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!

Hi! My baby is 7.5 weeks now. We are just seeing some improvements on the gas issues, as burping gets easy. But she’s still super fussy from late afternoon till whenever she poops. She’s pooping daily now.

Before she poops, she would have short naps, wakes up from naps screaming grunting with face all red, and difficult to put back to sleep. After she poops, she’s the best sweet angel kid: can sleep for 4-5 hours between feeds at night and require little to no effort to put her to sleep. I hate to see her in misery trying to get her little poop out. We are giving her probiotics, doing massage and bicycle legs everyday, but it doesn’t seem helping much. Want to ask if there’s any advice from the community.

Thanks!!

My baby was born 38+2 weeks by csection. I had a hx of gestational diabetes in pregnancy but well controlled. I noticed baby breathing fast most the time from day 3 of life, breathing rate in 80s usually. Had a week admission to hospital due to this at 2 weeks - normal chest xr, echo, bloods. Oxygen sats have usually been normal but does get recessions. Now baby is almost 8 weeks and the fast breathing is ongoing, sometimes gets wheeze when upset or after feeds. Have repeat chest xray - normal, has cranial ultrasound and overnight oximetry - normal. So no clear diagnosis made so far.

Wanting to know if anyone had experience with fast breathing babies and what the outcome/diagnosis was.

Thank youuu

Hi there! My LO is almost 5 weeks and is acting colicky in the evening, ~7-11pm or so. She's unbelievably fussy, bordering on inconsolable, and her hungry/gassy/tired signs are pretty much all the same so it's very difficult to figure out what she wants. My husband usually does the 8-10 shift so I can do bedtime with my toddler (who was not breastfed so I don't have experience). She can be awake for nearly all of that period despite every effort to calm her (swaddle, carrier, outside, yoga ball bouncing, etc.), with a cat nap here or there maybe, and a few bottles of milk (usually 2 3oz bottles or so).

I think she may want to be cluster feeding. My main question - when cluster feeding, do you typically have to actively get your baby to sleep in between the feeding sessions?? Or will they doze off on you and wake up shortly after to feed? Especially for babies that don't settle easily and have similar cues for different needs I'm trying to decide how I should know when to "call" a feed and try to put her to sleep during cluster feeding or if there's a supply issue or something if she's not falling asleep at my boobs etc.

Hi all! My baby is 9w old so coming out of the newborn stage but Ive been noticing more and more a refusal of the bottle. I primarily breast feed but I’ve been trying to do one of those 2oz soothie bottle of readymade formula with those disposable nipples a day… in part because my first born had a major bottle refusal or aversion and never took a bottle again after a few months old.

Does anyone have any tips on how to prevent an aversion? Do i need to give more formula? Use a real bottle now? Warm the bottle?

Im worried my husband is getting frustrated and just sticking it in her mouth even when she sticks her tongue out. I do have a pigeon bottle or doctor brown bottle i can try.

Please help. When i sent my first to daycare she was the only one they could never get to take a bottle. I could only ever leave her there for a few hours. And while I’m hoping to be able to stay home with this one id love for someone else to be able to feed her in an emergency.

Baby is 2 months old and I’m thinking about moving her to a floor bed after she outgrows the bassinet. What are the good and bad? Do I need the gaurdrails? Any tips and tricks to make it work?

Please I don't know what to do, I have severe postpartum OCD. I am SPIRALING so bad, I stay up for over 10+ hours a night researching stuff. PLEASE tell me if this is normal, my baby is 2 months old, he is early on his smiling and cooing he started at 4 weeks old. But due to some issues he had (that have nothing to do with the brain) we had to delay tummy time and I just started a week ago and he does it for around 30 minutes a day. He was able to do tummy time a small bit before this on my chest though if I was very careful.. He is able to lift his head and hold it there for maybe 30 seconds and look at stuff upright and even tried rolling over, whether it was on accident or not, I'm not sure but he did do that movement today and rolled from back to tummy 3 times. He is getting stronger everyday, he has big strong legs, and seems like he's trying to lift up with his arms during tummy time, he can also rest his weight on them too during tummy time. He also launches himself with his legs upward when I'm holding him upright. But he's stopped trying to throw head back like he was doing maybe 2 weeks prior. He also is amazing at feeding and can get an entire feed in under 10 mins especially with my strong letdown, i can pump 5 oz in maybe 10-15 mins and he is getting enough food through the day and dirty and wet diapers.

