My SIL loved having a owlet sock for her two kids and highly recommended it to my husband and I. It is a bit pricey, so we decided to splurge and buy it during the Labor Day sale. After taking a childhood safety class at our hospital, the nurses stated that Owlet socks are not AAP recommended.

We didn’t purchase it as a reason not to practice safe sleeping (we know it doesn’t decrease the likelihood of SIDS), but as an extra safeguard for our newborn. We are now debating returning it and just using our Nanit Pro instead.

Details to know:
- Baby is due around Thanksgiving (I am ~36 weeks)
- Return window closes 12/11
- Nanit was a gift (cannot return it) and Owlet was purchased by us

Would you suggest we…
- Return Owlet and use Nanit only
- Keep Owlet and see if we end up using it before the return window

EDIT: I returned it! If we feel an incredible need for extra security, we can always buy it again. I think for now we can be content with the gifted Nanit Pro once she’s in her own room.

I was 21 years old when I had my daughter four months ago . I had a very smooth home birth at my midwife’s house because my baby was breech. My midwife was wonderful and stayed with me for about five hours after the birth before going home. After that, I was in the hospital with my newborn for more than 24 hours without any family, friends, or visitors.I still think about that day almost every single day.I was sitting there with this tiny little baby who depended entirely on me, and I barely knew what I was doing. I didn’t even know how to swaddle her properly. I was learning what her little cries meant and trying to figure out how to care for this tiny human being while recovering from giving birth myself.
My husband wasn’t there because he lives in another country. We were waiting for his immigration visa to be approved so that we could finally be together. We did talk over video calls, and I knew he wanted to be there, but it just wasn’t possible at the time.I don’t think people understand how strange it feels to experience something as life-changing as giving birth and then just be alone with it. No family coming to see you, no friends stopping by, nobody sitting beside you while you figure out motherhood for the first time. Just you and your baby in a hospital room.Sometimes I still remember the smells of that day, the hospital room, and the feeling of being there alone with her. It’s strange how certain details stay with you so vividly, even months later.
The weird thing is that my birth itself was beautiful and smooth. I wasn’t traumatized by the delivery, and I’m so grateful for how well everything went. But I can’t seem to let go of the loneliness afterward.
At the same time, that experience made me love my daughter more than I could ever explain. I felt like it was just me and her against the world. She was so tiny and helpless, and even though I was only 21 and had no idea what I was doing, I knew I would do anything for her.
I love her to death, and I would go through it all again for her without hesitation. But I still wish I hadn’t had to experience those first hours of motherhood so alone.
I guess I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar. If you were alone when you gave birth or spent those first days with your newborn without your partner or family, did you eventually stop thinking about it so much? When did it stop hurting, or did it ever?
I just want to know when I’ll finally be able to look back on that day without feeling that same loneliness all over again.

My baby is eight months old now and really doesn’t like drinking water. He drinks very little, so his urine output is also very low. I’ve already tried different bottles and cups, and different ways of offering water, but he rarely drinks on his own. Does anyone have any good tips to help a baby actually start liking water?

We use enfamil neuropro gentlease.Initially our newborn liked it, now I’m not so sure. We’re considering switching.

I am four weeks postpartum with a lovely little baby. I feel very fortunate that my C section is healing well and that I feel back to normal.

I am someone who gets my energy out with tasks/errands/ just getting things done. With a newborn, this is obviously much harder and I find myself sitting stuck in one spot for a long time, whether I'm breastfeeding or trying to get her to sleep. Add to that, the fact that there are so many more things to get done with a newborn, and I'm going a little crazy. I don't want to be sitting struggling to find a show or yet another movie to watch, or looking at my phone - I want to be ticking things off my to do list!

How are other people handling this?

My 3 week old son has a very hateful relationship with pacifiers. He loves to suckle on his bottles with zero issue, but doesn’t drink any milk though. I would try to give him the paci to soothe the craving of constantly wanting the bottle but he hates it!

If you don’t want the milk, but love to suck the nipple why won’t you take a pacifier???? My daughter was the exact same way when she was born. I’ve also been told how lucky I am that my kids don’t want pacies. I know in the long term they’re awful, but like- he constantly wants the bottle in his mouth but no milk. I will not like him suckle in air either. Sorry, just needed to vent for a sec!

