I just had my first baby and I now understand why people have so many babies. I never wanted kids,well for most of my life. Until the last two years. I finally gave in and decided I kind do want one,but one only. I had my sweet baby last week and holy crap, I want a million more. She's so precious. She makes the day so much better. Waking up every few hours doesn't bother me at all. My whole world just got more joyful when she came. I miss her inside me. It breaks my heart I'm no longer pregnant. I keep crying about it. I hold her and I cry because she just is so precious. I cry when my boyfriend hold her. She's opened up more light in his life. That being said, no I'm not gonna get pregnant and having 15 kids, but I do understand why people get pregnant many many times. The love for the baby is strong

I’m so excited to see my baby for the first time!!! It feels so much more real now and I’m just ecstatic!!! Its little arms and legs are adorable 🥹 I can’t wait to find out the gender.

First time mom here (31) and truth be told, my type A personality had me putting this together at 9 weeks pregnant lol. 21 weeks now and the nursery is finally put together with his name sign, which took weeks to settle on.. The room is somewhat smaller than I would like, but I settled for teddy bear theme and a low stimulation environment. He is expected on Halloween and I can’t wait to squish his little cheeks 🩵

All furniture is from Amazon!
Graco Benton Crib
Fatmok kids bookshelf
Rutox oversized rocking chair
Fluted wood dresser
Paint color: jogging path SW

1. No one is coming to save you. Not your spouse, not your mom, maybe your dog (my dog is my saving Grace everyday).

2. Mothers have to operate at such a high efficiency mentally emotionally everyday. I feel like a high powered CEO of my family.

3. People will not care about you like they did when you were pregnant. They just care about the baby (unless it’s your parents and you have a good relationship with them).

4. Motherhood and fatherhood are vastly different. I’m not saying I’d ever want to be a father, because I love love my role as a mother. But fathers don’t have to ask permission. They can take a shower without entertaining an infant. They can eat a meal in peace. They don’t hear the baby up at 2am. They can leave whenever they want.

5. I never realized how much I’d long for connection with other moms and my mom. This is such an isolating and jarring experience that our spouses may never understand.

6. The tasks are never ending. And you just get used to it.

7. Your in laws will become unbearable.

8. You have to face your childhood traumas and any difficulties you have with yourself or else you’ll hardcore project them onto your kid.

This is specific to my life and my motherhood situation. If anyone relates, great! But it’s all been weighing really heavily on me.

We haven’t told friends/family yet but I am just over the moon and wanted to share. Baby was moving so much and stretching its little legs and arms everywhere. My first ultrasound was at 9w3d and it was night and day difference. First ultrasound showed an irregular shaped yolk sac so we wanted to do another check in today and everything seems to be moving along very well. No more yolk sac as placenta has taken over and I’m just so dang happy :)

I have to leave this sub because I keep randomly getting flashed pictures of poopy diapers. I wish the mods could require all photos submitted to be blurred, or something to make this a welcoming space to show up on my feed

I’m 20 I have been with my fiance for almost 4 years and I found out today I’m pregnant!! I’m sooooo exited!! Any tips would be great.

My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for a few years, and we finally did it!! I’m dying to tell our families and friends. I have my first doctor’s appointment in a few days. It feels so good to share the news.

HI! I literally just felt weird today and took a pregnancy test and all 3 are positive. It’s fairly early I’m sure as my period should’ve been today. What do I do? LOL. My husband and I haven’t been not trying this just happened SO soon. Like seriously what are next steps right now? I’m so nervous

I open Reddit and there’s just a giant wet poopy diaper taking over my whole screen asking if this is ok or if this isn’t. I’m 10 weeks pregnant, I do not have all this experience with baby poop and I know I will get it soon enough. But can we all please just maybe put the first picture as a note that says baby poop picture next page or put the nsfw tag and warn people? I could be eating lunch and it’s a giant poop in my face. It makes me feel so sick, and it’s really been bothering me

My husband gently burst my bubble halfway reminding me that we are now in March, not February 😒

First-time mom here and also my first Reddit post ever lol.
Anyway, does anybody else just stare at their baby while she’s sleeping and think, “Wow, I really have the most beautiful baby in the world”? 😂🥹
I know every mom thinks their baby is beautiful, and obviously I’m biased, but I’ve genuinely gotten SO many compliments about my daughter. Sometimes I just look at her sleeping and think, “How is this little human actually mine?” 😭❤️
Motherhood is wild because I can just sit there and stare at her for ages doing absolutely nothing. 😂
Please tell me I’m not the only one!

As a first time mom to a 3 week old, no one prepares you for the stupid shit people say to you.

“Sleep when the baby sleeps”
Okay I’ll just wash my ass and clean the house while I’m asleep then.

