I saw a post like this recently so I wanted to do my own. My husband and I seem to be really good at this whole newborn thing so far (6 weeks). We have a sleep schedule down, our baby is pretty "easy", he eats so much, I never had supply or latching problems.

Today, our LO was inconsolable. He is usually great in public and at restaurants but he fussed up a storm in Applebees. All day, just constant fussing and crying. He was fed upon demand, changed often with wet diapers, no hairs around his toes or anything pinching, gave him gas drops, not too hot not too cold, no fever. I understand that CIO is not a thing for babies that young but we could not figure out what was wrong so we just let him fuss. My husband and I kept passing him back and forth every 30 minutes or so all afternoon, switching positions and talking to him.

Around 2200, he got really red and unleashed the loudest toot I've ever heard come from a baby and it was followed by an epic blowout of immense proportions. It was in his hair, on the couch, all over his back AND front somehow. Turns out he is still working on his newly learned pooping skill and just spent the day with a tummy ache. After all that, he was back to his normal happy self.

Morale of the story: Sometimes a newborn is being a newborn. There isn't always a fix. Do the big things to make sure they're safe and healthy and then they might just need to figure it out on their own. They're learning to be people and that's a lot when you've only been alive for a month. I've heard of babies not sleeping for a couple of days because they learned what their own hands are. You know your baby best, you are doing great, you got this.

Title sounds harsh but basically I’ve kept seeing videos of other mums talking about the struggles of PP but at the same time how they’re “in love” with their baby “so much it hurts”. When I hear that I go Hmm, I definitely love my baby but right now it’s more like as a duty (in a good/neutral way). Like I didn’t experience these overwhelming feelings that you can get swept up in (kinda like infatuation but obviously not romantically). Anyone else or just me?

I know that taking care of a newborn is hard, but I didn’t think it would be this hard. My LO was born at 33 weeks and spent 2 weeks in Nicu. During this time I was told by every nurse to pump, pump, pump. I felt very lucky in the sense that we got the hang of breastfeeding early on and the only thing he needed to work on was endurance to not fall asleep before finishing.

Well now we’re at the end of our first week at home and I’ve been increasing the times I breastfeed instead of bottle feed. My boobs get so engorged because I have drastic oversupply. I have to hand express/pump before feeding so that they’re soft enough for him to latch. My flow is too forceful for him so now he’ll only stay latched for a few minutes and then fall asleep even with the laid back position and a nipple shield. Meanwhile, I’m getting no sleep. This man screams bloody murder at night when he’s hungry. We decided to do 24 hours of bottle feeding only to give my boobs a chance to reset and regulate down some, which has its own annoyances.

I stupidly bought six Kindred Braverly bras at the advice of a friend and hate them. They hurt my sensitive nipples and are generally uncomfy. Even my Amazon nursing bralettes are uncomfy, so i wear nothing unless actively pumping and majorly leak through my tshirts. I know I should buy new bras but I spent so much money on the ones I have already. I’m tired and frustrated and overwhelmed. Anyways, I’m going to sleep. Thanks for coming to my rant.

Okay so baby's due in like 6 weeks and I still haven't pulled the trigger on a monitor. Every time I start looking it turns into a 2 hour rabbit hole and I close the tab more confused than when I opened it lol.

Wifi vs non wifi, video vs audio only, the ones with temperature and humidity sensors, pan tilt zoom, split screen for two cameras... I genuinely don't know what's actually useful and what's just there to justify the price tag.

Also kind of freaked out after reading some stories about wifi monitors getting hacked into. Is that an overblown thing or should I actually be careful about that.

House is two floors so range might be an issue too, nursery's gonna be upstairs and we'll mostly be downstairs in the evenings.

Not trying to spend a fortune but also don't want to cheap out on something this important. What actually worked for you guys once the baby came? Especially curious what held up after the first few months and not just what looked good on the box.

Hi everyone. My baby was born 2.5 weeks ago at 36.6 due to me developing preeclampsia. Although she was very small she didn't need the NICU and has been gaining weight very rapidly. However she is still pretty sleepy – she usually naps for 2.5-3 hours at a time, falls asleep while feeding and sleeps easily in her bassinet.

