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.

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?

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!

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.

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.

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 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?

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 baby girl was just born yesterday at 39 weeks and 1 day at 7 pounds 12 oz. She was immidiately transported to a hospital that could give her a feeding tube and feed her. What should I expect going forwards because I’m a nervous wreck.

It was just a quick appointment close by. I don’t need the whole bag with spare clothes, toys, bottles, medicines, and everything I’ll just bring the fanny pack that has diaper changes and fruit pouches.

What do you guys think happened?

Send help, thoughts, prayers, anything - we are deep in sleep regression hell and I need to write this somewhere so I don't go insane. 6 month old baby. Was sleeping through the night from 3-5 months old (I know, I know, we got lucky) but now is waking up every 30 minutes. EVERY. 30. MINUTES. He's in a hands out sleep suit, in his crib. Isn't hungry, doesn't need a nappy change, isn't too hot/cold. Just wakes up wailing (usually on his tummy because he got stuck, but he hasn't figured out how to roll tummy to back yet). Will not resettle on his own and requires 10-30min of contact cuddles to be put back down again only for it all to repeat again 30mins later. How are you guys dealing with this?! Has anyone got any magic solutions, because we are suffering right now. For those who have come out the other side of this, how long did it last? Please send me some positivity....

Can someone help me with how to dress my LO (14mo) at night. The weather is getting a lot cooler...

Currently in a footed sleep sack (hates non footed sleep sacks) with long sleeve and thin trousers. Feet are however exposed and idk I would hate that. They're also sometimes cool to the touch.

Or should I put her in a vest and full onsie pj with feet?

Or both? Footed PJ's AND footed sleep sack seems like a recipe for overheating.

She wakes up a lot throughout the night in all seasons since birth so it's hard to tell if my changes make any difference

Am I overthinking this... Dressing the kid is one thing I have zero intuition for. I run hot but my hands and feet are often cold.

I’m curious how other families approach shared caregiving, especially when raising a baby.

I love the idea that caregiving shouldn’t be about dividing the work, but multiplying the care, love, and support available to the entire family.

It’s not just about everyone caring for the baby, but also about caregivers supporting one another and building a stronger family together.

What does shared caregiving look like in your home? Are there any habits, routines, or small changes that have helped your family care for and support one another?

I’d love to hear what’s worked for your family and any tips you’d share with other parents!

Our kiddo is a month old now, and we’re finally transitioning to sleeping while the baby sleeps in a bassinet next to me. Before, we were taking shifts watching the baby, as I had a lot of anxiety around all of us sleeping at the same time.

However, after trying this last night — omg it was ROUGH for me. I’m a very light sleeper, and our baby is SO NOISY. Grunts, beeps, whistles, etc. And it allll keeps me up. Partly because I’m just nervous something will happen while I’m asleep, but mostly because I’m just a light sleeper in general.

Any tips on how to sleep through the random noises? I’ll def wake up for the crying, but I would love to be able to tune out the other noises.

I'm (F, 30s) mum to a 5 month old baby boy whose wake windows are getting bigger and needs more daily stimulation. The question I have is how to let my baby enjoy 'downtime' without relying on screens. Absolutely no judgement to parents who use screens, but aside from a bit of TV , we want to avoid him having an iPad especially as he grows up.

If we've been out for the day, like adults, I feel like my baby could benefit with some chill quiet time without me in his face waving toys around. As an adult, I'd relax by going on my phone or watching TV. How do I give my baby time to decompress and chill without sticking him in front of the TV all the time? Sorry this may seem really obvious and stupid, I just don't want to overstimulate him if he's already had a big day.

Our baby is 10 months old and has been a dream since day one. He was politely born on his due date and latched immediately. He had textbook wake windows, and slept in 4 hour stretches overnight. When it was time for daycare he took to it really well and happily took a bottle. If he cried there was a reason (hungry/cold/sleepy) and once that was addressed he stops. I read every book on Ferber method for him to just lay down in his crib and sleep 12 hours when he was 8 months old. He has hit milestones perfectly. He’s all around just a happy little guy.

We had always planned to have two kids and now I’m terrified to because I feel like we’re parenting on easy mode and have no skills. I don’t know what to do for a colicky baby or one who doesn’t sleep?? If you had an easy baby? How was you transition to two?

I can't tell if we are behind or everyone else is just "ahead." Baby girl just turned 10 months old yesterday. She is amazing and ahead on milestones and a great weight, but on the petite side. She is fed pumped breastmilk in a bottle. She eats 3 meals and a snack most days during the week, because she's in daycare. On weekends, we have slacked a little and she may only eat 2 meals a day. I'm really not sure how much she is truly "eating" with solids but with purees/yogurt/things like that, she will eat a good amount.

She has one MOTN wake, drinks a bottle, and goes back to sleep. So I'm most concerned about dropping the MOTN bottle. For her before bed bottle, we do wipe her 2 teeth with a washcloth. Her pediatrician said not to worry about the MOTN bottle and cleaning her teeth and we'd address that at a year old.

My concern is that it seems like there is pressure to start weaning her off of bottles at daycare. Her pediatrician said we'd also revisit this at a year old.

She can drink water out of a straw cup (but gets herself wet in the process so it still needs some fine tuning). We are going to start with an open cup but I imagine there will be a learning curve with that too. I also will start using the same sippy cups (I know sippy cups aren't great but that's what they use at daycare) they use at daycare and put breastmilk in there to get her used to it.

