r/NewParents • • 3d ago

Weekly Discussion Weekly Discussion - Relationships

1 Upvotes

Welcome to the Weekly Discussion! Use this space to vent/rant about partners/family members & to air your grievances! Please report comments that violate the rules.

Please remember Rule 1 still applies: No Personal attacks, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, derogatory or dehumanizing language, including insults and general incivility


r/NewParents • • 7h ago

Tips to Share I misunderstood clothing sizes…

111 Upvotes

I thought 3M meant it would fit my baby girl at 3 months… she is currently two months. So I was tripping a bit feeling like I had no clothes for her before finding out that this means they go UP TO MAXIMUM 3 months. So I feel really stupid but at least I have way more clothes than I thought!!


r/NewParents • • 8h ago

Mental Health Seeking support and advice from truamatic experience

87 Upvotes

At 37 weeks pregnant, my wife went in for a procedure called an ECV where the nurses and midwives attempt to manually ‘flip’ a breeched baby.

They explained over and over again that there was a remote, minuscule chance that the baby would not like this and they may have to perform an emergency c-section.

Well— that’s exactly what happened. His heart rate dropped fast and the room flooded with people and our baby boy was out in 3 minutes.

I did very well supporting my wife and keeping her calm but for a moment there I thought there was going to be a serious issue for her or the baby in the chaos- and I’m having a bit of PTSD from it all.

Mom and baby are healthy.

Mom is doing fine but she is disappointed that she missed out on the natural experience she was hoping for. I’m doing my best to validate her and support her.


r/NewParents • • 5h ago

Mental Health Have a 9week old and feeling guilty about watching tv a lot

31 Upvotes

My life since I had baby is pretty much just sitting on the couch watching tv while I feed her, play with her, and she contact naps so I get nap-trapped.(I do try to put her in her basinette for day sleeps but she wakes, I'm not really looking for advice on this, I've tried all the advice)

But im feeling guilty and like other parents can go about their day without the tv on. For context I struggle with PPD and PPA, and I really don't like being alone, never have, so this has been super isolating for me, and watching tv makes the loneliness a bit more bearable.(I'm going to a parent groups which helps) And I try to get out for a walk every day. But am I a bad mum for living the newborn phase in front of the tv? I don't let her face the tv when she's awake 😆


r/NewParents • • 14h ago

Childcare Baby started daycare. I get like 4 hours with her at night. How do I cope🥲

166 Upvotes

I’m a first time single mom, so I have to work full time. I definitely couldn’t be a stay at home mom even if I had the opportunity to be. I’d love to be able to just work part time, but even without the daycare expense, it’s not feasible.

My baby has done WONDERFUL since starting daycare and she goes to a great one. I get updates on every feed, diaper, if she gets moved to a new room, and photos throughout the day. Since I was on maternity leave and home alone most of the day, she got very attached to me. She’s also young so of course she will prefer mom but once she became more alert she would not tolerate being held or even looked at by my family, which got really hard for me as a single parent.

But I work 7-3, and after work I go to the gym (they are in the same strip so no drive time. I don’t stay long, 45 minutes max. And the daycare is less than 5 minutes from there. I get to her around 4, but she goes to bed at 8. If I skipped the gym, I’d get only an extra hour with her, but I need to exercise since I am a competitive athlete. Most workouts I can do at home, but I need the weights and some machines at the gym.

I’m off work Tuesdays and Saturdays, but I still take her for about a half day on Tuesday so that way I can get things done around the house without worrying about it and get some time to doomscroll. Plus I want to keep her on a routine.

I play with her at night, but most of the time is spent with her last 2 feeds of the day, giving her a bath, and she takes a nap. She gets roughly 8-9 hours at night, but doesn’t sleep much at daycare at all, sometimes only an hour. (Not their fault, other crying babies in the room, etc). So she takes a pretty long nap in the evening as well.