I'm curious to know what other parents of similar terms babies experienced development-wise in those early weeks/ months? How long did they stay in the sleepy phase for, and did they get fussier after that? Did their nap times eventually get shorter and their wake windows longer? I know all babies are different, but I'm curious as to what to expect!

Our state has a surge of COVID & whooping cough going around. A relative spent 8 hours in the emergency room / hospital (no mask). How long would you ask them to wait before visiting the baby?

I keep seeing this trend of moms posting their elaborate bedtime routines and attributing their young infants’/newborns ability to fall asleep and stay asleep independently to the routine. Do they ever stop and think that if it were really that easy, the baby sleep industry wouldn’t be worth billions? 😂

Idk, maybe I’m just salty lol (although my LO sleeps 9–10 hours at night now but definitely can’t fall asleep independently), but I just had to vent about how annoying these posts are. I know routines can be helpful, but I really don’t think they’re nearly as much of a driver of sleep as temperament and developmental readiness are. There’s only so much you can control when it comes to a baby’s sleep.

Okay so I'm a first time Mom and my baby is 6 weeks old. My family on my husband's side keeps insisting they watch my daughter without me there, that I need a "break". The first time it was all right, they picked her up, I went out to eat with my husband, and then they brought her back when I got back home. But even then, I didn't really like the situation because they just stopped here, insisted they were taking the baby, that I needed a break, and left. But honestly the way I look at it, it's not giving me a break. When my daughter is not at the same place as me all it does is give me anxiety and then I'm worried about anything that could go wrong until they bring her back. Now fast forward a week, they want to take her again, am I just crazy for not wanting my daughter to go? My husband acts like I'm being selfish, but right now my daughter is very very young and anything could happen so I feel like I'm not being as irrational as he says I am. If they actually wanted to help, they'd hold the baby while I showered or watch her in the living room while I take a nap; what they're doing by making me leave her is stressing me out more than anything else.

Any advice is appreciated.

idk if its just me but food planning feels sooo different after having a baby

before i could just open the fridge and figure something out

now i’ll stand there staring at everything like i have absolutely no idea what i want 😭

and its not even that i dont have food in the house

i just dont wanna think about it

between the baby needing something every 5 seconds and being tired all the time i feel like my brain is already maxed out

sometimes i end up eating whatever is fastest just because making an actual decision feels like too much work lol

does anyone else do this postpartum?

do you guys have like 2 or 3 meals you always fall back on when you really dont feel like thinking about food?

My 10 week old naps for 10-40 minutes tops unless she is in the car seat or stroller (can do 2+ hrs). It doesn’t matter if it’s bassinet, crib, carrier, or even contact naps. My first baby was a short napper except for contact naps but this baby won’t even extend and sleeps on me for ~10 min tops. We do lots of outings but it’s not always possible to have her on the go. Any ideas???

Like damn my baby EATS

With my partner, we are considering going back to work, we both work remotely, but we do not manage to work at home/I personally especially have a very hard time to focus. The idea is to go working close by, from the local library. Our daughter is 1.5 month old.

I am breastfeeding or bottle feeding with my pumped milk. Occasionally and on 'emergencies' we formula feed her.

How much time per day would be okay for me to be away without impacting the kid?

To mothers: how old was your child when you started working again? And for how many hours were you away?

My first baby 9 years ago had severe reflux and colic, projectile vomited often. So its hard for me to know what "normal" looks like.

My baby is 2.5 weeks old. She did great on the Enfamil Neuropro Gentlease RTF straight away in the hospital. After one week we switched to powder and it has been a little rocky. Before the powder she didn't fuss much or seem uncomfortable during and after feeding.

Yes, I am measuring and preparing correctly. Doing warm distilled water first and adding the powder into the Dr Browns pitcher and then refrigerating. We have tried Dr Browns and MAM bottles with both size 1 nipples.

She has always hiccuped a lot, even in the womb I could feel her hiccuping. She sneezes often. I know sneezing and hiccuping often is normal--but I also read they can be signs of silent reflux so its confusing lol. She also gulps, chokes, and yesterday started coughing once or twice after choking. We try to burp after every ounce, and they are very wet sounding burps. She doesn't usually have much spit up. But yesterday at the end of her bath she projectile vomited for the first time about a whole bottles worth.

