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

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.

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)

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!

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.

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

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???

I have a 6 month old and I love her to death however I truly feel like im drowning sometimes. She's been in this stage since she was about 4 months where everything is crying and fighting. She fights feedings even though she's crying for food. She fights naps too no end when she's very obviously tired. She seems to hate playtime and cries after like 5 minutes. She cannot be put down midday of the time or stays crying. She cries when I try to clean or eat or shower or sleep or even fucking breathe at this point. I am exclusively pumping and my supply has tanked because I can't pump when I need to because the second I get them on she starts crying. She won't go with anyone else rn even dad sometimes because she only wants me. I love my babygirl and would do anything for her but damn I feel so miserable sometimes. And idk I think some of it is bitterness too that my partner still basically had his whole life he did before menawhile I feel like a shell of myself. He gets to come and go as he pleases he can shit in peace shower or bathe in peace eat in peace scroll in peace get a full night's sleep. Yes he does provide financially and i am so grateful for that but being the default parent fucking sucks because even when he wants to help he can't because she doesn't want him. Like I said i love my family but taking on this load has been ahit on my mental health and most days I have atleast a few breakdowns. When does this if ever get easier?

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 ):

my sister put her foot down after the last one sang the alphabet at 6am every day for a month. fair. my niece turns one soon and i want to get her something she’ll actually use instead of something that ends up in a bin. leaning toward books or bath stuff, open to being talked out of it

Hey everyone! First time dad to a beautiful 5.5 month old. It has definitely been a journey so far! I returned to work and was talking with some coworkers about the experience so far and that I’m looking forward to when she can crawl and walk and do more stuff or even keep herself entertained for a bit. They kind of laughed and just said that’s when it gets worse and then proceeded to tell me all the not so great things I have coming up, like teething, separation anxiety, another sleep regression, chasing them around so they don’t hurt themselves etc…

I guess getting this far made me think, it must get a lot better as they learn new things and grow up a little bit. Now I feel less excited and even more nervous. Does it really progressively get worse before it gets better? Did anyone’s baby not really get impacted by the above and just stayed a pretty happy baby? That’s how my girl is now and has been a great sleeper and was hoping to keep this groove going!

My baby is 12 weeks and I feel like the sleep regression may have come early but I don’t know. She was sleeping totally through the night - like 8 PM until 6:30 AM with no wake ups. Then, she started waking up anywhere from 1-4 times throughout the night this past week. Her naps are also only 30 mins during the day (or shorter). Could this be the sleep regression coming early? She’s a VERY easy baby so I don’t know if she just may have a more mild sleep regression.

Parents with older babies, what would you have told yourself in the early days based on what you know now?

My baby is 2 months old and today while standing with him in front of a mirror he locked in on the reflection of himself and started smiling a lot and had a huge “conversation” with himself. It was obviously the cutest thing ever, to the point that i started crying with how cute it was 😅 I was, however, wondering if it’s common for them to have this kind of interaction at only 2 months old (of course I don’t expect him to realize that that was his reflection)

I just listened to the journey series from the New Yorker about the couple who had 20+ kids through surrogacy and Collin Gosselin podcast episode with Jay Shetty and I’m in tears, I’m enraged, I need to vent.

As a mom, how can parents cause their kids so much suffering. And in both cases, so many other adults could have act and they didn’t do anything to save the kids. It is so heartbreaking. The worst part is that there are so many cases like this and would not get told and kids will continued to get abused.

Having a rough night with postpartum hormones and could use a laugh to stop this crying. Fill the comment section with a happy/funny story from your week.

I’ll go first, my baby is 11.5 weeks and has been working on intentional movements of her hands and feet. She can now reach for things, grab them, hit them, etc. and has a blast doing it. We were giving her a bath tonight and she kicked her feet, creating a splash. She looked startled for a second and then started kicking her feet and waving her hands wildly in the water, splashing my partner and I. The two of us just started cracking up and she looked at us grinning. It was a really fun family moment that I’ll always cherish.

Last night as I was getting my LO ready for a bath I was thinking about the phrase "you know your baby best". Which I don't really resonate with. Im a FTM to a 14 week old and every day I don't really know how I made it through, feeling like I'm just winging it and thinking I don't know how I'll manage another day tomorrow. I just do anyway. I think what's stopping me from knowing my baby best is the expectations around literally everything and it is sucking the joy of motherhood out of me, so I decided to just let go and take the day as it comes. Which is what we all do anyways. Sometimes my baby sleeps through the night, sometimes he wakes up every hour, sometimes only once or twice a night. I thought my baby woke up at 7:30 to start the day. He does most days, but sometimes 7am, sometimes 6:30, today it was 5:55 am. There are days where I cant get my baby to take his naps and I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong, the next day I don't change a thing and he peacefully goes down for all naps. I realize its naive to think with enough routine and time, days with be predictable and the lingering pressure of the next day will be gone. Babies are people too. Good days, bad days. I'm letting go of expectations. I'm going to just live in each moment that I'm lucky enough to have with my baby. He is growing every day, learning every day. Of course every day wont be the same. I'm just ranting I guess but if you read this much, thank you xx

My 10 month old has been sick now for a week with a high fever. We have alternated Tylenol and ibuprofen. It goes down but then shoots right back up. She’s been to the doctors and they said it was a common cold. Just to MRI doing what we’re doing.

