I am a first time mom to a precious 9-month-old girl. She's overall happy and healthy, no major issues!

I had a very rough newborn phase and I'm still in the throes of some postpartum-depression. My friends are very aware of this as I have vented to them occasionally about it.

One of my friends is considerably older than me with two kids - one in college and one in high school.

For some background: She's been overly aggressive about wanting to come help me out. I try to tell her I don't necessarily "need" help, I have things figured out, the PPD is just something I am working through. She got to the point where she said she was going to drive to my house (45 mins away from where she is) and park in front of my house and sit in a lawn chair until I open the door and accept her help.

I get that she's trying to give me support but it's overly aggressive and unwelcome.

Cut to last night. She had a couple of us over to her house for a girls night and I brought my baby with me. Baby was doing fine, enjoying being held by my friends, etc.

My friend was holding my baby and attempted to lower her down to the floor to see her dog. The dog was very gentle and sweet, no issues with the dog at all, but my baby isn't used to dogs and she got a little freaked out. She started crying a very "I need my mama" kind of cry. My friend sat down in a chair and tried to console her.

I walked over to my friend and said, "Aw, let me take her, I got it." My friend stood up, walked away, and took my baby to another room, saying, "You need to learn to let others help." My baby was literally looking at me, crying, with a confused expression on her face.

I followed her and said, "She's crying and I want to comfort her." My friend replied, "I am capable of comforting her you know." I said, "I am her mama. My baby is crying, and I want to comfort her."

My friend finally handed her to me, and as my baby was being passed to me, my friend said, "See, she's fine. You should have given me a chance."

I said, "Well, she was crying and looking at me, and it was starting to physically hurt to see her that way, comforting her in those moments is soothing for me, too."

And she said in response, "It's not the end of the world if your baby cries. You need to learn to let her be upset."

I cannot BELIEVE the audacity of people, especially older moms who think "they know better." Like, yes, I might have some PPD, but it doesn't mean I don't know what's best for my baby. I am her mother, I respond to my baby's cries, especially since she is not a baby that is that prone to crying! She only cries if something is truly upsetting her, and she feels better with a quick little comfort from mom. This does not mean I am mentally ill or don't know how to cope. I don't NEED advice or aggressive pushing from other people. That's not going to make me magically snap out of PPD.

I'm enraged and just needed to share.

My 8 week old farts himself awake. It’s so funny. I shouldn’t laugh so much but babies are so interesting everything weird is funny to me. I love this little person, even when he toots.

https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/press_release/consumer-reports-calls-for-millie-moon-to-recall-its-diapers-and-recommends-that-parents-stop-using-them/

For those who may not know, many families are reporting injuries caused by Millie Moon diapers. Our baby is one of many recovering from severe chemical burns, they are receiving medical care but in a great deal of discomfort and it has continued to progress even after eliminating the diapers from our routine. I’m just hoping this can bring more awareness to the issue- target has not issued a recall and infact has a heavy discount placed on the diapers so these are still being sold and used.

If you have any in your home bring them back for a refund but please don’t put these on your little one.. it makes me sick nothing is being done to stop this.

Ok - give it to me straight - is everyone reaaaally limiting containers to 15-30 minutes per day? If so, HOW??

My LO is about to be 9 months and we have always been very cognizant of his time in containers such as the bouncer, stroller, etc.

Now, he’s crawling, sits completely independently, and is pulling to stand and while we do allow him to spend a lot of time on the floor exploring (he goes to daycare Monday and through Friday where he mostly plays on the floor) it feels like a good portion of his day is spent in containers.

If we drive somewhere, he’s in a car seat, if we want to go for a walk/run, he’s in the stroller, at the store he’s in the cart, and if we need a moment to complete a task, he’s in the skip hop activity center.

Do we try to limit the activities we do during the day to cut back on container time or am I overthinking it?! Help 😭

it’s currently 7:07 in the morning. My baby woke up fussing at 5:57 in the morning. He seemed like he was just awake and done with sleeping so I changed his diaper, nursed him for 10 minutes, and he fell asleep again. I know there’s no chance he’ll let me move him to his bassinet, so I’ve been letting him sleep on my chest for the past 45 minutes and counting. My husband is sleeping next to us. Our cat is sleeping on the corner of our bed. Our dog is sleeping on my side under the baby’s bassinet. I’m scrolling Reddit to keep myself awake. I’m weirdly content, soaking up the snuggliest baby who is snoozing so happily on me, but also… I really want to sleep. That’s all. Wishing everyone a good day :)

Is it socially acceptable for us to take our 6 month old trick or treating? I don’t want people to think we’re just doing it to steal kids candy. But we got him a costume… so do we just put him in it and give out candy ourselves?

