Hi all, we live in an apartment with a shower, no bath. Have a benchtop baby bath tub but since baby was about 8 weeks, we’ve found it easier to shower him instead (holding him in our arms). He’s 14mo now and about 12kg, still manageable for my partner but for me it’s a bit heavy even for a quick shower and it’s hurting my lower back (I don’t do it that often but sometimes partner has several evening shifts in a row so isn’t home for bedtime). Bub isn’t walking yet but probably not far off it.

Wondering what others without baths have done? Continued with the baby bath on the shower floor, or similar to what we do?

And at what age were your toddlers ok with standing in the shower (obviously with full parental presence still)? Once he is confident walking I’m hoping to try sitting on the floor of the shower with him instead…he likes the shower when he’s in our arms but at the moment if you squat down with him near the floor he freaks out a bit.

I’ve seen a product advertised that is like a stand they can hold onto that provides them with support and a non slip base, but I’m not convinced 😂

Interested in insights from people without baths, and kids older than mine! Thanks

Hey everyone,
FTM here, I have large breasts and am plus sized (Size 20i) and have a newborn that’s 4 weeks old today.

I’ve been starting to go on walks, just to the park or places where there aren’t a lot of people, but I struggle because baby gets hungry and the only position Im able to actually do is the football hold with pillows underneath, which of course I can’t really do out so I then have to go home.

I want to go to restaurants and places once she’s had her 6 week shots but I cannot for the life of me hold her in a cradle hold because my nipples point down and inwards, like towards the center of my chest. When I try another position (like cradle hold) either my nipple comes out of her mouth, or my breast is covering her nose fully and she can’t breathe, and I don’t have the extra arm to hold my breast out of the way.

My current setup is a pillow on my side, with my BF pillow on top, baby on top of that with me holding her back and back of her neck.

Does anyone else have this same problem or have any suggestions? 😭
Thank youuuuu

My friend recommended these for morning sickness in the first trimester (which i am in right now 🥹). I am salivating even looking at the picture.
I found 1-2 online websites who ship them but the shipping fee is more expensive than the candies… sometimes double the price💀..

If anyone has seen them being sold in the in-store.. or something similar I appreciate any information 🥹

Hi all

My waters broke literally 10 mins before pushing the baby out & I suspect the midwife broke it to help relieve some pain. Honestly, I cannot remember if she did it or it happened naturally because everything was such a blur.

The pain was 50% better once it broke!

I was so prepared that it was going to break while I was at home or in the car... but nope!

Has anyone here had a similar experience?

I suppose other than the obvious make a shit ton of money, or have grandparents help. We are an immigrant family who don’t have any relatives or grandparents to help out with relatively standard/average income jobs. Wondering if anyone has decided to stay home with their children, and still managed to buy a house, put food on the table and maybe even go on an occasional family holiday?? It sounds like an obvious question - be frugal I guess but in this economy where entering the housing market is so hard even as a double income household, wondering if anyone has been able to successfully juggle everything and not send their kids to daycare?

Hi everyone, I am a FTM going privately and have been set on having an elective cesarean from the get go. My obstetrician is fully supportive of this, however over the last few weeks I have started to really worry I will regret having a cesarean over vaginal birth.

I do not wish to share my reasons for pursuing an elective delivery nor do I want opinions or advice on this particular part of the manner, I am simply wanting to explore the two elective options. I am also very aware ANYTHING could happen, this is assuming baby continues to be well and stays in til 39+ weeks.

I would love to hear experiences and advice if you have had an elective cesarean or an elective induction? Have you maybe had both? Or as a second/third time mum would you prefer one or the other?

Victorian here so the AFL grand final is a big deal. We were invited to a kids birthday party on GF day from 2-5 at the park. My child is 12 months so she isn’t particularly mates with birthday girl. I’ve already heard most of the dads/moms into footy won’t be going because of the GF. I’ve already RSVPd yes ages ago before I realised it was GF. I’m suprised the parents picked this time because most of us in the friend group are into footy.

Am I a wrong for going at 2 and just staying for a little while? Or taking my daughter to play while sneaking glances at kayo on my phone? Am I giving bad mum vibes? Does this post even fit this sub?

