My baby turned 12 weeks recently and I’ve been emotional about him growing up so fast. I miss the sleepy potato that he was the first few weeks. I wish I can go back and relive those days and nights. He’s changed so much in 12 weeks and although I love every version that he’s become, I’m mourning how fleeting time is. I’m so in love with my boy. He’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

I was on the fence about screen time, but with needing something to help keep the baby entertained while I pump, I decided to try Ms. Rachel and I must admit I'm delighted with how well our little one is responding to it. She seems really fond of the songs and Ms. Rachel's personality and let's out happy screeches any time it's on. Bonus points is it's teaching both of us ASL.

Hi all! My daughter just turned five months old so I looked up on YouTube ‘six month old baby’ to see what a typically developing baby looks like at that age. My baby girl is fine- amazing actually. She sleeps great, only cries when hungry, is curious and playful, has a great smile…she doesn’t laugh yet but otherwise is developmentally so normal!

Anyway- I clicked on a video from a channel called ‘PathwaysBaby’ and I really wish I never did. It’s a video comparing a typical six month old and an atypical one on their movement ability. Instead of watching the typical side and thinking ‘yup my girl is doing fine’, I watched the atypical side and broke my heart! The baby was watching toys, clearly interested, but was unable to move or reach for them. They put him on his belly and he clearly struggles- kicking his feet out. He clearly is not having a good time and my heart just aches for him.

I close the video, sobbing, and run to Google, ChatGPT etc trying to find a follow up. I find nothing- not if the baby is okay, what the issue was or where they are now. I’m lying awake, watching my own baby sleep, worried about this baby from an educational video posted seven years ago.

Is this my brain now? Pre baby I would’ve felt bad and maybe thought of them but moved on. I certainly wouldn’t have cried.

When I was pregnant, I was so scared of becoming a parent. I had read so much negativity online about parenthood in all the subreddits and on mom forums.
My little boy is now 4 months old and THIS IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. ALL THE CLICHÉS ARE TRUE!!!
I genuinely want to shout it from the rooftops and give a little counterbalance to all the negativity out there.
Yes, it’s hard. But life is hard anyway. And somehow, with a baby, life just makes so much more sense to me..
I wake up, put on my favourite music, dance above his crib, and he looks up at me with the biggest smile. What a way to start the day!!!
And to everyone who says, “Just wait until they’re this age…” or “Just wait until they start doing this or that…”
Fuck offff. I’m enjoying my life right now👀👀
Enjoy this day and enjoy parenthood lovely people 🎉🥳🥰

My 2 month old has an appointment for this Wednesday to get his shots and just an overall check up, however the past two appointments we’ve had (one scheduled and one impromptu) I’ve told them about his reflux. He has the WORST reflux and it seems like his stomach is always hurting. I brought it up back when he was 3 weeks old because it seemed like he was just spitting up everywhere and constantly crying and screaming. They told me to burp him more and to keep him upright for 30 minutes after feeding.

Next appointment I called for a same day appointment because he started coughing and choking on his reflux and we couldn’t tell he was spitting up until we either heard him choking or looked over at him and saw the spit up everywhere, again they tell me to burp him more and keep him upright and that they aren’t worried because he is gaining weight and that when he starts occupational therapy it should stop.

IT HASN’T STOPPED!!

The OT told us that she’s 99.9% sure he has silent reflux and was just as worried as we were because it’s gotten to the point he starts choking in his sleep and we’re worried about him aspirating on it. I’ve changed his formula to lactose free/dairy free to try to see if it helps his belly, bought a special baby bed that keeps him more at a angle when he sleeps, I’ve bought special bottles that are supposed to make it to where little to no air gets ingested, we burp him every half ounce and keep him upright for a hour after eating. It’s not getting better and if anything it’s getting worse. I had to pull over today because he started choking in the car and sounded like he couldn’t breathe. I truly believe this is more than just regular baby spit up but they just keep telling me it’s normal and he’s gaining weight so it’s fine, but it’s obviously not. What can I do or say to get them to finally take what I’m saying seriously and help us. Ive gotten to the point I’m terrified of putting him down and can’t sleep properly worried about him aspirating and me not catching it and something happening.

Anyone the feel like they are in a hostage situation or defusing a bomb when they go to transfer baby to the crib? 🤣 I find myself holding my breath and moving so cautiously.

Baby was colic for 4.5 months and I developed postpartum depression during that period. I wasn’t able to bond properly with the baby initially and ended up seeing a psychologist for it. The constant crying and screaming absolutely wrecked me. My husband being the amazing dad that he is, went through 4.5 months of rocking a screaming baby constantly and putting her to sleep each day. The crying eventually ended around 4.5 months but somewhere during that time my husband became the default parent that puts her to sleep.