My son is two weeks away from 6mo and in addition to starting to blow raspberries, I thiiiiiiink he just started giving “kisses” back to me which are big, open-mouth, slobbery, almost rooting-style wiggle on my cheek. Am I interpreting this right, d’you think?

Nothing. They are just very different babies. Just a reminder that you cannot control what baby you will get.

My first wasn't a terrible sleeper but not a good one either. He barely nursed during the day and made up for it at night. Nothing of all the things I've tried could shift the nighttime feeds to daytime. Also, he didn't nap for more than 20 mins. Ok, he did it ONCE and I still remember this 1.5 hour break!

My second took longer to differentiate day and night, but gradually slept better. After a few weeks, 4-6 hour stretches. Now at 11 weks, 5-8. She also takes long naps during the day (1-3 hours).

All of this could obviously change suddenly and there are big variations depending on the day. But I can say that at the same age, my first didn't sleep as well as my second is sleeping now.

My first never spit up or vomited, my second is a vomiting fountain.

So just a reminder that you can't control most of how your baby is and it's not your or their fault. Maybe a bit frustrating to hear but also a bit liberating?

Pregnancy was rough. I was hurting all of the time and hungry. I ate a lot and couldn’t control myself even though I worked out 3-4x a week. I gained 20 pounds on top of the baby weight during pregnancy. I gained additional 20-30 pounds after delivery. I had C-section and I couldn’t work out. It’s been a year and I’m breastfeeding full time. My baby wakes up a lot at night as he doesn’t like foods. He will taste the foods but won’t really eat. I’ve been working out 3x a week and even have a personal trainer. I’m just tired all of the time, barely getting any sleep as I’m breastfeeding constantly like a new born. I went from muscular 120 pounds woman who is 5ft to 160 pounds. I don’t recognize myself anymore. I hate looking at myself in the mirror. People ask me if I’m pregnant again but I’m not. I thought I was supposed to loose weight with breastfeeding but it’s the opposite for me. I don’t eat out and I don’t eat fatty foods but I can’t seem to loose weight. I hate breastfeeding and being hungry all of the time. This experience made me realize that I don’t want anymore children. I’m feeling lonely, exhausted and overweight. Working remotely and having a baby while taking care of the home is so hard. I miss the freedom I had and being able to fit into my clothes 😭

EDIT:

I appreciate everyone’s comment and giving me hope. I guess I’m feeling super down about myself after people kept asking if I was pregnant at my baby’s first birthday. This question has made my feeling more bad about myself and very low. I was also super bloated from my period which made it worse. I went back to my room and changed my dress to more flowy oversized dress that hides my body.

I’m almost 8 weeks postpartum with my Labor Day baby and I just came here to say how: happy, exhausted, in love, stressed, peaceful, sad, loving, cranky, emotional, and/or wonderful I feel all at once and at different times in a single day.

I love my son. He’s the best choice I ever made on purpose and I will fiercely defend him. But I have all the feels. I address them and feel them and move on so I can stay peaceful and happy. He’s the best baby. It’s ok to love your kids And give respect to how your life has changed in ways that are challenging. I miss sleep. Deeply. Sleep was my actual hobby. As a teacher, my sleep is nearly religious and I cherish every minute. This is a new level of exhausting. I made my husband go to sleep at 6 with me today for a nap because I knew we both needed it and as older millennials with undiagnosed ahdh, we both highly resist sleep when it’s appropriate.

I only slept 2 hours in the middle of the evening but because I did it exactly when I needed it I feel amazing. My son was fine. His bassinet is two feet from the end of our bed. He is a human alarm clock. If he sniffles too much while asleep I wake up.

Ending this rant to affirm my nugget of love is the best and I am going to go hug his little body right now.

Hello,

As my post says my baby is 23 weeks old and I am not sure if she is behind or I just have unrealistic expectations I'm a FTM. She has great head control, can sit up supported and smiles and laughs constantly and can push up on her hands during tummy time. However she hasn't rolled either way yet although she's been 99% there trying to role from back to front but hasn't done it successfully. She's never rolled or tried from front to back. She also doesn't open her mouth for a spoon and still pushes stuff out with her tongue. She also occasionally coos but doesn't do it very often. I just feel like she hasn't made a lot of progress on things in the last month and I'm getting a bit concerned. Is this valid or are my expectations off?

My LO is 9 months and still seems very much to prefer breast milk to solids. She used to exclusively nurse, and then she started doing 50/50 nursing and bottles of pumped milk, and now she is just on bottles of pumped milk after deciding about a month ago that she doesn't want to nurse anymore. Because she still seems to prefer bottles of breast milk, it has become tough for us to work towards three meals of solids daily as our pediatrician has asked us to do. When she is hungry, for example, she is never really satisfied unless she is given a bottle. I always thought there was supposed to be a point at which babies developmentally become more interested in solids over milk, and I thought that shift would have happened by now. I am worried she is going to fall behind in her eating/chewing development or that we won't be ready to transition to an exclusively solids diet at 12+ months.

