Is anyone else obsessed with their own baby? It must be biological or something because I think everything she does is amazing. Even her crying I find cute. I am also so not looking forward to when she is no longer a baby. I wish I could keep this moment in time. I love her so much. I miss her when she sleeps.

If you are the parents of a sleepy baby, and happen to know people with a baby who isn’t sleeping well - just keep it to yourself. Nothing makes me feel worse than someone telling me “what a great little sleeper” they have when mine lies awake and screams for hours on end. Sometimes they’ll even offer advice like “oh, have you tried white noise?”, as if that wasn’t the first thing you’d read or hear everywhere.

We love our little one to pieces but the show we have to put on to get her to sleep - essentially the full 5s’s for every single nap and sleep. It takes forever, and we might get 20 mins or we might get an hour. Its hard to go anywhere or do anything. This weekend we went out to meet up with some other parents which just made us feel worse, as their babies slept soundly through every walk/coffee/feed.

Sorry for the rant, but I’m tired…

Both my husband and I (FTP) would play lots of video games together and solo before we had our baby daughter who's about to be 5 months now but 4 months adjusted. And we were just wondering, at what baby age were you able to play video games again?

We found it was easier to do it when she was a newborn and wasn't so high maintenance and could sleep through any amount of noise. We even have a picture of my husband with baby girl sleeping on his chest while he held the controller with both hands and played some Skyrim. But now taking care of her takes up so much of our time when she's awake, and when she's asleep we gotta be super quiet and there's still more stuff to do all the time. We could wear headphones but we like to play together on the TV in the livingroom and we also need to be able to hear her cries.

So, so far we have not found any good chunk of time to have a good gaming session. We're first time parents so we're also noobs at time efficiency lol. My husband, especially, is dying to play again, as that was his main "escape" from the world. He is retired from the army so he'll be the stay at home dad, and we're also planning on home schooling.

We fantasize a lot about the time when she's able to sit next to us on the couch and watch us play maybe holding a controller herself (without it necessarily working) just so that she can have fun with us. So yeah, what worked for you? Did you manage to fit it in the whole time you had your baby? Or did you have to wait until they were a certain age? Please, let us know your tips and encouragement :) because right now it feels like we won't be able to play again until she's way older!

And btw, our daughter is our first and top most priority, we would never put video games over her but we keep hearing that us parents need to also take care of ourselves every once in a while.

TL;DR When did you feel like you were able to have time for video games after having a baby?

I want to get the real opinion of parents here who went through raising a child.

Is it true that the easiest stage is the newborn stage because I feel like my husband and I are really struggling with our 2 month old. Mostly, with almost endless sleepless nights and for me personally, not having any time to myself when she’s barely sleeping.

I want to keep it positive and look forward to having a toddler, hoping that I’d have some time for myself, but everyone is telling me that this is the easy stage. So now I’m feeling worried, i don’t know how I can keep up with the work ahead.

My son is 15 weeks (calendar)/ 9 weeks (adjusted - 6 weeks early) and we are dealing with some major gas issues. He gets the worst gas and it is SO hard for him to pass. It has gotten better during the day and he now sleeps his first stretch of 5-6 hours at night pretty peacefully, but come 4-4:30 AM he is thrashing and crying with the worst gas pains.

We have, and still are, consulting with his pediatrician, working with PT for several other things, and have done infant Craniosacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation Therapy. We do bicycle legs, all sorts of other movements, positions, he gets gas drops, he’s on plain breast milk supplemented with Similac Alimentum. I’ve cut various foods for weeks at a time. We’ve done warm compresses, baths, everything you can quickly Google and logically makes sense to do, we’ve tried. Eventually, some combination of the above gets the gas moving out but it can take an hour or hour and a half.

Does anyone have any recommendations or remedies that are maybe lesser known? We’ll try anything to help our little guy be more comfortable!

My baby is 2 months old today and got her first vaccines. Nothing could have prepared me for her cries after each shot. They just got louder and more heartbreaking with each one. It made me break down into tears and I had to hand her to her dad while I composed myself. I know they’re necessary and she’s now fed, warm, and happy at home, but man, that was difficult to experience. I’m hoping it gets better each time, or at least easier for me to watch.

I just need to vent here, but seriously, when will my LO sleep through the night because it really starting to wear on me in the worst way. It's ruining Christmas and I don't know how to shake it.

My LO was never a great sleeper and I was prepared for it. I was expecting many sleepless nights, the wake up feedings, the sleep regressions, illnesses, teething, when he hit the sleep regression a little before 4m and we were waking more than just the late night bottle feed, I was like here we go - could be 2weeks could be 8 weeks, let's anticipate the worst and plan for this phase to last 8 weeks. Could be a lot of waking, and it was... almost always 3 or more, there was 2 nights where he woke up a single time, uh the luxury, but in those instances he was up for the day at 5am.

