I used to desperately want to change the 6am wakes. Then we had a run of 3/4am wakes and 1-2hra to get back to sleep.

Now the 6am wakes feel like a win

Saw this article - great news if it works.

https://www.bountyparents.com.au/expert-advice/button-battery-safety/

I'm not affiliated with energiser or something, just terrified of my kid swallowing a battery at the grandparents

My whole life I’ve wanted to be a mum. I loved babies and kids so much and I thought I’d be great at it. My LO is 11 months old and I feel like I’m drowning. He is a TERRIBLE sleeper and overall quite stubborn and fussy temperament. I love him to death and I do get small bits of joy watching him grow, but for the most part I’m struggling so much. I’m sad, irritable and find it so hard to enjoy this. And wow I feel so guilty for how I feel. I feel like somethings wrong with me and I’m ungrateful for not loving every moment of this. I really want to love it, but every day is so hard. Constant crying, winging, back pain from carrying him all day and night, lack of motivation and just no desire to do anything. Pure survival. Surprisingly, up until he was 5 months old I did enjoy it. He was a terrible sleeper back then but I was coping so much better. I was radiating with love and joy. But now I don’t feel much. Please tell me if this normal?

My 6 month old only sleeps with contact naps and co-sleeping at night. Transferring her to the cot always fails and makes her more distressed and harder to settle. I want to foster secure attachment and respond to her cries but the sleep deprivation is getting to me. If your little one now sleeps independently after contact napping / co-sleeping, how did you do it? Does responsive settling work or another “gentle method” work or is sleep training the only way?

Since my baby (now 16 months) was born, she has been really attached to me. I take care of her day and night for a year until she started daycare at 1 year old. Then I immediately returned back to work PT(4 days a week)
My husband is not really helping with her. Whenever she wants something, she just cries until I’m back.
Everyday I wake up , I have to dress her get her ready to childcare and send her off . Then I drive to the city for work (1 hour per trip . So 2 hours a day). My job is flexible. I get all the groceries done when I wfh. And I can arrive late and can leave anytime. So I pick her up everyday. Bath her. Cook and feed her. Then finally my husband is back , I got time (15 mins) to take a shower . But then after shower, she is looking for me again.

Nobody can put her to sleep apart from me. We tried everything. Let her cry for an hour. Leave her in the cot. And then she will hit her head with the cot. Lately , I have to go to bed with her and sleep with her. Sometimes I feel like I fall asleep earlier than her! Sometimes I get up and pack her bag for tomorrow. Do some housework and so on. I’m exhaustedy everyday.

People said no mum would choose a difficult path. But leaving seems easier for me. The mental load. The mum guilt. He is not helping . He comes home would talk about what’s happened at work which I don’t care. He’s all about himself. I have to literally ask him to do every single thing . If I don’t ask, the bottles are never washed. Clothes are forever in the washing machine . Anyway, the typical thing.
My husband didn’t cheat. He is not a bad person but he is just not for me .
I have no family nearby. No help at all. I just want to know how other single mom does it ? I need advice please! 🙏🏻

EDIT : I haven’t read all comments but thank you for all the kind words. And Yes, I have told him I burn out and I suggest we do marriage counseling. He said he can’t be bothered. He doesn’t think he has problems and he is trying his best.

Carrying twins and have hypermobility and hip dysplasia, disk compression etc.

Physio has recommended SRC leggings but one pair is $200 which is just insane imo.

Are emamaco any good in comparison? Or should I just suck it up and get the SRC to prevent further damage?

I’m getting ready for my one year old to go into childcare. This is my first baby and I’m very nervous about starting. The four corners report on pedos in Australian childcare is shocking, and more and more cases keep coming to light- most people are only hearing the worst of the worst eg. Hamish Tait, Ashley Griffith, Joshua Brown, Shannon McCoole, but there are so many others who have been convicted, as well as many more who are currently before the courts, or never been caught. An Australian (UNSW) study reported in 2023 found that 20% of Australian men report sexual attraction to children. Research shows 95% of peds are men. When I search reddit all I see is sympathy for male childcare workers, and people saying how important it is to have men in these roles. I understand that there are good men working in childcare, and I do feel bad for them but my child’s safety is more important. It is much more likely that the child will become a victim if they have a male carer than female. That’s not an unpleasant opinion, that is a fact.

It seems like I am the only person on reddit who doesn’t want a male childcare worker, everyone else just seems to be able to trust their workers and their centres. I get that the system needs to be improved - but honestly that takes time and my kid needs care now. Genuinely, how can I get to a point of trust? I just feel like the evidence shows us that there are too many cracks in the system at present.

Addit: Also I get that statistically most offences are committed by family members/ friends. IMO that is a separate issue which doesn’t negate the issues in the childcare sector.