I just miss her and most Saturdays there is always something to do. Some get together or something and I love spending time with my family and I love them being able to play with her now but I just want to have more time with her.

TL;DR. My baby started daycare and has been thriving but I have to work full time and I miss her and evening time is spent with feeds, bath, and nap basically


r/NewParents • • 10h ago

Skills and Milestones Do the reading, keep talking: it will matter, it just takes time

33 Upvotes

My kid is now 20 months. She didn't talk for a long time. But at 17 months, she said "ball," and it all started coming together. She says well over a hundred words, uses pronouns, speaks in sentences. It's awesome.

But what's really awesome is how all our routines, inside jokes, books, and words all show up now in what she says. It all mattered. All those hours and hours on the floor playing, chatting, and reading.

Anyway this stage of toddlerhood is the best thing ever and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.


r/NewParents • • 7h ago

Feeding Took me way too long to figure this out

18 Upvotes

I'm posting this in case it ends up helping other parents on here. For the past two weeks my baby (around 6 weeks old adjusted for due date) has been so frustrating to feed. She'd be hungry, take down the first ounce or two without terrible, and then the rodeo began. Kicking, flailing, crying, the works. And what was weird to me was that my baby seemed to be acting like she was hungry, but then kept crying and spitting out the bottle, or she'd manage to latch then swat it out of her own mouth and start crying again. And then she'd keep crying until someone walked around the house with her for an hour until she fell asleep, then rinse and repeat at the next feed.

We thought it was just her reflux, which she does have but she's usually a happy spitter after getting on the famotidine, and she usually wasn't spitting up during these episodes. We also thought it could be gas since she'd wiggle around and sometimes fart in the process and thought she was too upset by her gassiness to eat.

So today I was annoyed with her repeated swatting the bottle and wiggling out of my lap I decided to do a loose swaddle to restrain her arms during her feed and that instantly fixed all of the issues. She still cries and tries to wiggle when we take breaks to burp her after every ounce, but without all the rodeo wiggles it's much easier to get the bottle in her mouth and wait for her to stop crying long enough to latch onto it.

TLDR: If feeding your baby feels like a rodeo and it seems like they're hungry but won't take the bottle more than 10 seconds before spitting it out, try feeding them swaddled


r/NewParents • • 7h ago

Happy/Funny So what are you guys dressing your baby up as for Halloween?

18 Upvotes

I’m thinking about picking out an animal onesie but haven’t decided which one


r/NewParents • • 12h ago

Illness/Injuries Injury at daycare- finger laceration involving bone & How to handle

38 Upvotes

Hi all. We have a 14 MO girl that just started daycare 2 weeks ago as I took a new job.

Got a call today that she sustained a finger laceration on the joint involving the bone when her finger got shut in a door by a teacher. It was an accident, and the teacher seemed pretty shaken up when she called but we got taken to the hospital by EMS because it’s pretty bad.

How do you handle things like this? We’re obviously new at this whole thing. I can’t up and quit my job to stay home with her, and there’s no other daycare’s in the area that are currently accepting new babies her age.

Just kind of had a loss and looking for some direction

Thanks, everyone


r/NewParents • • 5h ago

Postpartum Recovery I’m so angry that women’s pelvic health isn’t discussed enough

9 Upvotes

I’ve had a baby (FTM) and delivered vaginally, resulting in upwards tearing along my labia, as well as a second degree perineal tear.

I suspect I have a cystocele (bladder prolapse) due to the appearance of my fallen anterior vaginal wall.

I’ve been told there’s a 6 month wait to even be assessed by a specialist gynaecology team, and on top of that, my stitches in my perineum haven’t healed properly resulting in a visible disconnect between my vaginal opening and perineal muscle.

I feel utterly hopeless and defeated and wish women’s pelvic floor health postpartum was discussed more, and support more readily available.

This is consuming me and taking away my ability to enjoy parenthood for the first time and I feel absolutely atrocious. Fears about my body image and sexuality are haunting me.