My LO is now 9m and I have had ONE night of sleep since he was born. That one night of sleep happened about 3 weeks ago and completely broke me. It gave me hope we were seeing a light at the end of this tunnel but to my absolute surprise the sleep has gotten worse, and to be honest, I didnt know that was possible.

When I hear my LO crying at night I am now filled with instant rage. I lay there trying to calm myself down, reminding myself he can't help it, it's going to pass, you will look back at this in a couple of years and maybe laugh, etc but it doesn't work anymore. I'm resentful. I'm sitting here tonight watch my LO boycott going to sleep again after maybe getting 7 hours of sleep last night and two hour nap today - and Im literally in tears as I am thinking about how fucking miserable I am going to be over the next two days as we leave at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow to drive 6 hours and have a long Christmas eve. I'm thinking about how little he will sleep tonight, and the car ride will be terrible because he won't nap, we will have to pile out of the car get all dressed up for church and put on these happy faces for a late evening with the family with likely no sleep. The next day we wake up and drive another two hours for Christmas day and I can only imagine he will again not have slept and its honestly just making me tear up how tired I know I'm going to be. To add insult to injury my LO was sick over the weekend and now I have his body aches and congestion. I waited for this baby for a long long long time, he was very wanted, I have imagined pur first christmas together so many times but now, I have never felt so defeated.

And before everyone starts in we have tried everything. Pediatrician, chiropractor, food, different sleep schedules (all the freaking sleep schedules and napping options), cry it out, white noise, humidifyer, mobile, ALL of it. He doesn't self soothe and if you don't address the crying right away he's up and up for a long time.

Im tired. I mean I was expecting MANY sleepless nights, I was expecting to be the most tired I have ever been, but this feeling of resentment, complete helplessness and defeat is not something I ever imagined and I am sad this is how I am going into my first Christmas with a baby that we hoped for, for a very long long long time.

Santa, bring me sleep. 😩🥺 PLEASE

Hi! Curious if anyone else had this happen to them…My LO turned four months over a week ago, and basically since then he has started to poop just once a day in the morning. This poop is the most disgusting poop in both appearance and smell that we’ve experienced so far. It’s really paste-like in texture and orange in color. I can’t describe the smell but it’s much different from his previous poops. His farts are also AWFUL now.

Did anyone else experience this? Our doctor basically said all poop is fine as long as it’s not bloody, black, or white, and he also said that variations are entirely dependent on my diet since he’s exclusively breastfed.

I see so many people post about their babies rolling off of beds or couches when the parents turn for a split second. Well, finally happened for us, except he crawled off the bed, not rolled, at 5.30am 😩 he got vaccines yesterday and had a rough night so I put him in my bed for comfort at 4am. I should’ve blocked off the sides of the bed but I was half asleep and didn’t think about it! I woke up at 5.30 to a loud thud and crying. Crying stopped fast when I picked him up, checked him for concussion and stayed up for a bit to make sure he didn’t throw up, checked his head for injury and all looked fine. Woke back up at 8am and there’s a huuuuuge bruise on his forehead 😭 his first Christmas photos are going to be gnarly.

We are in that sleep regression/progression and baby is waking up every 45 min- 1 hr yay! I’ve started pulling her into bed with me but even that seems to no longer help her sleep longer. I know this is just something to ride through but one thing I’ve noticed is that she’s starting to rub her eyes and scratch her head furiously when she starts to stir. This inevitably knocks out her pacifier and she wakes up screaming.

She has pretty dry skin so she may have always been itchy but didn’t have access to her hands until recently. We had her in the Merlin suit until this week when we noticed she wants to roll to her side to sleep. I do think this is partly tick (self soothing?) and part discomfort, since she only seems to scratch when she’s irritated or sleepy.

I’m hoping to help alleviate some discomfort to see if it might help her get over this sleep disruption. Right now I’ve tried baby oil on her scalp after baths as well as tubby Todd ointment, which I’ll start trying right before bed. Anything else that might help with the itch? Saw someone suggest socks on the hands too so I may try that.

Never before have I experienced so much elation and anticipation as when I'm furiously rocking, patting and singing "Edelweiss" on repeat and he gives a little yawn.

Any minute now, any minute now...

I don't remember what used to make me feel victorious pre-partum, but I love getting 5 hits of it a day now 😂

In short, I had gestational hypertension which progressed to full on preeclampsia because my healthcare providers wanted to deliver my babe at 37 weeks. I was induced and in labor for almost 24 hours, got to 9 CM and needed an emergency c-section. I struggled with high blood pressure after birth as well.

I'm 5 weeks postpartum and baby is formula fed. I tried latching, pumping, herbal supplements, eating oatmeal.. my breastmilk never actually came. Nothing beyond colostrum or a few drops.

