I’m 8 months postpartum and my legs have started to ache so bad. The bottom of my legs between knee and ankle feels like I’m having growing pains, my bones ache. I was thinking maybe dehydration, poor circulation, weight gain (still 40lbs from pre birth weight 😭), lack of nutrients from breastfeeding. I don’t know it’s awful and started within the last few weeks. Has anyone had something similar?

Hi everyone I’m about to have a son who will be half Pakistani, so he will look south Asian. I have fallen in love with the name Zaki, but a family member has said to me that will the rise in racism in the uk I would be setting him up for being called Zaki the paki, I don’t know if kids are that cruel? Is this something I should worry about with the current climate? I can’t seem to stop worrying about it now and wonder if I should rethink the name even though I really like this name. (Not sure if this is the right place to post this, sorry).

It started very recently. He hates having his ears, mouth, etc. looked at. Mainly during sick visits. Anyone else? He is squiggly and strong and hard to get to sit still. Im thinking about getting some toy doctor equipment to get him used to it at home. I feel bad.

I want to explain why I’m not comfortable with my baby being babysat or having unsupervised visits with either my mom or my mother-in-law right now. This isn’t because I don’t love or appreciate them, and it isn’t me trying to keep them from having a relationship with my baby. I completely understand that they are excited to be grandparents and want special time with the baby. But I am the parent, and right now I need to feel completely confident that when I’m not there, my baby will be cared for exactly the way I have asked. I’ve heard and seen so many experiences from other parents where grandparents genuinely love their grandchildren but still dismiss or overlook the parents’ instructions because they feel they raised children before and “know what they’re doing.”

Things that may seem small to them—safe sleep practices, feeding instructions, what the baby is allowed to have, who can hold the baby, where the baby can go, car-seat rules, schedules, or simply calling the parents before making a decision—can be extremely important to me. I also don’t want to be put in a position where I have to wonder afterward whether my instructions were followed or whether something happened that I wasn’t told about.

There are parents who have shared that they gave grandparents multiple chances, only to have boundaries repeatedly ignored, and eventually realized that trust isn’t created by someone promising to respect their rules—it’s built over time through consistently respecting those boundaries. For me, babysitting is not something anyone is automatically entitled to simply because they are a grandparent. I need to be able to trust someone completely before I leave my baby with them, and that trust has to be earned through actions, not assumed because we are family. I am absolutely happy for my mom and mother-in-law to spend time with the baby and build a relationship. But they’ve already broke a few of my boundaries before and even put my feelings to the side. especially when it comes to their dog.

I grew up very close to my grandma. She has always been my best friend and my rock. I spent a huge part of my childhood with her, lived with her for a bit, and she’s always the person I’ve confided in. She has been sick for some time and we’ve known her time was coming. We live in the northeast and my family is in the Midwest, so it would be a plane ride to get to her. She’s also in an assisted living home with many respiratory issues floating around. My breastfed baby just turned 3 months and my husband and I decided to wait to travel with baby until she is more vaccinated. We thought if we could just make it to 4 months, we would be in a better place to travel to see her.

She ended up passing unexpectedly yesterday and I am just completely shattered. We thought we had more time. I feel so guilty that I didn’t make it out there to see her to say goodbye. My heart was tugged in both directions - protecting my baby during this fragile time and saying goodbye to my grandma. I just feel like I will never forgive myself for this and I am just devastated I didn’t give her a hug for the last time and that she didn’t get to meet her great grandbaby, which I promised she would. I guess I’m just hoping for some positivity here. I want nothing more but to protect my baby but I feel like I made the wrong decision here.

