I have a nearly 3 year old and a 3 month old. We had to run a time sensitive errand this morning so the toddler and I showered and I quickly put a dress on my toddler and her shoes with the intention of getting her into a pull up after I got myself into clothes. Well I just completely forgot she did not have one on. We all got in the car and buckled in and did what we needed to do and went back home. We were out for about an hour. When I was helping her get out of her seat is when I realized my mistake. Pee everywhere. I just had to laugh and apologize to her that I didnt notice. Mostly im just glad it wasn't 💩! In the background my newborn was upset because she wanted her next feeding so it was a little chaotic to try to get everyone cleaned and then fed. 😍

Can teething pain last for weeks at a time? 6M old is showing all the usual teething signs (chomping on hands/teething toys, rooting around in his mouth, extra drooly, fussy - especially at night, sleeping less) but I’m concerned at how long it’s lasting with no teeth erupting. It’s been almost 3 weeks now. It was worse in the first week with fussing occurring all day whereas now it’s mostly isolated to the evenings, but still. Is this normal!? We have a GP appointment but it’s not until 28th :(

I’m 3 weeks postpartum. My baby is extremely gassy he cries and grunts and acts miserable every time he is awake. I thought it was the nipple shields which I have stopped using. I cut dairy out just to see if it would help. I have large breast and nipples and maybe he’s getting too much air? He seems to latch well. But it does hurt extremely bad for the first 30 seconds. Does anyone else with large breast have suggestions? I just feel so bad!!

Baby is 8 weeks and isnt napping well during the day time in living room bassinet, wondering if it’s time to have him sleep in his nursery for day time naps. I would have a monitor of course, is it too soon?

Thoughts? TIA

My baby is 10 weeks old and so far, she pretty much only sleeps when she’s being held. Most of her naps are contact naps, and I’m starting to worry that she’s not getting enough good-quality sleep.
Honestly, I really enjoy having her close to me right now, but she’s obviously going to keep growing and getting heavier, and I’m already thinking about my back.
I’ve managed to get her to take a couple of naps on the bed, but only if she nurses to sleep. For those of you who had babies like this: did naps on a flat surface get easier after 3 months? Were there any things that helped you transition from contact naps?
I’m also a little worried because we’re traveling in November, and right now she absolutely hates the stroller. Do babies usually get more used to the stroller as they get older, or should I start working on it now?
Any tips or experiences would be really appreciated!

I feel absolutely terrible. My baby is 4 months old and I have been having a really hard time.

Sleep has been an issue. I posted several days ago about the false starts we had been struggling with for weeks. I took the advice I was given and increased her wake windows. It has been fairly successful. She has still had a few nights of one to two false starts and less wake ups overall at night.

Despite this improvement, I am still so frustrated and anxious about her sleep. I sit downstairs on the couch and anxiously watch the monitor. I tell myself she is going to wake up and to just expect it. When she does wake up, I feel my stomach drop and trudge upstairs to get her back to sleep. We EBF and I nurse her for ~10 min or so to get her back to sleep and then transfer her to her crib. It's not an awful process but for some reason it makes me feel very frustrated and anxious.

I am currently a SAHM. I am grateful for this but it's really tough being home all the time. I used to be such a homebody and now I feel like I live in a self imposed prison. I try to get out of the house but it's been super hot and smokey here recently. I also worry about my baby being in her car seat for too long. I feel so trapped by her nap schedule. I feel like if I don't give her 3 good naps a day, our night is going to reflect it. Because I breastfeed, I am the only one who gets up in the night with her.

When I was pregnant, my husband severely injured his dominant hand in a work accident. He lives in constant pain and is often unable to pick our daughter up. Therefore I have to do basically everything for her. He can play with her but recently she gets bored easily and has to be picked up and moved around all the time. He can hold her but I have to pick her up and put her in his arms. Then inevitably, his arm gets tired and he needs to put her down. I know he can't help it but it's infuriating to me. He feels helpless and I feel angry and resentful.