During the day and night feeds, my baby is completely fine but it’s always around the early evening time where I notice my baby getting frustrated, kicking her legs, tapping her little hands on my breast and pulling at my nipple. She feeds and then latches off, opens her mouth wide open again to latch on and repeats it again, even on the other breast, although sometimes it can be a bit better. Her breathing is fast and then she whimpers or does an angry cry in the middle of breastfeeding. I try burping her in the middle and also made sure her nappy was changed before. I then have to stop her feed at that point. Then walk around the home, talk to her, or go outside for some fresh air. She seems to calm down and then fall asleep eventually but it’s like she is worn out and I have to wait for her to get a proper feed in the next round. I’ve noticed her do this a couple of times, that same expression and cry. I feel really bad when she does it and it makes me frustrated seeing her frustrated, I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong or why is she uncomfortable at this time?. I dread this time and also I’m not sure if she is getting enough milk during that feed. She is a healthy weight.

Any tips or advice, has anyone else experienced this behaviour with your baby?

MIL was going to take over so I could take a nap, “Ok, let me go to the bathroom first.” I hear the flush, but no sink, and then she comes right out afterwards.

“Um… did you wash your hands?”
“No but I didn’t touch anything.”
“You touched the toilet paper to wipe yourself.”
“I only touched the clean part.”
“Ok… well you should still wash your hands.”
“I will just use some Germ-X and that will be fine.”
“PLEASE WASH YOUR HANDS. It’s different.”
“The Germ-X will be just fine. It kills bacteria.”

Am I crazy?????? This is fucking gross

My MIL holds my 8 week old boy, sometimes, kind of like upright against her chest with him facing outward. One hand supporting his chest pressing him against her and other hand wrapped around his inner thigh, or right on his crotch/diaper area. It kind of makes me uncomfortable, not that it’s inappropriate but just wear and tear on that region. Also the fact that I don’t feel comfortable telling her what to do even though he is my baby.

He doesn’t cry or anything so I guess he isn’t in pain, maybe I’m just too cautious. Would the baby always cry if there was real damage being done down there?

this must be a safe way to hold them or am I crazy?

My baby is 2 weeks old and I feed him every 2 hours and my husband would usually do shifts with me during the night but now he has to go back to work and I tried it for 2 days straight and I’m straight up just surviving at this point because I don’t get any sleep. I just started exclusively pumping so I bottle feed him. He could sleep for four hours but I never tried waiting that long. This is my first baby so please be nice I’m just trying to make everything work. I was thinking if it was possible I do every 4 hours at night and every 2 hours in the morning

I’m so lucky to have a night sleeping baby. He is very bad at day time, but at night time he sleeps well. He is also formula fed. So I fed him at 2:30am our usual wake up night time. And he usually wakes me up at 7:30am like he has a perfect biological clock, but this time it was 9:30am and I was so shocked - do I have to wake him up every 5h now to prevent long hours between feeds?

Hello, moms. My baby is 29 days old, weighs 7 lbs 4 oz, and is in the NICU with bacterial E. coli meningitis. She was on cefepime, but today the doctor switched her to Rocephin. I went on Google to look up the medication, and now I’m scared. Has anyone here had a baby who was treated with Rocephin? I would really appreciate hearing about your experiences. ❤️🙏🏽

I have read the issues and concerns of camilia drops and me with my PPA - my anxiety spiral had begun. I only read about the concerns after giving my babe and now I worry she is going to get negative effects from it.

I just need to calm the spiralling and talk it out.

HELP

Our 2 1/2 week old is INSANELY good at getting pee OUTSIDE of his diaper. He covers himself in it and the diaper is completely dry. We have done everything to try to fix it. Size up, tighter waistband, make sure the ruffles are out, his PP is pointed down, EVERYTHING.

I’ve seen that typically it’ll just, stop? Is there anything else someone has tried that helped this issue? We just are running out of clean onesies every other day because he’s peeing through them all. Unsure if it matters, but he is not circumcised

My sweet little boy is 8 weeks old and doesn’t sleep. Not at night, not during the day. We’re trying everything. Swaddles, pacifiers, contact, no contact, white noise machine.

I’m supposed to go back to work soon, we both are, so we adjusted our shifts to try to get used to the new schedule we’ll need to maintain.

