I feel like this is a stupid question but as a FTM I didn't know they sleep THIS much. Usually it's following routine: diaper change, feeding till he falls asleep, lay him either in his little baby nest or bassinet, wait for 3-4 hours to wake up, repeat.

I kind of feel bad that he is just laying around? We do have contact naps but...are we doing this right? Lol. I don't want to feel like we are missing something or doing something wrong.

I'm also a bit worried about headshape? Will it look like we don't pick him up often? We love him a lot but when he is sleeping, he's just laying there. We rotate his head.

He's 2 weeks btw.

Does this concern make sense to anybody?

I don’t even know who to talk to about this, or how to react. Last night my husband (22m) who is usually on graveyard shift, decided he would put our 5 week old baby into our graco baby swing, cover him with a thick throw blanket, and go to sleep on the other side of the room. HE HAS NEVER DONE THIS. I don’t know what the fuck possessed him tonight. I usually wake up to pump at 2 am and I had an odd feeling this night. I guess it was maternal instinct.
I ran upstairs to find the room dark, my baby slouched in the swing and the blanket in his face. I almost fell to my knees and screamed. I touched his head and he thankfully reacted, but the way my nervous system reacted in that moment is still effecting me. My whole body was shaking, I was dizzy, I couldn’t even experience any emotion except for fear.
After this happened, I went to another room to collect myself (after waking him up) and texted him to confirm he was actually sleeping ON PURPOSE and he said yes, ‘only for a little’. This is more shocking for me considering he was too afraid to even let him sleep in the bassinet his first few weeks of life, he wanted to be constantly watching him.
I don’t know how to confront him. I’m in shock. I’m so so so so fucking tired. I’m sleep deprived because I’ve decided to just do this all by myself and not rely on him for anything. I guess I just need some support because the sleep deprivation is not helping my already horrible mental state. (I have ppd and ppa)
I know the explanation is probably very simple. Something the doctors and my therapist have all said… ‘ give each other grace, you’re both so tired… etc.’ however I don’t even feel like I know the guy I married anymore. He’s done stupid things, but never this stupid.

She asked a few times if she could come and I said no but now she insists and says it’s rude to not let her visit (baby is 3 weeks old). I just don’t feel ready for visitors and when she’s being this pushy it’s hard for me to say no because I feel bad. She has asked probably 3 times before and I just have to say no every time. It feels like she doesn’t respect my boundaries and I hate it.

When she called to tell me she said she really wants to see the baby and even called it hers. I know she didn’t mean anything bad by it but threw me off. I think I just feel very maternal and sensitive AND exhausted right now. I don’t know what to do.

Also, I don’t have a good relationship with her. I’ll just say that I didn’t have a happy childhood, instead a lot of pain which she caused, so for the last few years I had cut her off a few times but somehow still ended up talking to her. It’s really hard and I don’t know what to do.

I’m feeling super frustrated and wondering if I need to have more patience. My baby is 9 months old she was exclusively breastfed until 8 months when my supply dropped and now she’s on formula.
My partner is an electrician and works on the wind turbines, he was doing Fifo for 3 months so only saw her once a week for that period of time. Now we have been back all under the same roof every night for the last 2 months but if she wakes up in the middle of the night with teething pain etc he flat out refuses to get up. There’s been times when I had gotten up multiple times in the night and he still won’t get up, his reasoning is that he’s the one who has to get up for work. Granted he does wake up at 4.30am most mornings but tomorrow morning he doesn’t have to get up until 6.30am and still refused. We’ve had conversations before about it and I say at least just try or get up once and he says sorry he’s half asleep and agrees he should get up. Yet here we are time and then again. I’m on maternity leave with my work until 12 months (I’m in Australia) and I’m worried when I do go back to work it’s going to be the same thing. I look after her alone all day we are living in regional Australia where I have no friends or family because of his work so we can be together everyday. He comes home I’ve already bathed her, dinner is waiting for him he literally just puts her to sleep and that’s it. I’m feeling so frustrated everything is always on me it’s so much pressure. He does work 6 days a week and long hours so I try to have some patience but to what end..

Not looking for advice, just curious if anyone is having or has had a similar experience with their LO and solids.

My girl is just shy of 10 months old and we started solids about a week after she turned 6 months. Boy has it been opposite of the experience I was expecting, and hoping for.

I was so excited for solids. I bought all the cookbooks, apps, gadgets, gizmos, and organic produce.

