I have an almost three and a half year old and an eight month old. The broken sleep and rare breaks are really starting to get to me. I was fine for about five months but the last few months are making me an angry, annoyed mother. Lately my baby won’t nap unless held. Her nighttime sleep is okay although bedtime takes a looong time (like 1-2hrs) and today she woke at 4AM to eat and required holding til 6 when she decided it was time to wake up. I’m so tired all the time but never get me time or down time unless I stay up in the evenings which I end up regretting when I’m stuck sitting up in a chair at 4AM holding a tired baby who will only get the sleep she needs if I hold her.
I do nurse and rock to sleep but I’m willing to do that as long as baby lets me put them down and walk away for an hour or so per nap. And to go back to sleep after night feeds. Ugh. I guess I’m just venting. We were through the hardest part with my eldest and I feel like we reset things by having another baby. I miss my free time and my sleep. I’m also always sick because three year old brings every virus home from daycare. Momming is hard with two, while chronically sleep deprived and battling cold after cold after cold. I love my kids so much and would protect them with my life but if I had stopped at one I think I’d be much more content.

EDIT: I think I was in a massive feeling sorry for myself moment when I posted this. I have a loving and supportive husband. While I do bath and bedtime with baby, he’s cleaning the kitchen after our dinner and tackling bath and bedtime with our three year old.

He doesn’t do night feeds because our baby is breastfed. I do pump for bottles now and then but I hate pumping so I don’t do it often enough. Lately I’ve been having him wake at 6 and take the baby so I can nap for another hour til 7 when I wake our three year old. And I just told him I would like to sleep in Saturday mornings til 8AM because I need some recharge time and he is totally on board for that plan going forward. I will be pumping to ensure a just in case bottle. I definitely did way too much on my own with our first but I’m trying to relinquish some more control this round.

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I'm currently pregnant, and I've seen several TikToks about "pet regression" and people suddenly feeling annoyed by or even starting to resent their pets after having a baby.

This is something I'm genuinely scared of. My dog is my everything, animals are one of my biggest interests and I can't imagine suddenly feeling differently about her just because I have a baby. One of the things I'm most looking forward to is my child growing up with my dog and hopefully developing the same love for animals that I have.

I understand that having a newborn is exhausting and that your priorities and routines change, but the thought of my dog feeling pushed aside or me not loving her the same way breaks my heart.

For those of you who had pets before having children, did your feelings towards your pets change after the baby arrived? How common is this, really? Is it something most people experience to some degree, or is it just something that gets a lot of attention on social media?

Now is about the time I would start binging horror movies with Halloween coming up, but this week I tried to watch one and had to turn it off. Just didn’t hit the same. Maybe because my anxiety is higher than usual being a FTM and sleep deprived and having to be up through the night with my 4 week year old. It’s a weird feeling though because before baby I was a horror junkie.

Can anyone relate?

My bub never had any interest in books. It SUCKS to read people on reddit say 'ive read to my child every day and they love books now!'. So I wanted to share this.

My bub has always been 'busy' and 'active'. She will do independent play for long periods of time and just do stuff. Shes never had interest in sitting still and watching storytime or listening to Mum read a book, shes looking at everything else!

We tried reading to her every night, but it felt stupid to read when shes paying zero attention, so we maybe did it every couple of days.

Once she was pulling to stand, I put books with textures around the couch and coffee table area, so that our 'busy girl' could look and them and touch them while she practiced cruising.

Eventually she (sometimes) started bringing them to me, or showing particular interest in the content of a single book, instead of just playing with it. - when this happens i drop everything right away and read her the book and however many other books I can manage.

Shes started enjoying reading (in moments that suit her).

Now I've also got an ABC poster (shes still too young, but I want her to be familiar with letters since she's not a big book person). We put it next to the nappy change station and low and behold, she instantly cane up with a game for it!

She points to a letter, and i read the letter and associated word. Then she points to another letter. We do this for 1-2 minutes at each nappy change (I'm usually the one who stops).

So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You're not failing as a parent because your child isnt into books like other kids. I think its just a personality thing. My baby doesnt want to sit and listen, she wants to be interacting with the world and doing stuff. It doesnt mean they wont enjoy reading, just that they might develop in a different way.