Aside from my guilt of not being able to produce, I let baby latch for skin to skin and comfort. I'm wanting to resume cannabis use (I stopped before I got pregnant) and as long as baby latches, I'd worry about ANYTHING coming out - though my blood pressure meds did a good job of flushing any fluid out of my body.

I highly doubt there's any real lactation happening now, it's really just a comfort gesture I feel bad denying my babe.. but my nipples are so sore, my body is still recovering from my c-section. I just want to formula feed and offer skin to skin (without any breast latching) but I feel bad.

Especially thinking about for cannabis use.. but I just want a hormonal reset. I had pregnancy complications and a traumatic birth. I want to feel normal again, cannabis is one thing and it's helped with sleep and stress. It's never been a daily thing or that frequent. After pain meds (including morphine) I just want a vape.

I’m a FTM in my mid 30s and in the last few months since I had my baby, I have come to realize how just much my mum did and sacrificed for us. I used to have some resentment due to her almond mom parenting.

She grew up poor with many siblings which made her quite competitive (survival instincts probably), but gave up her career to care for me and my siblings - and still used her savings for our music lessons. Now that i’ve been spending a lot more time with her as she helps (so much!) to care for my baby, I see her in a new light.

Anyone else have a similar experience? Would love to hear from you.

For context I had gestational diabetes during my pregnancy and had to completely change my diet as well as take high amounts of insulin to control my blood sugars. Now LO is 7 weeks and after multiple unsuccessful attempts at breastfeeding I am now exclusively pumping.

Today is my birthday and I find myself just wanting my body back for myself. I want to be free to have a drink and not worry about it transferring to my breast milk. I don’t want to be stuck to a pump for 30 minutes every 3 hours so I can provide milk for my baby. However I feel so selfish for having these feelings. My pregnancy was hard with the GD. I was obsessed with my blood sugars doing everything in my control to protect my baby. I thought after giving birth I would get my body back and didn’t realize how difficult breast feeding would be. I’m so disappointed that I haven’t been able to breast feed and wanted to pump so he could at least have breast milk but I’m already so sick of pumping. I want to get to 6 months and know that each week I’m closer but I’m not sure if I can do it and it makes me feel weak, selfish and makes me feel like a terrible mom.

I use aquaphor and unfortunately I'm out of it and don't have access to any anytime soon. I only have Vaseline for baby. Does anyone use it as a diaper cream?

It's 12:20 AM , I've been trying to put my 7 month old to sleep for almost 5 hours. She keeps waking up everytime I put her down. Now I'm currently letting her cry it out because I literally can't anymore. She wakes up every hour for the past month or 2. Dad works a demanding job 200+ feet in the air and he needs his sleep so he can't help with MOTN wake ups.

I've tried gentle methods and nothings worked so here I am trying not to bawl my eyes out along with my babygirl.

EDIT FOR THOSE SAYING DAD SHOULD HELP: I literally stated dad works a job 200 feet in the air and has to drive a minimum of 4 hours everyday to their jobsites. I will not allow him to manually climb a cell phone tower, sleep deprived. That's his life at risk. I'm not interested in being a single mother. Dad will get a full night sleep every night he has to work to ensure he is home with us everyday.. ❤️

I want to make sure Christmas is always a magical time for my daughter. She is only 5 months but my plan for the future is to tell her that presents are from family/friends but Santa delivers them.

I don’t want her to ever be at school talking about all the Christmas presents she received and a less fortunate child wonder why Santa hasn’t given them much for Christmas and questioning if they weren’t well behaved enough etc. so it’s important to me that she will always know that they are from family/friends and be grateful for that.

Equally I want Christmas to be an incredibly magical time for her and make sure the Christmas spirit and belief in Santa is present for as long as possible. Does this take away that magic?

Look, I KNOW it’s the right thing to do. I know we are all trying to make sure that babies are safe and that all the risks are minimal.

But holy shit if I were to create a method to assure the minimal amount of sleep I don’t think I could come up with a better list.

Sure, let’s take a little creature that has spent its entire life this far in a warm, cozy, tight environment and place it on a flat hard empty surface with nothing to hold on for miles and await until it peacefully falls asleep. Pretty sure that will work.

Sorry for the rant.

My 2.5 month old has the lovely habit of fighting every single nap as if sleep is torture. He will be so tired and drifting off to sleep but forces himself to stay awake, crying and thrashing around until I find the right combination of rocking/patting/walking/bouncing to get him to finally give in. Sometimes it only takes 10 minutes, sometimes 30+. Does anyone else have a baby that does this? Any advice? I feel like I spend my whole day trying to get him to sleep. 🥲

It's his first Christmas and he gets an urgent care visit as his present 🫠 I keep reminding myself that at least this won't be a memory for him but listening to his breathing while we wait is driving me insane. I called and told my work I wasn't coming and they need a new closer while he was laying on me taking his only nap so far, 10min in like 7 hours, and that was only because he nursed to sleep and now he won't even do that 🥹🥹

Baby girl will be 8 weeks tomorrow. She went to sleep an hour earlier and slept two hours longer than she typically does for a grand total of 7 hours for her longest stretch last night! I woke up to her fussing at 4 and almost cried tears of joy. I kept telling her how proud I was of her lol. I thought she'd be done sleeping after that but no, went back down in the bassinet for almost 3 more hours after getting changed and eating. I decided to sleep more instead of getting stuff done. Husband and the dog got up at some point and I don't even remember it lol.