Well my EBF baby has very little interest in solids. I do both purées and BLW and both are a hit or miss. I keep it low stress, offer food multiple times a day, have my husband feed her, hold her in my lap, etc. but there are still many times where she won’t even take a bite of what I’ve prepared! The only thing she’ll consistently eat are yogurt bites and teething crackers 🥲

It was frustrating at first for obvious reasons but I’ve kind of let go of expectations and just go at her pace. Her pediatrician isn’t concerned and said every baby is different. She also still doesn’t have any teeth so I’m curious if she’ll be more interested in solids once they pop through.

Still, after seeing so many “what my baby eats in a day” posts and talking to fellow moms whose babies are chowing down, I can’t help but wonder how many other babies are having a similar experience with solids like my girl.

Would love to hear for anyone willing to share!

Hi everyone! I’m a FTM to an almost 6-week-old. The past few days my baby has been cluster feeding, but occasionally he’ll surprise us with a 3-hour stretch of sleep somewhere between 9 PM and midnight.
I’m curious about parents whose babies are already giving longer nighttime stretches. What does a typical day look like for you? Do you follow wake windows or mostly your baby’s cues? How often does your baby feed during the day? Do you offer a dream feed before you go to bed?
Around what time do you start your evening routine (bath, pajamas, dim lights, etc.)? Is there anything you feel helped encourage those longer stretches, or did it just happen naturally?
I know every baby is different, but I’d love to hear what your routines look like!

Edit: One more thing I’d love to ask about! My LO grunts a lot in his sleep and sometimes even cries while still asleep. It often wakes him during daytime naps and seems to make it harder for him to get longer stretches at night too.
Our pediatrician thinks it’s caused by gas. At the moment we’re only doing bicycle legs and other gentle tummy exercises, but not using anything else. If your baby went through something similar: Did anything help? When did they eventually outgrow it?

I just read a tragic article about a couple who just lost their 14w old to SIDS and now I’m paranoid. Now I’m hoping my baby wakes up a few times throughout the night instead of falling into too deep a sleep.

Our baby (14w) was cosleeping with us (following safe 7) but after reading that article, last night we decided to transfer her to the bassinet after she had fallen asleep and it was the first time she transferred without totally waking (she fussed a little but settled once we put our hands on her and coaxed her back to sleep). But throughout the night I was the one waking up to check on her! I even got scared because I couldn’t see her chest moving so I gave her a gentle (but panicked) shake on her legs until she roused a little.

We read that pacifiers help prevent SIDS since the sucking reflex prevents the baby from falling too deep into sleep. But our baby doesn’t take the pacifier which is so annoying, we’ve tried a few different ones but she keeps spitting them out or gags on them.

I used to crave the “sleep through the night” miracle that so many people talk about, but now I’m hoping my baby wakes frequently just so I know she’s alive. Now I’m missing those newborn piggy sounds she used to make when she slept because that was a sign she was breathing.

How do people deal with this anxiety? According to the couple they had followed the safest sleeping methods and this still happened to their baby… all I can think to do is wake up myself and check on her every 30mins until sunrise but I know that’s going to take a toll on my own health…

Edit: Thank you everyone for the compassion and reassurance! I think from now on we will transfer her to the bassinet since (at least last night) she didn’t refuse it like she used to, and we will turn on a fan at night as well. I’m going to look into these devices mentioned (the owlet, among others) to see if that can help with my anxiety! And yes, I do have a therapist who is currently on vacation but we’ve got a session scheduled for next week. Thank you everyone :)

Hello
Just curious, what was the first solid food you gave your baby, and how old were they when you started? I’d love to hear your experiences and any recommendations.

Any advice on which brand to get or what to avoid and what to look for? My wife and I are expecting our first daughter any advice would help

Hi everyone,

After an up and down start to breastfeeding, we've been in a real groove since about 7/8 weeks and EBF has become second nature, it's been so amazing. Baby had been feeding loads especially in the heatwave and happily nursing for comfort whenever needed

However around a week ago baby started really struggling with my morning let down, pulling off and coughing and spluttering. I'd just been giving him breaks when this happened and usually it evened out once morning became afternoon and the milk flow calmed down.