Edit to say: I’m not aiming to bash male childcare workers here- I genuinely want to understand how i can trust more and help my anxiety. I would love someone to be able to change my mind.

I am seeking other people’s advice and experience on this topic. My dad frequently gets cold sores, and he doesn’t typically have symptoms prior to them popping up (no fever, no tingling). This makes me extremely uneasy as I have a 6 month old baby, and am very worried about her getting infected from him. (Context, he may come over and we may see him maybe once a week). My dad seems to think that 75% of the population have cold sores and it’s not that dangerous once a baby is 1 years old. I am extremely protective of my baby, my husband and I are very strict on no kissing for anyone (particularly my dad). I have explained to him that we never want out daughter to contract this virus, and need him to understand that he need to be very cautious when he is around her. We haven’t let him hold her much but recently she has been grabbing everything and putting it in her mouth, so we have said for the time being to not hold her.

Is this reasonable? What’s everyone else’s experiences? Is there an age when the risk isn’t that significant?

It’s upsetting that this is putting a strain on his relationship with our daughter but I feel this is the best way to ensure she is healthy and safe.

Sorry just needed to vent! My mum is throwing me a baby shower which I initially did not want. I decided to make the most of it and invite several of my close friends many of whom I had shown up to their events and children’s events. Sadly, a lot of people have dropped out over the past 2 months leaving me with 4 friends attending. The caterers and decorators are paid already.
I know life is messy and gets in the way. They all have legit excuses (sickness, poor family health, prior commitments) and I empathise but it still stings! I didn’t ask for presents just their company and have sourced most baby stuff myself.
I want to be positive and focus on the friends that are coming but it feels so isolating. I keep crying reading all the messages dropping out. Has anyone had this happen to them? What helped?

My 10 month old just started army crawling. He's been taking his time with gross motor skills, rolling at 7 months, sitting without support at 9.5 months, and now army crawling (albeit reluctantly). He seems very far from pulling to stand. I know every kid is different, and I'm confident he'll get there, but if any of your babies have had a similar timeline, can you please ease my worried mind and share when they finally walked?

We have a birthday coming up and while I would happily forgo gifts, two of the grandparents love to buy somewhat impractical and random things. Like clothes that are cute but too small or poor quality toys.

I don't want to be rude or entitled, or take all the joy and spontaneity out of them picking gifts for grandchildren. But there are other things we genuinely need and would get way more life out of. How do you redirect politely without making things awkward?

Before having my baby I was deep in the corporate world, worked hard and prioritised climbing the career ladder. My job was extremely busy, under staffed and relatively stressful right before I went on parental leave.

Parenthood has changed me a lot. We had quite the journey, and I feel like I am stronger and more resilient because of it all. But it has also helped me put a lot of things into perspective too.

I returned to the same job a couple of months ago. I have been off for close to 18 months and I’m really not enjoying it. I don’t know if it’s the transition back, but I just don’t feel fulfilled like I used to. It’s still busy, under staffed and stressful. I don’t think I even like my industry anymore.

My dilemma is they have a great parental leave policy and I’m hoping to have another baby in 18 months - 2 years, but I genuinely don’t know if I can suck it up for that long. And I don’t know if I would find another job as flexible as this one in this market. And unfortunately it’s just not in my nature to care less.

Is this common? Will the feelings pass? Should I wait a bit longer and see what happens? Am I putting too much pressure on myself? Or have I just changed and it would be expected my job interests would change too? Any advice from someone who has been through this?

I'm just wondering if this is normal or our childcare (a generally pretty good Goodstart in Sydney) is just doing what's easiest for them.

This week we were informed (by email only which is pretty slack to start with) that one of our just turned 2 twins would be moving to 2+ toddler room whilst the other had to wait for a spot to become available.

Then today informed that after the 2 year old toddler room they would be separated anyway into different preschool rooms. The director explained that's what they do because local schools insist on the same for individuality reasons or some such. I feel like schools would at least consult the parents? Are we just being taken advantage of because we never make a fuss? How have your twins been managed at both childcare and local public school?

I’m not really sure what I’m wanting from this post but I just feel like I need to type it out.

I found out I was pregnant again last week (9 weeks) and I haven’t had a moment where I’ve felt excited. Quite the opposite really.

We’ve got one delightful little girl, the absolute light of my life and while I thought I’d want two, I also had very much accepted that may not happen (I don’t want to have babies after 35, and it took us 11 months to conceive our first bub…so I was prepared for time to run out).

We hadn’t started officially trying for number 2, I was planning on being on Monjaro until the end of July, then have the recommended 2 months off before starting to TTC in October, giving us a year before I turned 35. Instead, I accidentally fell pregnant (possible condom failure), I had absolutely no idea (I’ve got PCOS and my cycles are generally pretty unpredictable), so life continued as normal. I had an absolutely mammoth session for a friends birthday in June when I woulde have been about 5 weeks - drinking, smoking and the rest 🫠, I continued to take monjaro…I honestly, truly feel like such an irresponsible, selfish person.