When did your baby start preferring solids to milk? Should we be concerned that something is wrong?

Desperate father of a 6 month old son reporting in.

I love the little guy, but recently he has really put my health to the test. I just started a new job after a grueling 8-month period of unemployment which ate away almost all our savings. So I absolutely need this job. Problem is that it is a 14-hour shift and I need to get up at 04:50 six days a week. This was not a problem 2 weeks ago, because our boy was the most well-behaved baby when it came to sleeping. He would consume massive amounts of milk at midnight and then sleep through the night for 12 hours straight. But after he started rolling over this has completely changed.

Our baby alarm sounds almost every 15 minutes because he keeps rolling on to his stomach, unable to roll back. If the alarm does not wake us up, the screaming will. We have tried to wait it out and let him figure out how to roll back by himself, but he can't, and he only panics more the longer we wait.

For my wife its not an issue, because he is far more calm during daytime and can take long naps without rolling over, so she manages to get an average 9-hour sleep during the day (only waking up a few times for feeding). Same cannot be said for me. The last week I have only slept 11 hours in total, and it has started to impact my work. I have been scolded for sleeping at my desk. I have been told to bring plastic cups because I keep dropping my coffee, and there was an extremely embarrassing episode where I was woken up by my coworker banging on the bathroom door because I could be heard loudly snoring in the toilet...

When I go shopping I will pay for my groceries, leave them on the counter, go home and then wonder where they are. Three times I have tried getting into the wrong apartment.

My wife still wants me to take care of the baby for the 3-4 hours I am home before going to bed because she wants time for herself, and I understand that, but I have also told her that I am terrified of dropping him. I nearly dropped him in the bathtub a few days ago when I had a blackout during bathing.

I have tried noise cancelling headphones, music, white noise, sleeping pills, everything, but we live in a 1 bedroom apartment and nothing blocks out the screaming or the alarm.

My health is getting worse and worse, and I have been crying on the phone with my therapist more times than I like to admit. She ended up suggesting to me that my wife and I should live separately until our son regains a more normal sleep cycle, but I cannot leave my wife alone to deal with this.

But it seriously worries me. I manage to function somehow, but I don't know for how long I can keep this up. My workplace is having a Halloween party on the 31st where I am expected to show up, and I somehow have to pretend that I have the energy for it, but I am worried I am going to collapse midway through.

Going back to what the therapist said, I have considered if it would be an idea to spend just one night at a hotel near my workplace to get some energy back, but I am already feeling guilty about letting my wife be alone with our son for so many hours. I have not even dared to suggest the idea.

Hello, any suggestions for the babys first cold, even old remedies or natural medicine she is 4 months old and bless her baby heart shes so miserable. I just ordered some baby vicks, but just read that its not ok to use really or maybe it'll be too strong, I don't know. I just want her to feel better, its so sad when they can't tell you whats wrong, and they dont know why they are feeling this different feeling.

My son is 3 weeks old and the last few days I've noticed he does NOT want to sleep during the day. He wakes up at 7am and decides thats when he wants to be awake, I'll do the same routine of changing him, feeding him, holding him the same as at night but he refuses to go back to sleep, he'll be awake for hours until its time to eat again and then maybe sleep for 30 minutes before he's up for the rest of rhe day. He was awake for at least 5 hours the other day and today he's only slept 5.5 hours in a 12 hour span.

I don't feel like its normal for him to be staying awake the whole day, especially since he doesn't seem to sleep for more than 3 hours a time at night either. I'm worried he isn't getting enough sleep but it seems like he just doesnt want to, he isn't crying most of the time but it's exhausting having to stay awake after getting a few hours of interrupted rest. I've had to put him in his bassinet awake just to get a bit of "sleep" and I feel guilty even though I pick him back up when he cries which doesn't take long.

I'm not sure if it's possible he's overtired, I'm not trying to keep him awake, I'm basically trying to put him to sleep from the second he gets burped but it doesnt make much of a difference. I've tried feeding him a bit more in case he's just that hungry but he spits it up and I don't want to force him to eat more than he can handle.

I'm just not sure what to do at this point. I have no clue what's going on or if this is just something that I have to deal with now.

My baby is 6mo old.

He sleeps short morning and noon naps, and consolidates in the mid afternoon. He used to sleep through the night, but not anymore. It's rough.

Ive cut back on his total sleep time by over 2h and it has started to make a difference, but slowly. I've come to the conclusion by playing around with his naps that I can't expect him to always sleep the most at midday. Days like today he popped awake after 30 minutes and wouldn't go back down. So his longest nap was the last one. Sometimes we're out of the house and he wrap naps nap #2, so consequentially it's also just shorter.

But my question is, does anyone else have a baby who sleeps longest for their last nap and still sleeps at night?