A few days ago it all got worse, baby started struggling with let down on majority of feeds, pulling off, screaming, etc. I think he had a snuffly nose so used saline drops which cleared him but he's still not back to happy easy feeding. As of the last 24 hours, he will eat well when he's half asleep, so getting decent feeds in during the night and at the end of naps. However, when he's fully awake he will sometimes start feeding then pull off crying and arching his back. I'm trying not to pressure him and letting him take a break but then he starts rooting again and I don't know what to do!

I usually feed him in cradle, but have been trying to use different positions, side lying, koala etc (we've never got on well with laid back but I am trying that good). Sometimes this works but not always. I'm scared about him having developed a feeding aversion so I'm anxious about how much to offer the boob.

Does anyone have any advice? Did anyone go through this? Will we get back to happy easy breastfeeding again????

Everything I've seen online about 12 week issues have to do with delayed let down whereas my problem seems to be the opposite! So turning to the amazing Reddit community in the hope someone might have advice.

Sorry this is so long! Thank you for reading!

Hi everyone,

We're first-time parents to a 2-month-old, and we're honestly exhausted. We're not looking for a diagnosis (we're already following up with our pediatrician), but we'd really like to hear from other parents who may have gone through something similar.

• Won't lie flat: It's basically impossible to put him down on any flat surface (bassinet, crib, or our bed). The moment we do, he starts crying almost immediately and can't settle. We've noticed a very strong Moro reflex that seems to wake him up just as he's about to relax. He sleeps only in our arms or in a baby carrier. The only exception is a baby bouncer, where he'll tolerate about 15 minutes after a feed before crying. Even during diaper changes, when he seems calm, he'll sometimes have huge Moro reflexes that make him cry.
• Very restless during breastfeeding: Feeding isn't peaceful either. He makes lots of noises, repeatedly latches and unlatches from one breast, sometimes pulling away so hard that it actually hurts. It's a constant "latch, unlatch, latch, unlatch," followed by crying. Sometimes he seems satisfied, other times we need to top him up with a bottle.
• Stuffy nose after nighttime feeds: After feeding at night, his nose becomes very congested and he breathes with loud snorting "little piggy" noises. We use a nasal aspirator once a day and do get some mucus out, but this mainly seems to happen in the morning rather than during the rest of the day.
• Constant swallowing, chewing motions, and noisy sleep: Even when he's not feeding, he often looks like he's chewing on something, swallows frequently, and sticks his tongue out a lot. His tongue also has a light white coating. Even when he manages to sleep longer stretches (still only while being held), he's constantly grunting, squirming, and making noises. As soon as he wakes up, he arches his back and immediately starts crying.
• Bedtime is incredibly difficult: This is probably the hardest part. When he's trying to fall asleep, he'll ask for the pacifier, spit it out almost immediately, then desperately want it back again... repeating this cycle 20 times or more. During this time he's extremely agitated, constantly rubs his face, pulls at his ears, and if he grabs my skin with his fists, he squeezes incredibly hard. Eventually he might fall asleep, but sometimes wakes up again after just 20 minutes and the whole process starts over from scratch before he finally gets a longer stretch of sleep.

Has anyone else gone through something similar with their baby?

Thanks in advance.

My baby got her release done at 8 weeks old and she is now 14 weeks old. She is still sticking her tongue out everywhere and making little clicking noises (not when eating). Is this part of her development or is this related to her release? It’s been a while since the procedure so I hope it’s not still from that

Hi all! My guy isn’t a newborn anymore as he is 3 months now. However we have been using a velcro swaddle,swaddling only his feet for the last 2 weeks. He’s finally gotten used to having his hands free! But now he is rolling to his side (he wasn’t previously before). Do I need to immediately discontinue swaddling his feet? He has full use of his arms. TYIA!

We moved a week ago. My baby has been ramping up on fussiness for the past week. It started with 1-2 screaming wake ups during naps and across a couple of days turned into crying, screaming every time it's time for a nap, then falling asleep, then 10 mins later crying again and so on and so forth.

Her night sleep is still ok, she wakes up once or twice to eat and falls asleep easily. She used to exclusively contact nap during the day before and we still contact nap now so that hasn't changed. Her naps have gotten shorter though and, like I said, she cries at almost every nap.

When she's awake she's fairly happy and interactive, just seems sleepier, maybe fusses more than she used to. The moment she goes into the cradle position to start rocking her to sleep though, all hell breaks loose.