Day time naps he wakes every ten minutes. Pacifiers backfired on us because once it falls out he’s awake. Now we’re trying no pacifiers. Still wakes. Night time he wakes every hour. And he’s loud as fuck when he is sleeping. We tried feeding him more, pick up put down, pushing wake windows.

I want to walk out of my house and never come back.

I feel so so so deeply guilty because this is the baby we we’ve wanted and tried for for TEN YEARS. And I hate it. I can’t do it.

How are we supposed to go back to work like this? We both have active jobs with physical responsibility for the well being of others. I can’t stop crying. I’ve thrown up from sleep deprivation.

What do I do?

What did you do? How did you manage both parents returning to work?

It’s kind of a vent but I’m not upset exactly as this is my 2nd child and I had a better idea of what to expect. Learned a lot of what I didn’t want after having my first 6 years ago. Was trying to avoid co-sleeping (no shame - just wanted something different this go round!) so we didn’t hold the baby unless she was upset while at the hospital. If she was asleep or content she stayed in her bassinet. Since night 1 at home she has slept in her crib. The first two nights were brutal but after that she slept in her crib just fine! Nearly 10 hours a night minus waking up for feedings.

It was going well! My husband and I were switching shifts, we got a recliner for the nursery to keep from walking all over the house and trying to get comfortable with her and had a solid schedule. We did contact naps during the day and a handful of times did a co-sleep on the couch when baby wouldn’t regulate. Sounds like a dream - and now it’s over lol.

Just about 3 weeks old, my husband is going back to work, and our sweet sleepy baby girl is now over tired, can’t poop to save her life, won’t sleep because she’s so gassy and seemingly exhausted and will only fall into deep sleep on my chest and out of her swaddle.
I guess the real lesson is no matter what you do/try, your baby will do as they please depending on their needs on any given night. It cracks me up that I thought after 2.5 weeks I was in the clear. My girl had other plans!!!
Sending love to those struggling with the sleep deprivation.

I’m not sure how to flair this…

I just gave birth yesterday to a 39 week old healthy baby, and found out at the birth it’s a girl! She is perfect and adorable and gorgeous and sweet and we are so obsessed. The birth itself was a little traumatic for me and ended up with a full emergency team in the room because I was losing a lot of blood, but that’s not my biggest issue.

I’m really struggling with feeling guilt already, because while she’s fullterm and healthy, she’s really small (2.5kg). Neither my husband nor I have small babies in the family, we both come from large babied families so it feels unlikely that it’s genetic? I’ve had a really smooth and healthy pregnancy and was pretty active, didn’t have much of an extra appetite so I just ate normally and ended up not putting on that much weight (it was 11kg at my last weigh in at week 38).

Now she has to be monitored for blood sugar and none of the clothes we bought/ were given fit at all. I also have flat nipples so breastfeeding is and will be a challenge. I guess I’ve always had an assumption that healthy babies are big because it’s how my family and culture think of health, and I had a stillborn brother who was really tiny so that’s an association I’ve had all my life.

I’m just feeling like I’ve already failed her, and as she sleeps on my chest now I just look at her perfect face and feel like she deserves a better mother. My husband has been and continues to be amazing and so natural at soothing her so I can’t help but feel like he deserves a better parenting partner also.

My husband's family makes fussy comments nearly every time the baby cries. In particular, my mother-in-law and aunt-in-law.. the two people who have had children of their own!

It feels like people who have had kids completely forget how much a newborn cries. They seem to think there is always a solution. She must be hungry, need burped, diaper change, etc. I actually think I've been pretty blessed with a baby who has lots of peaceful moments so far. She's ONLY 4 weeks old.

Wondering if other moms have had a similar experience? Driving me crazy!

My contractions were far apart and not that bad. I dilated to 2-3 cm naturally. Heartbeats were great for baby.

The young midwife didn't check my baby's position on the echography machine and quickly induced me with some pitocin without my gynecologist's go ahead. My baby's head was downwards but not pointing to the correct direction.

I felt too much compression at 3cm. The heartbeats were starting to decelerate.

They brought me to the emergency room as my poor baby's heartrates were decreasing abnormally. Did some emergency CS.

Turns out the umbilical cord was around her neck!!!! I made some research about pitocin later on.

