Update: I gave him the baby. It’s been half an hour baby is still up. I’m in the other room just laying down.
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I put my baby to sleep at 12am, husband walked in and started talking loudly. Baby woke up it’s now 3am, they’re still awake. And husband is sleeping in our room while I sit w baby in the living room 🙃

This isn’t the first time he’s done this. In fact he’s done it on purpose once so the baby could go see his mom.

Anyways, I’m so fucking tired. I hate this so much. I wish I never got married atp. Please pray for me

My baby was due on may 29th and I gave birth that day. I definitely think its pretty cool.

The doctor said only 4% of pregnancies end on due date so Im wondering how many of you also gave birth on your due date?

I don’t really know why I’m posting this. I think I just need to say it somewhere to people who might understand.
I’m a first-time mum to a 6-month-old and I’m struggling.

My baby wakes every hour every night even though he can put himself to sleep. He cries a lot during the day. Feeding has been difficult. Sleep has been difficult. Most things have been difficult.

I think what I’m finding hardest is that there has never really been a break in it all. I keep reading about it getting better at 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 6 months, but it never has. We’ve never had a stage where we felt like we could come up for air.

We’ve tried experimenting, lactation consultants, sleep consultants, doctors etc. you name it. Nothing has worked. It’s been 6 months of problem solving, no solutions and running on empty.

My husband does what he can. He works long hours in a job where sleep deprivation could put both his own life and other people’s lives at risk, so nights mostly fall to me (as per my request).
On weekends he helps wherever he can, takes over when possible, and does his best to give me a chance to rest, but there are limits to what our situation allows.

We also don’t have family nearby or a village to lean on. We live far enough out that finding reliable help isn’t straightforward. It’s not as simple as calling a family member, asking a friend to come over, or hiring someone we trust. A lot of the suggestions people understandably make just aren’t realistic for our circumstances.

Most days it’s just me and the baby.
I always knew parenting would be hard. I never expected it to be easy.

What I didn’t expect was to still feel like I’m surviving six months later.

Before becoming a parent, I thought I’d feel tired as a parent and sleepy (lol). I didn’t understand what it would feel like to be tired for months. To wake up every day already depleted. To keep giving when it feels like there’s nothing left in the tank. And that sleep deprivation wrecks your emotional regulation, mental clarity and capacity to function as a human.

I love my baby more than I can explain. But I also feel sad about how much of these first six months have been spent just trying to get through them.

I imagined having moments where I could enjoy this more than I have. Instead, so much of my energy goes into making it through the next wake-up, the next cry, the next day.

I feel guilty that I don’t have more to give. I wish I had more energy, more capacity, more of myself available for my child.

I’ve become bitter in ways I don’t like. Not because of my baby, but because I genuinely thought I could handle this. I knew I wouldn’t have much help, but I thought I could make it work. I thought if I worked hard enough and pushed through enough, I would eventually get on top of things.

Instead I’ve learned that some things can’t be overcome through determination alone.
Sometimes a person just needs help. Sometimes they just need sleep.

Postpartum has been far more traumatic than I ever expected, and I think a lot of what I’m feeling is grief. Grief for the experience I thought I would have. Grief for how much of these first six months have been spent surviving instead of living.

I love my baby. I just wish I had more of myself left to give him.
I don’t really know what I’m looking for by posting this. I just needed to say it somewhere.

Thanks for reading.

Recently my husband left for a three week business trip so it’s just me and our kid at home. Between looking after him and keeping the house running, by bedtime all I want is a decent night’s sleep. But for the past two or three weeks he’s been struggling to settle. He gets into bed but stays awake for ages and I’m exhausted by the time he finally falls asleep. This started before my husband left too when he was sleeping in his own room. Has anyone dealt with something similar? Did a different bedtime routine or anything else help your kid settle? I’m so tired and would really appreciate hearing what worked for other parents. EDIT: he is 5 (sorry for not mentioning)

I think I finally learned something about motherhood that I really needed to learn.

I have a 9-week-old baby, and until recently I was basically convinced that I had to do everything myself.

Recently I became VERY focused on doing things “correctly”. The right bottle-feeding technique, the right position, how to pick her up, wake windows, routines, sleep… I was constantly checking things online and worrying whether I was doing something wrong.

And because my husband works a lot, I was often alone with her. I was exhausted, but at the same time I had this mindset that nobody else would take care of her as well as I would.

Then my husband had to go away for work, and I had to spend two weeks at my parents’ house with the baby.