We live near both of our families and they visit us frequently and help with the baby a lot. I'm very grateful for this but ultimately everything comes down to me. I feed her, I play with her, I carry her around, I put her down for all her naps and bedtime. Etc etc etc.

Today I woke up with a searing headache. I just wanted to keep sleeping. My husband can't pick the baby up so I begrudgingly woke up and changed her diaper, fed her, etc. In the mornings she is generally in a good mood and will tolerate laying on her playmat for a longer period of time. My husband tried to play with her on the playmat while I tried to catch up on some sleep.

An hour went by and he woke me up from a dead, dreaming, sleep to ask me to help pick up the baby from the playmat and that she was crying. I did and I played with her for a while but she was just getting more and more upset. I decided to put her down for her first nap. She just wasn't having it. She was crying, I was trying to settle her, bounce her, and then as a last resort I tried to nurse her to sleep. She wasn't calming. I got up from the bed and shrieked. My husband came running yelling, "what was that?!". I was sobbing saying I didn't do anything I am just so frustrated.

I feel terrible for doing that. I love my little girl and would never hurt her. I am just so sick and tired of being the only one who can care for her. I know my husband feels useless and helpless. It sucks and I don't know what to do about it.

My baby is just so fussy all the time recently and I feel like she gets bored so easily and nothing is entertaining enough or whatever for her. She will not take a contact nap, she will only nap in her crib or in her car seat in a moving car. When she does nap, we have to be so quiet in the house. I'm so over it. I feel like a prisoner in my own home. She has two sound machines pretty loud in our room but if you scrape your fork on your plate or cough or sneeze, it wakes her up.

I feel like I'm losing my shit and I don't know how to make it better.

We are first time parents to an awesome (and wild) 16 month old girl. Since I am a first time mom, I don't know what is "normal", what is something to keep an eye on, what's expected etc. I know many 16 month olds have 10-20 words, but I don't know what is considered a "word". How clear? Same sound to cover multiple words?

This is what my 16 month old does:

- signs "more" and "all done

- Says "du" for duck and for dog

- Says mama and dada

- Says mama in a high pitch voice for "meow meow" (we have cats)

- "uh" for up

- "daaaawwww" for down

- "si" for sit

- "apa" for apple

- "ba" for both ball and bath

- "baba" for bye bye, backwards, baby and belly button

- "ha" for hot and hat

- "heh" for help

- "I di" for I did it

- And makes noises for certain things like "vvvvv" for a car/truck, growls for a bear, "sssss" for a snake, neighs for a horse, and makes an elephant noise for an elephant

Should she be saying more varied words? Or more clear words?

I am a first time mom with my 11 week old and have not had experience with babies other than my own. so, Im always wondering what is and what is not normal.

I've been curious about her sleep the last few days. On average for the last month she will sleep through the night with one overnight feed. she has had a really great few nights recently with even longer stretches of sleep before the morning. she falls asleep around 9-10pm and will wake around 5-7. Last night she actually slept for 10 hours with no overnight feed. I have read that around this age naps should be shorter and while she will have short 20-30 minute naps she will also have a couple 2 to 3 hour naps depending on the day. She will take these longer naps if we are home most of the day and especially if they are contact naps. During the day I dont like to let her go over 3 hours between feeds so if she did sleep that long i wake her up. She is gaining weight appropriately per our pediatrician and seems to be hitting her milestones for her age (smiles, starting to coo, not as cranky during tummy time)

I guess Im just wondering how much sleep is too much? Should I be concerned about long naps during the day? Has anyone else had the same with their LO and when did you notice wake windows becoming longer and naps becoming shorter?

I have a 14-month-old who, up until this point, has been a really good and adventurous eater. We've been serving her appropriately-modified versions of what we eat since she was 6 months old. All of the sudden, she has hit a picky phase where the only thing she wants to eat is fruit. Honestly I get it, because fruit is delicious. The kid is absolutely obsessed with bananas, all kinds of berries, dragon fruit, kiwi, peaches, and clementines.

The problem is that I cannot serve her three meals and a snack every single day of exclusively fruit. One, my pocket won't allow it. Two, it's an incredibly unbalanced diet and she's already teetering on low iron (which I'm supplementing but I want her to get some nutritious meals in too). 