Someone please tell me it gets better.


r/NewParents • • 4h ago

Sleep Baby only sleeps in the Baby Bjorn bouncer (supervised) - HELP

5 Upvotes

My son is 8 weeks old. He contact naps with me during the day, and then during the night my husband supervises him while he sleeps in the Baby Bjorn bouncer (he works nights on a 4 on 4 off pattern so he is used to staying up overnight - but it’s not sustainable nor safe). We have a crib in our bedroom, but little one doesn’t like to sleep in it at all. Or anywhere else than the bouncer for that matter.

How can I transition him from the bouncer to the crib? We tried co-sleeping too but he wakes very often and doesn’t seem to like it.


r/NewParents • • 1h ago

Sleep Overnight Sleep - Set me straight!

• Upvotes

Please tell me (FTM) to stop waking my sleeping baby (12 WO) to see if he wants to eat. Google tells me breastfeeding greatly reduces the risk of SIDS because it prevents your baby from drifting into too deep of a sleep and this is making it hard for me to let sleeping dogs lie 🤦🏻‍♀️


r/NewParents • • 1h ago

Feeding How do you know when you should stop breastfeeding?

• Upvotes

Even with the pediatricians help (taking max dose of Pepcid) we still have really bad nights of what sounds like painful crying with our nearly four month old. There’s some arching and he cries for a couple hours and truthfully, it doesn’t seem like fussy crying to me, it sounds like pain?? But how can I tell, I’m a FTM? He will easily both formula in a bottle, a milk bottle, and nurse, but I nurse him 98% of the time. I’ve limited large quantities of dairy but by no means have been able to fully eliminate it and not sure I’m ready to take it that far. Is this just a sleep regression? I can’t tell, friends, I need help because I’m considering stopping breastfeeding because he seems miserable at night! Daytime is better though!


r/NewParents • • 16h ago

Pee/Poop I’m about to lose my mind — in-between diaper sizes

29 Upvotes

My 8-week old is in between newborn and size 1 — and has been producing a volcanic sized blowout EVERY TIME SHE POOPS. Every single time. I’m about to lose my damn mind. We‘ve tried Pampers, Costco brand, and Huggies size 1 diapers to no avail. (Blowouts on blowouts on blowouts.) We went back to the newborn size (Huggies), same thing. We‘ve tightened the size 1 diapers, pulling the tabs as close together as possible, and we always make sure the gussets are pulled out. I’m on my way to Costco to buy puppy pads ... but that doesn’t actually solve the blowout issue, it just helps us from having to wash the Baby Bjorn for the millionth time this week.

How did y’all get through this? Is there a good in-between diaper size brand? I will try ANYTHING.


r/NewParents • • 5h ago

Sleep Breaking feed to sleep association - send help

3 Upvotes

I have a 5 month old ebf baby girl and though I love her to bits, she’s driving me insane.

She was literally the best sleeper until she turned 3.5 months old and I guess the sleep regression hit as well as teething at the same time and I couldn’t get her down any other except nursing because she would wake up in pain (already tried all teething remedies, doc approved pain relief etc).

She is fine for day naps for independent sleep - she does cry and fight it but falls asleep in 10 mins or so.

But at night time - she’s a different baby. No matter how early I move the feed in the bedtime routine, or feeding in lounge instead of bedroom, or bath and massage, and keeping consistent bedtime routine, white noise, darkness, all the shushing and patting, Ferber techniques, step ladder techniques etc etc has been tried to no avail.

She’s developed a habit of feed to sleep and as a result wakes up every 1-2 hours and I haven’t slept in over a month more than 2 hours uninterrupted.

I’ve had her evaluated by doctors, nurses and sleep and settling experts and none of their advice has worked. Even my husband can’t get her down at night or get her to stay asleep.

I’m out of ideas. Any parent who’s broken the feed to sleep association - please tell me what worked.