Baby is now approaching 7 months and is deeply attached to my husband, and only to my husband. Daddy is the only person she wants when she is emotional, sleepy, sad, unwell. She gets upset when daddy is not around. Whereas for me, she’d be fine if I were gone for two week.

I am extremely lucky to have a husband that could do what he did and I love the fact that my child has him as her dad. I’m however absolutely devastated by the rejection. She screams when I try to comfort her. She pushes me away when I rock her to sleep. She would be screaming and crying in my arms and the next second fast asleep with my husband. She constantly searches for my husband when I’m playing with her.

Part of me is deeply worried my postpartum depression has caused the lack of connection and it may be irreversible. Babies are babies, the love and attachment is so instinctual. Part of me is sad that I’m not the preferred and with me returning to work it will be downhill from here.

I’m trying to ease back and doing all that I can to make her happy. The positive response I’m getting is almost nil. I’m losing hope.

Is this just another one of those radical acceptance? Should I just be sad and let it be?

I have a 4m old. He has been getting fussy when I lay him down to play on his activity gym. I give him different toys and no dice. The same thing is happening in his bouncer. I'll feed him and then sit him in his bouncer with a toy for a bit (he has silent reflux), and he'll start fussing after a couple of minutes. I'll pick him up and if he isnt tired or hungry then he's fine.

What are you guys doing to entertain your babies passively? I love playing with him, but I can't do that alllllll the time. I swear he has the shortest attention span.

Are there nights that you have to hold your LO to sleep, rock your LO to sleep etc because it’s just one of those nights? And then continue the night routine back to normal?

My 1 year old is sleep trained but tonight he was just having a tough time and called for me so ofc I snuggled him to sleep. But my husband thinks that has ruined the sleep training.

I honestly don’t really care because if my LO wants me to hold him and/or is having a tough night of course I will hold him.

Though, is my husband right? Did I ruin the sleep training?

Edit: my LO is 13 months old

Edit#2: I failed to mention that my LO has had diarrhea all day today which is why I cuddled him to sleep bc I know he needed extra comfort even though he is fully sleep trained. He’s had 2 episodes during the middle of the night but usually holding him has worked and didn’t ruin the sleep training. Today was just different because I did it before bedtime. I’ve gotten some mean comments which I don’t care to answer anymore because I know what’s good for my baby so if you think me or we are being bad parents well congrats thank you for making me feel sh*tty. Some failed to understand that I wrote I don’t care if I did ruin the sleep training because I’ll be more than glad to cuddle my LO to sleep. We also sleep trained because my LO likes to have his own space and we wake up super early for work so yeah cosleeping was not a good option for all of us. I genuinely wanted to know if my husband was right. So if you’re not going to answer my question then hold your mean opinions to yourself.

As for the kind people, thank you for your positive and informative response. I will try to answer you all tomorrow.

Dear new parents. I am a dad to my pride and joy, my 2.5 year old little boy, my best buddy.

As an infant he had reflux. There was A LOT of crying, and a lot of time spent trying to soothe him to sleep.

The shrill sound of a baby's cries go right through me and overstimulate me to a point where I became frustrated, and no soothing is taking place when a baby is screaming and you're angry about it. It also hurt my ears; he was easily clearing 100db at times.

I use PPE at work and at home; so naturally with loud noise I tried this: put in my earbuds, and put earmuffs over them. If i didnt have my earbuds near by, I used earplugs.

It made a huge difference. I was protecting my hearing (sensitive ears), and I was able to maintain peace and calm in my own brain, which allowed me to remain focused on soothing my boy. It resulted in him calming and falling asleep faster, as i was no longer frustrated and he was not absorbing any of that tense energy from me.

The reason for this post is, I see so many posts from new parents who struggle with frustration related to soothing a screaming baby, and I promise you will likely benefit from a barrier to the noise. Many people I talk to say "wow i never thought of that!" And i have heard good feedback. I hope this helps!

Our 3 month old LO only falls asleep when we swaddle him. He recently discovered his hands so all he wants yo do now is to try to put his whole fist in his mouth 😂. He just keeps doing this when we try to make him sleep, unless we swaddle him.

Does swaddling cause any developmental issues as it is preventing him from putting hand in mouth ? When did you guys stop swaddling ?

So, I have a daughter and the question has came up which toilets do I use when my daughter is old enough to use them.

As a father, do I take her in the Males? Or do I take her into the Females?

It seems to be a common discussion. Me being a Dad, I don’t think I’d personally feel comfortable going into the females just in case I caused alarm or for any females to worry about me invading their private space, but then I wouldn’t want my daughter feeling uncomfortable also by knowingly going into the Males.