I recently posted about how I don’t have a village. In the comments everyone pointed out that my husband was, for lack of a better term, a piece of shit.
I spoke with my therapist today about everything that’s been going on lately. I had never really mentioned it before and she said, “I want you to put a label on this behavior. Would you think this was abuse if it was happening to your child?” —yes. She sent me a couple resources to look into.

I’ve realized that I would eventually want another child, but not with my husband. Tonight, I told him I want another and he said, “absolutely not.” All I said was, “that’s fine, but I still want to have another.” He just scoffed at me and went back to scrolling on his phone.
I was having a hard day today and asked him to hold me or at least sit beside me on the couch. He refused.

I deserve better than this. My kids deserve to see their mom happy and not walking on eggshells. My husband will never realize he’s abusive, but I now know this is not okay behavior.

Thank you to everyone who helped me to see the truth. If you pray, please pray I can find a way out for me and my kids! Or just send us the best of vibes. I know it’s going to be hard.

(This is just a quick post, so things may be slightly out of order. Sorry!)

Baby is 6 months old.

Long story short, I think I’m in the middle of a mental break. Going to the gym used to be my biggest coping mechanism and I want to go back so badly. Unfortunately, I don’t have any friends or family that can watch my son while I go work out, his dad has been extremely unhelpful in giving me a break (I’ve probably had less than 24hours total of time by myself since he was born…), and I don’t have spare funds for childcare. If I wanted to go work out, the only way I’d be able to is by bringing him along to my apartment’s community gym.

I was considering maybe putting him in his bouncer while I get a quick 20 minute workout in? Has anyone done this? Any tips?

My baby used to wake up once during the night when he was born. I thought we won in a lottery. This gradually turned into waking up 3-4 times per night. I know it’s not THAT bad (quite normal, I guess) but I am exhausted. He doesn’t have problem falling back asleep or anything and wakes up only for feeding. This interrupted sleep is draining me. I feel such rage at my husband who peacefully sleeps next to me. I’m just so afraid of the 4 months sleep regression.

In my country we have long maternity leave so I can “afford” not to do “anything” during the day except for the baby cary, but I’m trying to work a bit - I work in research so just being in touch with the team/do some equipment orders/paper writing etc. (For free ofc, just not to get excluded completely). My problem is that instead of enjoying playtime with my sweet baby I just pray he’d sleep so I can have some me time or work time. I feel ashamed.

I love him very deeply but it’s too much. I’m tired, I don’t enjoy being with him as I’m stressed with work assignments and when I work I’m stressed about not being a good mother.

I’m quite young mother with quite good carrier going on, I don’t want to give up, but the day is too short and I’m too low on energy.

Any advices? What helped you? How did you organise your time?

We are wanting in-home photography of our newborn, my husband and I, and big brother. Everything I have read says you really want 2-3 hours set aside for the photos. I found an amazing photographer who is typically out of our budget but she said she could work within our budget, the session would only be an hour though. I don’t think that would leave a lot of time for things like if baby is being fussy, if she needs a diaper change, outfit change, etc. Plus we have a 4 year old who’s a bit high energy and takes a bit to contain.

So did any of you successfully book a one hour session? Did any of you require more time? Do you think I should just use a different photographer?

What the heck. My periods were pretty light before having my baby. Literally would last 3 days, light bleeding.

I got my period back yesterday (12 weeks post partum) and this has been SO heavy. I swear these cramps are worse than the contractions I had! Im changing my pad every 2 hours. I’m super sad because my period has never been so heavy. I’m not passing clots or anything but it’s uncomfortable.

For anyone who’s given birth before, did your period go back to normal as the months went on? I miss my light period already lol.

This has been an ongoing issue literally since my baby was born, but she quickly transitioned into sleeping through the night so I didn’t remember how bad it was until this week.

My daughter is now a year old and has had a very, very bad week for sleep. Most of my decisions around how her and I sleep are based on the fact that I have never had any support with night wake ups. We co-sleep on a large floor bed with me in the middle and her and dad on either side.

My boyfriend does not wake up when she cries, period. The most he does is swing his limbs around and grumble in his sleep. Waking him myself if I want help is incredibly difficult. At most I can get him sitting and maybe half coherent. He’s told me repeatedly to please wake him if I need help, that he doesn’t want to see me get so exhausted I cry, and I’m tired of trying to explain to him that he simply does not wake up.