To be clear, I have no problem waking up to feed her once or twice a night but she doesn’t wake up because she is hungry, she wakes up between sleep cycles because she’s using my breast as a dummy and it’s gone. Before the regression, she used to sleep 11-12 hours without waking or feeding every night after she turned 8 weeks.

She also won’t take a pacifier no matter what.

Please someone help me 🥺


r/NewParents • • 13h ago

Out and About When did you start taking your baby to activities or classes?

17 Upvotes

FTM here! My baby is almost 3 months old, and I’m looking for fun things we can start doing together during the day.
I’ve been looking into baby story times at the library, baby gym classes, music classes, etc., but I’m not sure if she’s still too young for some of these.
At what age did you start taking your baby to activities like these? Did you feel like they actually enjoyed or benefited from them at that age?
I’d love to hear what everyone did with their babies around 3 to 6 months old, especially activities that help with development and getting them out of the house a little more!


r/NewParents • • 11h ago

Happy/Funny Favorite being-a-parent song?

11 Upvotes

There’s a song I love called Don’t Turn The Page (DoGoodDad), and it’s a dad singing about his baby boy growing up. Made me cry the first few times I heard it

What’s yours?

Honorable mention to Hold My Hand, Daddy (Zander Met’n Z)


r/NewParents • • 10h ago

Mental Health Feeling like a bad mom ):

9 Upvotes

Recently, I have just been feeling like the worst momma ever. I have a 12 week old boy, and he is genuinely the sweetest most perfect being ever. I love being his mom so much, but recently I have just been miserable. I am not working so I can be a SAHM, and it’s like I dread the long days of constant feeding, short time of him being happy and then rocking him to sleep + repeat. I feel guilty for not enjoying this. The only way he will fall asleep is in his bouncer, so I feel like I don’t get that connection of rocking him to sleep in my arms.
Maybe I’m dealing with some postpartum depression, but I just don’t feel like myself whatsoever. I feel guilty for having “me time” when my husband gets home from work. By 7-8pm, I am so exhausted that I just feel like I have no energy to play and interact. Just really needed to rant and see if anyone else feels this way ):


r/NewParents • • 3h ago

Mental Health When did you feel like yourself again?

2 Upvotes

I used to do things to take care of myself that I just don’t have time for anymore. When did you get time again to do things that made you feel like yourself?


r/NewParents • • 18h ago

Tips to Share What do you do with you 4-5 month old!!!!!!

34 Upvotes

Baby is awake longer, rolling, and curious about everything. I don’t know what to do with them anymore. Wake windows used to be exciting but we have not played with every toy that we have. I feel defeated.
Is it ok if I spend some of the wake window just reading a book and letting them roll around???


r/NewParents • • 23h ago

Tips to Share What do I do all day with a young baby?

83 Upvotes

I feel like I’ve hit a wall and suddenly the days feel SO slow. Baby is 3 months. Days used to fly by, but gradually as feeds have got quicker and naps have got shorter there suddenly seems to be so much TIME to fill… and their awake time only goes up from here?!! HELP.

Everyone says get out and about… but seriously, and do what? I go for a daily walk to get a coffee but that only takes an hour or so. People say go out and do things you enjoy… like what though?

Today it got to 1pm and I realised I had 5 hours to fill before I could begin bedtime-adjacent things. We had been for a walk. I didn’t need any groceries. I didn’t want to go and buy anything or eat anything. I googled local gardens and parks and stuff but honestly couldn’t be bothered doing another walk. I thought about taking her thrifting but again I just wasn’t interested in browsing or buying.

Theres some baby rhyme time type stuff on near me but everything’s on at 10-11am which is the only time of day there’s a small chance she takes a nap longer than 30 minutes. And it’s the afternoons I’m struggling to fill, not the mornings!

I want to enjoy this time while she’s so little because I know I’ll blink and she’ll be tearing the house apart on foot! But I just don’t know how? This feeling hit me like a freight train this week all of a sudden, I don’t know what’s happened. The days used to go by so easily.

