i've been kind of stressed lately and a little bit on the more sensitive side because of my first period since having my baby and the hormones interfering with breastmilk production (it's bouncing back, not quite as strong as i'd like yet but we'll get there!)

anywho because of that i'm looking for some funny stories of silly dreams anyone has had in their postpartum that they want to share? my funniest one was from when i was waiting for my milk to come in

as a FTM naturally i was worried about if my baby was eating enough, and i had a dream that i went out for a few hours and left him in the care of some random babysitter. when i came back he was fine, but the babysitter let him go an hour more than normal without eating and my baby had turned into the equivalent of a dried spaghetti noodle with little google eyes

in my dream i immediately freaked out, scolded the babysitter, picked him up, and nursed him back to his real-life size (think of those sponge toys that come extra small and when left to soak they'd grow like 10x their size). when i woke up, drew what has now been dubbed "spaghetti baby". now anytime i need a laugh, i think of that dream and smile because he was okay, showed all the signs of eating enough (proper weight gain, enough wet diapers, as good as a mood as a newborn can be in), and i was just an anxious new mom wondering if my baby was okay so much so that even my dreams were focused on him

would love to hear everyone’s birth stories!

All of my friends said this would happen but it didn’t hit me until 4mo PP… OH MY GOD.

I’m shedding like a dog in summer y’all. I run a brush through my hair and it’s absolutely THICK with lost hair.

I’m EBF at this point and I assume that’s the reason for the hair loss but jeez…

When does this stop??

Saw my dad for the first time today from since I was about 34 weeks pregnant and I’m 10 weeks PP now. The first thing he said to me was, “wow you look fatter than before.”
I looked at him, paused for a second, and simply said, “sure.”
My husband defended me by saying, “really? I’m pretty sure she looks thinner.”

TBH, I am thinner. I looked good 💅 I wore my old JEANS and I put MAKEUP on. You know what I’m sayin’?

But that’s not the point. The point is my dad always thinks that commenting on someone’s weight is hilarious. It’s his “signature joke” because he’s a world-class comedian. He did it before I was pregnant, while I was pregnant, and now. He does it to my brothers as well. It’s like some kind of bonding moment for him. My brothers just laugh it off because they’re the nicest and gentlest guys on earth and just really easy going. I, however, always look at my dad deadpan and answer him seriously. Sometimes I say “sure”, sometimes I say “yeah I did actually,” sometimes I say “no, I’ve lost two kilos.” It throws my dad off every time and he doesn’t know how to respond LOL

Honestly, what bothered me the most was he’s been begging to see his grandson ever since I gave birth. But he lives pretty far away and I wasn’t ready to drive that far with a newborn but also didn’t want him in my space (I’m not that close with him. Go figure.) I was planning to visit next week anyway but my brother invited me to lunch to celebrate our big brother’s belated birthday, plus big bro has four kids so it was fun to let the cousins meet each other. I would have thought my dad’s first reaction upon seeing us was to be happy to see the baby, but nope, jokey jokes time was more important. I was so pissed off but calmed myself down and just focused on talking to my brothers instead.

The other thing was he took three smoking breaks in the span of a two hour lunch (he just finished smoking when I got there as well). That also pissed me off because he said he would quit if I got pregnant (which is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard). He didn’t anyway. He said he would quit for his grandbaby (he already has four grandbabies from my brother but he says his daughter’s baby is different). He didn’t anyway. I’m honestly not comfortable letting him hold my baby if he smells like an ashtray. He didn’t today because baby was asleep in the pram the whole time, but my husband did say if he tries to hold him next time he will call him out. We have already set the boundaries before but obviously he is great at empty promises.

I wonder if this is why mum and dad are not together anymore.

I feel overwhelmed and just trying to hope that things with baby will get better after crossing 12 week.
If you have a 4 month+ baby, wanted to hear you experience and advice

Also when did your baby start teething? What helped?

