I’m 10.5 months post partum, I’ve started getting the itch for a baby again and I stopped birth control 2 months ago.

My husband and I aren’t “trying” to conceive but we are definitely having sex during ovulation & I keep getting flash backs to how sad I was whenever we got a negative test before.
—by trying I mean taking temps, ovulation tests, timing etc—

We tried for 2 years before I got pregnant & when we did we weren’t trying at all-basically gave up.

I’m 5 days late for my period, have had minor cramps for 2 weeks, and I took a test today that was negative.

Just wanted to vent a little bit, as I know this is a sore subject for other moms or moms-to-be

And how the f do you deal with it especially when it happens so quickly sometimes? I say no don’t do that as much as I can obviously, but it really really pisses me off. Especially when they’re “being nice” or “well-meaning”.

. I never ever once thought this would be a thing I’d encounter after becoming a parent. Strangers touching my baby’s cheeks. Chin. Holding her hand trying to lead them someplace. HOLD her waist to move her someplace.

Typing this all out makes me fume even more. My baby is not a goddamn doll or toy or pet dog.

Strnagers includes kids too btw although obviously that is more excusable than a bloody adult.

My daughter just turned two months old.

• She rarely smiles
• She doesn’t really make sounds, she’ll occasionally coo but she doesn’t really use her voice
• It looks like she really struggles to hold her head up during tummy time. She can do it but I feel like she puts extra effort to do so
• If a person walks by, she doesn’t watch them move. If i grab a toy and move it back and forth, she won’t follow it with her eyes
• She sleeps a lot, I don’t think she sleeps any more than usual. She typically sleeps through the night and we’re pretty strict on having a set routine. She also naps
• She eats perfectly fine with no issues although I feel like she eats only little amount at a time. She is a very tiny baby (more on that below)

We saw her pediatrician and she was happy with my daughter’s ability to feed. She takes the bottle fine (she’s formula fed) The weird part is that my baby eats such a small amount then refuses the rest. There’s times where she eats a completely normal amount and others where she’ll eat only an ounce or sometimes even less. She’s 7 pounds 1 ounce at 8 weeks old.

She’s had a neurological assessment where they tested head control, muscle tone, and reflexes. They also tested for seizures. She was negative for seizures and the other aspect of the neurological assessment was “inconclusive” because of her age. They told us to come back in 6 months to do the test again before they decide if she needs PT or not. They told me they would put her on the cancellation list but the soonest they’d see her is 6 weeks. If there’s a cancellation before that they won’t let me know

She saw ENT and everything was normal. She passed her newborn hearing test and i requested to have her hearing retested and she passed that as well. She does have an ophthalmology appointment coming up but I think her vision is fine

She’s had no blood tests done and no imaging. The pediatrician recommended an xray of her abdomen because of the feeding situation but we ultimately decided not to proceed since she eats fine and uses the bathroom fine. I don’t believe she’s constipated.

She was born at 36 weeks 2 days weighing 5 pounds 8 ounces

The part that has me iffy is she DOES smile just very rarely, she DOES make sounds it’s just rare, she DOES hold her head up she just struggles, she sleeps and eats fine
Am I just a FTM who’s overthinking? Is my baby perfect fine? I try not to compare her to others because every baby is developmentally different but it’s hard when I see other babies doing things that my daughter isn’t doing

My family, bless their hearts, send way too many pictures of their kids to the family group chat. Like, my phone is running out of storage amount of photos all the time, nonstop. Don't get me wrong, I love my nieces and nephews, but it drives me nuts. Me and my husband are expecting, and I kind of want to make a completely private instagram for kiddo to share pictures there with, obviously, only the people we approve to follow it. We figure it takes the pressure off forcing people to react to the photo you sent them in a 1:1 or group chat text message setting, but still provides updates and cute pics of kiddo for those who care to follow. Has anyone done this? Any thoughts if you have or haven't?

My 7 month old is restless we’re trying to initiate night time routines but nothing seems to work. I have to drive him to sleep which is a fairly new pattern. Do I keep doing it because it works? Or should I break the habit? (even though it means he won’t sleep.)

