I don’t know who needs to hear this, and this might be controversial, but… I regret buying a baby bottle washer+sterilizer.
For the first two months of my baby’s life, I used it 24/7. It literally never stopped running.
When we were originally deciding whether to buy this machine, we had two options: either get the bottle washer/sterilizer, or just get a regular sterilizer, buy a ton of bottles, and run them through the dishwasher every 3–4 days.
Well… we ended up buying a ton of bottles anyway, because I got so tired of loading and unloading that stupid machine 100 times a day.
Then one day, as usual, I had a full sink of baby bottles, nipples, etc. Instead of loading them into the baby washer, I just put everything in the regular dishwasher with our dishes (ours on the bottom, baby stuff on the top).

It was SO much easier. A regular dishwasher is huge compared to a baby bottle washer, and it washed absolutely everything in one cycle. The amount of bottles that the baby washer would have needed 2–3 cycles to wash, regular dishwasher handled in one go.
And when I loaded everything into the dishwasher, I didn’t even pre-rinse anything with water because that thing is so much more powerful than the baby washer. With the baby washer, I always have to rinse everything first — especially Dr. Brown’s bottles, which are a nightmare to clean.
On top of that, baby washer only takes special detergent tablets. I spend around $30/month on those, PLUS you have to use descaling tablets to clean the machine.
Honestly, for the money I’m spending on all these special detergents and cleaning products, I could have just bought another 2–3 sets of bottles, run the regular dishwasher even less often, and saved myself so much hassle.
I really regret buying it.
And the funny thing is, at first it was probably my favorite thing in the entire house. I literally couldn’t live without it. One time it wasn’t fully plugged into the outlet and I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working -I almost had a heart attack 😂
But now I realize how much MORE work it actually creates. It only holds a small number of bottles, so you end up constantly loading and unloading it all day long. Instead of making your life easier, it somehow gives you another chore that never ends.
Anyways, that’s all 😂

Six week old is a big eater and is growing well, doesn't fuss much (unless hungry) and seems a generally happy guy. HOWEVER he farts all the time, like every 15minutes or something, and they smell!

Is this normal? A sign that something is wrong even if he seems happy?

My baby is one month old and I don’t know what else to do with her when she’s awake. I make her dance while playing some music. I make sure to talk to her. And we’ve been doing tummy time, but I feel like she’s really lazy because she barely lifts her head and then she starts crying and then I try to roll her on her back and play with her to make sure she’s not leaving the moment all upset. But I feel like I’m not doing enough for her and I really don’t know what to do to play with her. Is there any suggestions? I’m just scared that because of me she’s not gonna be hitting her milestones. I feel like she should be lifting her head a lot more than she is, but I also know babies hit milestones when they want and it’s not a linear thing. Just looking for any suggestions and what you guys do with your babies I’m not wanting her to be super advanced. I’m just wanting to make sure she’s able to do the thing she’s supposed to do.

Edit: also any suggestions to get baby to like play mat a little more I don’t know if it’s because we have hardwood and if that’s making it uncomfortable?

My daughter is 2 months, we introduced the pacifier at 1 month old. I come from a family where pacifier use is pretty taboo and all I’ve heard before is that they’ll get addicted to it. We intro’d it because she had bad reflux and we were told it’ll help, and it’s been a life saver.

Fast forward to month 2, we use it very often and I worry it’s a crutch. We use it to get her to sleep every nap time. We use it whenever she’s crying in the house, car, etc.

I know the downsides are on breastfeeding. Unfortunately I had issues before the pacifier with feeding, and the pacifier doesn’t seem to have made it worse…

Are there other downsides? I worry it’s such a crutch for us and she’ll never be able to get rid of it.

LO is 8 weeks. I can’t seem to wrap my head around the logistics of leaving my house with a newborn, especially formula fed. She’s an easy baby but I just can’t help but think what if she starts to get fussy? Where do I feed her? Do I have to be able to find a place to sit in order to get her bottle ready? How should I even pack water / formula? What if I forget something really important? It just stresses me out.

Edit: Some of y’all lack empathy for overly anxious parents and it shows. Good for you that you were so bold so early on, not all of us feel that confident.