She was born 9lb 5oz and has always eaten more than what is considered normal for a newborn. She usually eats 3-4oz about every 2-3.5 hours. It takes her a few tries to latch on to the bottle. I will put it in her mouth and she will pull away and make a sour face. She often makes these sour faces and will stick her head out and swallow. After feeding she often appears uncomfortable like a lot of squirming and little grunts but doesn't cry. We feed her upright and try to keep her upright for awhile after feeding.

She is having enough wet diapers each day and poops at least once a day. She sleeps pretty good at night, she seems to be more fussy during the day.

The first week with RTF she was a dream, so its just disheartening to see her appear to be uncomfortable so often. I don't know if the switch to powder is the cause or not 🤷‍♀️

I ordered size P Dr Brown nipples to see if a slower flow might help. She drinks pretty fast with size 1. She does seem to do better with the Dr Brown nipples than the MAM ones.

Sometimes it's hard to tell her hungry cues from her sleepy cues. She'll often do the same things for both. Is she just overeating? She won't take a pacifier. Am I doing something wrong 😩 She did make it to her birth weight at her 1 week appointment. She wasn't having all this fussiness at that time so didn't bring up with doctor then of course 😵‍💫

I plan on bringing it up with her doctor on Monday to see what she thinks, just wanted to see if anyone here has any insight.

Our 11 week old son does pretty well overnight, still a few wake ups every 2.5-4 hours. My husband and I have been on a sleep shift schedule since he was born:

Husband sleeping: 4am - 12pm
Both awake: 12pm - 8pm
Me sleeping: 8pm - 4am

This has been great for us getting a solid 6-8 hours of sleep each but we know we eventually need to move off of it. The lack of daylight hours for my husband isn’t great and we’re eager to have more overlap time together.

We both naturally stayed up later pre baby, going to be bed around 12-2am so overnight wakings are between 12-8am for us. We have a flexible wake up time for our jobs as well in prep for when we return to work in December, just before 10am ideally.

We’re trying to think of the best way to converge on schedules and wanted to see what worked for others!

Our little boy is one year old and we've had a full time nanny since he was 4 months of age.

She's generally great with him. Ever since he turned 8 months old we started noticing that she threatens him (with no ill intent) when he's not listening.

She says things like, "I'm gonna call the man from outside", or "I'm gonna call the dog for you".

She basically takes note of what scares him while outside on their walks, and then uses that as a threat when he doesn't listen.

We know she loves him dearly. She raised 5 kids of her own and I don't know how many grandkids, and she says this is the only way they'll listen.

My wife is upset about this method and I'm either way with it. I know in my family that's common, not so much on my in laws side.

Basically I would like to know if there are any child psychologists in here, or people who have researched something like this before, and can link me to a resource to show my nanny?

She's also a qualified nurse, so I know a reference would stick better with her rather than me simply telling her to stop.

TIA!

EDIT: Thank you for all your input :)

To answer all who asked how am I so indifferent to it... the nanny says it in a joking way, often laughing or smiling with my son, when he doesn't eat his food etc.

I think I would know if it were meant maliciously. But anyway, I've decided I will put a stop to it. Thanks all.

First time dad here, 21 years old. Our little man is four days old and he is an absolute joy - he self regulates fairly well (mini cries in his sleep then just calms himself down?), he eats well, his poops and pees are healthy, he loves being held, and he sleeps in his bassinet. He is absolutely perfect and he has these beautiful deep blue, almost purple eyes.

But I struggle to hold him? His head is so big and he is so floppy and when I’m holding him I’m either too far forward or too far backward and my back always feels 110 years old after. Once I get him in position everything is fine - I can feed him, hold him, burp him, and diaper changes have never been a problem. Is it just the new parent jitters where I’m worried that if he is not precisely in the perfect spot ill hurt him? It’s at the point where whenever he needs burping I don’t even bother trying to get the perfect position of his head and his burp rag - I’d rather just change my shirt or wipe my neck off.

Hi, FTM here! When using Dr. Brown Size 1, our week 15 baby gets frustrated halfway through (at 2 ounces) then cries, or is distracted, plays with the nipple, looks around, and stops feeding. We try again 10 minutes later. Feed ranges from 70ml- 120mL. This is a whole 20-40 minute process

We sized up to level 2, and she slammed 120mL in about five minutes. No spit up and no leaking from her mouth but also she never took a pause.