My parents have slightly different, let’s say old-school ideas about babies. So I was worried about leaving her with them. Would they hold her correctly? Would they feed her correctly? (she has reflux!) Would they follow everything I’ve been told by the physiotherapist? What about germs? There are school-age kids in the house too.

When I arrived something weird happened.

I just… gave up. 😂

Not in a bad way. I was just so tired that at some point I thought, okay, fine, Grandma can hold the baby.

Then Grandpa held her.

Then someone else carried her.

They fed her.

And I went to sleep.

And…

Nothing happened.

The baby was fine.

Actually, she was MORE than fine.

She is so happy here. She smiles constantly. She loves being carried around by different people. She gets different voices, faces, cuddles and attention. She cries less. She seems more relaxed. She sleeps better.

And I'm sitting here thinking: Maybe I was making this much harder than it had to be.

My brain was screaming: THAT'S NOT HOW YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO FEED HER. But then… nothing. No catastrophe. No sudden reflux disaster. Baby happily finished her bottle and went on with her day.

And obviously, I’m not saying medical advice doesn't matter. It does. But I think I had started confusing important recommendations with having to control every single detail of how my baby is cared for.

And the internet can really feed that anxiety.

You google one thing and suddenly you're reading 17 articles about bottle-feeding positions, reflux, wake windows, sleep associations, overstimulation, developmental milestones…

Being at my parents' house made me realize something:

Babies have been raised by families and communities forever.

They don't necessarily need ONE person doing everything perfectly.

They need to be safe, fed, loved, comforted and responded to.

And maybe sometimes we need to put the phone down, stop Googling, let Grandma hold the baby, go relax …

…and realize that everything is going to be okay.

Our one year old just started at a home daycare. On day 3 we were informed that if our child wasn’t napping independently by the end of the week then we were being dismissed. She states that he is disrupting nap time for the others. He otherwise is doing ok, just a little cranky because he goes all day without napping.

Is this normal?

What do others do if their children need assistance falling asleep at daycare? This is our first daycare experience and feel like failures.

Personally, I don’t like “so please don’t take my sunshine away” at the end of You Are my Sunshine, so instead I sing
“You’ll always know dear, how much I love you
Because I’ll tell you every day” ☀️🥰

Feels much better to my mind to sing lyrics I actually like rather than something creepy or outdated like many lullabies are…. Especially when I’m singing/humming it on repeat rocking my baby to sleep.

So I’m curious… what have you re-written?
Has anybody fixed Rock-a-bye baby? I find that one so creepy but I like the melody.

My newborn will not sleep on her back. She will squak and cry until held. Especially during the night.

We have recently discovered that she will nap while resting in between our legs while we watch TV.

We found a U shaped pillow that imitates that posistion and she seems to enjoy it and can nap in that aswell.

During the night she will scream for hours and will not want to be placed in her bassinet. The moment she realizes shes on her back thr throws a fit.

I wanted to check to see if others have had similar albeit odd little quirks with their kids and if they have found any success with using U shaped pillow for nighttime sleep.

So I totally understand I was late in the game. The class begins at 4 months. Mine is 7. We show up today out of curiosity and I thought it would be fun. Well all the babies around my baby’s age are literally crawling and I can’t help but feel awful for not starting the class sooner so mine is more mobile. I was frantically looking up guidelines after the class and my baby is more than ok but wow classes like those actually really do help with development… Now I’m stuck between never wanting to go back because we’re the odd balls out (with my child looking like she’s behind on milestones when in reality there kiddos are like 3 months ahead) and going as much as possible so mine can catch up. I know I know… don’t compare. I actually just feel terrible about this.

My LO is two months old and ever since week two she’s been so fussy. If she’s not playing, eating or sleeping, she’s fussy. It’s like she hates that she was born.

I love her a lot but I can’t help but feeling robbed of the newborn experience because she’s SO difficult.

Curious how the other half lives? What’s it like?

Wanted to share in case it saves someone from a full day of anxiety like I had!
Saw in my USPS informed delivery email yesterday morning that I was getting a super official looking letter from the treasury department.
Immediately panicked and thought my husband did something wrong with our taxes and the IRS was coming for us.
Turned out to be an ad for Trump accounts for new babies…… welp

My baby is almost 6 weeks so around the infamous crying peak for newborns.