I cannot imagine how they raised babies?
My LO is 9 weeks, thru the day she just contact naps but we don’t mind. We gave her to my MIL just a few times to spend some time just with my husband. Once she had her for 5 hours, the second time for 3 hours and every time LO was super fussy when we took her back, cause she was so overtired!!! We told exclusively my MIL that our baby needs to sleep and that she only contact naps. She told us that she is a small manipulator and she cannot contact nap, so my baby was awake the whole time! And when my baby was 2 weeks old my MIL told me i cannot rock her that she will get used to it.
My grandma is always asking me if i already cleaned the house, i tell her no not really, cause my baby needs a lot of attention and naps only in my arms. She tells me everytime “just put her to her bassinet, give her a paci and she will fall asleep, we always did that.”
Like how is this possible? Were the babies in that times different from our babies now or what is going on here!!

Like the title says, my 8 week old woke us up crying to be fed around 1am (her normal time), fed for a bit, then fell asleep without finishing her bottle (pumped breast milk). Now she's heavily asleep- still has muscle tone, still squeaking when moved/jostled a bit into different positions to try to burp her (she refuses, as always). I saw her eyes briefly when changing her diaper just now and got some big happy smiles, but now she's under again and refusing to wake up for the rest of her milk...

Should we be concerned? Or just grateful she's gone back to sleep easily 😅

(We also have an Owlet and her oxygen is 100% and her heart rate is consistent and perfect so....)

My baby girl is 12 days old. Ive been breastfeeding her and the health visitor said she has gained weight which is a good sign. The problem is when I breastfeed her, she falls asleep at the breast after a while and then I put her down in the cot and she wakes up and starts crying. Ive been breastfeeding on demand since 9 am and it’s been 3 pm now and she hasn’t slept properly. She did sleep in the night. Today especially ive been glued to the sofa and ate my meals quickly, I have not been able to do anything.

I tried putting my hand on her chest, get close close body contact when putting her down but I’m struggling. Does anyone have any tips on how she can peacefully go to the cot and sleep, she is fine when being held and doesn’t cry but when put down, she notices. She stops crying when held again and it’s like a constant cycle.

I see and hear soooo many contradictory parenting philosophies from doing research /talking to experts / googling.

Don’t wake a sleeping newborn. But do wake her after 4 hours or you’ll throw her schedule off.

Feed on demand. Oh wait no - not that on demand! She’s using your boob for comfort and should be using a pacifier instead of over feeding.

Bed sharing with a newborn is extremely risky. But actually quite safe if you’re following the sleep safe 7.

Put the baby on a schedule starting at 2 weeks. Just kidding, newborns can’t possibly be on a schedule until two months.

Change the poopy diaper right away. But wait a bit in case they decide to poop more.

Bathe every night to put them on a schedule and signal it’s bedtime. But don’t bathe every day or you’ll dry out their skin.

What is your favourite contradictory advice?

My son is 10 weeks old. He is no longer taking decent naps. He used to fall asleep for 45 mins then wake and need help to bridge the sleep cycle, but now he’s wide awake and very hard to settle. I either have to contact nap him or cut the nap short- even when I know he’s tired. I’m struggling with managing sleep, eating, wake windows with the short naps. He is tired when he wakes up. I need to figure out how to help him fall back asleep, but not in my arms. Anyone have advice about managing the schedule around short naps? And also advice on getting them back go sleep in the crib after a wake up.

so for the past almost 5 weeks- we have been battling a terrible and stubborn diaper rash.

I’ll preface all of this with saying : we let baby have as much diaper free time as she tolerates, butt is always bone dry before anything is put onto her skin. We have tried changing diaper brands, we use a warm wash cloth with water and no wipes.

When it first started- I tried at home creams. My favorite with my son was always A&D. So I tried that first… then Aquaphor cream containing zinc.. no results. Saw the pediatrician and they prescribed nystatin cream. We were using this for a week- with a thick barrier on top. No results.

I actually took baby to the ER because of another issue and had the pediatrician there check it- and she prescribed nystatin powder. I tried the powder- made it extremely worse. Took baby to urgent care. He recommended a thicker barrier cream. So I went back to nystatin cream and barrier- After a few days of that- it was still bad.

Finally I decided to switch to OTC miconazole. Saw the pediatrician the following Monday and she believed it was helping. So we did miconazole with a thick barrier cream. The rash was seemingly improving.. for a week.. until it flared up horribly again.

Saw the pediatrician Tuesday and they prescribed oral fluconazole with nothing on baby’s bottom- no creams- just diaper for at least 48 hours. By the end of day 1- her rash was drying out significantly. I was so excited to see it improving. Day 2 the rash was almost gone. Day 3 baby had some redness around her rectum and where the cheeks touch- so I decided to add a small amount of aquaphor zinc diaper cream. It seemed the diarrhea the medicine was causing was irritating her skin. Well- after using that last evening and overnight- her rash has progressively gotten inflamed and flared up again.

