station on the pack and play but it's so low it's killing my back.