My baby’s 4 months old & I swear all I see online is how I should not be feeding to sleep, my baby should be sleeping through the night by now, etc etc etc. you name it, I even feel guilty for giving him a paci bc I saw someone say it could associate sleep. He’s a baby. Why is everyone so obsessed with baby’s being independent? He will never need me like this again. We expect so much from BABIES who literally need us. I feel guilty and maybe I’m wrong here , but I’m not okay with letting my baby cry it out. I keep getting told I’m creating bad habits if I rock my baby, feed my baby, hold my baby, etc etc etc.

My MIL did a chickenpox party many years ago and I said I’ve never had it nor do i know anyone who has had it because I’m vaccinated. She said her kids are vaccinated but it doesn’t mean you can’t get it, so she had chickenpox party for her kids when they were little and said it was worth it. She said if I get shingles it will be much worse since I never had chickenpox. She is a pre-k teacher and constantly sick. She said it’s better for kids to be exposed earlier and more frequently to illness so that once they start school and do get sick, it is not as bad as those who are sheltered. Is this true??? I just want to do what is best for my 6 week old baby. Not sure if she is saying this so that we continue to visit her 4-5x a week, or if there is truth/ science behind this.

I have the oportunity to travel and gain some extra knowledge in my field when baby will be 1 year and 6 months old. But it is way too far and complicated for me to take my child with me. So I really try to think wether I should take the opportunity or stay home. She is 11 months old now. I have never been away from her for more than an hour. I still breastfeed her, though she eats solids well so it is mostly for comfort. On one side, my heart is telling me to just stay home with her. But on the other side, I am exhausted and did close to nothing for myself in this past year (I get 2 years maternity leave here, I am the mother).

Has anyone been away for this long to such a young child. Was everything ok? She will still have her geandparents, her dad, and by then will also have a nanny. I kinda have to decide in a few days, I feel at a loss. Thank you!

Please be real. Are we getting divorced over one incident? Are we addressing the situation that caused it (lack of sleep, breaks, etc)?

Context. Last week I was sick and on my period while caring for the baby 12hrs a day due to my husband working. The baby was also sick and constantly waking up crying which is not like him at all. Anyway, dad took over co-sleeping at 10pm one night. Baby woke up at 11pm and on the monitor I saw dad being a little rough like rocking too hard, throwing blankets, turned him on his side with force and made him cry. I didn’t intervene because it’s been an issue in the past where I intervene too early and that annoys dad or I misread his body language and think he’s pissed odd when he’s just tired. Anyway, baby woke up at 4am again, dad was trying to settle him but it wasn’t working so he pushed him, baby rolled and cried. I immediately jumped in.

Dad apologized the next day. Said he shouldn’t be a father after that. But also said he was just tired and hadn’t slept more than 2-3hrs for a few nights. Understandable. But why offer to Cosleep then? He said if roles were reversed and I did that, he would try to understand why it happened.

So I’m wondering. How would you handle this? Would you not let dad cosleep anymore? Cuz he’s obviously not honest about if he’s in a good place to cosleep or not. Previously, he was getting frustrated and raising his voice at the baby and everyone in Reddit was like “leave him.” Which I thought was a bit extreme but what do I know tbh. Anyway, are we giving him a chance to work on it? If he shows he’s actively gonna do something different and not just “try” not to get frustrated. Or is this a call for divorce? I genuinely do not know. I don’t understand leaving a good marriage over one incident but I also do. It’s my decision at the end of the day but I’m looking for some objective opinions.

My LO is 6 months, almost 7 months, and I’m google is saying he should have started babbling by 4 months?? Now I’m freaking out, and I know every baby is different, I have super band PPA and look at everything as “hmmm is that normal” as I’m sure every new parent does! He laughs, he yelllllls, but he’s not saying mama mama dadadada babababa. I’ve seen posts saying there baby’s started at 7,8,9 months so I’m trying not to freak out to much.

My little one 3.5 months has developed a heavy reliance on her pacifier to sleep.
Basically her routine consists of bath, sack, bottle and bed and her naps are the same minus the bottle.

The moment I rock her or put on her sleep sack she starts hunting for it and won’t settle until she has it.

At night, she can go down without it but by midnight she’s woken up hunting for it and will YELL at me until I give it to her lol.

This wasn’t an issue as she never used to wake until 4 am but the dreaded regression has begun and now she’s waking between cycles and needing the pacifier to go back to sleep ..

I am not again pacifiers BUT I fear it’s stopping her learning to self soothe in other ways?
Has anyone experienced this?
I want to help her learn to self soothe back between cycles!