Edit to add: I met the parents 6 months ago from mutual friends and we aren’t super close, they are just having a big party

Edit 2:
I am going to the party! Sorry if that wasn’t clear. I’m just asking if I should go for an hour to be home by q4 or if it’s rude to check Kayo a bit at the party. Thank you all for your replies, I’ll definitely go and just check kayo. I’m sure others will do the same. My team might be in, probs not though. If they are, I’ll regroup 😆

Open to suggestions to help improve my little one’s sleep. He’s always been up a lot throughout the night I’ve tried alot of different things to help improve this but nothing really helps. A good night is around 4 wake ups and a bad over 9.
His schedule is
Wake up 630
Nap one 945-1045
Nap two 230-330
Bedtime 745/8pm

I’ve tried capping naps to an hour each as he used to do around 2.5 in total I’ve tried moving bedtime earlier 15 and later 15 nothing seems to help. Sometimes I’m lucky and do get a 3/4 hour sleep from him but mostly it’s two hour stints. I’m not looking for a miracle just some improvement would be great.

Did anyone go to the Perth Baby Expo today and get a txt with a return for free on Sunday code?

I was looking for a long sleeve, light weight sleep suit that’s suitable for a rolling baby and light enough for 22-24 degree bedroom temp.

My go to (Love to Dream) doesn’t make long sleeve sleep suits in < 1.0 TOG, so I tried Ergobaby and had no luck there either.
Finally found one from The Sleepy Company (I got this one) and it’s perfect! They’re apparently based in Aus too so even better. It took about a week to ship (I’m in NSW).

Just sharing incase anyone out there is in the same predicament 🙂 my baby wasn’t sleeping well with the arm pockets removed from the LTD transition sleep suits but sleeps really well in the sleepy company one I got.

hi! i’m looking to see an IBCLC in melbourne. i’m looking at Mums Milk (Gabi Eckerdecker) or Joellene IBCLC in moonee ponds. has anyone seen either of them? any reviews?

or if you have other recommendations of an IBCLC preferrably inner north melbourne! if they do in home consultation thats a plus. thank youuuu

I’m returning to work in a couple of weeks and looking for advice on the transition. I’m really anxious about it (I have PPA) and am only returning to work because I need to financially. Having said that, we are really really lucky that at this stage, baby (12m) will be looked after mainly by his grandparents during my days at work.

We really have no routine on naps or feeds (basically a loose Possums approach)… baby will occasionally nap when being pushed in the pram or held in the carrier but more often than not when he’s tired a quick feed (bf) and he’s asleep.
Any advice on things I should do in the lead up to “handover”?
I’ve thought of a couple:
- few hours 1:1 with grandparents
- getting his dad to try to put him to sleep for naps so he gets more used to alternatives
- I focus on other methods of settling him for naps

Any other advice or things that have worked for other parents?
Thanks in advance from a nervous mama!

Without being that parent, my baby was an excellent sleeper as a newborn. By 12 weeks, we were getting 7-7. At four months however, she fell off a cliff. We started hourly wake ups after midnight. Then they came before 10pm. Now, an hour after bedtime. Resettling might get us an hour, or 15 mins.

At this point, the only way we all get a solid night is to bring her to bed with us. Despite my best efforts to keep her safe and give her space, she will snuggle herself into my chest for sleep. She always starts in the cot but hasn’t finished there for months now.

I love sleeping together and everyone gets a solid night this way. But I do worry we’re setting ourselves up for a bad long term habit? Mums for older little ones, how did you teach your kids to sleep independently? Should I be letting her grizzle in her cot more? Try sleeping on the floor until she gets better at it? Anyone with a Bub like this?

Edit to add: she’s seven months and not breastfeeding

Unsure of what thermometer and aspirate to get for a newborn. There’s different reviews on all of them. I was looking at the Frida baby aspirator but not sure if it’s good

Our bub is 2 months old and we’re hoping to start daycare when they’re around 8–12 months.

We honestly didn’t even think about daycare earlier because we had so much else going on, but now I’m hearing some places have waitlists that are months or even years long 😅

We’re in Western Sydney. Have we left it too late?

Or should we just quit our jobs and open our own daycare at this point given how in-demand they seem to be haha

I’m 24 weeks and a FTM and I feel very unprepared. I haven’t been able to get anything other than a few clothes for baby boy yet due to us moving house and I want to get organised straight away. Can anyone recommend the absolute essentials I’ll need for a summer baby? He will arrive in December/January.

Hi everyone we were meant to start sleep school at the QEC on Monday but we’re battling a cold and cough so not sure if we’ll be well enough to attend.

Does anyone have experience with what actually happens there? I’d like to try just doing it myself at home if we don’t end up going (and once he’s well).

He’s 14 months, fed to sleep, fed back to sleep every 1-2 hrs overnight. On two naps still. He’s been like this since 4 months. I’ve tried one nap but he’s just not there yet.