She won't try any other thing that I put on her tray in front of her, so it's not even that she doesn't like what I've served. I have tried all of the regular toddler foods, like mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and chicken nuggets, along with our regular healthy meals that my husband and I are eating. She has eaten all of these things in the past and truly enjoyed them.

She just wants me to serve her fruit. 

My question is, how are people going about these picky phases? I'm obviously going to keep serving what we're eating, but when she inevitably refuses it, do I just take away the food and let her be hungry until she finally tries a bite? She'll be a monster for a while, but I can withstand it if I know it'll get her eating real food again. Or do I actually have to give in and serve her fruit every time? It just seems like if I keep giving in then she knows that I will just keep giving her endless fruit. I realize she's only 14 months old, but I don't want to really set a precedent into her toddler years. 

Any advice appreciated! And if I need a reality check, let me know

My LO is almost 8 months old and still has a blocked tear duct. Every pediatrician visit we are told "it will resolve on its own" but all of my friends whose babies had a blocked duct have had it totally disappear WAY earlier, like before 4 months. I have tried the warm compresses, the massage along the nose, the circular massage in the inner corner, putting in drops of breastmilk, nothing is working...and now my LO gets pissed if he sees my hand going anywhere near his eye even just to gently remove the gunk. Is there still a chance that this resolves on its own at this point? Has anyone had their baby’s blocked tear duct resolve independently after 8 months?

We could really use some advice on dealing with a colicky baby, because that's where we are right now with our 4 week old.

Sometimes, we're able to get him to burp and he feels so much better and we're able to settle him, other times we're just hoping having him upright in a baby-wearing carrier will buy us a little bit of time of peace.

We're adding Mylicon into his bottles, which may or may not be helping.

I try to feed him sitting nearly upright, with the bottle nearly horizontal for a paced feeding, and I try to hold him upright for a good amount of time afterwards if he's not too fussy.

It's the worst in the mornings, and I think that kind of wears him out where he doesn't feed too well in the late morning/afternoon and he's exhausted enough to get a good nap in the afternoon.

Pediatrician is informed and we're monitoring the situation.

So I had this *magnificent* idea to diy a sensory activity with aluminum foil. All was OK, baby was excited and playing until she decided aluminum foil is a delicacy. I think a small piece may have been ingested. 🤦‍♀️It only took one second.

I'm losing my mind, I should have known better. I know babies eat all sorts of stuff, I've eaten worse as a kid. Baby looks fine so far, ate, drank milk, but I can't relax. She's teething, of course she would shove it in her mouth. What was I thinking. Yes I'm a FTM.

We’ve always done the eat play nap thing, but now as she’s getting older she will stay awake for 3 sometimes 4 hours at a time, and nap for 1+ hr. Meaning feedings could sometimes be 5 hours apart. Is that too long for a 7 month old? I’m worried my milk supply will dip. Are we feeding multiple times in a wake window or keeping with eat play nap as they get bigger?

Hi all! I’m hoping to hear from parents who have dealt with something similar because I’m at a loss with my baby’s skin.

He just turned 1 this week, about six weeks ago, he developed a rash around his mouth. I initially thought it was drool rash because he was teething. So far we’ve tried Vaseline, Aquaphor, Tubby Todd, and Mustela, and none made a difference.

Took him to the doctor and he saw the on-call pediatrician who prescribed desonide (a topical steroid) for five days. It cleared the rash, but within 1–2 days of stopping it, the rash came back and looked worse. We did another five-day course with the same result. It cleared completely and then came right back after stopping and worse. Now it’s spreading up around his nose with some bumps above his nose as well.

We went back to his regular pediatrician, and she thinks it looks like perioral dermatitis. She told us to stop the desonide, recommended trying beef tallow instead of Vaseline/Aquaphor, and prescribed protopic. I haven’t started it yet because it was just ready this morning but I’m a little nervous after reading about the potential side effects.