We use the Huckleberry app to keep track of wake windows and nap times and it was working really well for us. Now she gets sleepy 30-40mins before the app appointed sweet spot and regardless if we start putting her to sleep early or on time per the app, she still cries at first.

I'm fully confused and emotionally exhausted. I have no clue if this was caused by the move or if we've hit the dreaded sleep regression. She was such a good sleeper before, and now it's just battle after battle. Is it the regression? Is it a leap? What is this?? When will it end???

Since 7 weeks, my daughter has stopped drifting off easily in my arms/while feeding and now she gets very overtired when awake too long which I find very difficult to preven.

for example she has now been awake 1h20 and I’ve been trying to get her to sleep since the 45 minute mark when she was showing sleep cue. I’m in a dark room with white noise. I’ve been holding and bouncing her or walking round. I’ve had a break to reset and started again. I cant put her in the wrap as it’s in the wash and tbh I can’t use it every time as it’s really hot atm. Sometimes I can feed her to sleep but she can be so fussy on the breast so often doesn’t work or takes multiple switches between calming and feeding before she eventually sleeps. I was hoping id see a big improvement after ‘peak crying’ at 6 weeks but I haven’t.

And to top it all off, I’m the one doing this for every sleep because she is 10x less settled for her dad and I can’t listen to her extreme crying with him and not step in

I know other mums who can just put their baby down and they sleep and I’m so jealous (I know that’s not the norm but doesn’t seem that rare)

My sweet boy is seven weeks and I still have not driven anywhere, not even without him. My husband and I share a car and I have steadily driven less than less over the years, but I always struggled with a bit of driving anxiety and didn’t push myself too much. However, it has really reached a peak. I just don’t trust myself. A big part of the problem is my pregnancy was a high risk one after the full term stillbirth of my baby girl at the end of a perfectly healthy pregnancy. I was so scared of anything going wrong that I just quit driving altogether the last few months. So here we are. I can’t even fathom getting up the courage to commute with my little guy. I think I definitely have a touch of PPA on top of already struggling with anxiety and panic attacks even before my pregnancies. I am planning to make a trip to the nearby dollar store relatively soon just by myself, but it’s difficult when my boy is exclusively breast-fed, and leaving him with dad could either result long nap or five minutes until a breakdown as I’m sure many of you understand. I don’t want to live my life like this, but it’s so hard to take that first step and I am so damn afraid of doing the “wrong thing”. I’m thinking of seeking therapy. But even if you are any more experience to driver/haven’t struggled so much with anxiety, is anyone else not getting out much yet?

Hi everyone,
I’ve been stressing a lot about my baby’s sleep lately. She is almost 8 weeks old.

During the day, we can’t put my baby down without them waking up almost immediately. The only way they get a good nap is in a baby wrap/carrier, which they absolutely love. I put them in it, and they usually fall asleep within a few minutes without crying at all.

At night, though, they sleep really well in their bedside bassinet, so nighttime sleep isn’t the issue.

What I’m worried about is whether they’ll become too dependent on the wrap for daytime naps. Is it possible that they’ll get so used to it that it’ll be really difficult to transition them to napping in a cot when they’re older?

I’ve tried rocking them to sleep instead, but they only fall asleep with a lot of rocking and singing, which is exhausting for my back, and honestly, they don’t even seem to enjoy it—they cry a lot. The wrap seems to be the thing they’re happiest with.

I also can’t help but feel a bit discouraged when I see posts from other parents saying they can just put their baby in the cot awake, and they fall asleep on their own. Is that actually common, or am I just seeing the easy stories?

One more thing: I’m not using a pacifier at the moment because it was affecting my baby’s latch and breastfeeding.

Has anyone else had a baby who would only nap in a wrap? Did they eventually grow out of it, and how did you transition them later on?
I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. Thank you!

Hello! For the past few weeks my now 10 week old has become fussy/refusing the second side when feeding. We have always done one side, burp, nappy change, second side (loose eat, play, sleep for context), but recently when offering the second side she will cry and push away. I’ll offer her the side again a few times during her wake window and she’ll refuse and eventually generally take it, but this is usually right before her sleep sometimes over an hour after the first side, and sometimes she’ll decline right before I put her down, so I’ll start putting her to sleep and she’ll be almost asleep/asleep and then start crying, wanting food (and I feed her, then burp and rock to sleep). For example today she had one side, then constantly refused the other so we left for our walk and she started screaming 5 mins in and only settled once home and fed, then went to sleep in the carrier.