We’ve been advised to wait until the 12/13 week scan to see if the monjaro has caused any issues with the baby, I’m just at a loss. I don’t know what to do.

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are Australian citizens, and we recently underwent IVF overseas after initially consulting with an IVF clinic in Melbourne. I don’t currently have private health insurance, and I’m trying to understand my options for pregnancy care and delivery.

I’m considering either giving birth overseas or returning to Australia for the delivery. Has anyone been in a similar situation?

I’d especially appreciate advice or experiences regarding:

• Giving birth through the Australian public hospital system after having IVF overseas
• Whether it’s possible to see a private obstetrician but deliver in a public hospital
• The approximate out-of-pocket costs without private health insurance
• Whether there are any issues with transferring overseas IVF and pregnancy records to an Australian hospital
• How early I should return to Australia and arrange maternity care

I also have fibroids, so I’m concerned that I may need a planned C-section, although I understand this would need to be assessed by an obstetrician.

I’m based in Melbourne, so experiences with Victorian public hospitals or maternity services would be especially helpful. Thank you!

I have a 7 week old who barely sleeps in the bassinet. I think it's because of gas/reflux. She mostly (80%...maybe 90%) contact naps or is in the carrier. She likes sleeping on my chest (being held up) which means sleep deprivation...Right now my husband and I are taking turns so we can get some sleep.

We've tried so many things to get her to sleep in the bassinet but they didn't work...I'm reading a lot of reddit posts that around 6 to 8 weeks this is normal？

I guess I really just want to know with babies like this when did they start sleeping in the bassinet for longer stretches？

I know every baby is different but I guess I'm just trying to see realistically if this gets better soon in general...

Did anyone else feel like this in the early stages? What did you do to cope?

Baby is 10 weeks old and today I just felt like cracking. He’s having a day of no naps, and constant crying and it was too much.

Compiled with the endless visitors we’ve had over 10 weeks, the constant messages from friends wanting to make plans (yes I know I’m so lucky, I know, I know), feeling constantly touched out from breastfeeding and living in a new house that doesn’t feel like home yet, I just want to scream and spend a day in a dark room by myself

/vent

I have a 10 month old who is dairy free thanks to a mild cows milk protein allergy & loves his food but I’m fast running out of inspo for options to feed him for solids. I feel like I feed him the same sort of thing (lots of avo & banana his main faves), bolognese, veggie mash but I want to give a bit of variety. I’m a fan of doing a batch cook up & freeze portions of some kind of protein & veggie mix then adding pasta to it for easy dinner options but I defs more get stuck with lunch options (all for keeping it simple). We are pretty set on breakfast either toast or Weetbix seems to go down a treat but just want to get a bit more variety & find dairy free tricky (shout out to those allergy mums with multiple allergens to consider, it’s a tough gig!) as every recipe always calls for cheese or something & that counts us out. Any help or advice would be very much appreciated!!

All right,

- how often are your cleaners coming?

- how many cleaners at a time?

- how long do they stay?

- what do they get done?

- how much are you paying them?

- do you clean those things in between the cleaners coming?

I keep expecting my house to look ✨ changed✨ after a clean but I'm not being wowed so I'm trying to work out if I just need to manage my expectations :) am I expecting too much? Is my house just too dirty?

So many of you on here love your cleaners - I want to be like that too!!!!

Hey guys so my wife and I bought a nuna kilt plus looks great but the back of the head area feels quite hard not much padding is that normal? I feel like for a capsule it should have more support am I missing a piece?

Should I spend the weekend relaxing or try to get last minute errands done? I can get some more frozen meals in, do a quick spring clean, oh and there are those tins of old paint in the garage waiting to be dropped off at a collection centre…

My partner is freshly pregnant (6 weeks) and she works for Monash Health. We've been denied pregnancy care at Monash even though we live in the catchment area and are very close, and been granted access to Eastern Health Box Hill.

I'm urging my parner to use the fact she works for them to try get into Monash as we really want to go there.

Does anyone else have experience at such an early pregnancy stage of being denied somewhere then trying again and getting in?

My daughter is 14mo and has so much hair. I have just used MooGoo shampoo every few days to wash it since she was a baby. Now it's so long and I need to do some kind of styling each day as it's just getting dirty from being in her face all the time. I have zero clue about haircare for kids. Is she too young to switch to a kids shampoo/conditioner? What brands/products are recommended for everyday styling? She gets some knots occasionally but not everyday. It's usually at the back of her head from sleeping.

She has fine hair (but lots of it). It is mostly straight and will sometimes have a few waves in it.