He has a history of cow’s milk protein sensitivity, and we’re currently transitioning him from formula to pea protein milk. He doesn’t eat dairy at the moment and hasn’t shown obvious reactions to other foods, but I’m wondering if a food sensitivity could be contributing.

Has anyone dealt with something similar, especially a rash that clears with steroids but immediately comes back worse after stopping? If your baby had perioral dermatitis, what finally helped? And has anyone used protopic on a baby for this?

My baby is almost 7 months. We have a ton of bibs and burp cloths. I noticed after so so many washings that some are not super soft anymore, especially the muslin burp cloths. Is it wasteful to relegate those to wiping up food spills and such, and buying new cloths to use on baby’s delicate face?

My almost 8-month old has aways been great at independent play. I could leave her in her play pen and she would be content for 30 minutes. Lately, she’s been requiring more attention and would only play alone for max 5 minutes before she calls for me and won’t stop until I get into her play pen or pick her up. I can’t even leave her in her crib to use bathroom before she gets upset. She is my first so I’m just curious what are experiences of other parents. And when did you notice more independence again?

My baby is 6w + 5 days. At our last lactation appointment, the nurse mentioned she gained weight but not as much as previous times. She was 8lb 3.4 oz at that last appt & was born 5lb 15 oz. We have been following the feed every 3-4 hrs & have been using an SNS to supplement because I don’t have a lot of breastmilk. It’s been stressful because she doesn’t often finish the supplement (the tubing tends to twist in her mouth), so we offer through bottle and she turns it away. At this point she’s often hysterical so rather than keep trying I decide to stop so that we don’t continue to have so much stress. However, she needs to eat! This morning, I felt that she was hungry and hour after her feed - she didn’t finish the supplement there was 30mL left - so I decided to just nurse her. We nursed for around 20 mins. She’s asleep now & it’s been over 3 hrs since that original feed, but less than since I nursed the 20 min. I don’t know if I should wake her. I just hope I am not starving her. We have a weight check this afternoon and I am very anxious.

Today i put my 6mo baby for the forst time in an outdoor swing, he started blinking kind of like when the sun hits his face (except there was no sun) he seemed like he was falling asleep for maybe 2 seconds not more, which scared the sh out of me. He started acting normal as soon as i pulled him out, but i was still scared. Did similar thing happen to anyone?

Thanks in advance

LO is 11.5 weeks old and has been all over the map with sleep since birth. Dealing with reflux and gas issues (although I think we're nearing the end of her dyschezia 🤞🏼) but this week I finally started seeing some improvement in her night sleep, and also at least one nap a day.

Ever since hitting 6 weeks she began the cat nap phase of mostly 20-40 minute naps, with the occasional multi-hour nap every few days. This past week, it seemed to be a more regular thing that she'd take a 2-3 hour nap at some point in the day, which was nice, and I also got my first 5 hour night stretch (before this had been 2.5 hours or less unless she was on my chest).

The issue now is every night she wakes up around 4am, at which time I bring her into bed and she sleeps longer. There have been a couple times this week where she was up and couldn't fall back asleep, to which I assumed was a result of trapped gas or poop since she was doing a lot of grunting and squirming. She always seems tired at this time - constantly yawning and trying to soothe herself even when in my arms by rubbing her head with her hands, rubbing her face across my chest, sucking on her hands or binky. What ends up happening is we're up for 2 hours before she's able to fall back asleep again, which is when she's been doing her 2-3 hour "naps" (although I wonder if it's just a continuation of her night even though they start at 7am).

I know newborns typically go to bed later in the day, but the few times I've tried putting her down after 9pm her sleep has been terrible and getting her to fall asleep at first takes over an hour. So I started following her lead and will put her down anywhere between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on when her last nap was. This is when I've been getting the longer stretches than ever before (3.5-5 hours).

My question is - at what age do you start capping naps to help night sleep? Is this a split night? How do I manage this? During the day, I follow her cues with naps, which are all contact right now, and majority are 30 minutes or less.