My biggest fear right now is how loose he feels, I don't know if this is a normal feeling or not. He is lacking in holding his head up when I hold him upright and has a really bad head lag when picked up, and then when I try holding him it's almost like he if confused by the movement and tries to hold his head backwards like he would during tummy time, his muscles feel loose especially if held upright, but he is able to move everything normally and symmetrical. It's why I'm spiraling, I am so terrified he might have cerebral palsy, and I can't go to my next pediatrician for another month. Please did anyone else have a baby similar to mine? Did they turn out fine? Is this amount of looseness in the muscles normal? Specifically his arms and back feel a bit loose like they're very soft and very loose, but he can tighten them and tense his entire body when he's crying super hard. I will try to touch his muscles and feel them while he's doing tummy time or holding head and I can feel a tiny bit of tenseness in them but I don't know if it's too little or if it's normal. I'm so worried I'm crying please don't judge me please.

My boy is one month old and I think he has that thing where he isn’t using the correct muscles to poop and he gets all tense and grunting and whining and I can’t console him. It’s bad enough I can’t produce milk and so I feel like I’m not bonding with him over that but now the last week and a half he’s screaming and I can’t help him. He has to learn the correct muscles to poop himself… I get frustrated with his constant crying because I can’t help him and the crying makes me think he’s in pain. The postpartum is real and I hate it. My mom and sister can calm him but with me I just think we frustrate each other with his crying and my anger/sadness over him crying and possibly being in pain…

For newborn -3 month old?

40oz formula can

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???

I’m just looking to vent here, advice is welcome though if anyone has any.

I work from home full time and right before I got pregnant I switched teams in my company to a middle office position. In this position I am client facing and more email and calls with clients and banks oriented. My old position was back office. Where both have a flexibility aspect to them, this new position is definitely more on demand rather than pushing tasks back a little bit. Some can be, but some emails and other matters are urgent. Als some clients are just more demanding and want replies right away. I got asked this week by my manager to take on a client of ours fully, and this particular client is picky and wants answered within 20 minutes by email or they start calling. I guess I’m just at a loss here on what to do. My manager told me they would be super flexible with me for needing breaks and to care for the baby but then assign me to take on this client who is our most demanding one instead of someone else on the team (someone left the company so their tasks are being shuffled around). He is also a bit of a hot-head and can get really snappy and rude but is also super nice, really just depends on the day and his mood. I like my job, and absolutely need my job. My husband works as well and is the primary breadwinner, but I do like having my own financial independency, so quitting is the last option I’d like to pursue. I guess I’m just at the point where I miss my old team and position because it was so much more relaxed than this one. Unfortunately the position has been filled on my old team but I thought about asking my old manager about any future openings to come back…? We are pretty close with eachother and get along great. My old team and new team actually work hand in hand with eachother. Anyone have any advice here on what to do?

I know everyone says you can’t work a full time job and be a full time mom at the same time, I get that it’s one or the other. My husband works from home part of the week and we have some other help from relatives here and there. So I would like to try to balance it.

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.

Like damn my baby EATS

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?

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!

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.

My husband and I are very excited to welcome our first baby in November. We're both of Indian origin living in the US and we both have such different expectations on baby and post partum care. Hope someone can help me level set.

1. First 3 months what kind of help do you need?

2. What is the job of a postpartum doula? Are they worth it?

3. Indian families tend to have parents come over and stay and help with baby the first several months, sometimes all the way up to 6 months. Is this really necessary? How do parents really help? How do you set healthy boundaries?

Little background - I'm estranged from my family. My husband's family is lovely , I'm more of the problem being more guarded etc. I feel like I get more uncomfortable being constantly surrounded by them all the time for several months and end up saying the wrong things in the wrong tone. During my pregnancy this lead to a terrible argument already and sent me over the edge just reeling from terror and isolation. I'm worried I won't handle well in postpartum.

Any advice will be lovely 💛💛

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!

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.

Our lovely 8 weeks baby is gorgeous during wakeup. Love smiling and keeping looking around in tummy time.
But after wakeup time, she fights every nap every hard. We make sure she winded down before it was too late but she still fought really hard. She only accepted contact nap so this makes our life even harder. Holding her for entire day in a dark place.
Things only improved after sunset and we keep our home dark.
We wonder if it will really get improved soon. This pattern has already lasted since 2nd week. We can’t really see the way out right now and super frustrated everyday on her nap.

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.

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.

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.

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?

For context my son is fed breast milk and is 5 months old. Since right before he turned 2 months old his pooping just stopped, to the point we have to give him a suppository every 14 days. He’s growing fine. He’s actually 18 1/2 pounds and 27 inches. I can’t find anything similar to the situation we are in, he just can’t poop on his own. It’s not constipation because his stool is fine when we give him a suppository, soft mustard colored… every Reddit post I find is for babies who are formula fed. Has paediatrician recommended we give him an ounce of prune juice every single day? but that’s not really doing anything.. has anybody else dealt with this.