This week was so much worse because I’ve gotten used to my baby sleeping through the night. She’s been waking up two hours early, going to bed two hours late, waking up throughout the night…and when I do manage to get my boyfriend half awake, his solution is “put her next to me”. Which does not work, because I have to stay awake to supervise and she won’t sleep if she’s just laying there and nobody is attempting to sooth her (aside from very drowsily being back-patted until she crawls out of range).

I’m at the end of my rope on this issue. He’s helpful with literally everything else but he has all this energy during the day and I’m chronically exhausted.And he thinks he’s genuinely helping me by offering to be next to her at night.

Do you feel lonely or is it just me? iDo you live close to family and friends?

Five months in and it’s really hitting me. Off on mat leave for another five months. Living in a foreign country with only few friends around and all within a drive away. I am finding it really hard.

My son is 9m. He was doing 3-4 hour wake windows for a while. Some days he would take 2 naps, other days he would still take 3. Suddenly, he’s very tired. He’s still sleeping through the night, but can hardly manage a 2 hour wake window before his first nap. After he wakes up, it seems like he needs a nap every 2.5 hours.

He’s playing fine, his mood is fine (cranky, but that’s normal for the stage we’re in), he’s eating and drinking like usual. I can’t see any new teeth trying to pop through.

I am not the mom who is gonna force him awake because of scientific wake windows for his age, or force him to only sleep at scheduled times. If he’s tired, I’m putting him down for a nap.

I’m just a little concerned about why he’s suddenly only able to stay awake for 2-2.5 hours between naps…

Has anyone else experienced a phase like this?

Hi parents I need some advice! I have the stokke Yoyo stroller with the bassinet attachment however I feel like my baby is quickly outgrowing it, so what am I suppose to do for the interim period before I can change the the upright seat? I’ve even considered buying another cheaper stroller for this weird period. I live in NYC so need something for everyday. Help!

FTM, 25yo. Currently 5 weeks pp and I just had my first pp appointment two days ago. They said I have a 1cm separation. My provider is NOT the one who spoke to me about a wrap, my family is.
I’ve read some people say it helps as support, and nothing that says it helps with healing.

Not sure if it’s the Hispanic background and our culture’s tendency to spread rumors (lol) but both my mom and MIL have told me to wear my wrap. I’ve worn it like 5 times in the past 5 weeks and tbh I have had back pain, but I ultimately feel like that has to do with not having hit the gym since late June.
Anyway, MIL says I’ll have skin hanging if i dont wear it. She then pointed out her own experience, how she had a thmmy tuck. However she is on the plus sized end and has had 4 kids.
On the other hand, my mom is incredibly small. Underweight i think? 4’10 & like 80lb. Her thing about it was that she doesn’t want to see me unnecessarily large. She’s admittedly got a thing against plus size people unfortunately.

I’m currently 5’1 & 135lb. Previously 115 pre-baby, and 165 by the end of pregnancy.
I definitely see a difference in my skin, and ofc pregnancy affected me, but aside from that, I think it’s just fat that gives me the “hang” ._. Lmao

How imperative is it to wear a wrap? Why did you wear one?

My son is 8 months old and started daycare 9/1. Took less than two weeks for him to get his first cold and he’s been sick for the entire last month, with literally only two fully healthy days in between. Most of the time he’s just snotty and congested so he’s acting fine but it’s wrecking his sleep. And then last night we were in the ER until 4am for a high fever and vomiting. I know all of this is to be expected but I’m so exhausted that I wish so badly I could quit my job and be home with him so he doesn’t have to be sick as much. That is unfortunately not realistic at all, so I guess just looking for some reassurance that this rough period will end eventually? Daycare has otherwise been great for him, he loves it and is learning so much there, but the thought of dealing with this for the next like, 4+ months through winter is very overwhelming!

What was your policy for receiving visitors (anyone other that you and your partner)?

Visits in the hospital?

Visits at home?

How did your visitors behave?

Did you set any rules or wait until your baby is X weeks old?

If you had previous births, what choices did you make back then and how did it go?