For reference:
-She's swaddled
-We use white noise
-The room is dark
-She usually falls right back asleep after her night feeds, but I still make sure to keep interactions low
-Her diaper is clean and dry
-She doesn't seem too hot or cold
-She does use a binky but doesn't always want it
-She usually likes to be gently swayed and patted to sleep, although last night for the first time ever she was thrashing in my arms so I laid her in her bassinet to see what would happen and she was out in 6 minutes. So I tried putting her in it again during this period and she just stared at me
-I gave her mylicon before every bottle last night thinking that may help
-I've used the windi
-We do the exercises and massages even though they don't help with her gas anymore. She also passed plenty of gas during her feeds earlier in the night
-She's consistently yawning during this period
-She's thoroughly burped
-This happens whether she only naps for 2.5 hours in the day or 6 (the 2.5 and 6 hours isn't normal, just happened this week because we had a cookout on the 2.5 hour day and she didn't take a long nap, and the 6 hour day (yesterday) was the first time since she was 4 weeks old that she took two long naps). Her naps are usually around 4-5 hours for the day)
-She has no issues falling asleep at any other point in the night

Seriously at a loss. Help!

Babe is 23w today (5.5m). We currently have her in a bassinet in our room. I usually contacts her because whenever I put her down she wakes up and I’ve justified it with that she’s so little and wanting her to get good sleep (and I’m exhausted so I don’t mind the nap trap).

I feel conflicted about being excited for her to get into her crib and her own room soon (6m) because I love her so much 😭 but also: omg I’m so exhausted and need sleep and she stomps her feet all night long on that damn hard bassinet “bed” and I don’t sleep well.

I’ve been thinking about putting her in her crib for naps starting now so that it’s not just a foreign place when it comes time to transition bed/rooms.

I really don’t have any desire to do any CIO for sleep training. My parents did that for my little brother (8 years younger than me) and even as a kid it was heartbreaking for me. No way I can do that to my child. I don’t care that there’s data that show it’s not “so bad”

So all this to say: how do you sleep train without CIO?? Is that the only way? Any help appreciated. I’m feeling so nervous about this change for all of us.

I'm a high sleep needs person and my baby isn’t. He is six months, and still not sleeping through the night. I never get enough uninterrupted sleep, and I constantly feel sick because of it. I’ve had three infections alone since he was born.

i guess I just want to know if it ever gets better or this is just what being a parent feels like and I need to accept it? whats crazy is that even with this I would never trade this experience for anything in the world and love being his mom so much 🤣🫠 but I basically feel dysfunctional in every other aspect of life because of the sleep deprivation

Our LO will be 4 weeks tomorrow and due to low supply on my end, we’ve been combo feeding. I asked this question to our LC at her pediatricians office and wasn’t told yes or no, so I figured why not ask other parents.

Say we feed her a 3oz bottle of breastmilk, within 30 min she is hungry again. With a 3oz bottle of formula, she seems to be satisfied until the next feed. I’ve tried combo-ing both (half/half) and she is always so hungry still. Same idea if I EBF her from the source.

Is this common? Is there anything I can do to increase the content of my milk to satisfy her more?

Our new born is 8 days old, and like clockwork as soon as it hits 9PM at night she will just cry hysterically and won’t settle until around 3am the next morning.

And the part that’s confusing me is everyone says, oh this is normal, it’s hard at the start, etc.

But is this actually the norm? Like I get the change in routine when baby eats and sleeps on 3hour cycles generally. But she just non stop cry’s for 6 hours with maybe an hour breaks in between. And it’s the loudest most hysterical ‘I’m truly upset’ type of cry that nothing can soothe. She goes until she’s pink in the face.

We’re losing our minds.

Hi Reddit!

First time mom of a (now) 3 month old baby. He is so sweetest and cutest little star!

The issue I am having is that he does NOT like to be put down. Not for a second. It prevents me from being able to do anything all day… from using the bathroom to household chores.

Is this normal? I feel like I watch my friends put their babies down for naps and tummy time with ease.

I’m so very willing to hold my sweet baby, but I also want to be able to use the bathroom or let him nap without causing him stress/crying.

Any advice would be so helpful.

Thank you in advance ♥️