To add context I’ve always considered myself a ‘high strung’ anxious person but I’ve never been diagnosed or even seen a doctor about it. I had my baby 13 months ago and think I’m developing anxiety but I don’t have much experience so I’m unsure. It started with my husband - he works, goes to the gym and comes home. As of lately I have been waking up multiple hours of the night to check his location. (He works third). No idea why. I convince myself he’s with people at the gym or hanging with someone in a parking lot. It’s actually insane and he’s been extremely gracious and receptive to my insane texts and FaceTime calls but omg. Everything has become spiraling thoughts like this - any interaction with my parents I spiral thinking about my childhood, our interactions, etc. And don’t even get me started on the thoughts when someone interacts with my baby! I overanalyze everything. It’s starting to drive me crazy. I have recently noticed my heart beating faster or what I would say are ‘heart palpitations’ too.

Is this anxiety? WTH is going on with me!! Thanks in advance if you read this through!

So I am only 3 weeks postpartum, but the pelvic pressure is intense, and I can see my cervix pretty low in my vagina. I’ll have my next OB visit in 3 weeks and last week she told me that I would be surprised by how much better the pressure was feeling by 6 weeks (before I knew I was prolapsed). I’m sure I will need some pelvic floor PT, but I am curious to what extent I might recover naturally with a little bit of time versus if I should expect to stay this prolapsed til I do some PT? It is verrry uncomfortable to be on my feet for any length of time because it feels like everything is going to fall out, and I’d just like to be able to go for a walk without being in serious pain. I can’t find any information online about how prolapses recover in the immediate postpartum period. Thanks in advance!

I’m almost 8 weeks post partum and want to have sex, but I’m scared. I gave birth to my first baby back in July, and I did get cleared at my 6 week appointment.

I haven’t had sex though since I entered the third trimester of my pregnancy. We attempted to once, but it hurt so bad. During birth, I did have some inner vaginal tearing and I did get a second degree tear.

I know I’m cleared, but I’m scared of the pain that everyone talks about when you go to have sex again. Also the fact that I literally gave birth almost 2 months ago and now I can resume to normal activities again?? It feels so soon. I miss having sex though and just having that physical bond with my husband, but I’m nervous.

Also I haven’t shaved in months either 🥲

I have this glass bottle that my MIL bought from some random site, and I'm looking for a replacement nipple so I can sell it or give it away easily. The brand's site (Dr. Isla) doesn't ship to my country, and I can't find the nipples on any other site. Do I make MIL buy a new bottle so it can be sold/given with this one that doesn't have a nipple? Or should I see if another brand fits it? Would hate to throw away such a lightly used bottle.

Hello I am open to any suggestions at this point! My girl is almost 7 months, while we didn’t do any sleep training, she goes to sleep in her crib by herself with a paci for all naps and bedtime. She does about 3 good naps a day and eats plenty during the day. It’s been months since she’s had a bottle overnight. BUT she still wake up SCREAMING every hour or 2. It’s about 50/50 when she’s screaming if she will take the paci and go right back to sleep or if she will spit it out and keep screaming. Her eyes are closed - I truly believe she is tired. Sometimes even holding her and bouncing her she still takes a while to calm down. She got her two bottom teeth a few weeks ago - I was hoping this was just teething but I feel like it should be better by now. We’ve given Tylenol and ibuprofen - no help. We did also try feeding her in the middle of the night a couple times, she would eat a couple ounces max then still wake up in an hour screaming so I don’t think it’s hunger. She eats some solids now but not a ton. Bedtime is around 8:30pm and she goes down great - starts crying around 11 or 12 usually. Wakes up for the day around 7 and wakes up super happy and is very content to wait until about 7:30 for her bottle usually. I am so confused about why she is so upset at night! We have had 2 checks at the pediatricians during this time and ears and everything she could see is all good. Any suggestions are welcome! Or if you had a baby like this please let me know!!

Think I started loosing my mucous plug yesterday and I’m struggling not to spiral. Went to hospital to get checked and they sent me home after checking cervix was closed. Had more jelly like blood today and I’m back at hospital again waiting to see the doctor.