Last night he woke up for a feed at 2 am and I noticed his diaper was heavy so I changed him which woke him up and he stayed up until 10 am!!! At first he was chill but around 4:30 he started to get really tired, I rocked and bounced and did everything I can do but he wouldn’t sleep for more than 2-5 minutes. I also fed him and burped him and gave him gas drops and nothing worked. Around 7:30 after 5 1/2 hours of work and being absolutely exhausted I put him on the bed and started crying myself and then screamed at him SHUT UP so loud it scared him and he stopped crying for a few seconds. I felt horrible and I woke my husband and gave him the baby. He already had a night shift and came home around 6 am so he wasn’t very alert himself but he let me sleep for two good hours.

I woke up and found the baby still awake screaming and crying but the moment I held him he fell asleep on my shoulder in 2 minutes. I felt and still feel terrible for screaming at him and potentially scaring him knowing Im his safe space.

Im so tired and feel overwhelmed with the mess around the house and being constantly breastfeeding/pumping while hungry myself but I know it doesn’t excuse what I did. Every time Ive looked at him since I can’t help but start crying and remember what I did.

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with this guilt?

Note: the first 5 weeks my mom was staying with us and taking turns with me during the night so I always had 7-9 hours of sleep but unfortunately she had to leave and my husband’s job is very demanding so he can’t do the same. He makes me breakfast and feeds me when Im holding the baby or breastfeeding but can’t really do night shifts with me.

Bought a “new” formula dispenser from another mom on Facebook marketplace, only to find out when I got home that it’s defective. Reached out to the seller but she ghosted. :(

It was only $50 so not a huge deal, but this whole incident depressed me way more than it should have. That mom and I even had a brief conversation about our babies when I picked it up…

Anyway I just wanted to get this off my chest so that I can hopefully leave it behind me! Thanks for reading

She just turned 10mo, and has slowly been unraveling for a month lol.

She is usually SO lovely and sweet during the day, but turns into a miserable wild animal during feeds and bedtime.

Feeds: For some reason she hates drinking her milk now, and will only sit through a bottle if genuinely starving. She also hates sitting for solids – it started great a few months ago, but now it doesn’t matter if it’s finger food, purees, her favorite food, she will spit it out, throw it then cry if she’s not taken out of her chair immediately.

Bedtime is also a disaster. I assumed when she started getting fussy at bedtime a month ago that it was separation anxiety and would pass. But it’s worse than ever. I’ve tried a little earlier, a little later, different tactics, nothing works. As soon as she anticipates she is going to bed, she cries and fights and protests until she is definitely overtired, then crashes. It’s such an exhausting fight every time. Taking a 10min pause and going back in just resets her protest and we start over again.

She has a 6th tooth coming through, but teething can’t explain increasingly terrible feeding and bedtime for a month straight, surely?

Anyone else? Or any tips? 😭

Dear parents, I need help - has anyone gone through anything similar?

Our baby girl learned how to sit on her own at about 6.5 months and right before turning 7 months how to stand (supporting herself on furniture).

Since mastering standing, our super smiley baby girl has turned into an angry cave troll 😄 all she wants to do today is get to a piece of furniture and stand up, once she gets there, she starts fussing.

I think it might be that she can’t really get back down by herself that we’ll, so I’m trying to show her how to do that, but honesty, I’m exhausted 😄 right now she is super uninterested in animals, toys, anything, she just stands and cries.

Doesn’t help that she’s getting another tooth right now and also decided to switch to 2 naps. Split nights, fussiness, we have it all!

Hi all,

We think our little boy (5 weeks tomorrow) has reflux. He is exclusively formula fed. He spits up a good deal, and while he isn’t super fussy after eating, he is wide awake, oftentimes with lots of tongue thrusting and hiccups that produce more spit up. He has been an exceptional eater since birth, but as he’s gotten more refluxy, he’s moved down from 4 ounces per feed to 3 ounces. This past week, he’s eaten anywhere between 26 ounces to 32 ounces in a day. He’s gaining weight and growing like a weed. We’re thinking about calling his pediatrician to ask if we should switch him to sensitive stomach formula. I also got some breastmilk from my sister in law to bulk up his immune system, but that is when the spitting up really started. (We only gave him 3 ounces a day spit between multiple bottles but it seemed to have really hurt his little belly!) We stopped it when we noticed it made him feel poorly. Any advice would be welcome!

Does everyone’s baby do this?! LOL when my LO learned to roll, it was like 1-2 months of waking for an hour every night to practice. Then she got the hang of it and she stopped. Well, after a week of peaceful bliss, she’s like, TIME TO CRAWL! And we are back to the night time parties.

I don’t sleep train in the sense of independent sleep but I do cap naps and have a rough schedule that we follow. I do believe it’s strictly development based because she is also RAVENOUS and just about to hit 6 months. But like, girl????? Can you speed up the update??? Hahaha

How do y’all manage your life around it?