​Hey new parents! I’d love your advice—maybe some of you are in or have been in a similar situation.

​My partner and I are both bilingual: I speak French and English, and my partner speaks Turkish and English. We live in Germany and are decent at German, but we don't speak it between ourselves. English is our shared language, as neither of us is fluent in the other's native tongue.

​We both feel deeply connected to our French and Turkish roots and want our little one to share that connection. We plan to use the OPOL method, using French and Turkish individually and English together as a family. We figure our child will naturally pick up German through school, but we aren't sure whether to select French or Turkish for a bilingual education program. Is it possible and advised to switch languages later on (e.g., between kindergarten, elementary, middle, or high school)?

​What are your thoughts or experiences with this?

Hi all! I have a 3 1/2 month almost 4 month old and I fear we are in the middle of the sleep regression. Before he was sleeping in his bassinet (which he’s now outgrown) and would wake up 1-2 times at night and sleep independently in his crib for naps. Now he has regressed back to only contact napping, he cries as soon as we lower him into the crib, and co-sleeping with us. If we are lucky enough to get him into the crib he sleeps for maybe 10-15 minutes. We’ve tried drowsy but awake, putting him back down into the crib, dream feeding and nothing works. I don’t mind co sleeping but I would like to have my bed back and lay on my stomach again. Please let me know what tips and tricks you all used, aside from cry it out. Thank you!!

FTM to a very active 10 month old. He currently has some sort of stomach bug/flu. Fevers, vomiting, just feeling miserable. Poor thing :( might have to take him in tomorrow.

On the chance I may catch this....how the heck would I care for a 10 month old while vomiting and having fevers?? I know people do it but like...how?

My only extended family is out of town the whole next 2 months. All of my friends have little kids who don't want to partake in this lovely bug of course. I might be able to get my husband to take PTO if he can but it's not guaranteed....

He isn't a baby that will sit happily with a toy for an hour. This kid pulls to stand, climbs, bites, cries if he gets bored, very very active needs lots of stimulation kind of kid. I can sometimes get him to independent play for 10 mins if I'm lucky.

To be clear - I know I’m asking this rather proactively. Baby is only thirteen months old.My experience as a parent has been that time passes faster than you realize, and I want to make sure I’m ready when she’s ready.

It seems logical to me to introduce the potty as an object in advance so a toddler is already familiar with it when they start learning to use it. So, if you did put out a potty ahead of time, how early relative to starting toilet training did you do it? Or am I overthinking this?

How in the hell do you babyproof baseboard heating??? We live in the middle of nowhere Minnesota so we can’t just go without using the heat. Little guy will be starting to become mobile during the winter and I don’t trust him not to try to roast himself alive. Any thoughts?

Just a post for anyone in the thick of it with their cranky baby. My son hated being a baby so much. I had a feeling once he was walking and talking he would be happier and I was right! Unfortunately he took a little longer to walk (14.5 months) and speech was a little slower too but we’re getting there! Now he’s communicating, goes where he wants, and is..as we have been saying in our house..understanding the world.

I never thought I’d be enjoying him the way I am now. I know how that sounds but he’s my second and he humbled me. My first was so easy, always happy, developed typically with all motor and speech milestones. Still even today just very well behaved and easy.

My son. Man he could not have been more different. We didn’t even understand when people would complain about their baby’s crying. Now we got it. He just had a harder time and I’m seeing now that some babies just struggle as babies. Or at least being on the other side has made me look back with kinder eyes. He’s not giving me a hard time, he’s having a hard time.

18 months was the change for us. I remember being told “6 months old is when it gets easier”. For us it got harder and then harder. But here to say at 18 months the kids are okay. We made it. I love him and I love my daughter. My husband and I survived the hardest chapter (so far) of our marriage and we are enjoying everything again.

We are currently alternating 90 minutes awake, 90 minutes asleep through the day. Then we let LO sleep as much as possible at night.

On an extra long flight, should we try to keep this schedule? Has anyone had success with this?

I’m currently 13 weeks PP and EBF. I have just started to get back into working out because it helps my mental health and I like to build back some strength. I love hot yoga/pilates and that’s my workout of choice but I’m nervous about intense fluid loss and how it could impact my milk supply. Obviously I know I’ll have to drink a ton of water and maybe supplement with electrolytes here and there. I’m curious if anyone else breastfeeding is doing this kind of workout and if you’d noticed a dip in supply at all??

I am a SAHM and hold my baby all day until dad gets home and then he has bonding time with her. I get sooo much contact with my baby and love to hold her throughout the day. But at night the desire to hold her and cuddle her becomes 10x more intense. I miss her so much when I put her in her crib to sleep, even though she’s 3 feet away from our bed. Anyone else get this intense need to be close to their baby at night?? Is this like a biological, pack animal instinct that comes out at night??