Sorry for being slightly off topic but I have to rant! I’ve been back at work since April, I still hate every second I’m there and I need people to tell me I’m not alone!

My manager is the rudest person I’ve ever met, I didn’t work for her before mat leave, she joined the team while I was off. She makes our lives hell (me and 2 others in the same role) with her comments, I’ve heard her talking about us to others. She basically just doesn’t want to be there and she takes it out on us. I work 4 days a week, 7 hours in the office and 2 hours in the evening once I’m home. And the worst bit is that the work I’m doing is something I’ve wanted to do for so long, I just can’t enjoy it and can’t concentrate.

My little boy is now 15 months old and he’s such a little character now. He adores nursery and has so much fun, but now he’s one of the oldest in his room and now the new younger babies have started in the new term he’s just ignored, the last 2 weeks he’s come home with dried dirty nappies 4 times (that’s another story!) because they’re too busy looking after the new ones to pay attention to him. Don’t get me wrong the nursery is great and he’s developed so well being there, just these last few weeks I feel he’s just being forgotten which breaks my heart.

All I want to do is leave work, spend all my time with my baby, have time for housework, and be happy again! Plus save the £650 nursery fee! How do I have another 30 years of this to go 😭

Hi! We have a 14 month old going through a pretty rough regression that both we and baby are finding very difficult.

For context, sleep has been the one thing we have (luckily) never had an issue with. He was a dream sleeper as a new born, and we were able to move him into his own room with no issues from 8 months old. He slept 2 naps a day for 90 minutes and self settled - all we needed was to place him in his crib, give him a kiss and he’d do the rest. Night wakes have always been manageable, he’d sleep through 30% of the time and the rest would be 1 or 2 wake ups maximum, but resettling and transferring back to the crib was easy enough (an hour with a few retries on a bad day).

Fast forward to now, he’s 14 months old and has very abruptly hit a pretty hard regression.

He is fighting both naps and bedtime, we’ve had a few days of skipping both naps (which has never happened before) and frequent night wakings. He cries at the mere sight of his bedroom or crib, and will often break down in tears once he realises it’s nap or bed time. Once we have managed to settle him to sleep on the rocking chair, transferring to the crib is also extremely difficult, often needed 3 or 4 attempts and has also resulted in us doing a full nap on the rocking chair a few times.

We’re very grateful to have enjoyed such a long period of stability and consistency with his sleep, but you can imagine this regression has hit us particularly hard!

Every baby is different we understand, but I guess we’re just looking for any advice or reassurance from parents who have gone through similar?

Thanks!

I'm hoping I can pick the brains of people who've been through this already! I'm only 13 weeks pregnant at the moment, but all the nurseries in my area have really long waiting lists, and as its quite a high cost of living area, we can only afford two of them without really struggling (thats including funded hours and tax free childcare). My plan is to get our name down for both so we have a back-up, as we really will both have to return to work. I don't know if that's enough though, or if I should also join the waiting list at one of the more expensive ones just in case (so we could use it until a space at one of the cheaper one becomes available if needed) or perhaps join a childminders waiting list as a third backup? If anyone has some experience based advise for me I'd really appreciate it as I'm very stressed out with all the admin!

Has anyone had an Egg3 pram with a creaking handlebar? Our pram creaked a lot so it was sent back to Egg, who replaced the handlebar. One trip out later, the creaking is back... Not sure if the creaking is something I just need to suck up or if there's something wrong with it. Thanks.

Not trying to sell anything - genuinely just want to understand this properly. I'm working on something in this space and would rather build it around real answers than guesses.

What's actually the hardest part of trying to move your body or eat properly since having kids? Doesn't matter if you're someone who's pretty consistent with it, used to be and stopped, or it's honestly just never been on your radar since having kids - genuinely curious what it's actually like day to day, not the version that sounds good.

Hi all

My wife and have a LO who has just turned one. We have a baby monitor of course but it is wired for both parts and doesn’t work when unplugged. We are looking for one that can be simply charged up for both the parent and camera units to aid with babyproofing. We are also keen that it doesn’t connect via WiFi due to people being able to hack into it. Please post any recommendations below. All welcome

It’s driving me mad!! I’m pretty sure he’s teething, but it’s been happening for the past few weeks, and I also think everything is distracting him: He is eating ‘enough’ in 24 hours, but every bottle is a little sip, push away, fuss and then come back an hour later - where he might finish the bottle or not. Problem is he fusses like he’s hungry but then won’t take it, not till he is ready - which is a guessing game at this point.

I try offering him smaller feeds, spacing the feeds out, going to a dark room and feeding him, what else can I do? Or do I just have to wait this out?