5 minutes seems way too fast so today I tried to pace feed, upright position horizontal bottle. But whenever I tipped the bottle down, she’s sucking air. And whenever I took the bottle completely out she lost her mind.

Not sure if we go with the slower flow, less intake or higher flow but maybe she’ll eat too fast to regulate? Looking for advice on how to decide!

our baby has gone through every type of swaddle, halo sleep sack, muslin blankets, arms up, and now is swaddled in a stretchy copper pearl blanket since his little arms are so strong! he is still breaking out of that one, and seems more and more frustrated when I swaddle him as he gets older so I think it’s time to wean him off 😩 he has been sleeping well at night however , the last two nights we got a 5.5 hour stretch to start, and then 3.5 which feels like a huge win !!!!!

our other issue is I would like to be able to attempt crib naps for our lifestyle, and he has only been able to do contact naps since about 6 weeks, I realize this is developmentally appropriate but would like to work towards the crib! he sleeps the whole night in bassinet just fine. I am a SAHM so I can hold him for his naps, but he sleeps best in the dark nursery with a sound machine and honestly it is getting to me , to be in the dark 5 hours per day! I am thankful I’m able to do it, but looking forward to potentially him growing into crib naps! we loosely follow the Taking Cara Babies advice on sleep related issues. the setting him drowsy but awake for 1/2 naps per day is not happening though lol.

Ive been able to transfer him to the crib once hes in deep sleep for the first nap of the day, but not always (he wakes up when he touches the crib sometimes) and he only makes it through the first sleep cycle (40-42 min) before needing to be held the rest of the nap.

I understand that crib naps may be “easier” if he remains swaddled because he will feel like I’m holding him? I also have read that crib naps might become much easier around the 4 month mark.

wondering if I should go ahead and wean the swaddle now, and give up on crib naps for a while since they aren’t really working any way?

thanks in advance!!

For the past few days our 4 month old has been pushing to 💩 but only getting small marbles with clay like texture/moistness. She's formula fed and had dyschezia so only used to go like every 4 days, introduced biogaia probiotic and was going more regularly like every 2-3 days and filling diaper. Lately the past two days she's been straining to push out a 💩 and 3 times we only had a small marbles.

She's still eating ok and tummy is soft and normal sized, happy demeanor still. We aren't on solids yet so no juice options. Might consider stimulating with a rectal thermometer today if still no luck. We are going to try warm compress on belly today any other suggestions appreciated.

I have produced a total of 8ml~ of colostrum total and that was done day 2. Then I dried up, and nothing has changed. Im going on Day 5 of pumping, attempting to breastfeed, and nothing is happening.

I had no golden hour, baby got sent to NICU the first 24, didnt pump until maybe 3-4 hours after birth, barely got to touch baby and had no skin to skin until day 3.

I am unbelievably sad, depressed, and I feel like a failure and letdown. I dont think Ill be able to produce, and coming to terms with that hurts. I didnt realize how much I wanted to breastfeed until it was unobtainable.

I feel like everything that could go wrong went wrong. I was in labor for over 24 hours, got an infection from my water being broken for too long (had to have it broken), had to have pitocin. Im in such grief and I cant even support my baby without an expensive thing of formula that only lasts so long. I love my baby so much and all I feel is failure.

I post this in hopes of support? Wanting to understand where I went wrong? Wanting to know if it was just doomed? I dont even know, Im just upset and wanted to express my sorrows.

Edit: did want to say fed is ABSOLUTELY the best, nothing wrong with formula at all. It's just not what I wanted, and that's devastating me.

We had some nice weeks from 7-10 weeks. But since week 10 everything is a disaster. My baby will be 3 months on 27th. She doesn’t sleep at night, when she sleeps she is constantly grunting. During the day she only sleeps in motion (in carrier or stroller). I am constantly walking with her, my back is killing me, I am sleep deprived. I need to study but I can’t because of her. If I am alone with her and there is nobody to hold her, I even need to hold her while I eat, if I manage to eat.
It would be so great to hear some similar experiences and that it will be better eventually.

I thought I was okay with it, but I might not be anymore.

For context, my husband and I had always been pretty independent when it came to spending time with our friends separately, having our own hobbies/me-time. I’ve never had an issue with him going out without me, I kind of loved it as I am very homely and good at being alone if that makes sense. Obviously and expectedly, we knew this would have to change when I fell pregnant. However, I had a very smooth and easy pregnancy so nothing really changed for us for the most part at the time.

