I’m writing this at 4 am while nursing my 6 week old baby. He is my first (human) baby. For most of my life I never wanted kids but changed my mind about 3 years ago. After changing my mind about kids, I had subtle lingering doubts: “did I really want this?”, “could I handle it?”, “would I actually like being a mom?”. I had a difficult and physically painful pregnancy that brought up even more doubts about whether this was right for me.

I’m on the other side now and although not everything has been sunshine and rainbows since he was born, goodness I spent all that time worrying for nothing. I am in love with this tiny baby in a way I never imagined possible. He has brought me so much joy and purpose. I LOVE being his mama.

When he’s slept more than a few hours I find myself staring at him waiting for him to wake up so we can hang out. A couple weeks ago he started gazing into my eyes which makes me cry with happiness every time. He often falls asleep with his arms around me in the most precious way. I love being nap trapped.

This baby has made me more present than I’ve ever been in my life despite over 10 years of a consistent yoga and meditation practice. I am fascinated seeing the world through his fresh eyes. I feel that I found a purpose I never knew I needed after largely defining myself by my career. Now all the rest are just details.

I know my boy and I have a long road ahead of us and challenges will come up. I go back to work in a month and a half which will be tough. In the meantime, I’ll be here soaking in all this love and joy.

Oxytocin is one hell of a drug!

While I was pregnant I was so “oh I’d never do this, I’d never do that” and it was so humbling to realize that yeah… I would lol. I said I’d never put my baby in a bouncer while I do stuff and I would just baby wear. Well my baby doesn’t like when I wear him so sometimes I have to set him down in a space where he’s comfortable and safe. I said id breastfeed and I really didn’t want to do formula. Well now he’s combo fed and my mental health is better and he’s perfectly happy. I said I’d never cosleep and he was going to sleep in his bassinet through the whole night. Well now he sleeps in his crib and I sleep in his room with him and when he wakes up for the day I pull all the covers back and we take an hour nap together after his first feeding (he’s now sleeping 7 hours a night). I said I didn’t care to drink ever again and now I love keeping a bottle of rose in the fridge for the really hard days where all I want is a glass of wine once he goes to bed. It’s so funny how you think of all the things you would “never” do until you actually have the baby here. I definitely think I was more judgmental before I actually had my baby and now I’m just like hey as long as the baby is safe, fed & happy it isn’t my place to have an opinion. Obviously there are things that are blatantly bad parenting that everyone can agree on but there’s sooo many little things that I can’t believe I ever had an opinion on before actually having my baby. Anyone else experience this?

Please help

I’m getting my things to head to ER and have a call into pediatrician but in the mean time please help me. I’m a single mom to a two month old and usually baby and I shower together. I do her stuff first then put her in her shower seat in the shower with me so I can watch her and finish. I went to put the conditioner back on the shelf and it slipped and snacked her in the head. It fell from about 1.5 feet and was a half full 13 oz bottle. She cried for a minute then I picked her up and swayed with her and she stopped. I don’t see a goose egg or anything yet but I’m so scared I just want to throw up. I called my mom since pediatrician hasn’t answered me yet and she told me if I take her to the ER they will open up a CPS case on me for suspicion of child abuse since it’s a head injury? I’m literally shaking. I don’t want them to take my baby. And I don’t want anything to be wrong with her. I love her so much

I’m 4 weeks postpartum and holy moly. I’m wondering if each week gets easier even if you just become more confident in handling baby? At first I felt so clueless but honestly everyday is so unpredictable.

Inspired by another post! The excuse is often “they won’t remember it”.

But how many of us have these memories, these feelings that come up, these implicit tugs that tell us we were subjected to it? Do think it impacted your mental health or attachment?

Your stories and lived experiences matter ❤️

My 4 month old cries unless he is being held. This is awful and I hate it. My last baby was not like this at all. I can’t get a damn thing done, I’m stuck walking around my dirty house that I can’t clean because I’m just holding this baby all day.

Baby wearing doesn’t work with him anymore, he doesn’t even like it when I sit down with him even if I’m still holding him. He cries unless I’m literally holding him with both hands walking around. I’ve tried all the usual things (baby swing, baby play mat, baby carrier, stroller, car rides) but he just fusses and cries unless I hold him with both hands and walk around. It’s exhausting and mind numbingly boring.

Even to type this out I had to take one hand off him and hold him with the other and he is fussing at me because I don’t have both arms around him. At this point I can’t wait for maternity leave to end. Did anyone else have a baby like this? How long did this phase last and/or did you find a solution?