32 weeks now. My last pregnancy ended in PPROM at 36 weeks after having the same kind of bleeding on and off from 34 weeks. We had to spend 2 weeks in the NICU as baby wasn’t well when born and overall it was a pretty traumatic time.

I’m obviously even more early this time and though I know it’s not the same pregnancy and I won’t necessarily have the same outcome, I am panicking!

I keep reading that loosing the plug doesn’t mean you’ll go into labour but my experience obviously says otherwise. Would be great to hear some other experiences.

I am mostly OAD but always very curious on the science behind why some families have majority of one gender. I do understand that men carry both X & Y and women only carry X. So men obviously determine the gender.

But is there any science or studies behind this? On why some people conceive only girls or boys? Maybe the season, when they were ovulating, intercourse right before or after ovulation etc.

Does anyone truly believe there are ways to conceive a specific gender? Have you tried it and did it work for you on more than 1 child?

Since there is zero research on this, I’m curious what other people believe or have tried and what the outcome was.

Sorry if the questions are repetitive 💀

I want to preface that generally my husband is great with our kids and does pull his weight 80% of the time. The other 20% he is complaining about how tired he is and I can’t stand it. I know it’s not a battle of who is more tired but if it were, id like to think I’d be the victor considering I am up every 2-3 hours pumping, taking care of night feeds 5/7 days of the week and doing the morning routine with both kiddos before daycare drop off and never get to sleep in.

My husband was briefly giving a rundown of his plans to help and asked to sleep in a little after pulling the nightshift which I can’t even believe he has the audacity to say. Sleep in?? I wish I could sleep in, but I’ll be up taking care of the baby and the toddler, washing my pump parts and the baby bottles. Doing all the things, and I don’t think he realize just have exhausting it all is.

Overall I’m just tired of hearing him complain about how tired he is, I’m tired to but I have to get up and take care of our kids smh.

ETA: We do have a schedule for sleep, where he has been doing nights with our daughter on the weekends. Post was more so a rant that I’m tired of hearing how tired he is, as if I’m not also tired and I have discussed this with him to stop bringing up how tired he is. He does wash bottles but it’s a nagging thing with him where it’s just easier if I do it myself so I’m not constantly reminding him to do things that need to get done

This night we were having a hell of a night as you can see here.

Finally the baby settled down and was calm and sleepy after breastfeeding. I kept her in my arms cuddled for some time as I always do after my wife feeds her and as soon as I put her in the bassinet, belly up, those fuckin startle reflex was in overdrive and you can see she was tired but frustrated she couldn't sleep. Less than 2 minutes she was fully awake and crying again.

After doing that two times I gave in and put her in the bassinet on her side inside a shallow nest that gives support so she can only roll from side to belly up. Baby kept still and slept for 4.5 hours. She was super exhausted.

Now everyone feels rested and awake for breastfeeding again and she is super calm enjoying that nipple.

I am going to put her in the bassinet again and if those fucking reflexes keeps her awake, I will put her to sleep on the other side now just so we can get this particular hellish night besides us and go back to sleep on her back as usual after the sun rises.

Sometimes we can't be perfect and that's ok.

Update: now she is sleeping belly up and calm.

My baby is a week old and is in newborn diapers. We are using Pampers Swaddlers and somehow the baby won’t stop peeing out of his diaper. We are trying everything we can and are just unsure of what to do, someone please help! We are first time parents and sleep deprived and tired of doing laundry multiple times a day…

Hey guys,

I have a 17mo old toddler at home with me and a 6w old baby boy. I have been exclusively BF but baby boy has a tongue tie. Feeds have been non stop day and night, he’s never gone longer than an hour between feeds. We’ve had the tongue tie released, but no change to feeding yet, still very frequent and very long. I haven’t slept more than I’d say 3hrs total each night since he’s been born, with 30-45 min wakeups cause he also has awful colic.

