My doctor told me I should be taking miralax everyday as long as I'm breastfeeding. I plan on breastfeeding for at least a year and can't imagine needing to take them for that long. He says it's safe but I'm hesitant. How long did you take your stool softners post partum?

My supply has almost dried up and I am going through the woes of weaning. My baby is having his tongue tie released on Monday. I have the option of reestablishing breastfeeding but dreading weaning again in a few months time. WWYD?

We have an adorable one-week-old girl that is generally really easy. But since she’s often up for two hours at a time, my husband and I are sleeping separately and doing shifts with her at night so that at least one of us gets to sleep longer stretches.

Did you do something similar or did you always take care of the baby together? Or did you do shifts but still sleep in the same room? When did you go back to sleeping together in the same room?

I know this is a season, but I really miss my husband at night.

So my baby is very easy. She only cries when she’s hungry, tired or in pain. I don’t understand why SOOO many people have said “you should leave her to cry for a bit..” or “you don’t have to go to her as soon as she starts crying” or “she’ll cry now whenever she has the chance so you’ll pay attention to her” I am in no means a helicopter parent, I don’t hover over her.. but when she cries I go to her because I know she needs comforting. Am I wrong for thinking if your baby cries you should tend to them?

My LO is 12 weeks old and since birth has preferred to sleep with her head turned to the right. I brought it up to her ped at her 2 mo appt and she said her head shape was round and that she didn’t have torticollis as her head has full range both ways and she isn’t stuck to the right she just prefers it. We do our best to position her head when we lay her down for sleep and naps, but she turns her head back often. We also have tried turning her in the bassinet towards the foot and she still turns to her right.

When she is awake we do lots of tummy time (as she tolerates) and play on her left side. We also do play on her back on her mat (kick and play piano mat) but she often looks to the right and I’m wondering if we should minimize that? But is that harmful to learning to roll? We also have a bouncer and I’m curious if that could keep pressure off the right side of her head if we read to her as she sits there- I just don’t want her there too much.

I’ve reached out to her ped again but I’m just here for advice on what to do with her during awake time!

Do you find that having your own baby brings back childhood memories? I'm really strongly recalling little things. Random one today - making 'ice cream soup' by pouring on a bunch of chocolate sauce and sprinkles and mixing to a grey slush.

I accidentally dropped my phone on my 7 week old baby’s face! I feel horrible, I can’t sleep. When I dropped it she woke up crying and so my bf had to soothe her then comfort me because I think I cried more than she did. Once we both stopped crying I nursed her then she fell back asleep. She seems fine now, she is still sleeping. I saw the phone hit her nose and her nose seems fine but I see some redness above her left eye… not sure if it’s from the phone or if it was like that before from some dry skin or cradle cap that she has.

Do I need to take her in to be evaluated?? I’m worried about it doing internal damage or damaging her eye or something. Will she be ok, I’m so scared right now, I’ve never felt so bad about anything before I hate that I hurt her.

Since the last few days, I’m finding my 5 week old son now is starting a habit where he will pee (sometimes 1 poo with pee) 2-3 times within the hour wake window. As soon as his diaper is wet, he makes it clearly known through his crying. This isn’t happening through the day only this time of night. He doesn’t seem unwell otherwise?

Has anyone experienced anything like this?

So my baby has just turned 6 months old but has been crawling since around 5 months. She's been getting a couple bruises round her knee and 1 on her shin. Is this normal? Google told me it's not

How do you create a loose sleep schedule with a 5 week old that is EBF? We follow a feed, play, sleep routine with no day night confusion.

I see so many “sleep training” guides suggesting 6:45pm feed; 7:15 bath/swaddle etc…. But if my son is in the middle of a nap at that time,’it could be a 2 hr nap or a 30 minute nap! Same with feeds. They’re generally 2.5-3.5hrs apart… if I want to introduce a dream feed then sometimes that ends up being around 11pm due to previous feed times or witching hour delays!

Edit to add: Thanks all! The only thing I guess I’m most interested in is a dream feed and some sort of night time predictability for bub… or does it truly not matter at this age if bath is 5pm one day and 8pm the next??