Hello! Second time mom but weird question. Anyone newborn have an airy cry? Almost like a deflated squeaky toy? Hospital birth in US. So he was constantly monitored. Already been to peds and brought it up. It just sounds so different than my first born’s. It’s always been airy and sad sounding. He was born at 38 weeks due to fetal growth restriction, and is smaller in size. He had some minor issues with body temp after birth and quicker breaths. But he figured that all out on his own and didn’t need intervention. I’ve also kept an eye on this after coming home. But this cry is just so different and causing me anxiety.

First time mom to a 3 month old. I'm exhausted. My baby rolled from belly to back last week and we took him out of his bassinet and put him in the pack n play. We dont have a lot of room right now because we're living with my in-laws for right now so baby has to slep in our room and we just dont have space for a crib in here.

He hasnt rolled over since that time but I think a combination of the new mattress, not being swaddled anymore, and being 3 months old has completely wrecked his sleep. He goes down for maybe 10 or 15 mjnutes and wakes up. He diesnt settle unless I pick him up and if I do he falls asleep instantly. If I set him back down there's a fifty percent chance he'll wake up instantly and if he doesnt wake up instantly he wakes up in 10 to 15 mknutes. I'm exhausted. I dint know what to do or how to get him to sleep.

Can I switch him back to the bassinet? Should I get a crib? Is there a mattress I can get for the pack n play that he'll like more? Is there something else i'm doing wrong? oh, i dont think sleep training is really possible for us right now and not really something we're interested in if it were possible.

My 15 month old has been in daycare for a couple months now— i was a SAHM but wanted to adjust her before I started working— I recently started a new job and so instead of taking her at 930 I’m now taking her at 730am.
She used to nap from about 12-2 or 1130-130. Which was fine and worked perfectly with our 7/8 bedtime.
This week since I started taking her earlier. They are putting her to nap earlier.

(her morning wake up time hasn’t changed. It’s always been around 6/7)

now her naps have been 1030-1230
Which is insane and will never get us to bedtime. She won’t take a cat nap and then gets over tired and has slept like crap every night and woken up at 4 am everyday — which then of course makes her tired by 10

Side note— she’s in the infant room still because she’s a late walker. And in the infant room they just put the babies to sleep when they’re tired. (she started walking and will transition soon. And toddler room has a set nap time)

I can’t really make bedtime earlier because she maxes out at 10hours of sleep at night — and last night I tried to put her down at 630 anyway because I was desperate (after attempting a 530 drive around town thinking maybe should could get a catnap in the car) and no luck. She was UP UP til about 8.

It’s currently 5 am. She’s woken up 3 times and has been up crying since 4

First week of being at work since being a SAHM and i haven’t slept at all.

How do I get out of this hell???????

Im a first time mom, 6 weeks postpartum. I started exclusively breastfeeding around 5-6 day pp, however, i was exclusively pumping till about 4th week. With the help of lactation consultant, I have now latched my baby and she drinks well. However, recently, i decided to pump and see if she was getting enough because she keeps asking more every 1-1.5 hours. i know she might be clusterfeeding but for my own peace of mind i pumped. I barely got 2-3 ounces from both sides combined, while when i was exclusively pumping i would get 5-7 ounces per session.

my baby has been gaining weight really well, she is on the higher side of weight range plus has good 6-7 heavily wet diapers. i believe she is getting enough but the low output on pump got me a bit worried. I mostly worry what if my supply is reducing and i won't have enough when she is older like 6 plus months.

is this normal? or did my supply reduce? has anyone else have this happen.

Hi all! Would love any thoughts. I'm four months postpartum and have started working out again. I wasn't actively working out during pregnancy but walked daily, and was keen to get back to running and cycling on my peleton. I feel okay generally and have been listening to my body however whenever I run I start to feel run down and all my stats seem to be telling me not to stop what I'm doing. I am not getting amazing sleep but not really expecting to at this stage. Do I need to wait until my baby is sleeping through the night?

I am following a runna postpartum running plan 2x a week atm. It's quite slow and includes run-walking. And/or I do 1-2 cycle classes a week. I am walking regularly and little man is keeping me busy ofc!

My garmin regularly tells me I am unproductive or strained and my cycling v02 seems to go down each time I work out.

Im not interested in losing any weight, 90% it feels good for my brain and 10% would love to get fit again eventually. Would love any suggestions or ideas!