Any advice welcome. The more specific the better. What do your days look like?!

One thing to note: baby wearing is hard for me for anything more than 30-45 mins due to back issues and I feel like such a failure hearing how much it’s praised, because I can’t do it. So anything but that!

It probably doesn’t help that I’m self employed (freelancer) and have barely been able to do any work since she’s been born so I’m feeling the pressure that that’s probably what I WANT to do but can’t.


r/NewParents • • 9h ago

Parental Leave/Work Feeling so guilty about leaving my 7-month-old baby to go back to work

7 Upvotes

I’m a first-time mom to a 7-month-old baby boy, and I recently accepted a job offer. I’m supposed to start working soon, but I feel so sad and guilty thinking about leaving him at daycare.
I spent every day with him since he was born, and the thought of being away from him for hours breaks my heart.
I also want to build my career, but I’m struggling emotionally with this decision.
Did anyone else feel this way? Does it get easier? How did you cope with the guilt?


r/NewParents • • 34m ago

Sleep 10 month old doesn’t sleep anymore

• Upvotes

Really tried everything at this point… my ten month old just doesn’t get any good sleep at night or during naps.

Attempted schedule:
Awake 6.30
9.30-11 nap
2.30-3.30 nap
7.30 bed

She was sort of sleep trained in that she could put herself to sleep at 7.30…
Lately she will not even attempt to spend time in her crib.
I’ve had to go back to feeding her to sleep and co sleeping all night which means I’m no longer getting any restful sleep, and I think every time I move it disturbs her.

She now goes down about 8 then wakes at 12.30, 2.30, 3.30, 5 and 6.
Her naps stop after 30 minutes and she screams bloody murder.

She’s always been a bad sleeper but I’m at my wits end.


r/NewParents • • 46m ago

Babies Being Babies 4 month nap problems

• Upvotes

My boy is 4.5 months/20 weeks old and nap times have become horrendous. He was always able to nap well as a newborn but around 3 months he started to have trouble falling asleep. I know they go through a sleep progression around 3/4 months so I assumed it was that and it would get better. It just seems to be getting worse. Every nap time he starts getting upset as soon as he's a bit tired. His wake windows can be anything from 1.5 to 2.5 hours, but usually around 2 at the moment. He will kick off until he's actually ready to sleep which can be anywhere from 10 to 45 mins later. I have to hold him upright on my shoulder as he won't tolerate cradle hold. He will fight me, scratch me, pull my hair, scream and be sick on me until he eventally calms down and nods off. We do this routine anywhere between 4 and 7 times a day. I walk for hours with him some days as the pram and carrier are the only place he will go to sleep calmly anymore, and even then it's not always calm but it's better.

At this point my nervous system is just shot every day from the screaming. Sometimes he'll scream after his mid day nap because he wants to sleep for longer but can't. Sometimes I can rescue it and then he'll sleep for a while longer and be happy. Other times he will just cry until it's time to sleep again. he sleeps for 15-35 minutes usually before it starts all iver again so it's nowhere near enough time for me to get over it. It's making me feel quite depressed now and I'm crying a lot which I thought I'd left behind a couple months ago.

Is this just something I need to endure until it passes or should I be doing something to make this better?


r/NewParents • • 5h ago

Sleep 9 Month Sleep Regression

2 Upvotes

How are we getting through this? Since 4 months my baby has slept about half the night in crib and the rest in our bed because I just can't keep getting up overnight. Pretty crappy sleep over the summer finally got better, and naps are amalgamating into 1.5h + 1h stretches. Now for the past few weeks I can't even put baby in their crib at night or they wake crying within 5 mins and won't settle until I take them out for a snuggle. I'm sure it's related to their developmental stages, I love the cuddles but don't want to solely cosleep everyday either.

Would love any suggestions, CIO is not for us but seriously considering for the 1000th time moving the crib into our room until this gets resolved in case it helps. If I just have to get through it and LO will grow out of it, would love to be told that as well.