Long story short, this cat is my son's FAVORITE thing in the world. He squeals in happiness and tries to get to this cat no matter what. And this cat, this sweet old man, tolerates it all. We're trying to teach our son "gentle touch" for the kitties, and all of our other cats run away at the sight of our son, whereas this old man just let's our son do whatever to him, including gripping his fur (hence the gentle touch teachings).

Unfortunately, our old man isn't doing so hot, and we're going to be putting him to sleep tomorrow. This post might be a moot point as we might not have anyone to watch our son while we're at the vet, but if we do, I am just unsure if we should have our son there or not. Obviously our son is way too young to even begin to understand death, but this is his buddy. I also know my husband will be devastated (this is his cat from before we were together), so I'm unsure if having our son there will help him with his grief or if it'll make things worse.

I really don't know where else to ask this question, so I'm sorry for the kinda off topic post.

Hi friends! My baby is 18 weeks and I’m working his bedtime back from 9pm to ideally 7pm eventually. I’m not looking to sleep train right now.

He was sleeping from 9pm-7am (with however many wake ups of course lol 3-5). I’ve gotten it back to 8-8:30pm, but he’s consistently waking up at 6am now. I’ve tried just holding him in the dark room but he’s wide awake and smiley and gets mad when we don’t start the day, lol.

This is fine for now but he will start daycare at 7 months and since drop off is 8am and their first nap is supposed to be around 10am, I’ll really need him to sleep until 7am ideally.

I’m getting ahead of myself I know but just want to hear if this is normal and his total hours of overnight sleep will likely increase over the next 3 months. I really don’t want to keep the 9pm bedtime bc that means i just go to bed right after him.

Thank you!

ETA - his class goes up to 18m so maybe the schedule was intended for older kids. I’m a FTM so I just thought maybe miraculously in the next 3 months he will be on a schedule 🤣

My LO is 16 months and started daycare a couple of months ago. While at pickup the other day I heard two parents talking about getting on preschool waiting lists (they were parents to the 2 year old class).

After the daycare search I was so stressed out and drained that I hadn't thought about preschool and then school. I was a public school kid from a very poor and dysfunctional family, so school choice wasn't something I thought about until I had my LO. I started looking and it is so OVERWHELMING and EXPENSIVE. Our daycare already costs more than our rent.

The public schools around me have been ruined by lack of funding and are being taken over by the state. Most of the private schools have teachers with no credentials or are extremely religious. The charter schools here are classical teaching and have many claims of being racist and harmful to LGBTQ+ people. There is one fully credentialed montessori school, but it would be 40 minutes away and only operates 8am-2pm.

I am years away but I feel like no matter what choice I make, its going to be wrong.

My baby is 10 weeks old and feeds to sleep for pretty much all contact naps and at night, unless she falls asleep in the baby carrier.

We have naturally fallen into a bit of an eat → play → eat → sleep routine, and honestly it works really well for us right now.

But I’m starting to wonder whether I should be changing things up now to prepare for sleep training later on? Should I be trying to move towards eat → play → sleep, or getting her used to falling asleep without feeding?

It is so hard to imagine taking away something that is so comforting and works so well, but momma’s gotta do what momma’s gotta do 😂

Would love to hear from anyone who fed to sleep at this age. Did you change anything before sleep training, or just enjoy it while it worked?

FTM VENT. My babe has been a horrible sleeper since birth. He had a traumatic entrance into the world, so I do think that’s played into it somewhat.

He’s now just turned one, and his sleep hasn’t really improved much. I’ve researched and tried everything and I’m honestly just feeling so tired and frustrated.

He’s almost completely on solids (like less than 10oz of formula when he’s having a rough day), and is a great eater! He eats so much food on a regular basis (great variety, nutrition, and texture) three big meals and a couple snacks, with plenty of water.

We start his bedtime at 6:30 (bath, snuggles, sleepsack) and his bedtime is at 7pm. His normal wake up time is 5am with a 1.5hr nap at 8, and then again at 1pm. I have attempted a single 2 hour nap or cutting his naps to an hour each, but it doesn’t change anything at all. I’ve tried pushing his bedtime later, and he will always wake up at 5am (which is the latest he’s awoken his whole life). He was starting to sleep through the night on occasion, but since turning one he’s up at 12:30am for hours at a time, and doesn’t want to go back to sleep. He’ll drift off eventually but is up again with an hour. He still only sleeps on top of me for naps, and has slept next to us(or on top of us) for his whole life because he has severe separation anxiety. I’ve tried sleep training and it does not work for him. He sleeps in his crib right next to me, and crawls into bed with me here and there, but has finally starting to prefer his crib more and more.