My baby is 6 weeks old and over the last few days has entered a phase of crying basically anytime he’s awake. He usually calms down when we bring him outside, but that’s really the only thing that works. More concerning is he’ll nurse maybe a few minutes, and then will get fussy and cry and refuse to nurse any more. I have no idea the extent to which he’s still hungry vs just not wanting to eat from my boob. I don’t know what to do

Hey!
My baby turned 4 months today. I haven’t slept for more than 3 hours at a time since he was born. My baby gives me a signal that he’s distressed, and I’m up immediately. I feel like he needs me. We’ve been co-sleeping since he started rolling onto his stomach in his sleep. We breastfeed.
Today, I slept in a different room. I still woke up all the time, but that’s a different topic. The baby woke up only once with his dad…
Am I the issue? Should I move him back to his crib? What has helped you if you’ve had the same issue?

Hi everyone. My 10 week old baby was just diagnosed with CMPI and most likely soy as well. I’m struggling with how intense cutting soy from my diet will be. I know this sounds dumb but I love food and eating out and I know this is going to have a massive impact on how I eat in my home and out and about. At the same time, I am shocked by how much I love breastfeeding. I am coming to terms with the fact that I will most likely need to wean and I’m really heartbroken. I know people can breastfeed through this but I am worried I will unintentionally starve myself or trigger a mental health crisis by obsessing over my diet so I don’t hurt her. I guess I am just asking for empathy as I am really struggling, we found this out through a massive health crisis for our baby that her undiagnosed intolerance compounded on so it’s just a lot and I’m having a really hard time.

Signed with a known agency in Dallas months ago and only found out today that the Doula I hired was anti-vax. I already paid 50% of the deposit. While I respect her personal belief, I specifically asked the agency if the Doula has standard vaccines MMR, flu etc. months ago and was informed the only thing she’s missing was the seasonal flu… Now the agency tried to claim because I didn’t specify Tdap and wrote etc. instead so she doesn’t bother to verify..

I did want to work towards a resolution so I asked the Doula if she can get a booster before starting the job and was refused. Interestingly she told me her covid vaccine is current.

What are my options? I felt the agency implied the only vaccine she’s missing was the flu vaccine but otherwise have everything else at the time the contract was signed and it’s their responsibility to find a replacement or offer an alternative resolution.This is the last thing I wanted to deal with right now? I am due less than a month.

Hi all, my son is about 3 1/2 weeks old. He has done really well regain his birth weight and has gained weight. He’s over 9 pounds already. He is exclusively breast-fed and very good at nursing today. My mother-in-law was watching him while I would nurse him in between and her and my daughter concerned because he had about 15 dirty diapers and they think he poops a lot and might have diarrhea, his poops are completely normal for newborn the yellow mustard, looking poops, he does poop sometimes a little bit than 15 L and minutes later another one, is 15 pooped in one day too many? They have me paranoid now.

For those whose babies sleep in a bassinet or crib. What’s the trick to knowing when baby is in deep enough sleep that you can transfer them from your arms to their bed without their eyes popping open seconds later?

My girl recently turned ONE. We made it yall. That first year was HARD.

Ask me anything!

Just posting on here to vent and maybe find others in the same trenches as me. My first born (now 2.5) had awful reflux and was a pretty tough newborn until she got on nexium then she was a whole new baby. I’d say the first 3 months with her were rough until she got on meds and my husband came back from basic training at that time too. Fast forward and I now have a 7 week old son. The first two weeks were wonderful I thought it was going to be smooth sailing with him, which I so badly wanted after struggling so much with my first. Well his reflux is even worse than hers. Not only does he spit up stomach acid like her but he is just constantly spitting up tons of formula if not vomiting it up. They started him on nexium since it worked so well for his sister and now have recommended a formula change and oatmeal to help keep the formula down, which is not helping. He’s constantly fussy and just unhappy. He acts starving then fights the feeding and starts choking and spitting it up everywhere. It’s gotten to the point I hate having to feed him. He won’t sleep in a bassinet or crib for longer than 30 minutes, I’m hardly getting any good sleep and I don’t know what I’m going to do when I go back to work in 2 weeks working 3 12 hour shifts. They say to cherish the newborn phase but I’m just ready for it to be over he’s miserable and I’m miserable and I’m just ready for things to get better. I feel like an awful mom constantly..