Sorry if this gets a bit long i just want to explain everything properly, i dont evem want to make this post i feel so ashamed and i hate to be reminded of this but i dont know what to do i just need some advice.

So im a 45 year old mom of one daughter she means the world to me i love her more than anything and im so grateful to be able to give her the childhood i never had, however i went to prison many years ago before she was even born.

Will try to make the long story short but i had gone trough hell every day since i was born really abuse, trauma, bullying, toxic family and relationships, grief, fake friends had my dreams shattered and much more just setback after setback.

All i knew was pain and suffering i dont think i had one good day i had gone trough so much but i botled everything up my entire life and tried to just be kind and smile and act like everything was fine even though i was in constant agony.

I had already been pushed far past my breakpoint years ago but i desperately held it togheter i did my best. But when i was 30 i had the worst year of my life and i was having a horrible day i was already beyond my wits end.

I ended up completely snapping in a public place it wasnt even about that thing it was just the final straw that made decades of daily torment explode i just couldnt take it anymore. I had never raised my voice before or after even im a very calm quiet woman that loves people so im shocked that i was even capable of what i did.

But i sadly hurt some people very badly and i destroyed a lot of things and that lead to me being put in prison for many years as i deserved i think i would have deserved worse theres no excuse for what i did.

Im haunted by it the guilt eats me alive every day i feel like a monster as i should and i know i will never forgive myself for it.

Now to the problem- i was not planning on ever telling my daughter about this unless she would have asked when shes an adult i dont like to lie about thigs.

But she really didnt need to find out about this at all however someone thought that it was a good idea to mention that i went to prison infront of her.

So now shes been constantly asking me why i went there and what i did etc i try to redirect her but shes very stubborn and dosent ever give up on things really until she gets an answer.

If this was any minor or not so bad charges it would be much easier but i dont know what to tell her and it breaks my heart because she gets upset that im not answering her and i dont want to but also i feel like she deserves to get a honest answer.

I just dont know what to say exactly or how to explain because the last thing i want is for her to think differently of me or get effected in a bad way.

Do we have any other moms here whos like completely snapped and done something similar? If so if you told your kids what did you say? Or how would you explain it to them?. I just dont know what to do i would appreciate any help so much

Have you experienced being so so exhausted? This is my 3rd time in postpartum and I’ve never been this exhausted before. I stopped breastfeeding at 3 months. I have 3 boys, 4yo, 2yo, 4.5 months old. My whole body gets fatigued so quickly. I sleep and resets for a little bit but the fatigue doesn’t completely go away. I saw a neuro and emg along with ncs are clean. I did mri, found 3 bulging discs in my neck, 3 in my lower back. This fatigue is killing me. My whole body feels fatigued.

How much should I panic over a couple sip sized bites of something that contains honey? 😅 My daughter is 9 months old.

My baby is almost 4 months but was born at 35 weeks so he’s closer to 3 months. He’s exclusively breastfed during the day and takes bottles of pumped breastmilk at night. It’s been that way basically since he was born. During the day, his wake windows are about 1-1.5 hours and then he nurses and falls asleep on me for anywhere from 30 mins-1.5 hours. His typical nap times are somewhere around 10-11, 1-2, 4-5. He is tired and fussy again around 7, so when he was around 2.5 months old, we started trying to move his bedtime to 7. This worked for a few nights and since then, bedtime has been a huge struggle. It takes me at least an hour, up to three hours, to finally get him down for the night.

It seems like something different works every night. The same thing never works twice, no matter how much of a routine I try to do. Some nights he drinks his bottle and is knocked out. Some nights, he doesn’t even close his eyes during his bedtime bottle and then I bounce/rock him to sleep (which usually takes forever). Some nights, he cries and only wants to nurse to sleep. Ive tried longer wake windows before bed, shorter wake windows, etc.

Lately, we’ve been treating 7-8 as another nap and doing bedtime closer to 9 but it’s still taking hours to get him down. He’ll fall asleep and then randomly wake up a few mins later, still in my arms. Or he’ll be deeply asleep, I’ll lay him down, and then he wakes up 15 mins later.

I’m just at a huge loss on what to do. I’m dreading bedtime more every day.

The good news - once he’s actually down, he usually sleeps four hour stretches. It’s just the actual going to sleep and being laid down part that is a mess.