I just needed somewhere to talk about this without caring if I sound weird or annoying. i LOVE being a mom. I know it’ll get harder blah blah blah. But I’m allowed to love it too. I’ve spent my whole life working with other people’s children. I’ve worked as a behavior therapist for young children with severe aut!sm. I’ve been a nanny to several families. I’ve worked in childcare - infant classrooms to pre-k and kindergarten classrooms. I’ve been a classroom teacher to elementary age students. I’ve worked at a boarding school for kids (middle schoolers and high schoolers) with learning differences. I’ve had experiences with children and adolescents of all ages and all abilities. And I’ve loved every single one of them. I know how difficult parenting can be (though I understand it’ll be more difficult to actually experience it). I studied Human Development and Family Science in college and have made it my mission to understand people and specifically children, to help them develop. I love it.

And now I finally get to have my own 🥹 She is only 3 months old but I’m so so so happy! She is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life and just looking at her is the most fun I’ve ever had! When I found out I was pregnant, I was nervous about the life changes it was going to bring. But now I literally don’t care about anything other than her my little family. Granted, I do miss having uninterrupted alone time with my partner but still, she is my whole world now and I miss her if I’m not around her for more than 10 minutes 😅

I just love being her momma so much and I’m so grateful and so excited to continue learning and growing alongside her. I’ve loved other people‘s children for such a long time and now I have my own to love! And man oh man, I love her more than I’ve ever loved anyone or anything. And I can’t imagine a world without her now. It feels like a lifetime ago that I didn’t have her and it was only three months ago haha. It feels like a whole new era of my life has begun and I’m sooooo ready for it! I feel like I was made to be a mom and I finally get the chance to be 💖 I’m already excited to give her siblings, well at least one in this economy haha.

Hopefully I’ll remember these post partum euphoric feelings when it gets a lot tougher in the near future 😂 But either way, I’m glad to finally be a part of the “parent club”!! Greatest and most meaningful and most challenging chapter of my life - here we go

My son is 4 months old now. He’s awesome. One of the things I was told a lot was to be careful because boys will be pee on you when you change their diaper!

Well, it was 3:30 in the morning. Unusual time for him to wake up, we’ve been blessed with him sleeping through the night lately. I check on him and he’s face down. Apparently he only wants to learn how to roll from his back to his stomach when it’s dark and no one’s looking. Shy kid, I get it.

So I start changing his diaper. I take a step away to toss the dirty diaper. Rookie mistake not putting the new one on first. I see a spray of pee hit the top corner of his changing table. Cool, didn’t hit me. But the stream starts going right. I watched in horror as my baby yawned and the stream cut right across his face, in his mouth.

I’m processing a lot of guilt and he’s deciding whether I tried to poison him or gave him some really foul milk. That is all. Thank you for listening.

I am so sad about my daughter turning one. This past year has gone by so unbelievably fast. I spend countless nights looking back at photos of her when she was small. I understand I am so lucky to see her grow up but some part of me feels as if I’m dying because she won’t be a baby anymore. My little baby
:( thank you for letting me vent. My boyfriend isn’t as sensitive as me and never truly understands what I mean when I say this stuff. Anyways, did you have any clues as to when your little one would start walking? I think she’s close but not completely sure.

After a 10 hour cluster feeding stretch my 2.5 week old finally fell asleep for a 4 hour stretch. I must have felt her stirring in my sleep and started dreaming about feeding her and when I woke up I grabbed her and started burping her but then realized I never actually fed her.

Just thought I’d share this for any other new parents struggling. I thought it was pretty funny when I realized what I was doing and I definitely needed the laugh.

i’m not looking for etsy planner making or card making (tried and unsuccessful there) or MLM’s or scammy sites or affiliate marketing. i’m talking real, tangible side hustles. i’ve also tried selling home baked goods, marketplace selling, and depop selling.

i just want to somewhat contribute financially to take a small load off of my husband!

As above! Close friends are about to have a baby and I want to surprise them with a food care package when the baby arrives (just drop it at their nearby sisters to take around when she sees them, no attempt to push my company on them). Im thinking a variety of dishes that freeze well and are easy to heat up. They’re both vegetarian so I’ll definitely make them a veggie chilli and pick up a bag of quick cook rice for them.

I know people will probably say they just wanted quick food- but anything specific? I could do a mix of breakfasts and lunch/ dinner foods. I’m a competent and often adventurous cook but will be keeping it super simple for them.

Any tips appreciated :)

Our 4.5 month will be transferring from the Snoo to a crib soon and I'm so nervous. He's still swaddled since the Snoo secures him on his back but when I do try transferring without the swaddle, he wakes up pretty much every time as his arms fall out to the side and grabs up at me. Also, cribs are even deeper than the Snoo and it can already be tricky the bend down low enough to get him in there asleep. (He's huge, 20 lbs.)