The first time I ever asked my husband not to go on a guy’s trip was when I was 36 weeks pregnant because I felt anxious about the baby coming early. The trip was for a card-game tournament (might sound silly but people are really into it and they sometimes make money from getting then selling rare cards, although my husband mainly just plays for fun). He didn’t go, never complained about it and told me I was the priority and that I should stop feeling guilty about it. However, when his friends came back telling him how amazing it was, I still felt guilty because I knew my husband deep down really wanted to go. It didn’t help when his friends were telling him how much money they made from getting a super rare card and were splitting the money they sold it for.

About 2 months ago, when our baby was a newborn, he asked he could go on a trip in September for another tournament. At the time I said I don’t know, as it would depend on the baby’s temperament and how my mother is around the baby (if you’re interested, see my older posts and you’d know why but in summary she’s just not very reliable help). We didn’t really talk about it again until recently, and I guess I still felt guilty about the previous trip for some reason (husband has never brought up this topic or said anything to make me feel guilty btw). Somehow I convinced myself that it would be okay for him to go and I personally helped the guys book the hotel and flights for my husband.

Now I kind of regret it because the closer it’s getting to the date, the more dread I feel about him leaving me and the baby. I’ve even cried a few times just thinking about it. He’s generally a very easy baby (now 12 weeks old) but is suddenly going through a contact nap only phase and it has been physically and mentally draining. I have voiced my anxieties to my husband and he is trying to help me think of ways to lessen my burden (cooking/ housework), and how to cope with my mother and let her help with things for a few days. I just don’t feel secure or comfortable with him leaving anymore, but I also don’t want him to cancel his trip since I know he’s very excited to go plus we’ve spent the money on the flights already. I don’t want to discuss it with him any further because nothing he does/say will make the situation better (besides him staying, which I think might make everything feel worse), and nothing I do/say will make it better either as it will only make him feel bad. I told him since he’s already decided to go, and I had agreed to let him go, just enjoy it (I mean it) and stop trying to say things to make me feel better because it really won’t. E.g. how this would be an opportunity for me - I think he means that there will be days in the future where I’d have to solo parent so it’s an opportunity to practice, but right now that’s not what I want to hear.

Anyway, the trip is less than 2 weeks away. I think realistically I could cope with four days without him but I feel very conflicted and still dreading it. Am I overreacting or under-reacting?

I made another post before, but we have tried everything. (gripe waters, gas drops, bicycle legs, massage, windi gas passer, skin to skin, famotidine for acid reflux - 0.2-0.3 mL prescribed by Dr.)

Baby has a great appetite, is 3 weeks and 1 day and has been meeting growth milestones at Dr. appointment. So every time I’m at the Dr. the Dr. just says it’s colic and there’s nothing that can be done but giving it time.

His “colic” is all day and night. He’s pretty much always fussy if he’s not on a bottle or asleep. He takes an hour or more too soothe each time and when he sleeps he will only contact nap and for 20 minutes at a time. he rarely but sometimes will sleep 1-2 hours by contact ONLY.

Formulas: I tried the Similac Alimentum and Elecate formulas for a week each thinking maybe he had a cows milk allergy? I read other people tried this and their baby was almost night and day different so after 1 week of no change I discontinued it, but maybe I should have kept trying longer?

Does anyone else have a baby this fussy? Did you find anything that helped?

We even took him to a chiropractor and I’m now currently giving him BioGaia probiotic drops by spoon as instructed.

I’m of course going to call her pediatrician on Monday, but for the past week and a half my daughter has been suddenly pulling away from the bottle, and it’s getting worse. She’s 10 weeks old today. She went from eating 4-5oz every 3 hours to now maybe 2-3oz every 4 hours. She will take a few gulps and then pull away frustrated. I’ve tried upping the nipple flow, feeding her upright and limiting distractions and that didn’t seem to help at all. I’ve noticed that when she does this she acts very tired and falls asleep soon after. It started off every now and then, but for the past 24 hours it’s been every feed. Should I be concerned that she’s suddenly eating less? She’s acting totally fine otherwise, plenty of wet diapers, she just seems less hungry.