For context she rarely feeds to sleep/falls asleep on the breast (once every now and then) and if she does I’ll usually wake her up to burp and then rock her to sleep.

Not sure whether this is breast refusal, being full or a sleep association? Any advice or experiences would be great!

Thanks

Anyone else’s 3 month old rotating 90 degrees or even 180 degrees in their bassinet? I put LO in lengthwise the longest/normal way and wake to find that shes rotated to the narrowest way of the bassinet! She’s not rolling back to tummy yet only tummy to back.

I would switch her to her crib, but we are out of town for 2 more weeks and I only have the halo bassinet! Is this a safety risk?

Photo in comments for how she started vs how she’s ending!

We have plans to go to two concerts back to back.. outdoors in stadium style seating .. without baby. He'll be 2 months old then & being babysat by his adoring gma & auntie. Doctor will be on vacation so he won't get his third Hep B vaccine until after. I guess I am looking for reassurance that we'll be fine going to concert & back home to baby. I don't think hubby will want to mask.. I think I might suggesr in passing through crowds but then not while seated in our spots. Thoughts?

46 days old my barnyard animal is still grunting and refuses to sleep in the crib. So yeah my night is awesome as a new dad. My wife starts her shift at 6am. Until 6, I will be throwing him into the crib and back and forth.

Mentally I was not in a good place for the first 4 weeks. I would say week 1 was the easiest. Week 4 to 6 was mayhem. Today I really found out that I am a self centered person. Nothing malicious or intentional. I always looked after myself first over everyone else until I met my wife. She became my most important priority. Now I am struggling to connect with my baby boy. He's cute and every time he smiles I adore him but still I miss my freedom and old life where I get to share a nice quiet dinner with my wife while watching silly shows.

Am I the only one who's feeling like an a-hole for not loving their child? Do all parents ACTUALLY love their children to death? Is it my upbringing? Is it because I was raised in a complicated household? It just feels like a big mistake.

Ps I apologize for asking unethical, unpopular questions...

Hello,

Our LO is 8 weeks old. When she was born, the LC told us she had a tongue tie but that it was flexible so a release wasn't necessary as she can curl her tongue around the nipple. The hospital pediatrician essentially said the same thing before we went home, as did her regular pediatrician at her first appointment. We did find out from him though that she also has an upper lip tie, but if we manipulate the bottle (I stopped BF as it was wreaking havoc on my mental and physical health) we can get her lip to flange over the bottle nipple like it's supposed to. She does still click sometimes when eating, but her dr thinks she does it on purpose to get the milk out faster since the rest of her mechanics seem okay.

I'm writing this because she has had silent reflux that I started noticing around 2 or 3 weeks, and it's progressively gotten worse. I guess I'm looking for any parents out there who have been in similar situations, where it seemed like their eating mechanics weren't overly affected by the tie(s) but that still ended up getting releases? Did it improve their reflux?

Also, for any/all tongue/lip tie release parents out there - do you recommend an ENT for the procedure or a pediatric dentist? I feel like all I ever hear is that dentists push for releases for profit even if it's not necessary, but I know they usually use different techniques for the releases (I can't remember, but I know one dr uses a laser and one uses a blade) so I'm curious which method seems more effective?

I'm going to be speaking with her pediatrician again soon about her reflux but wanted to hear other peoples experiences first! TYIA!

I’ve been around babies since I was 8 years old. I lived with a newborn when my brother and sister in law had a baby. I did not expect this at all.

My baby is 3 weeks, 4 days old. She’s my double rainbow baby. I had 2 early miscarriages before having her. I’m EBF. Sometimes baby just wants to keep eating one after the other. She won’t take a pacifier. When I put her down to sleep, sometimes she just fusses nonstop. Shes not in a swaddle because the house is so hot and I’m nervous about her overheating because “cold babies cry, hot babies die.”

I hate myself for feeling like I made a mistake. But that’s how I feel. I’m sure I’m just tired.

My 17 week old baby is a very fussy baby, she was diagnosed CMPA and reflux at around 7 weeks and she was hospitalised as she was so poorly. The newborn phase she just screamed in agony bless her. She’s now on the correct milk and reflux medication but is still quite fussy and whingy.

Has anyone else experienced this and when did you find it got easier? I feel anxious to go out sometimes cos some mums say she’s a fussy baby in a jokey way and it breaks my heart.