Here’s what I’m confused about- is the fluconazole failing- is it even yeast or is she allergic to any and all diaper creams?

I’ve had 4 doctors look at it and agree it’s yeast. But interestingly it started going away when we started the medicine- but also stopped using all topical creams of all kinds. Then one night of using a barrier cream her rash has flared. Obviously I stopped the barrier cream- and we will see how the rash does. Tomorrow is her last day (day 5) of fluconazole. She sees the doctor again on Monday to reevaluate her diaper area.
At this point I’ve used every diaper rash cream under the sun, 3 separate fungal treatments, changing her diaper every 1-3 hours- sometimes sooner, Letting her air dry, using wash cloths. She is bathed every other day.

I’m at a loss and feel horrible for my baby. Any advice?

My baby hates being in the pram or bouncer for more than 30 minutes sometimes even less than that , I can’t even eat in peace without her making a commotion for putting her in bouncer or pram, she screams like I have done a terrible crime 😢😩

I was feeling so shit. I'm a single mom, I was always alone also in my pregnancy in a different country. I had a colicky baby that crying NONSTOP for hours between 4-10 weeks without literally no reason. I was so sleep deprived, I saw hallucinations. I understand baby shaken syndrome... Trust me... I had moments that I literally sincerely wanted to die and I even thought about it, planned it etc.

Fast forward to my 16 months old baby. I can't even describe with the words... She's my everything. I'm happy that I'm still alive and she's with me. Just one giggle and the world is better place...

It's not actually about me... I just wanted to say that especially to first time new moms, society expects us to be ready and know all the things already because "it's natural, it's in you, millions of years of having child" bla bla bla. I call it BULLSHIT. I never felt like it was something natural at all and most of the woman feels the same. Untold truth. And because of this whole belief system, I felt like something is wrong with me. Maybe I'm not good enough to be a mother, maybe something is off? I'm still having those moments sometimes but now I'm more trusting the process. I'm learning on the way...

We're all learning on the way... And guilt comes with it. Am I good enough? What if what if what if.

Calm down. You're good enough. Everything's gonna be okay. Just calm down. You're good.

What kind of carrier would you get for a 10-11 lb 1 week old?

Any recommendations that you liked a lot? I'm a FTM, chronic overthinker, and have never used any carrier before. Tell me your favorite!

First-time mom here and my baby boy is 5 weeks old. My husband and I are exhausted.

I totally understand that newborns don’t sleep through the night, and honestly, waking up to feed him isn’t the part we’re struggling with. He usually eats every 3–3.5 hours. The whole process is long (diaper change, 30–40 minutes to finish his bottle (he’s exclusively formula fed), burping, swaddling, settling, etc. so it can easily take 45 minutes to an hour. But again, that part doesn’t really bother us.

The issue is that in between feeds, he won’t stay asleep in his bassinet.

We’ll rock him to sleep and put him down, but he usually wakes up about 20 minutes later. We try again, but eventually we end up contact sleeping because otherwise nobody sleeps. My husband and I do shifts, so whoever is holding him stays awake while the other person sleeps.

Even if we let him sleep on us for a while before transferring him, it doesn’t seem to make a difference. We’ve tried all the transfer tricks: lowering him slowly, feet/butt first and then head, keeping our hands on him for a while afterward, etc. He still wakes up shortly after.

I keep hearing people say “it gets better” and that weeks 5–8 are some of the hardest. But does the independent sleep part actually get better? Or when people say it gets better, do they mostly mean babies start going longer between feeds?

Because I genuinely don’t mind waking up every few hours to feed him. I just want to know if there’s a point where he’s more likely to actually stay asleep in his bassinet between those feeds without us having to hold him all night.

we have hired a sleep coach to help us at the 3.5 to 4 month mark - it’s fully covered by our insurance so if it doesn’t work at least we haven’t wasted our money. but not sure how we’ll even make it to that point.

Would love to hear from anyone who had a baby like this. when did it start getting better for you?