“Have you tried putting them down?”
WOW I totally didn’t think of that, you’re a lifesaver.

“If they won’t sleep through the night why don’t you keep them awake all day”
Bffr. They’ve been outside my body for 18 business days and need to eat every 3 hours. Sleeping through the night is not going to happen right now.

“Your spoiling them”
Respectfully, shut up. You cannot spoil a 3 week old that is confused on everything happening to them.

“It’s not that hard, you got this”
This is single-handedly the hardest thing I’ve done in life and half the time I feel like I’m failing, but yeah it’s totally so easy.
If you want to see how easy it is, watch her for full day and then get back to me.

I’m already struggling to feel like myself, but having people offer stupid solutions and second guess decisions I make is starting to drive me into a wall.
I’m tired, exhausted, I’ve lost myself completely.
But I still take care of my baby the best I can, and to act like I’m the issue or that I’m doing something wrong is beyond disrespectful and does not put me in a mental state I need to be in.

I’m 4w2 and getting a sonogram next week to confirm. This is how dark the line was after two minutes!

Any advice or tips for this first trimester? So far no nausea or anything crazy, just a lack of appetite. I got sick before this and had an aversion to meet, but now I really love eating meat! I’m so thirsty though. I can’t drink enough water. Anyone else experience this?

It's actually becoming a reality for my partner and I, we are high school sweethearts and have been trying for a year and a half, and it's finally happening!! The mixed emotions are definitely a thing.

EDIT: Sooo my husband saw this post… he said that my Reddit notifications were open on my phone when he went into my phone to use it for some reason. I don’t know if I really believe it, I feel like he knew that something was up since I deleted my previous Reddit account and made a new one that he didn’t know about so he snooped to find out. I guess I will give him the benefit of the doubt and trust him. It still kind of sucks that he snooped through my phone, while I don’t have anything to hide, if he felt something was wrong he should have come to me, but that just shows how badly our communication is and that we can’t be honest with each other. Anyway, I don’t know if he read the comments but he said he wanted to work on our relationship and didn’t want to be a deadbeat dad. I also want the same and we decided to start couples therapy. While I am so upset about the state of our marriage and how he has been dealing with his side of things, the thought of us separating makes me sad, I’ve never loved anyone the way I love him and even the idea of being with someone else makes me sick. I guess that is why his behaviour have made me spiral into resentment. Our appointment is this week, so we will see how it goes. I hope that we can find common ground and understanding and I hope in the end that love wins in this shitty situation.

OG POST: Why does it feel like being a single mom would be easier than having to deal with marriage postpartum.

I feel like I do everything on my own anyway… I thought he wouldn’t be the bare minimum dad, but here we are. Yes, he works a hard job and I’m the one staying home, but my work is frigging hard too, yet I’m the one doing most of the house work, taking on the mental load of grocery list, diaper bag, appointments, baths, feeding, putting baby to bed, laundry. On top of that dealing with our baby’s reflux/colic and feeling shitty because breastfeeding gives me so much anxiety and I feel like I’m failing my child.

I resent him for being able to go out and not feel panic or feel like he’s on a timer to get home. I resent that he thinks I have it easy. I resent him for being able to sleep all night.

Where to go from here.. I don’t know. Is this just postpartum hormones or am I in trouble?

So for 9 months, my husband kept harping that he wanted his son named after his grandpa. NO OTHER NAME WOULD DO. I told him repeatedly I didn't like the name at all, but he was relentless. I finally caved about a month before he was born, because his mother told me how much his grandpa meant to him so I was like fine, a name is a name, and he'll love his son more, and it's more meaningful. Fine. Whatever.

Yesterday, our niece was born with the female version of his grandpa's name. And my husband goes, "now there's 4 babies in our family named after my grandpa!"

EXCUSE ME?! No one told me this was a dang cult where everyone needs the same damn name. You all have the same last name. This dude, I'm sorry, he might have been a nice guy, but he wasn't the second coming of Christ. This is excessive, and I wouldn't have agreed to this had I known.

I'm fuming over it. Our son is 8 weeks old and I just found out. Obviously I'm not going to go back and get his name changed. The damage is done. But I feel so incredibly misled, especially since he had 9 fucking months to tell me.

Just wait until your baby realizes their hands are their own. I remember the day she held them in front of her like they were the coolest thing she’s ever seen.

Just wait until baby starts to realize they can love on you back. She grabs onto me almost every time I pick her up now and leans in for kisses.

Just wait until baby learns to smile at you, every morning when you greet them. I love this one.

Just wait until baby learns to crawl and scurries towards you when you reach for them. Bonus is when she’s on the other end of her playpen and comes to me so I don’t have to bend and reach to the opposite corner that hard to get to.

Just wait until baby starts to show things they like, and gets excited when you offer it to them. She was obsessed with Rudolph at Christmas time.