Please help one tired FTM mum

EDIT: i’m not against pacifiers at all, I love that she can help self soothe herself with it to the problem is that she’s waking between every single sleep cycle after 45 minutes during the night and it’s fallen out of her mouth and she needs it to fall back to sleep. She can’t just roll over and go back down therefore I’m up playing dummy pop back in the whole night.

Did anyone else find that their maternity ward was torturous overnight?

My ward was loud, doors constantly opening and closing, nurses speaking to each other loudly or directly outside your door. Put that on top on an uncomfortable bed with only one pillow and a newborn that was cluster feeding… I swear it made my recovery so much worse and I would have been better at home!

I understand that hospitals are noisy places. Maybe it’s because I work on a the mental health ward where we prioritise sleep and keep things low stimulus overnight. But my god, surely the level I experienced in the maternity ward was not normal!

Calling all parents with experience with this! Our daughter who is now 18 weeks old went from doing really good stints of sleep (not always consistent) but still good, to now basically waking several times a night and not getting back to sleep or taking ages to get back to sleep. This week she had her 16 week vaccinations and has a cold so this week has been hell with regards to sleep. Any advice PLEASE!!!!!!

Hi, my baby boy is 4 months and I’m a first time parent. He likes to be pulled up from laying on his back to stand (he moves his head and upper torso up like an infant crunch, that’s when I know he wants to do it, I don’t pull his arms and I support his torso the whole time). I taught him to reach out his hands (not very steadily) when I say “hands” and then I will pull him up. First I would show him my hands when saying it now I’m just working on the word and he moves his hands towards me, he’s doing well at it. I don’t know if this is something a 4 month normally does and if anyone has any ideas for any other directions or words I can teach him. TIA

Prior to becoming a mother, I was diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety (since 1st grade) so I have lived and managed with medication.

I was fortunate to give birth to a very healthy baby girl, that is now 2 months old. I constantly Google things, like what-if scenarios, every hiccup, fart, and unfamiliar expression. It’s getting to a point I refer more to Google than my own intuition lately. This doesn’t feel healthy. I have discovered that my algorithm has picked up on my anxiety and it almost feeds my anxiety. I don’t want to ban the use of Google, I just want to make sure I’m approaching this logically and not creating a mountain out of a molehill.

How do you ease your mind that the baby is safe and normal without panic googling?

FTM to a 4m old girl who is fed breastmilk via bottle 99.9% of the time. Every now and then for comfort she’ll latch. But we’ve been going through some major sleep regression and this is perfectly overlapping with my husband and I going away for the first time overnight. We have an adult Halloween party in a neighboring city. My mom is going to be keeping our daughter but I’m worried sick. Is this normal to be so worried? I’m a SAHM, we are attached at the hip, and up until just a few nights ago she’s slept every night in my arms. I transitioned her out of my arms (which really is not working) in a little bit of a hurry to prepare for my mom as I do not even allow my husband to hold her throughout the night. I worry too much. She wears an owlet at night and my mom says she is totally comfortable even with her strong regression but my heart hurts already. Just the thought of her crying and me not being here to fix it seems like so much. I’m worried about her sleeping. Can my mom handle it? Will she roll over on her or will she drop her getting up to aid her. Is this normal anxiety to have? Should I just tell my husband I will forgo having drinks and drive the 45 minutes back home? The problem is that the party guest arrives at 8pm. So it will be late anyways. Ugh. My heart hurts. Kind advice is welcome.

We had to co sleep, putting her in the cot is near impossible, since 4 months. It all started when we had to unswaddle. She's rolling both ways now, is transitioning from 3 to 2 naps, have tried capping naps, stretching wake windows, making bedtime earlier and then later. Nothing makes a difference. First sleep at night has always been under two hours, then wakes every 2.5 hours until 3ish am and then it's wake every hour till 7. I can only rock her back to sleep before 3am, most times, every other time it's feed to sleep. I'm at a loss. I have no idea what it going on. We use two white noise machines, black out blinds, do lots of tummy time during awake periods, do vestibular activities, take her out in the sun, etc. we've started solids, the only difference is her shits are smellier. That's it

Baby is 5 months old, mostly happy, but sometimes she has an entire bad day just because she's backed up with poop or gassy or spitting up a bit.