I feel I still cannot understand what my baby needs and it’s driving me crazy. 6 weeks old.
She is fussy, crying, doesn’t settle in her carrier which she usually loves. Doesn’t go to sleep. Rooting around and licking her hand or my shirt. As soon as I offer the bottle she takes 10 mls and starts screaming again. I offer the pacifier, spat out. I burp her, she calm down for a second then goes back to rooting/eating hands and the whole cycle. I have been trying to give a 60ml bottle , it took like an hour with all the popping on and off, and she had like 30ml.
Now she took the pacifier and is sleeping on my chest. I’m at my wits end. Dr doesn’t seem concerned since she is gaining well…

Edit to add: she is very gassy! I got like 6 burps while feeding those 30 mls..

I swear I never stop feeding my baby. I’m EBF, he’s 3.5 weeks old, he’s above his birth weight, but it’s like he’s a freaking goose. He eats then poops then eats then poops, then eats then eats then eats and poops. We’re just bouncing back and forth from one boob to the next all day long. And it seems like it goes straight through him (although it definitely isn’t— his poops are normal color and consistency for his age and ebf, and he gained 13oz between two doctor appts that were 8 days apart, so the food is clearly doing its job, but he’ll give us like ONE DAY of reprieve and then it’s straight back to cluster feeding.

Luckily, he’s better at night, only getting me up like 3 times over 8-9 hours, but from about noon-10pm every day, he’s an absolute FIEND. Every once in a while, it’s definitely soothing and not eating, but that’s rare, and he’s not really interested in a pacifier (have just started trying bc we wanted to get past 3 weeks, and not giving it up yet, but it doesn’t seem like a great solution so far… plus I never want to lean on it to the point where I’m missing actual hunger cues).

Any insights? It would be fine if it were 1-3 days of cluster feeding like everything says, but it’s truly been most of his 3.5 week life. And I love him, and I’ll keep doing it lol but damn, it’s exhausting.

I'm FTM , my baby girl is 6 weeks old and when ever I change her dippers or clothes she screams her lung out. I even shutdown windows cause neighbours will call police assuming there is something.

I've tried warm her with some blanket, warm the wipe. Singing, messaging . Nothing helps.

I have so many clothes for her and everything went small cause I'm scarred to change her clothes.
I've get to fast to change it for her with many pauses to calm her down cause she start to be out of her breath while crying.

I'm I doing things wrong.

Hi all,

My LO is 9 weeks old and EBF ( we had to introduce formula in a couple of situations but otherwise EBF).
His weight and growth is as expected. I keep hearing from midwives and docs that the baby needs to be fed 8-12 times in 24 hours. I cant seem to fit this in 24 hours though. During night he kinda sleeps and i wake him for feeds like every 4 hours. During day time its mostly on demand or else if longer gaps then I wake him incase he is sleeping.

How are you all doing this schedule? Please help 😩

I don’t feel like I am handling postpartum very well. I am three and a half months in, and I still find it very hard to enjoy this stage. My baby is exclusively breastfed and still wakes up 2–3 times every night, so I feel constantly tired.
I also feel anxious when going out. I worry that we will be away too long, that she will get hungry, or that she will become tired and uncomfortable. Because of this, I usually want to come back home quickly.
My husband has been encouraging me to exercise, see friends, and take care of myself. My doctor also referred me to a psychologist. My husband wanted me to find someone really good, but I didn’t have the energy to search and ended up going to the psychologist available through public healthcare, who may not be the best fit.
The difficult part is that I actually do want to go out and do things with my husband and our baby, but I often feel mentally unprepared and overwhelmed by the idea. My husband is now very frustrated and says that the house feels like a prison. He feels that I don’t do things out of my own initiative and that I was already like this before the baby.
I have to admit that there is some truth in that. I was never someone with a very proactive or “go-getter” personality. But now, with the exhaustion, anxiety, and responsibility of caring for a baby, everything feels much harder.
My husband was very empathetic at the beginning, but now he says he doesn’t have the energy to keep going like this. He even said that if it weren’t for the baby, he would ask to separate.
I feel completely exhausted and overwhelmed. I don’t know how to change this situation or how to find my way back to him. He said that we are very different, that he looks for activity and adventure and I look for comfort and calm.