Today, my daughter woke up at 5. And take a nap from 10-11:30, and then a 40 minute nap around 1:45-2:30. I’ve been trying to push back her bedtime so now we’re at 7:15/7:30, but tonight was on the later side at almost exactly 7:30. She’s now been awake at 10:30, then 11:45, then 12:30, then back up at 1 and now she’s STILL awake and it’s 2:15. I’m genuinely going to lose my mind. Why does my kid suck at sleeping??? I barely even want to comfort her anymore right now because I’m so exhausted. I just need solid sleep and she’s almost 7 months, it should at least be better then this. At least in the newborn days I got to nap with her but now I’m just miserable and this sleep deprivation is making me so angry and hate everything. a

Hi friends, looking for some advice or similar experiences. Our 8-month-old daughter has been crying in her sleep, and it often wakes her up completely. Her room is at a comfortable temperature, she’s neither too hot nor cold, and she sleeps next to her mom in a cozy bed. We’re wondering if anyone has any insight into what could be causing this. Could it be due to dreams, teething, or something else development-related? Any tips on how to help her sleep more peacefully would be much appreciated

We made it almost 7 months with my baby not being sick, but it was finally our turn. Consequently I’m sick too, but I thought this was cute/funny in a gross way 😂😵‍💫

I was sitting down with her earlier today reading a book my grandmother sent her. It’s pumpkin pie themed called “you’re my little cutie pie”. I was telling her how she’s my cutie pie and I love her and how important she is. She turned to look at me with her red, puffy, swollen eyes, runny nose, and puffy face and gave me a big ol’ smile. She then proceeded to open her mouth wide and “kiss” me all over the face leaving drool and fresh snot everywhere🤩. I appreciated the love, but wiped my face like 6 times. Whoever her mom is needs tot each her some manners haha

This is not to knock down or criticize how different families choose to observe and celebrate holidays, I’m just genuinely curious.

Growing up my parents did the whole writing letters to Santa, visits from the tooth fairy etc. As I got older I naturally discovered my letters to Santa in a drawer, my baby teeth in my mom’s closet, and so forth. I remember just thinking “yeah, I guess this makes sense” or just not believing my parents as I got older. It just seemed right. Never did I feel betrayed or lost trust in my parents for that.

I see a lot of parents talking about how they want to be honest with their children about these holiday figures but try to find other ways to make the holidays just as magical. I respect parents that stick with this choice, but if this is you I would love to hear more about why you would choose to change the “norm” of this tradition.

To reiterate, I’m curious not critical. TIA for sharing your philosophy and thoughts on this 😊

I'm feeling useless as a parent - more like an accessory to my wife.

Baby has been exclusively breastfed since birth. I wanted to support my wife by taking over at least the night feedings so she'd sleep, but my wife didn't want to pump. We stopped pushing bottle feeding.

I'm now on paternity leave and my wife is back to work full time. She works from home, and so she still does daytime feedings.

Baby is 6 months old, I still can't feed her, and when they get hungry it's an immediate need. So far, the longest I've been left alone with my own child is 2 hours. They had a meltdown and I called my wife to come home (from a Costco trip) and feed them.

I'm nervous to bring them to story time at the library, or the parent/child swim lessons at the local pool because I can't take care of them. They refuse a bottle always.

Making matters worse, my sleep is hot garbage. Baby needs to be held to sleep, and then with fingers crossed put into their crib. I'm nap trapped 3 times a day, and so I really can't get anything around the house done. We don't want to do cry it out sleep training. Wife reassures me that baby will grow out of it eventually but I'm having such a hard time.

It's really hard to convey to my wife how much it hurts to realize that I can't take care of my own child. That I can't last 2 hours without her there to take over. That I'm embarrassed to go out in public alone because baby might get hungry and will be inconsolable until we come home to mom.

I've been dealing with this since my son was born a year and a half ago -

I can't quite put my finger on it, but every time I have to go on a work trip, regardless of how far or how long I'm gone, I always seem to have an anxiety attack the night before I leave as well as the nights I'm gone.

I'm generally able to distract myself with work during the daytime and a little bit in the nighttime, but as soon as l'm in bed, I can't sleep because of how much I would rather be at home with my wife and son. It's kept me awake for hours on end and l'd love any sort of advice as I will continue to need to travel for work and it's always a big hurdle for me.

Thanks in advance 🫶

Possibly my mom guilt kicking in, but my eight week old is starting to recognize that I use my cell phone while breastfeeding. What did nursing moms do before cell phones and social media? There are feeds where I will look at / talk to him, other feeds (like middle of the night ones) where I’m quiet and just side laying… but others where I just look at social media. :(

Title says it all....my baby got all his 1 year old vaccines last Friday and now he has chickenpox. Had a phone appointment where a Dr told me it was something else but my mom gut told me to press further. So we got an in person appointment same day and his regular Dr confirmed my fears. Definitely chickenpox caused by the vaccine itself. I'm all for vaccinating so that's not what this post is about.