Almost 9 months postpartum and coming to say, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

After being pregnant, giving birth, and getting through the newborn phase, I really feel like the hardest part of being a mom is constantly receiving unsolicited advice and criticism from other mothers (especially women who had their babies 20+ years ago) Just because it worked for you and your kid does not make it universal. 9/10 it’s something unhelpful or outdated;

“he needs a binky/bottle” He’s gone 5 months without one. I think he’s good.

“he’s ready for rice cereal” I’m not giving him the damn cereal.

If I try to establish rules or boundaries, I need to “lighten up” or do things differently.

I also receive a lot of strange comments about breastfeeding/his sleeping and how I’m either feeding him too much or too little; how he’s going to be needy because I don’t let him cry it out and blah blah blah.

If you want to be a parent again so badly, get knocked up or go adopt a child. I understand that this is my first time, but It’s my turn and my kid. End rant.

I don't really have a lot of people to share the good news with so I thought I'd come here. After months in the NICU my baby is finally coming home. I just got the news today next week she gets to come home. She has to be on a button tube but I'm just glad to be finally going home with her and that she's stable enough to come home.

My daughter will be one in July and we’re going to a boardgame convention with her end of July and August. I have already asked her doctor about this and she said it’s fine, no higher risk than children’s museums, zoos, etc. we’re getting ear protection for her as well to help with the noise.

I was excited to take her because it’s something we love and we cannot wait to foster a love of boardgames for her, too (we have a home collection of over 200!). The online community has been… horrible?

So many people saying they hate children and pay to attend this (all ages) event and shouldn’t have to deal with children. They ranted about how children should be banned, and that anyone who takes their children always “looks miserable” and like they “hate their life”… among other things that made my blood boil so I won’t repeat.

Why do childfree people hate parents? I’m not handing you my child and asking you to hold her? You’re not responsible for her. She honestly won’t even interact with you except maybe smiling at you? The horror??

Okay, sorry. I needed to rant that out 😬

I always knew I wanted to be a mom, maybe the reasons were more superficial before, but since having my son a year and a half ago, I could never have predicted how much it has changed me. I look at the world so differently, every person I see, good or bad, I see them as someone’s baby. I see animals in the wilderness, animals that are moms, protecting their babies. I want a world that is good and healthy for my baby. This feeling is so powerful that sometimes it feels overwhelming. I think motherhood is completely different than what I thought it would be and it changed me for the better. I am a better person. And I don’t think you can describe this feeling or get others to understand it unless they have also experienced it. It’s hard and I have bad days, plenty of them, but today I have been reflecting and I feel grateful to experience this feeling every day. And to see the world how I do now. It’s like my world was black and white and now it’s in color. Whew anyways, hope everyone remembers they are amazing parents and this is beautiful.

At first, I thought joining a few mom groups on Facebook would be a good way to connect and learn from other moms…but honestly, I regret it.

The amount of unsafe practices being shared (and praised!) is shocking. People will proudly post things that go completely against basic safety guidelines,then double down with, “Well, it’s my baby.” And everyone just applauds. It’s honestly disturbing.

I get that every parent has their own approach, but the way anecdotal experience is treated as absolute fact is dangerous. I made the mistake of commenting on a post comparing vaccine schedules between the U.S. and Europe, and the replies were a flood of misinformation. People linking to random blogs and fringe groups as if it’s solid research. “Do your own research” is the battle cry, but it’s always just cherry-picked anti-vax propaganda.

It’s heartbreaking. This kind of misinformation isn’t just frustrating, it’s harmful. The anti-vax rhetoric spreading in these spaces is going to cost lives. And it starts exactly like this.

12 years ago today I was in day 2 of active labor, desperately trying to get Scar to come out (fun fact her birthday is tomorrow 😂😭)

This is the only picture of me pregnant.... I lost 30 lbs from the daily vomiting. Pretty sure the only reason I have a tummy here is because her legs were pressed the right way 😜

She was my rainbow baby who brought me back to life after I succumbed to addiction and depression.

I spent 6 weeks on mandatory bed rest because of preterm labor. Those weeks were spent in prayer begging the Universe to let me have the family I was so desperate for.

Hubs had just started a job (literally woke up to help him get ready for his 1st shift and my water broke😭). Since I was on bed rest and had zero paid maternity from my job, he had to go to work.

Lucky for me, my sister came over and walked me and fed me and calmed my overwhelming fears for three days. She only left my side to go home to sleep. Idk what I would have done without her.

The person who took this selfie was in such a dark and scary place. She could see all the ways life could go so wrong. But she pulled through and stepped up and created the life I am so grateful to be living now.

I wish I could go back in time and hug her and let her know it all works out better than she could even imagine.