At this point, I don't think she is consuming enough solids to be dropping bottles. And I was under the impression that breastmilk should be her primary form of nutrition until she was a year old and solids are "just for fun" but it seems like there is differing opinions on that.

When did your baby get the hang of solids? When did you start weaning? HOW did you start weaning? Thanks so much in advance. - Signed an anxious FTM!

Good morning all, I 21f and my husband 21m had our medically complicated son in late August, we’ve known he was medically complicated since 20wks pregnant. Finding out all the things about him kind of sent me into prepartum depression and honestly a little bit of psychosis. I hardly remember my 2nd and 3rd trimesters except the really bad parts. Like the sobbing in the shower blaming myself for his health condition moments. My provider put me on antidepressants that I’ve since stopped taking postpartum because I genuinely felt great. My husband on the other hand has not felt great, life with a newborn wasn’t what he wanted it to be so he’s been dealing with a lot of ppd. If I’m being honest it pisses me off that he’s dealing with “so much” when I’m the one up every 2-3 hours pumping and now that he’s back to work I’m up throughout the night. He doesn’t even offer to help. If he does take the baby he’s so aggressive with him, I don’t know if it’s just me being a ftm or what but I can’t stand how he handles our son. I genuinely want to put my hands on him and it’s drowning me, I feel like I’m losing every ounce of respect for him. He doesn’t do chores unless I specifically tell him what, he doesn’t shower unless I tell him to most days, he literally just sits on the couch and watches tv or calls 10000 people to talk to them otp and laugh and joke and it makes me so jealous and angry. Yesterday night I didn’t get to eat the dinner I made because the baby was crying so I went to put him to bed, it took me 30 minutes. My food was sitting downstairs getting cold. After 30 minutes of soothing an inconsolable baby my husband has the audacity to barge in the room loudly so I shush him pretty aggressively. He pretty much throws my food on the bed and walks out. After my sons asleep asleep I finally sit down to eat my food that’s been sitting out for over an hour, cold dinner. And after that I take the baby cam and go downstairs to see if anything needs cleaned to which I see and slob of a house, like nothing has been done since dinner was at and my husband is no where to be found. Awesome! So I tidy the living room and clean around and eventually I check find my and this mf is here. I open out garage door and he’s sitting in his car listening to music (garage door was open). And I just start crying, why does he get time alone and get to do this but when I get time alone I’m cleaning. When I tell you I wanted to just lay it out on him. I was so angry but I didn’t say anything, I just sat there staring off crying because that was the only time I’d had the entire day by myself. I hate my husband, how can he be struggling when he sees what I’m going through. I feel like he just wanted an excuse to be a lazy piece of shit and stop caring for the baby because it’s actual work. I hate him so much, I want to divorce him and do this all myself just to prove how much of a little bjtch he’s being

FTM to a 5.5 mo baby boy.. I feel I am in worst trenches than newborn. He has been napping only 25 mins at once with wake windows of 2-5-3 hours.. and it takes such effort to make him nap.
He feeds 2.5-3 hours. He is always on his tummy and hates being on back. Recently became a clingy baby. Also started scooting all over the house on belly and licking chair, walls.
Can’t feel anything on gums but sticking out tongue often and passing gas a lot also number of poops increased. We follow all cues and wake windows but still it doesn’t help!
I just want to cry and cry since I am perpetually tired.
Please guide, help!

With winter coming and having a 4 month old that is growing the a weed how do you prepare for the winter without waiting till the last min!
He is blowing though sizes month by month! He is 4 month and in 6-9m clothes. Also baby clothes sizes are so variable! In some brands he fits 6m and 6-9 while other 6-9m is 3 inches too long sometimes he fits I. A 12m outfit just to confuse me even more! Any suggestions on how to decide what sizes to buy for winter clothing when our winter’s stretch all the way to February he is currently 4 months at 17.4lbs and around 25in tall. To get an idea of his growth rate he was 14 lbs at 2moths and not quite 24 in tall.

I don’t want to wait last minute because our weather tends to be warm one day the 30 the next so I dot. Want to be cause off guard. I don’t mind things being a little big on him just don’t want him to swim on his clothes

Also if you know some brands that are great for big babies please name drop. I feel like Carter’s is small because he is fitting 9m clothes . Also any brands that are constant in their sizing!

If any mom or dad out there was thinking about starting an SSRI let this be your sign to do it . Holy crap I feel so much better . I’ve been on Zoloft for a month and it’s life changing. I’ve always had anxiety and bouts of depression before my pregnancy but postpartum made it worse . I was a mess and how I felt affected my marriage. My doctor gave it to me at my 6week follow up and I didn’t start taking it until 3 months later thinking how I was feeling would go away. Only a month on it and things are much better . I’m nicer to myself, nicer to my husband , the impulsive thoughts are less frequent and did I mention I haven’t cried in 3 weeks ( used to be a daily occurrence ). Mamas start that zolof !

Whoever said babies are a walk in the park because they are always sleeping but toddlers are actually where the work is must have never met a baby because they in fact don’t sleep at all. My baby is 2, almost 3 months and I think I’m actually losing my mind. The most sleep he puts in at a time is 2 hours.. one hour of that being on my chest so I’m literally surviving on segmented sleep of about 30 minutes to an hour every day. In total in a day I probably get like 3 to 4 hours of sleep.

My baby is 6.8 weeks old and she isn’t smiling yet so just curious when yours did & also laughing?

I would like to have any idea if she likes us or not so rly looking forward to that lol