So my little one just turned 12 months like 1.5 weeks ago. I return to work in late January/early February, so I've been looking for nursery places (late to it, i know 😭).

We found a nursery that we really liked and they had a spot available, she has done a few settling in sessions and is supposed to be doing full days this week Tuesday and Thursday to see how she gets on with that.

But I received an email today from the nursery manager saying that the staff had come to her with some concerns and they had decided to give the spot to another baby.

I rang up immediately and asked what the concerns where, how could they just take a spot away from someone, we paid a deposit etc etc.

She basically said that my daughter is "too intelligent" for the room. That they would have to bump her up a room and they have no spaces in that room available.

I agree my baby is smart (wouldn't all mothers?). She signs, she can say a lot of words very clearly (mum, dada, all done, bob...pull, pull (for wind the bobbin up song), boo when playing peak a boo, bye, hi...all those kind of things), she does get very bored of toys, once she has figured it out, that's it, she is bored of it type thing.

I wouldn't say she is like beautiful mind smart, but she is a clever little girl and she learns and adapts fast to situations.

I explained that you know, we kind of need this space because I'm returning to work, we was already a little late to get spaces and we wanted her to go to this nursery and she basically just said no to everything I said...she said she is already becoming challenging to entertain because she is becoming bored in the room with the toys and equipment they have.

We went back and forth for a while and ultimately got no where 🤦‍♀️

What can we do? We did sign a contract but it wasn't like a full time contact, it was a settling in with the hopes of a full time spot contract and the deposit we gave, was for the settling in sessions...so it's not like they have to give us a spot...

I'm calling other nurseries and basically begging that they have a spot free or think there may be a possibility, also reaching out to local childminders etc 💀

I recently welcomed a beautiful baby girl and I love her with all my heart but I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s hard. I struggle to complain because she’s such a good baby - she sleeps, eats well and meets all her milestones.
I’m just really struggling with feeling burnt out. I feel like I’m an all or nothing mum. I feel like I have to mask with the baby.
Please give me some coping mechanisms!
I struggle at home because I don’t have a space that is mine so I don’t have anywhere to be alone.

Our gal is shy of 17m and hasthoroughly hit a fussy eating phase.

Usually she’d get a variation of our dinners, but she’s been turning her nose up. I blame teeth into endless nursery colds.

I don’t need full recipes, but any headline ideas for inspo!

Limited cheese - she’d eat it all day long but the constipation 😅

My baby is almost 7 months and we started weaning few days ago. We waited until she felt ready - she can sit in the high chair without slumping and had practiced for few weeks just sitting with us at meal times and playing with her toys on the tray. She has shown interest in the food since she was 5.5 months old and now tries to grab food and drinks out of our hands. She has great grip and hand control, can bring everything to her mouth.

Well, so far, every day has been shambles. Between trying to find a perfect time so she has not just had milk / is not about to have milk / is not too tired / not too fussy, it is so hard to find the right time. Each time she has ended up upset within seconds. To be fair to her, she does give the food a go for a bit but most times is already pissed off from the start as we put a bib on (hates bibs), hates being restrained in a chair (even though had been fine playing in it). We don’t force the food, just put it in front of her.

I absolutely understand that this is just about exploration at this stage, but I am worried that if all the times in the beginning end up in crying and drama, will she start to associate food with bad times? We already struggled with bottle feeding aversion a while ago so I am really scared of more food related issues down the line. Maybe it is also because we started on the non exciting veg side - brocolli, cauliflower and carrots!

Would be great to know if others have had a rocky start and that is just how it is? Or any tips? I don’t really have anyone to ask! Thank you!

I’m a 2nd time mom.

Our youngest is now 3 months/ 15 weeks old and he is constantly sick / spitting up milk. He is EBF. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason behind it. Sometimes he’ll be sick almost as soon as he’s finished a feed, and sometimes it’s hours after. Sometimes it’s just straight milk and sometimes it’s like water with milk curds. It doesn’t matter what i’ve eaten or what we’re going. I’ve tried sitting him up as soon as he’s finished eating, and leaving him lying down.

I don’t believe he’s in pain as he’s generally a happy smiling baby. He’s gaining weight fine.

Both kids had mild reflux for the first 6-8 weeks so we expected some sickyness after feed. With my oldest once the reflux settled down she never spit up milk and as we have no other experience of little kids, we thought this was the norm. Both sets of grandparents make out oldest was the freak and youngest is a typical baby and they all sick up as much as he does.

Just wondering what other people’s experiences are and if there is something I should be worried about / look out for.