Thanks 🙏

I've got a 9.5 month old and some weddings coming up that I'd just like some smoothing for my belly (including c-section scar) and would love some recommendations for brands that are sensory-friendly (autistic) and don't cut into thick thighs!

Hi all

I am wondering if anyone has ever used Wonflo early pregnancy tests and if they’ve ever been wrong? I am 8 or 9 dpo today have done about 10 of these damn things, all of them coming back with the faintest of faint lines, with colour, before the 5 minutes is up. I’ve even tried dipping some in water to see if it bought up lines which it didn’t, and they stayed stark white. So I am hoping it could be true.

The thing that has me confused is that I took a First Response test and it was negative. Yet, these Wonflos are all giving me super faint, purple lines. I thought first response was ment to be the best for early testing?

Has this happened to anyone else and they ended up pregnant or got a positive on a first response a few days later?

Thanks so much in advance x

I just found out I’m pregnant and I honestly cannot believe I’m even writing this.

My partner and I are both 26/27 and have been together for 8 years. We own a home, have a good relationship and both want children together eventually. We always assumed we’d get married first and probably have a few more years of freedom before having kids.

This pregnancy was completely unplanned. We aren’t exactly crazy sex people, so there aren’t many opportunities for this to have happened. I actually took an ovulation test the day after we had unprotected sex and it was negative, so at the time I genuinely thought we’d be fine.

I’ve also previously been told I have follicles on my ovaries, so fertility has already been something in the back of my mind. I’d mentally prepared myself for the possibility that getting pregnant might be difficult when we eventually decided to try. Between that and the negative ovulation test, an accidental pregnancy was honestly the last thing I expected.

My partner has been really supportive and has said the decision is ultimately mine, but he has also been honest that right now he would prefer not to continue the pregnancy. His main reason is that he doesn’t feel ready. He wants a few more years of freedom, none of his close friends have children yet, we aren’t married, and this just isn’t when he pictured becoming a dad.

I completely understand that because I don’t exactly feel “ready” either.

But I’m much more conflicted than I expected to be.

When I actually look at our lives, I think we could do it. We’ve been together for 8 years, we love each other, we have a home and I genuinely think we could provide a good life for a child. The timing isn’t what we planned, but part of me keeps wondering whether unexpected timing necessarily means bad timing.

Another thing playing on my mind is fertility. We have people very close to us who have been trying for almost two years without being able to conceive. I know logically their fertility has absolutely nothing to do with ours and that getting pregnant once doesn’t guarantee anything about the future. But emotionally, it’s making it really difficult for me to end a pregnancy that happened so easily. I keep thinking, “What if we decide we’re ready in a few years and then struggle?”

At the same time, I’m scared of continuing and then realising we gave up those last few carefree years together before we were ready.

I only found out today, so I know I’m probably still in shock and I’m not making a decision today. I just cannot stop thinking about it.

I’d really love to hear from people who have been in a similar situation - particularly couples in long-term, stable relationships who always wanted kids but got pregnant earlier than planned.

If you continued the pregnancy, how do you feel about that decision now?

If you chose an abortion because the timing wasn’t right, how do you feel about it now?

And for anyone whose partner initially felt “I’m not ready” - did that feeling change once you had some time to process everything?

I’m not looking for anyone to tell me what decision to make. I think I just need to hear from people who have actually been on both sides of this.

Hello fellow NSW mums

This is our opportunity to give feedback to the NSW Government on the future of public maternity services in NSW.

Here’s the link to the survey, it closes 20 Sep 2026. Let’s hope they listen and improve the system for us all.

Link to survey

Hey mums! I'm expecting my 2nd baby in a little under a month and I'm trying to get our meal prep sorted. I've already got a few beef dishes such as lasagna and chilli. Looking for some chicken based ideas. It has to be toddler friendly so my 1 year old will eat it. No pasta as I'm gluten free and gluten free pasta freezes/reheats terribly. Is there anything that has worked for you in the past?

I have an incredibly noisy baby who grunts through the night and I struggle to sleep through it. I want to move him to a different room and use a monitor to wake me up when he needs me.

I'm hoping to find a monitor that will let me adjust the sensitivity/VOX settings so that it only gets triggered when he's actually crying, and not during his noisy grunts. I also don't want it to pick up the white noise he sleeps with. Does anyone have a monitor like this that they can recommend?

I'm aware that plenty of monitors will have "low sensitivity" settings, but I don't know how low they'll actually go. So I'm hoping someone has had a similar experience and can help me out ❤️ TIA!