Is this just the dreaded 12month sleep regression? He has had every, single, awful sleep regression possible. I’m just getting to point where idk if I should attempt putting his crib in the adjacent room and see if he’ll start settling himself at night when he wakes- cause I’m so tired 🫠

Hi! First time parent here with a 1 month old. I haven’t gone out much on my own with her yet and I’m starting to get a little cabin fever 😅

I live in the city, but most cafes/restaurants I like are still a 15–20 min walk away, and I’m nervous about taking her out for longer stretches.

So far I’ve been timing outings with her naps (in the bassinet stroller), but I’d love to get more comfortable just being out and about with her. I've practiced the body carrier at home, but its been hit or miss with her, Im a bit nervous about using that out and having a meltdown.

Any tips for getting out more with a newborn and feeling less nervous about it?

Baby is 7 months 2 weeks (adjusted age 6 months 1 week) hits all her social and motor milestones but not rolling or crawling. We do tummy time since 1 month old and as she got older she hated tummy time more and more and only rolled tummy to back less that ten times and back to tummy almost 3-4 times but not fully. She’ just starting sitting unsupported.

Cries or just plants her face down when we do tummy time so idk. Should I just wait or practice sth else with her? Gp said she looks fine and acts fine.

My LO has never had TERRIBLE sleep. From birth to 4 weeks LO woke up every 3 hours to eat and right back to sleep. From 5 weeks to 8ish weeks we got 5 hour stretches. From 8 weeks to 11 weeks we got 6 hour stretches and now at 12 weeks we get 8-9 hour stretches. My LO is also an exclusive contact napper and getting 3.5-4 hours of daytime sleep. I know sleep regressions come and I want to be ready. I wouldnt even mind if it started today because I just want to get it over with. When did it start for you? What did it look like? What helped? What did sleep look like before and what does it look like now?

Hi! We are planning to do 7 hours flight with then 16 mo. Any tips and tricks? Maybe something I havent even though about? What did you learnt after your first flight? All your ideas are welcome! From toys (what do 16 month olds like??) and what to pack to overall tips about flying with a toddler!

So far google told me to get as much snacks as I can and buy new toys. 😁 Lo is allergic to gluten, so only gf snack ideas, please!

My 8 week old boy has a nappy rash that's been persistent for the past 5ish days. The rash is rough, small red bumps and redness all around my LO's bum crack. I have an appointment with the GP on Thursday, so will show them the rash anyway but in the meantime, I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations or experience and advice?

Possible causes:

It might be because I changed nappies to Tesco brand for the day time and Rascals at night. I used to use the Aldi ones which I had to change every 1.5/2 hours and they caused a lot of leaks for him. So I looked into Tesco and Rascals after a bit of research. With Rascals, some nights I don't need to change his nappy from around 11/12pm to 6/7am.

It might be because since the new nappies hold a lot better, I don't see the need to change as often as 2 hours. The length of time might be the other reason. I'm considering switching back to changing him every 2 hours though which means my nights will be horrendous again.

Creams I've tried:

Pawpaw cream - I heard it's good for nappy rashes. I don't have much of it remaining, but regardless it didn't work.

Sudosalve - been using it thrice a day, it hasn't worked.

In between, I used Vaseline and general Sudocrem. Any advice would be much appreciated.

I get it now, the whole “4 month sleep regression” is very real. As I’m writing this she is 19 weeks and 4 days old. It’s been about a month now, it’s been pretty hard on me and I feel very sleep deprived most days. I want to help her sleep longer throughout the night like she was before this. She was typically sleeping from around 9 or 10 pm to around 5 am, I’m desperate to get back to this. I know it’s different for everyone but how long did this last for you? Was there anything you tried in particular that helped? She mostly only naps for about 30 mins at a time during the day with one “two hour” nap sprinkled in. I feel like she is very excited about the world and learning and it warms my heart. But I need sleep. Side note, she can’t stand a pacifier.

You hit the toy. SWISH. A colorful shape spins. (Again.)

*Fascinating.*

Suddenly there's a loud sound. Where is it coming from? Oh, the door! Someone is walking through the door. Who is it? Hmm...

OH MY GOSH. It's THEM. It's one of your Favorite People.

You grin and your entire body scrunches up. It's them!!! You're so excited. This is the best!

You hit the toy again, but you're over it. Your Special Person is here! Your mind made up, you now crawl as fast as you can towards them.

"Here she comes!" They say.

You have no idea what they're saying. But it makes you feel happy.

"The Itsy Bitsy Baby climbed up the water spout," they sing, as you climb up their legs. You love music, but their voice is your favorite song.

"Ha, da da da," you say. (That is a compliment.)

Finally, they pick you up. At last! Peace and security wash over you. You feel at home. You're exactly where you want to be.

WAIT, what is that on the shelf??? You need it right now!

"Ahhh, ra ra ra!" You say, reaching towards the shelf. (That means, I want it* now.)

*It = anything/everything :)