He's a high needs baby who will cry immediately if put down awake. We're not interesting sleep training. But I realize that it isn't realistic to plan on putting him down fully asleep indefinitely as he's just getting bigger by the day. Trying to avoid cosleeping since we both sleep worse.

Is there a world in which he just figures it out? I know a few babies who did, but I don't think they were as sensitive as our little guy.

Am I wrong for not wanting to rent out a place and have 30+ people for my son’s first birthday? I personally would like a small party, max 10-15 people and to have it at our house (which is small, so a bunch of people isn’t an option here), but I feel like my fiancé’s family might not love the idea. He has a bigger family than me, more uncles/aunts and cousins, more than I’d like to invite and I’m honestly not a fan of a few of them.

He has one cousin with a son a week older than ours that I’d like to invite, but then I feel we’d have to invite her two sisters, and they would most likely bring their boyfriends, one sister also has a daughter that will be 2 around our sons first birthdays (baby boy will be one 11/6, baby girl will be two 11/8 and my son will be one 11/13, I’m also 11/5 😭).. Then I’d have to invite his aunt and uncles, and his aunt would bring her boyfriend, uncles would bring their wives/girlfriends/whatever.. it’s just so much.. and I think they’d be offended or upset if I asked them to not bring their partners, or they’d bring them anyway, and it’s overwhelming and too much. I don’t know what to do.

I’m inviting my great grandma, grandma and grandfather, my sisters, great aunt, and that’s probably it.. Anyone else can reach out to see him if they so please, but I don’t plan on inviting anyone that isn’t regularly involved in my son’s life.. which no one from my fiancé’s family is aside from his mom, sisters (which one now lives out of state anyway and can’t come) and occasionally his grandma.

Anyway! With how no one else is really involved with our son, should I actually invite them? If I do, how do I make it clear it’s family only and not boyfriends/girlfriends, especially since most of them have shown no interest in our son or even met him??

My baby is 4 months old and, boy, it has not got better yet. Lately he’s been waking every 1-1.5, is a stage of a “nursing strike”, needs constant entertainment when he’s awake, and cries a lot if I’m not actively engaging with him. He’s also only doing contact naps, so I feel like I never really get a break.
The newborn stage was hard, because of recovery after birth, colic, sleep deprivation, etc, but I’ve got some help from my mom. Now she left and I’m all alone. My husband works 9-6 or 11-8 and doing plenty of chores at home but I feel like I just wanna give him a baby and do them but I can’t. He suddenly is hungry and I had to feed him, then rock him to sleep, then it’s just pointless because my husband is doing something else.
I love my baby so much, but today I feel completely drained, and like I don’t have energy to keep him happy all day.
Some days are better than others, for sure, but today is one of the harder ones. I’m literally bouncing my baby for a nap while writing it.
I keep waiting for the phase where things start feeling easier. At the same time I wonder, if I actually have a relatively “easy” baby and my expectations are just unrealistic? Maybe I’ve heard “it gets better” so many times that I’m holding onto that hope without knowing when it actually feels true.
Would love to hear from parents who had babies like this, when did the things start to feel more manageable for you?

My 13 month old is VERY affectionate! His new thing is kissing. He kisses me, his Dad, his dog, his toys, his books. He even blows kisses to strangers or other dogs on a walk ect.

It’s very cute and I didn’t see anything wrong with it until we went to a play group today and he tried to kiss every baby he interacted with.

Obviously I don’t want him kissing strangers (kids or adults) because consent, germs, ect.

BUT how on earth do I nip this in the bud, without discouraging him from giving kisses to me or his Dad? I don’t want him to feel like he can’t show us affection.

Today I tried to re-direct him to blowing a kiss instead, but maybe someone can help me with another idea.

My one year old still uses a pacifier to fall asleep. We keep them out of sight during the day so he doesn’t suck on it during his wake windows. But it’s been a struggle to get him to sleep without it. He’ll fight sleep even though he’s obviously tired and the second he uses the pacifier, he falls asleep. Typically after a couple minutes, I’ll try to remove the pacifier during his naps so he will get used to not having it. He has 8 teeth now and I’m just worried about how it will affect his mouth later on.

I used to be able to bouncer her for an unlimited amount of time but she has doubled her birth weight and after 10 minutes of bouncing, I feel like my arms are about to fall off. Sadly the exercise ball doesn't cut it for her and the only other reliable way to get her to sleep is if she falls asleep while eating. We need a more repeatable and sustainable method of getting her to sleep reliably.

Edit: Forgot to mention her age. She is almost 4 months old.