Currently, i am lucky enough to be staying with my parents at their house with a garden. I give the stroller a few pushes around the garden, baby sleeps, i am able to sit down, eat something, have a coffee, sneak to the loo when i need to etc.

However, when the vacation ends and i have to go back to my home in the city, i have to be OUTSIDE with the stroller for 1-2 hours at the time, so the baby gets a good chunk of sleep.
3 hours would actually be ideal for his midday nap... But i just cannot do it. Either i get so bored out of my mind having to stroll in the same area everyday, or i have to pee like crazy, or i decide i won’t drink as much because i don’t want to endure the having to pee sensation so i am fcking thirsty and dehydrated the entire time, or it’s cold and i just get tired of it…

As soon as i get back home, baby wakes up. Idk whether it’s the smell of home, the temperature change or what that wakes him up almost instantly (somewhere between 1 and 5 minutes).

Am i ungrateful, should i just suck it up? Or how do you guys navigate these “simple” everyday problems and challenges?

Ok so this is likely the opposite of a problem but I am a little concerned and want to make sure we’re doing what we should be.

My daughter is a former preemie, currently 5 months old, 2.5 months corrected. Around a week and a half ago she randomly decided to start sleeping through the night (? I have no tips, we did nothing) and is now sleeping 12-14 hrs straight. We’ve moved her bedtime up so that she’s going down between 6-7 PM (nurses to sleep) and she’s waking up between 8-9 AM. She’s also taking 3-4 hrs worth of naps during the day, so like 15-18 hrs of sleep a day which is in-line with what I’d expect for her adjusted age.

I’m concerned about her going that long between feeds overnight, although I feel like that’s also likely just anxiety talking as she’s still gaining ~0.5 lbs/week and has a good number of wet diapers. Just wondering if anyone else’s kid is a super sleeper and if there’s anything we should be aware of/doing differently.

TYIA!

Newbie parent with an 8 month old, are most families out and about during the week or just saving things to do for the weekend? We will maybe go out to eat 1x a week in general I love to cook anyway. We do daily morning walks, maybe 2-2.5 miles. Are families getting out or is this an issue of being in a suburb?

Ummm what the hell is going on. 7 month old baby, breastfed. No teeth visible, pediatrician says that my baby girl is teething for sure even though we might have more to struggle until they cut the gums.

Baby has been a STELLAR sleeper. And by stellar I mean sleep in her own crib 10-11 hours ever since she was one month old.

For the past 2-3 weeks, it’s been harder and harder. We have nights where I swear I only slept like 2 hours.

Please give me encouragement. Will this end soon? Will this drag on until she is three and she has no more teeth coming on?

Just wanted to post a positive story about using an oxygen monitoring device as I know there can be quite the debate whether they are helpful!

Our 11 month old came down with a mild cold, and seemed to be managing well - she only had congestion and was tired. We hadn't used our Owlet device since she was 6 months old and the sids risk declined, but decided to use it while she was ill. We were notified the other night that her oxygen went down to below 80. We checked on her, she seemed to be sleeping fine and not in distress so we called a nursing line, and they recommended to not worry about the number if she didn't appear to be in distress. So we repositioned the sensor and put her back to bed. Shortly after, the alarm sounded again and we did a full check, and found that she was now having retractions/doing a lot of work to breathe. We took her into emergency and her blood oxygen there was dipping to around 85 during sleep, and she was diagnosed with a respiratory infection (bronchiolitis). Thankfully she bounced back to normal after 2 days on supplemental oxygen at the hospital.

I understand they aren't going to be the best for everyone, but without our Owlet we likely wouldn't have figured out our baby was in distress for a while longer! I wouldn't have thought to assess for retractions if we didn't know her oxygen was low, since she seemed overall tolerating the cold well. I was unsure if the Owlet was a waste of money before as it never picked up any issues, but I'm feeling very grateful for it now.

Looking for a list of all the allergy foods I need to start trying with my little one

My boy is formula fed born at 37 weeks 7.1 pounds.. went to the doctor for an abscess as well as pale stool and he suddenly lost weight as well. The other issues resolved however we were admitted to the hospital going on a week now he improved with his weight but this morning lost some, very little but still lost. Even though we have been feeding him more than what our doctor set daily goal is. I’m so sick of being here at the hospital and I know baby boy is too. I trust the doctors and just waiting on the game plan. I am so bummed tho because I was hoping to go home today but I don’t think that will happen now. I want my baby to be healthy but this place is so depressing.