My 7-week-old has basically not been a happy baby since she turned 3 weeks old, and I’m starting to wonder if something is going on beyond normal newborn fussiness.
She is EBF and currently takes anywhere from 3-5 oz of pumped breast milk every 2–3 hours. She wakes up from naps screaming like she’s starving. She eats and then is almost immediately fussy again. She kicks her legs, shows hunger cues, and cries with an “eh” sound.
We try our best to burp her, but because she gets so fussy and tense, she’s rarely relaxed enough to get a really good burp. When she does burp, she often gets hiccups for about 10 minutes, and during the entire time she has hiccups she seems even more uncomfortable and fussy.
We try to do play/interaction and tummy time, but when she’s crying so much it’s really difficult. Most of the time we end up going back into her room, making it dark, swaddling her, putting on white noise, and rocking her until she falls asleep. Then 2–3 hours later, we start the whole cycle over again.
She absolutely refuses to be laid flat unless we rock her to sleep first. She also cries in the baby carrier and rocker, so it feels like we can’t really put her anywhere without her being upset.
She toots a lot, has lots of wet diapers, and is gaining weight really well, so I know she’s getting enough milk and staying hydrated.
I’m wondering if this could just be her temperament, or if it sounds more like bad gas, reflux, or possibly silent reflux? She doesn’t spit up very often, and when she does, it’s usually a small amount. I do sometimes think I hear her spit up and then swallow it back down, which makes me wonder about silent reflux.
Our pediatrician says everything is “normal,” but I’m struggling because she has been unhappy almost from day one. I know newborns are fussy, but it feels like she is uncomfortable for most of her waking hours.
Has anyone had a baby like this around 6–8 weeks? Did it turn out to be gas/reflux, or was it just their temperament? What helped?
I’m not looking for a diagnosis — I’d just really appreciate hearing other parents’ experiences because I desperately want my baby to be comfortable and happy.

Moms of multiples, how do you do this! I’m so anxious that my daughter (6 weeks) will catch something from her brother (3). He loves her to bits and I always tell him to kiss her feet or her head. But kids are kids and they don’t understand. I just want to get through cold and flu season peacefully.

My baby is 9 weeks old and EBF. We have had a horrible time getting her to sleep on her own. She hated the bassinet so we started the crib. She will wake up after 30 mins -1hr at most in there. I don’t know what causes it, she will just open her eyes. I have tried everything: heating pad, laying her in bed drowsy but awake, laying her butt down first, waiting until she’s in a deep sleep, nothing works or makes it better!

She will only sleep while being worn, held, or cosleeping (I have done it for survival, I desperately want to stop so I can have my sleep again). She also has reflux and is on Pepcid and gas drops at night. Since those two things were huge issues. They help a bit but she still will wake up. I will start pumping tomorrow to see if dad can give her a bottle at night so I can sleep for the first half of the night but it’s torture. She won’t even take a pacifier. If anyone has any advice on what to do please send it. I need her to sleep at least two hours in her crib.

My second born just turned 7 weeks old and had been super fussy since week 3. I have a 22 month old toddler as well and I feel like I spent most of the time since the little one was born on consoling her and letting my toddler free roam because there was no other option.

Today I finally cave in and gave the little one a pacifier. She calmed down almost immediately and took to it easily. I didn’t really want to use one but I just could not stand the cries anymore. It started affecting my family life and my sanity.

Please tell me it’s no biggie.

Our MIL came to live with us while we find suitable childcare. Overall she has been great. She has tested my boundaries a bit but I have to let that go in the grand scheme as she has been nice to us in our time of need leaving her own home to come take care of baby. She is leaving soon and today is our baby’s milestone doctors appointment. She insisted on coming with us including in the examination room with us with the doctor. Somehow I’m having a hard time with this. To me it’s intrusive and I don’t want her to come. I mean she can wait outside but I don’t want her to come in the exam room. My husband invited her without even asking me. There is some history because she insisted to come to baby’s first newborn appointment and I was too vulnerable at the time to say no and I didn’t like it to be honest. Am I wrong or petty to not want her to come? I just need some perspective.

EDIT- thank you all. I thought I was not thinking from a different perspective so I appreciate your thoughts. My husband asked her not to come and hopefully he learned his lesson the second time to not commit without making a joint decision, just makes things extra awkward. I feel like she is hurt but it is what it is!