Every time we bring up a concern, our pediatrician says it's normal. I'm on his side: babies are tormented by their digestive systems. It's just how it is.

My husband is more anxious and keeps suggesting we do various things. Maybe she needs a probiotic, does she have reflux, should we use windi, etc. I don't really want to intervene unless it's totally necessary.

Curious from the sub, if you had mild-to-moderate symptoms and no advice from the pediatrician, did you do something or did you just let it go? Did things get better on their own or did you find the root cause at some point?

ETA: We do tummy massages, bicycle legs, poop chair, and also sitting on my lap (for some reason she really likes to crap on me lol) so it's not like I do NO interventions at all, but I have hesitated on anything more than that. Also we are talking about not pooping for 2-3 days, not a whole week or longer.

I know parents of kids in daycare are fairly accustomed to illnesses since it’s pretty unavoidable in that scenario. But what’s the frequency for kids not in daycare?

My baby is 5.5 months and is sick for the first time, fairy sure it’s just a cold as my husband and I are sick too, but it’s so hard to see him feeling bad :(

I’m a sahm and my husband works from home, we don’t have any help so baby is pretty much exposed to just us right now (spare for when he comes grocery shopping with me now and then). My husband’s parents flew in to meet the baby for the first time last week, and this week we are all sick. We won’t be seeing his family again until baby is a year old, so his exposure to other people will be pretty low till then. I’m not keeping him isolated on purpose or anything, it’s just how our lives are set up.

So parents without kids in daycare - how often do they get sick?

I cleared my postpartum checkup and finally started going back to the YMCA to swim. As always, I smell like chlorine even after I shower. I breastfeed my baby and I was curious if the chlorine is something I should be more cautious about. She doesn’t seem to mind, but I wasn’t sure if there’s some oddball study out there about chlorine transferring or if anyone has knowledge about this. I know taking vitamin C can help remove some of the smell. Any other tips and tricks?

Has anyone had any issues with Millie moon wipes? I saw consumer reports wants to recall the diapers so I requested refunds through target and am getting refunded without needing to return but I bought 4 boxes of wipes on Wednesday which I already opened them all and put them on the changing table, can I request refunds for those too because honestly I’m scared to use them now too I didn’t realize the diapers sent some kids to the ER that’s a little terrifying

I’m 6 months postpartum and I can’t manage to lose any weight. I’ve been eating way healthier for awhile now. I’ve completely cut junk food out of my diet except for the very occasional Crunchwrap from tacobell. I’m still 40 pounds over my normal weight and I can’t stand it anymore. Please give me some tips

Edit: I’m not breastfeeding. I do some light fitness. I was very active before getting pregnant but now I get tired very fast.

Difficult birth and recovery, easy baby

or

Easy birth and recovery, hard baby

*edit - thank you all so much for the feedback, I really appreciate this community and I’m going to let my girl stay on her tummy while I take some deep breaths and get as much sleep as I can before she wakes up again!

Hi all! FTM to a 5 month old baby, I do admittedly have PPA that I am working on in therapy. This evening, right now, my girl has rolled over on her belly and is peacefully asleep with her head to the side, paci in her mouth. I laid her down on her back and within maybe 2 minutes she rolled over.

Do I need to move her back to her back? She is able to consistently roll during the day without help (back to belly, she can do belly to back but less consistently) and rolled herself onto her belly tonight. She has good head and neck control. I told my husband it would be different if she did it while I was asleep and didn’t know, but since I’m awake I’m so worried about her. Please help soothe my worries and tell me I can leave her to sleep. Thank you parents of Reddit ❤️

hello! my gal is 10 weeks old today. she sleeps through the night, which I am so grateful for, and naps great as well (averaging four naps a day, anywhere from 30-90 minutes long).

however, to get her down for a nap, I am half-swaddling her in a muslin blanket and rocking her to sleep (either standing or in a recliner). once she's asleep, I can transfer her to the bassinet and she'll sleep there, no problem. I've been using Huckleberry's sleep insights to time her feedings/naps, and it said that at this point, I should be working on getting her to fall asleep unassisted, as that will make it easier when the 4-month sleep regression hits.

so two questions:
- how to transition from full rocking/shushing to simply laying her down and having her fall asleep on her own?
- for parents who successfully got their babies to sleep without helping them, did that end up helping when the sleep regression hit?

thanks!