She ended up with a 104.6 fever yesterday and rushed her to the ER because she ended up having a seizure. They gave her ibuprofen and got her fever down to 102. Sent us home and told us to keep doing what we are already doing. That it was a cold.

This morning her fever spiked back up to 103. She threw up everywhere. She’s shaking. Her skin is so hot and red. She’s being extra fussy. This doesn’t seem like a common cold. My gut is telling me else, but I can’t tell if it’s paranoia or not. Her breathing is fast and hard.

Just I don’t know what else to do.

My 8 month old has been having rough nights due to teething, his day nap turned into a 3 hr siesta. Do you wake your little ones up from naps over 1hr?

My wife and I have read to our baby since she was born pretty much - we're both big readers (I genuinely enjoy the good picture books) and it's always been a cute snuggly time with her.

Now she's six months old and wants to spend the entire time we read a book eating it. Totally fine, I know this is developmentally normal, our board books are taking a cheerful beating, and I just want her to associate books as fun objects, so very happy for her to gnaw away.

My question for other parents who experienced this phase is: Do you continue reading the story? Sometimes I feel mean continuing to flip pages and interrupting her delicious storybook snack, lol. Should I just read the first page and then let her chow down for as long as she's interested?

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?

Yesterday I took the small one (10 weeks) to my first baby group activity at library just to see and super impressed with how well the toddlers all played next to each other / with each other.

Mine was significantly the youngest and only non-mobile but we had a couple other crawlers and a 9 month old walker (which was very amazing) but it was a real joy seeing the kids clap and dance along to teacher.

Also managed social anxiety and talked to a few of the moms (still hard to do as sahd)

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.

TLDR: how do people find the time for basic needs such as using the bathroom/cooking/eating? With baby who will not stay in bassinet during the day (gets fussy after 10ish minutes or so) and will only contact nap.

I’m 7 weeks in and had complications after birth (pre e a week after + currently, mastitis). Partner is back at work (9-5) 3 days in office & 2 days at home. We live with my parents in a separate apartment at home so I have some help but not really bc my parents are on the older side (late 60’s early 70s’s) and my mom struggles with really bad arthritis so since becoming pregnant I knew I didn’t want to rely on her taking care of/watching baby. However, she really worries about taking care of baby (an accident happening or just something happening to baby in general while under her care which I understand.) I do want to say my mom helps a lot with doing laundry, taking my dog out for bathroom breaks and sometimes bringing me meals. She’ll also watch my baby if he’s sleeping in bassinet or will sometimes carry him while sitting down but I try not to ask of this often as I know she’s in a lot of pain from her arthritis so this has been the case only about twice.

I find myself struggling when my partner goes to the office but also in general when he works overall because baby doesn’t really stay in his bassinet during the day, he LOVES to contact nap and don’t get me wrong I love it too but when am I able to have breakfast, use the bathroom and cook??

Genuinely asking because I’ve asked my mom and sister how they did it and they either don’t remember (I’m youngest of 5 and 28 y/o & my niece is 20 yrs old so it’s understandable) or said sometimes they would just let us cry for a bit while they got stuff done.

My mom was a sahm to 5 of us and my sister was a single mom, so i really beat myself up for not being able to find the ways to eat, cook, or use the bathroom. It makes me feel like i’m not cut out for this or that I just don’t understand how to be a mom 😭 I really don’t like seeing/hearing my baby cry so I always try to not let him cry for long at all as it breaks my heart.

Should I lower my expectations on what I can get done throughout the day? For example today I broke down when my partner got home because I wanted to have dinner ready, have bathed my baby and looked at least somewhat decent. It’s been difficult lately as well because of the mastitis I have to take antibiotics on an empty stomach so I have to time my meals accordingly.

I feel like I should be able to get more done, and that I don’t do enough for my baby. I combo feed but lately I feel like i’m doing more formula than breastfeeding/pumping so it makes me feel like I can’t even feed my child with breast milk, just feels like another thing I cant do as I don’t produce enough. Also, my mom already helps a lot with laundry, and taking my dog for bathroom breaks so all of this makes me feel even worse that I can’t do it all on my own. 😪

Also I am seeing a therapist but would like some solidarity/to hear from other parents on how they do it or if i’m just expecting too much of myself.

TIA 🥲🫶🏼