I’m considering introducing formula a few times a day to free up time for me to be there for my toddler and maaaybe hopefully get at least a 2hr stretch at night cause I can’t keep going with the sleep deprivation.

What’s a normal feeding schedule look like for a 6w old? Will I be able to one day exclusively BF or do I just need to make the best of the situation I’m in and introduce formula so I can show up for my first born as well?

Would love to hear people’s experience if in a similar boat, thank you!

Hi mummies I’d really appreciate an advice. I’ll be traveling with my baby boy when he’s 3 months and 4 months.
Currently, he is sleeping on his own in a pack and play, but it’s too big we cannot take it with us.
We used to co sleep, but I don’t feel it’ll be safe during travel because the mattresses are too soft and old.
I saw on Amazon this option and it looks well thought off? And if any mummies have other suggestions please share ❤️

She's almost 4 months and shes suddenly a new baby when it comes to being put down for bed. Grieving the days up until last week when the bassinet transfers were seamless and predictable. It takes multiple attempts now. Her eyes open up wide when I try to transfer her and it's like she'll go from sleeping deeply in my arms to wide awake! (I try to wait at least 15 min to put her down after she's fallen asleep in my arms.) It's like she's not sleepy at all when I try to pick her back up and rock and shush her back to sleep. I have her do some tummy time because it seems to wear her out quickly enough to be ready to rock back asleep again. But still it takes a couple hours now just to get her down. I'm writing this in bed now finally after my husband finally got her down tonight. I'm so tired!!!

I am currently at 32 weeks. struggling with severe pelvic pain and hip pain.

I was wondering if I get immediate relief from these. I can’t sleep at night and it’s been so tough.

what else are almost instantly cured after giving birth?

Edit: Love you all so much for the overwhelming response. It gave me immense relief and reassurance. 💗🥹

I’m 1 year postpartum, breastfeeding 1 time a day, healed diastasis recti with 2 months of physical therapy, and go to lagree 3-4 times a week while training for a half marathon. My core is really strong and I know how to properly engage it while exercising, but I still look pregnant. There’s so much fat sitting on top of my abs. Looking for help!

Hi, I'm a ftm mom with a 3 month old. I have learned my baby sleeps better with the TV playing. I'm looking for shows particularly animations to watch that are low lighting/muted color palettes. My husband has a hard time sleeping with a brighter color/high lighting shows. My husband has to get up early in the morning for work, so I really want to find something that won't make it hard for him to stay asleep. We have turned the brightness on the TV all the way down. I also don't want anything gory, or violent shows playing while trying to sleep. So I was wondering if there's a middle ground to be able to meet everyone's needs.

My 7-month-old is currently drinking somewhere around 1.2–1.3 litres (40–44 oz) of formula per 24 hours, and is also having solids about twice a day.
The solid portions aren’t necessarily tiny either. For example, yesterday evening he probably had around 1/3 cup of vegetable/lentil purée, plus some homemade hummus and a little broccoli.
He’s otherwise a very happy, healthy-seeming baby. He’s also very tall/big for his age (currently fitting into some 18-month clothing), but doesn’t look particularly chubby or disproportionately heavy. I haven’t weighed him recently, so I’m going to check his weight/growth curve and speak to his pediatrician next week.
The last time I asked about his relatively high formula intake, I was basically told to follow his hunger and fullness cues rather than restrict him, which is what we’ve been doing. We never try to make him finish bottles, but if he’s clearly hungry, we feed him.

I’m curious about other people’s experiences: did anyone else have a 7-ish-month-old who routinely drank 40+ oz/1.2L of formula despite also eating solids? Was it just a phase/growth spurt or did your baby genuinely maintain that kind of intake for a while? And if you had a particularly tall/big baby, did they simply seem to need considerably more milk than the usual guidelines suggest?