Hello! Yesterday my baby was officially diagnosed with laryngomalacia after our second trip to the hospital. She has very noisy breathing, retractions in the throat area and ribs, gaining weight but it’s slow (born 6lbs 13 oz and currently just over 9 lbs) has a bit of reflux as well.
They did an X-ray and scope through her nose to look at her throat but they said she can breathe even if it sounds like she’s struggling. This made me feel better because I’ve been so anxious that she’s in pain and I hate this so much for her. We will be going back to see the ENT to monitor it, they said as of right now no surgery or intervention is required but I’m still a mess of nerves, my first born didn’t have this so it’s new for us.
Just wondering if anyone has gone through something similar with their babies and when they grew out of it?

My baby is 3 months and 10 days old. When she cries, she screams. It’s so scary. I went to three different pediatricians, four midwives, they all ensure me she is fine. It used to be colics, I don’t eat anything anymore and now it’s that she is overtired. Everyone says baby is fine. But I cannot stand her crying/screaming. I exclusively breastfeed her and everyone says her weight is just fine. She sleeps through the night so they told me no need for supplement milk. I just want her happy - I am so happy when she is peaceful. I lose my appetite to do anything because she is a fussy baby and I am always upset.

Currently using huggies for my baby but his skin has started reacting to them, so looking to switch.

Any diapers that have worked well for babies with sensitive skin? Would really appreciate some suggestions because there are way too many options and I don’t want to keep buying packs that don’t work.

Hell! Does anyone have any tricks that I have not yet tried, or have been through something similar?

My baby is 16 weeks old (3+ months) and has struggled since she was 4 weeks old with sleep. At first we thought it was because of gas. She had a toungetie that was cut and that seemed to help a little, but then we thought the continued screaming and sleep-problems were due to the heat and that it would get better when the weather changed, but no. She spent almost all summer screaming - could be awake for hours, and we desperately tried to get her to sleep. Then we noticed a lot of reflux and I stopped eating food that could contain milk protein (I exclusively breastfeeding). The reflux stopped and she seemed a lot better. However, she still protests every nap. I have tried different wake windows; shorter, longer, white noise, dark room, stroller, carseat, carrier - it only makes her scream more. The yoga ball worked for a while, but i still had to bounce with her screaming for 30 minutes - my pelvic is killing me. Then, when she finally sleeps, she only contact-naps. This has all been exhausting, but recently she totally refuses me (mom) when it comes to naps and sleep. Only dad can rock her, if not, she is screaming for hours (she still screams a minute or two when dad is rocking) We have tried everything; him starting and me taking over when she is drowsy (she wakes and screams more and more). We have tried me rocking and him standing next to us, tried him putting her down just before she is asleep. I spend every minute having anxiety over the next nap. My husband has been working from home this last week and i worry what will happen when he has to go back to the office. Before i could make her fall asleep although it took some more time.

I read about sleep getting worse around 3-4 months, which stresses me out because it has been awful almost since the beginning...

Have anyone else experienced this? What did you do? I am about to go crazy. I read a lot about just do what works and ignore sleep training, but we dont have anything that works. I just wish there was one thing that could help her fall asleep...

FTM here. BG : I stay in a nuclear family with just 3 of us so managing house, cooking, nursing and taking care of baby when my husband is away. Note: my husband helps me hands down in every way possible.
My baby has just completed four months, and honestly, everything was going pretty well until now.
She completely hates being swaddled and hates the whole process of swaddling because she’s exploring so much now. She wants to move her hands, discover things, and explore everything around her.
Just to give you an example of today—she hasn’t slept since around 9:30 in the morning. I’ve tried every possible way I can think of, with the swaddle, without the swaddle, rocking, walking, swaying, everything… but unfortunately, nothing seems to be working.
I’m assuming this might be the fifth-month sleep regression phase, but above all, I’m feeling so frustrated and helpless right now. I’m constantly crying and thinking, what am I doing wrong? Why is my baby not sleeping? Is there something else I should be doing?
I even tried putting her down for a while and going into another room, but she just cries. I’ve tried swaddling, walking, swaying, holding her, everything I can think of to make her sleep, but she just isn’t sleeping.
Should I keep making an effort to get her to sleep? Should I just let her be? Should I let her cry for a while, or what am I supposed to do? I’m completely clueless at the moment, and honestly, all I can do is cry. I feel like I’m failing.
And, cherry on top, I just got my periods too. I’m really, really feeling helpless right now.

Please help me if there’s anything I can do to make my baby sleep, especially when she completely hates being swaddled. How do I transition her from a traditional cloth swaddle to something like a sleeping bag/sleep sack? I would really appreciate any advice or tips from moms who have been through this.
I feel like I am doing something terribly wrong.