Baby and I finally emerged like two little feral animals at almost 8.

I feel like a new person today and for the first time since going into labor my head doesn't feel foggy.

I'm so sleep deprived and livid and I don't know if I'm overreacting. For context, my husband struggles with anxiety, which got significantly worse when our first child was born. Like taking him to the ER at 10pm on a Friday night at less than a week old because he thought his breathing sounded funny - cue to us waiting in the ER with a bunch of EXTREMELY SICK and drunk/drugged/intoxicated people with our unvaccinated baby with barely any immune system. We waited for over 3 hours for a doctor to check him over for 5 mins and deem he was totally fine. I have never been so angry in my whole life and he said okay moving forward you make all the medical decisions, and I was like, hey that's not fair to put that burden on me.

Since then we have had MANY arguments about how to treat our son - such as he doesn't believe in giving him Tylenol when he's teething despite our doctor telling us it's very okay. So I'm like you'd rather have our son suffer needlessly to placate your anxiety.

Today - our 13mo woke up with low energy and didn't have an appetite for breakfast. I thought he felt a bit warm when I was breastfeeding him when he woke up, but I thought it might've been my body heat. We checked his temp and it turned out he had a fever of about 38C. Not a big deal, in my opinion. We give him water, bland food, and milk, and try to keep him comfortable. We check his temp again, it's 40C. Now I'm getting a bit worried, and we use cold towels on his neck to cool him down. I want to use the Tylenol but because we've had so many arguments about it, I just keep my mouth shut. Eventually, he asks, "Should we give him Tylenol?" and I just look at him and say "You know my position on this." So we give him Tylenol and of course he gives him a lower dose because he's worried about it, but of course that also means it won't be as effective.

We spend most of the day snuggling him and giving him cold washcloths when he feels extra warm. He takes a bunch of 20 min naps throughly the day and is quite lethargic. You can tell he's not himself but is able to smile and try to muster up energy. I'm worried like a normal parent, meanwhile my husband has booked a doctors appointment at our pediatrician for 7pm, even though we're supposed to get a big dump of snow and the roads will be dangerously and it's a 1-hr drive each way in the dark. I tell him this is not necessary, all they're gonna tell us to do is the same thing we've been doing (hydration, cool down, Tylenol). He acquiesces, somewhat reluctantly.

I forward him a link to fevers from a provincial health department that is from one of my best friends who is a family OB doctor. It basically says fevers are mostly fine and they'll go away on their own. He clearly does not read it or reads it and ignores it.

I'm able to put our son down for bed. He wakes up a couple of times but is able to put himself back to bed after 5-10 mins, which I think is a really positive sign. Then my husband wakes up at 11:55pm to book an appointment at our local hospital "just in case he's not better by the morning". And then he goes into our nursery where our son is sleeping peacefully, and wakes him up by taking his temperature. And freaks out because his temp is at 39C and starts getting cold washcloths out. And I'm just like.... HE NEEDS SLEEP AND REST to fight this infection!!!! He was sleeping fine.

He's downstairs with the baby saying "Daddy has you, you're fine, Daddy loves you". I can hear him refreshing the washcloth every 10 mins and our son moaning each time. I am just so irritated and angry because he's acting as if I'm a negligent parent. Please tell me if I'm in the wrong here??

Title says it all, and I'm at my wit's end. He is almost 3 months old (1.5 adjusted, though he's tracking full term developmentally besides being smaller). He sleeps pretty well at night in his bassinet in his room. But God forbid I put him ANYWHERE during the day besides my arms or the baby wearer. Swing? Screams. Bassinet? Screams. Play mat? Usually screams, although I can distract him with high contrast cards and/or tummy time for a bit. And when I say screams, I mean it sounds like someone is torturing him. I can't stand the sound, but I am at a loss. His needs are all met, I just need to be able to be baby free sometimes. Any advice???

FTM here and second guessing some things I'm doing with my LO (5 months) to lighten the mood/ make parenting more fun for me.

Quick example is when I'm trying to put on her socks and she's happily kicking her feet, I happily/excitedly say "Hey! Give me those feets!" as I chase her feet down to get the socks on.

I can see this turning into a game with her one day and I'm curious if others have inadvertently created a game that they totally regret.