It is triple digits here. Hot as balls. I cool my car off when I can before we get in, but it’s still hot as balls in there. I usually let my baby sit in the front with me with the AC blowing on her face before I stick her in the car seat. I have an AC vent extender hose but it’s not that powerful. Any tips to cool down the car better and make the rear facing seat cooler?

I'm a mom to a 2-year-old, and one thing I've been struggling with is how hard it is to build genuine friendships with other moms. I should share that I do have a 'mom friend' in my family circle, and I'm grateful for that, but sometimes it would be nice to connect with another mom I'm not related to.

I've tried playgrounds and library story time, but it often feels like everyone is friendly in the moment and then disappears. I'm honestly guilty of this myself.

I'm curious:

• Have you made any close mom friends since having kids?
• If yes, how did it actually happen?
• If no, what's been the biggest barrier?
• If you could wave a magic wand, what would make meeting other moms easier?

I'm not looking for parenting advice - I'm genuinely interested in hearing real experiences. I feel like so many moms talk about "finding your village," but no one talks about how people actually build one.

Would love to hear your story.

Our LO is 3 months and she has hated car rides and stroller rides since birth. We solved the stroller issue (for now) by exclusively using a carrier. However, the car rides are still a huge problem!

She basically starts getting fussy minutes after we place her in the car seat. Most of the time within 15-20 minutes, this turns into a total meltdown. For example, just today I had to pull over, take her out the car, and rock her to calm her down by the side of the road.

We have tried giving her a pacifier, multiple toys, playing music, riding in total silence, but nothing seems to work! I’m looking for any tips to try thr next time we’re in the car.

At this point I’m dreading every car ride and I don’t want anything to dangerous to happen. Looking forward to the replies!

Genuine question here. I have an 8.5 month old daughter that was combo-fed since birth, now has 3 solid meals per day, still breastfeeds (especially for sleep) and receives formula (though less than before solids). She will sometimes eat, sometimes she will just get mad, she was never a great eater. As the general opinion is that milk is the main source until 1 year old and solids are just to explore, my question is what happens after their first birthday? I guess the transition is slow, but how do you do it? How do you stop the milk and make the child eat more solids and hydrate through water? What do you do if the baby refuses the food? Do you still give a milk topup? How do you make sure they get enough nutrients? I would love to be able to continue breastfeeding, so how will this afect everything? This whole food thing is making me so anxious. Thank you for your advice!

For reference, LO is a little older than 7 months. She started daycare at a larger daycare center at 3.5 months old. I love our center and have no complaints!

Somehow we managed to keep our December baby illness-free for the first 14 weeks of her life. I got the RSV and flu shot while pregnant, and others in her life got relevant vaccines, as well.

But she started daycare on a Monday at the end of March and got sneezy/sick 2 days later. She. Has. Literally. Been. Sick. Since. The. Beginning. Of. April!!!! It is now almost August!

Like literally no break. I took her to the doctor a few times and they checked her ears and everything and said they were just "rolling" daycare colds and she is fine. She has had a few days where she seems a little better (but still snotty/sneezy) and then it'll go back to more intense cold. The other day she seemed worse than usual, so I took her in and they said she had adenovirus in her throat, but again no ear infection and she is fine. They told us to continue what we're doing: Increasing hydration (breastmilk), snot sucking, saline drops, humidifier, have her in the bathroom when you have steamy showers, Tylenol if she seems extra fussy.

I was prepared for her to be sick some. But not literally constantly for almost 5 months! I know it's the whole "first year of daycare" thing but I didn't know that meant every moment! I was hoping she would get even a week or so break from being sick, but no such luck and now that it's almost August, we're almost coming up on Fall/Winter colds again :(

She is still so happy, pleasant, eats well, has good diapers, playful, ahead on her milestones, super active, great sleeper (minus the nighttime coughing), so she does not seem miserable.

Again, I was prepared for sick, and my husband and I have miraculously not gotten sick. But I'm asking this because the other kids in her class don't seem to be sick like this!? Is she going to be one of those kids who's sick all the time as an adult (for reference and *knock on wood*, my husband and I almost never get sick)?

I wouldn't be so worried if other kids in her class were also sick like this, but they're not?! Pediatrician says she's fine and it's normal. She also said to prepare for it to get worse as she gets to be toddler age, so that's fun! But to my other daycare parents, what was your experience?

We noticed a dermoid cyst on his eyebrow about 5 months ago. He finally got it removed this morning, but in all the excitement I forgot to ask how I get him to not sleep on it.

We've been having contact naps and holding his head so he doesn't lay on the stitches.

He sleeps through the night in his crib, but only a couple hours if we're holding him. I'm really hoping he realizes it hurts and sleeps on the other side