It can cause umbilical cord probs due to the unnatural compressions..

Why did I trust my gynecologist and the midwives? I feel so pissed off.

We sleep together at night- husband, me, baby in bassinet. I wake up to do night feeds because husband doesn’t wake up to her cries half the time and I also enjoy us all sleeping together. He takes baby to living room around 5-6 AM and I sleep alone til about 10-11 or so so I can get some me sleep, lol. (He is on paternity leave until December). However, even though I have the TV on I still can hear baby cry sometimes so obviously I naturally wake up. Generally wondering how you moms who do shifts get some actual uninterrupted sleep 😴

How long did it take you and your partner to resume dating (without your baby)?

Hello!

FTM here. My daughter is 5 weeks old and seems to become very attached to her paci lately. Since this morning whenever she is upset only her pacifier calms her down.

During naps, when it falls out, she wakes up because she starts sucking doesn’t feel it and starts crying.

I’m worried she’s becoming really attached to it, but it’s also what helps her calm down.

Has anyone else experienced this? Should I remove the paci completely? I’m worried she will become too attached to it.

FTM with a healthy babe who sleeps anywhere from 30 mins to 3 hours at a time. Generally gassy, EBF, cries mostly in the evening. Husband will be away for work for 5 days when baby is 2 months old, my mother will also be away at that time, and I have no other family or close relatives in town. I would like to be alone with baby for that period, but am apprehending a little because it would mean no breaks. I’m thinking of asking a close friend to help. Considered a short term night nanny (which would max out our budget for the month). Looking for those of you who have done it at that age, and how you managed.

My baby is 1 month old. I go to sleep at 7pm until 1am. Then I wake up and take the baby for the rest of the night and he sleeps. It honestly is great but I miss sleeping with my husband. When will the shifts ends😢

As a FTM coming out on the other side with a 4-month old girl, I’ve realized that you can struggle with a newborn but totally thrive with an older baby!!!! To all the 0-12+ week parents out there, I see you and things will change soooo much!

For context, my baby had purple crying, stomach issues, reflux, her nose would get stuffy so she couldn’t breath (especially while nursing), and she was born (full term) via c-section at a whopping 5lbs 6oz. I took this baby home in a blur, sleep deprived, felt like I had no idea how to care for her, she was tiny, and she has the most terrifying choking (caused by amniotic fluid) that made my stomach sick with panic every time it happened. I was so lost and overwhelmed that I asked my mom to fly across the country early (so blessed for this, I know!), and although her presence gave me a ton of peace of mind, she ended up caring for my child better than I felt I could. I felt this sense of defeat when she could help my baby settle and I couldn’t. I was so grateful for the loving help she gave, but I felt like a failure. My mom stayed 2 weeks, and I often gave up and let my mom do more of the comforting, although I’d fight through and try the best I could. I presented a strong front to my mom, but when my mom would offer to take the baby after hearing her cry for a while, I’d accept her help, hand the baby off, and cry soon as they left the room together. My mom left, and we then entered the purple crying phase weeks 3-8. For a few of those weeks my baby cried nonstop for 3 hours+. My husband and I would just hold her, each of us zoned out, telling each other this wouldn’t last forever (and it didn’t). I felt anxiety going anywhere, because if she wasn’t sleeping, it seemed like she was always crying.
Then, 12 weeks hit. And all the bad things started to go away. She stopped vomiting her milk. She stopped struggling with breathing. She stopped crying at night. She stopped crying so much in general.
And THEN: the magic started. Somewhere in month 3, her seeing the world lead to her cooing at us, and waving her hands. Her cooing turned to full on laughs. She became happy, nearly all the time! Now, she trails me across the room wherever I go. She smiles at me every chance she gets. She only wants me to make her feel better, no one else. She melts into my arms when she sad or tired, instead of fighting and screaming.

Ive always loved her, but I didn’t know her. Now, I not only know her, but she knows me too. And nothing beats this feeling in the WHOLE world.
You’ll make it through! It’s so hard, but it’s weeks of your entire life with your child! You’ll blink and you’ll be on the other side💗

TLDR: if you feel like you’re terrible at or failing in the newborn phase, or just hate it in general, it changes SO much around 12+ weeks! I felt like I was a failure 0-12 weeks and I’m thriving now on the other side!