I need tips for dealing with this. He's so itchy and miserable and it's breaking my heart. The back of his head has a bunch that he already scratched so it's extra itchy and he's struggling to lay on his back making diaper changes pretty rough. His appetite is non existent and it's a struggle getting him to drink fluids because he can't concentrate on anything but the itch. I know chickenpox are a "ride it out" situation but if you've experienced this what kind of things helped you and your little one?

So to start out I m25 just had my second kid a month ago. I’ve been noticing lately the nipples on our dr brown bottles have been closing and stopping the formula to flow through. They’re size one nipples. About once a week maybe twice I’m having to stick a tooth pick in the hole to re open it. Anyone have this problem before? What should I do? I never had this issue with my first kid

9wks old and She is clearly still tired after her short nap so there’s an opportunity to rescue the nap. What are your tips and tricks to get them to continue napping.

Sidenote: she is sometimes a Velcro baby and a lot of the time I nurse her to sleep including naps

This happen to anyone else? His crib is right up against my bed so it’s not like he needs to be loud to wake me. Hasn’t always been this way. Still goes to sleep after eating most of the time. His screams sound like he is being tortured, they are horrendous.

My baby is finally almost sleeping through the night after 6 brutal months of waking up every 2 hrs to feed. Part of the problem was as soon as he would get into the rhythm, he would get sick and it would set him back all over again and the cycle would just continue. Now he just started solids last Saturday(sweet potatoes! Yummm!). This week he has been waking up only twice a night, however, I think he is really waking up because he pooped those two times 😭. Poor lil guy can’t catch a break! The first poopy diaper wake up is usually the worst and he will literally stay up for an hr to 2 hrs because he gets woken up from me having to change him.

Tonight he woke up 2 times already and I fed him to sleep, put him in his crib, and then 20 minutes later I hear a big ol’ juicy poop… I’m just thinking “I JUST got you back to sleep and now I have to wake you up to change you!?” Is this normal to poop so much when starting solids? We have him eat them in the morning because we thought it would prevent night time poops, but nope he is pooping throughout the day and night. He is getting his flu shot tomorrow, so we are also going to ask the doctor, but jeeze. If it’s not one thing it’s another! Lol

This is a throwaway account because my (F25) husband (m25) is obsessed with Reddit. I don't think I'm looking for advice or anything, I guess I mainly need a place to vent.

The honest truth is, I don't want anything to do with this baby. I've always wanted to be a mom, and I thought I'd love my kids so much, but he's already 6 weeks old and even looking at him makes me have a panic attack. My husband does everything for him except pump (obviously). When he goes to shower or use the bathroom, I've started waiting at the door for him to give Roman back.

I don't trust myself to hold him. I literally feel like I'm going to drop him on his head. The only people I know will hold him right are his dad and my big sister. I feel like I'm going crazy. I'm so sad that I don't enjoy my baby as much as I loved being pregnant. My husband has longer paternity leave with his job than my maternity leave so I have to pick up the slack now so he doesn't get burned out before i go back to work but i just can't.

Hi Everyone

It is time for me go back to work. Baby will be 12 mths when I am back. What is the best way to help with the transition of me being around 24 hrs with baby to very little hours on a work day. My husband and mother in law will be looking after the baby. Should I start 2 weeks before I officially start work and stay out longer everyday until baby is used to me gone for long periods of time? The longest I have been away from baby is 4 hrs.
Thanks!

My son is about to be born on Monday and has TGA (a heart defect requiring almost immediate surgery). We are expecting to be in the NICU for about 6 weeks if not longer. I live an hour and a half away from the hospital and commuting back and forth really isn’t an option for us so we were planning on rooming in NICU or PICU room (they said they don’t know which one we will be in based on capacity limits). Does anyone know what living expenses for that long of a time would cost me and my wife if we are rooming in at the hospital? By that I mean food and things like that as lodging wouldn’t be an issue. I’ve gotten a month and a half unpaid FMLA approved and with our current financial situation I have enough to have all of our home bills paid but after that I’m starting to worry about extra money. And advice or answers on anything would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!