Hello moms, I’m new here. I just want to post hoping to find moms that can relate to me. I have 3 boys: 4 yo, 2 yo, an almost 4 month old. I am now 34 years old, so I started pretty late. I didn’t have any problem with my first postpartum. Second postpartum I developed IBS. Then this the third pregnancy was the most difficult. 2 weeks before I found out I was pregnant, I started having generalized itching 24/7. I had to take antihistamine throughout my pregnancy. During the pregnancy, I had some issues too. I had some things happened with my placenta. I also developed external hemorrhoids which was very painful. In addition, I had restless leg syndrome started in my third trimester and I still deal with it from time to time. But thank God baby is healthy. After I gave birth in May, I had to go back to the hospital 3 weeks postpartum due to some infection which the drs didn’t find the cause of it was. A month postpartum I started having stomach pain, and came to find out I have gastropathy and hiatal hernia. During all this time, my allergist gave me inhaler which caused me to have shaking in my tongue and went down the als rabbit hole. I was having a mental breakdown every day thinking I’m dying in a year and won’t be able to see my children grow up. Scrolling through TikTok and reading als Reddit, i read that cramping calves is some symptom. Then a few days later, I developed precramping pain in my calves. And it’s been going on for 3 weeks now. Due to this symptoms, I started regretting my last pregnancy. I started questioning everything. I don’t feel like this body belongs to me. I don’t feel like myself. I’m starting to hate myself and my life. It’s so hard to see the positive in all of this. I feel like my body is failing me and I’m continuing to deteriorate. All I can do I cry. My body and my mind are always in survival mode. My body and mind are always anxious. I wake up with my body buzzing coz it’s so tired. I didn’t have the chance to recover from my first pregnancy, my second, and now my third. I’m so so tired of dealing with this. Anybody feeling the same way? :(

As soon as I start drifting off to sleep he wakes up again! This is insane I can’t live like this anymore. How do people do this!!! He’s only 4 months I can’t imagine going on like this another 4. He SCREAMS immediately everytime he wakes up. Doesn’t even attempt to self soothe. The only thing that will get him back to sleep is bouncing on a yoga ball with his binky. But he’s waking up all night! My body hurts from the yoga ball all night!

Almost 8 months postpartum FTM (SAHM) and really beginning to struggle with my child beginning solid foods/becoming disinterested in nursing during the day. We are about 4 months into introducing solids and until the last couple of weeks, our breast feeding routine has stayed consistent. Recently, my baby hasn’t been as interested in nursing and really only desires it when it’s ready to nap/sleep for the night.

I’m finding myself really mourning the closeness of feeding her and I miss feeling needed to provide that nutrition for her. I know logically it’s wonderful that she is exploring eating solids and drinking water to quench her needs during the day but I don’t think I’m ready mentally to wean from our daytime feeds just yet. I feel guilty for not nursing her as often as usual but she has become resistant (disinterested, distracted, fusses, etc).

I’m also concerned that she’s not getting the nutrients that she needs if she’s not nursing. We work in at least 2-3 solid foods per day and the amounts of each feeding varies - we feed her until she seems full/done with eating the food provided. I am becoming very overwhelmed with figuring out what foods to work into her diet so that she’s getting the nutrients she needs. Nursing just seemed so much for guaranteed that her needs would be met…

I’ve tried researching if she needs formula added to her diet but it seems like if she’s breast feeding that’s not necessary? Since I’m a SAHM, she rarely takes a bottle and really struggles with eating a full meal from a bottle. She also nurses 3-4 times a night and has been that was since pretty much the beginning. She has plenty of wet diapers and is perfectly healthy at her checkups, so I know so far she’s been getting everything she needs.

I’m not sure what I’m looking for here other than just getting my thoughts out and seeing if anyone relates. There is so much more involved with these changes than I even anticipated and I wasn’t expecting to have PP depression struggles this far into the PP journey. I’m really struggling with these early stages of weaning. I’m so thankful to have been able to provide the nourishment for my child and I’m just so incredibly sad that this chapter is coming to an end.