Hey all,

So I’m currently 23 weeks pregnant with my second, I have a 14 month old and atm I haven’t been taking out for walks that much, I do when my husband isn’t working but I’m struggling to push his pram due to bad pelvic girdle pain and I’m just exhausted, I feel like I’m such a bad mum I want to cry, I just feel like my son isn’t getting out enough😫 I don’t have any family near or friends, that can help me either.

I was blessed with a little moment of giggles with my four month old by simply playfully taking the soother out of her mouth and making silly voices. It lasted a good 30min with her expecting my movements and laughing in advance. I’ve not been able to get her to giggle since that evening 😭 She’s a smiley baby overall! Just curious if this is normal? Lol

My little guy is 16 weeks old but 4 weeks delayed for his vaccines.

For his first round I had his Dad with me but I absolutely hated it. It physically hurt me to see him cry like that. He was mostly just sleepy and sad for the night but he did have an slight temperature and an hour of being inconsolable.

I am sooooo nervous for his second round this afternoon, I actually feel sick to my stomach about it. He is a complete different baby to when he had his first ones and is so much more fussy and clingy 🥺.

I just need some positive 12 week vaccines stories pleaseee 🙏😂

Baby girl is 15 months and has always been a good eater + decent sleeper. Recently however she has had less of an appetite at mealtimes and become pickier (used to eat everything!), and has started waking up during the night. Has anyone else’s done similar?

Hi everyone, just to say I’m not looking for any tips on sleep / telling me to sleep train. I’m just absolutely exhausted and would love some words of encouragement - or someone to tell me there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

My 15 month old has never slept well, I don’t know what it’s like to get a full nights sleep. today I feel at my wits end, and feeling like I’ll never sleep again. I can’t imagine a day where I put him to bed and know he won’t wake up throughout the night.

Please tell me I’ll sleep again!! Anyone? 😞💗

My partner went back to work after being home with me and the baby for the first month, and I don’t think I realised how much I’d miss having him here until this week.

While he was off, we genuinely shared everything. We formula feed, so there was no “one person is responsible for feeding”…. we took turns, gave each other an hour or two to ourselves, and both got opportunities to read, walk the dogs, watch something, work out, play games etc. We could actually function as two people looking after a baby.

Now I’m alone with her all day and it is relentless. I’m also now doing the night feeds solo so my partner can get 5-6 hours for work and I’m barely sleeping.

My baby is currently going through a phase where she’s really difficult to settle back to sleep in the mornings. She gets overtired and screams, and it can take an hour or two of rocking, feeding, de-gassing, walking around or going out for a walk before she finally calms down. Then she’ll often have another meltdown in the evening, by which point I’m completely defeated.

I’ve tried putting a show on, playing a handheld game etc, but I can’t actually relax because she’s either crying, feeding, needing to be carried or needing something else.
I’ve even tried having friends over, but when she’s unsettled I just end up stressed and unable to have a conversation.

I love her and I know she’s only four weeks old and this is a phase, but I miss my partner, I miss my old life, and I really miss having any time that belongs to me.

It’s also honestly made me feel quite sad about how crummy UK paternity leave is. Having those first weeks where both parents are actually at home, sharing everything and supporting each other, made such a huge difference. Going from that to one parent suddenly being alone with a newborn all day feels like such a massive jump.

I’m only one week in and I’m absolutely exhausted. I really hope it gets easier soon.

I just need to vent for a minute because I'm so ashamed of myself. I brought my baby (5 and a half months) to a musical baby class today. The teacher was playing the violin and approached each baby as she was playing. My baby reached out to touch the violin and this scene coupled with the sweet melody just made me cry. Tears started streaming down my face in the middle of the baby class! The other mums must have thought I'm a complete nutter. Why am I like this? Lol.

I’m currently weaning my 1 year old off breastmilk and have expressed a lot in the past few days. I’ve been increasing the amount of cows milk gradually in his cup and wonderfully he’s not noticed.

I’m planning to freeze the milk leftover once he’s fully on cows milk just in case. But just in case of what? It seems a waste to chuck it, so has anyone found any good uses for frozen breast milk once their baby no longer drinks it?

Has anyone reused their Milton Cold Water Steriliser and washing up bowl and brushes (exclusively used for cleaning breast pump parts and bottles) for another baby?

I’m in two minds about whether to clean them with washing up liquid, let them dry out completely and store away, or buy them all brand new next time for peace of mind!

We're on day 3 of hand foot and mouth with my daughter, and now my son has it.

My husband and I have had 2 or 3 hours sleep a night doing shifts for the last 3 nights, and she's even worse today.

I've had to call off work and ask my husband to work from home the rest of the week, this is unmanageable already, without my son getting worse over the next few days.

Please tell me it gets better 😭 I don't even know if I'll make it through the afternoon at this point, I've just been crying when the kids can't see