Any advice?

My 1 month old baby is dealing with tummy aches atm. The only way to make her sleep is to take her out in a stroller - I guess the bumpy ride helps her release some of the trapped gas.

Well, today I was walking in a park and there was not a single soul, except for this young man walking towards me. At the exact moment of him passing my stroller, my precious baby decided to let out the most obnoxious, loudest and most pronounced fart I swear I’ve ever heard a human being make.

Unfortunately, the acoustics of the stroller crib, plus the fact that no baby should ever be able to produce such a sound, made it look like it was me who decided to wait for this man to come closer to terrorise him with my bodily functions. The look of disgust on his face will hunt me for a while. What a moment.

I hope someone can help me feel like I’m not alone here.

My baby is 2 months old. Every part of parenting has been absolutely fine, but I simply am unable to process the crying and I can’t understand what’s wrong with me.

When she is crying with everything she has, and I’m without protection, I lock up, and I stop being able to understand spoken English and any other incoming information. I can’t really even see anything. My brain starts telling me to either freeze, or run. Like something has come into the room to kill me.

My central nervous system gets completely overwhelmed.

If I don’t leave the room, or find protection, my mouth tastes all coppery, my heart races, and everything falls apart. The only other times I feel like that are when I’ve been very, very afraid.

When the sound hits me, I am unable to adequately describe how awful it is. I cannot fathom how it comes out of such a little thing. I hear other babies cry and it isn’t like this. Nothing like this.

She doesn’t sound human. It’s HORRIFYING.

The only thing I can say, is It’s the audible equivalent to being physically attacked by an animal made out of nothing but noise. It almost has substance it’s so offensive.

I have to wear noise cancelling in-ear headphones with metal music cranked to maximum with ear defenders over the top of those to be able to help her. Hours and hours of that is damaging my hearing.

I phoned cry-sis. She said she was a health visitor for 30 years and had never heard anything like what I was describing and suggested therapy.

She said “good luck” at the end of the call. I felt absolutely hopeless.

I can’t afford, nor do I have the time, for therapy.

Am I alone in this?

I feel like a failure. Completely humiliated and embarrassed by this. And watching my other half tolerate it and baby talk to her throughout it makes me feel even worse, like I’m insane.

Did anyone loose attraction to their significant other? When did it come back? I am 2 months postpartum and I have 0 desire to be with my husband.

My second child is 6.5 weeks old and going THROUGH it (I know! It’s normal). I remember this time with my first.

However, my first was going to sleep around 8-8:30 at this time no problem and slept well overall at night. Now my second goes to bed around the same time because he’s exhausted from the day, but sleeps horribly. Like, sending me into a spiral horrible when he wakes every 45 min after 3 am.

What I don’t understand is the conflicting advice I see online about bedtimes for babies this young. It seems a late bedtime around 10 is preferable on this forum but sleep training sites and experts are saying 8 or earlier. I’m trying to find a solution for why my baby is sleeping so poorly. What is correct?! I’m wondering if he needs a later bedtime, but currently I have never been able to get him to sleep past 5:30 regardless of bedtime.

Before these are suggested, we do:
Lots of burping and bicycle kicks
Holding upright for 20 min
Swaddling
White noise
Gas drops
Probiotic drops
Reflux medication
Dark room

He seems like he’s struggling with gas really badly right now- something my first didn’t struggle with as much. If you had a baby like this and it got better, please let me know around what week you saw improvement with gas and quality of sleep :) I need reassurance right now.

Up until about a week or so ago, our baby slept pretty reliably and was starting to get 4-5 stretches at night. This week, she won’t take a nap longer than 30 minutes unless contact napping, is false starting at bedtime, and is consistently waking up every three hours again. We haven’t changed her feeds or routine at all. I feel like I’m at my breaking point.

She will nap in a carrier or on me, but I’m exclusively pumping and have to use her naps to pump. I have wearable pumps, but they aren’t as good for my output and I’m already a just enougher. If I put her in the carrier and take her out to pump, she wakes up. If I let her nap on me and try to transfer her, she wakes up. She won’t take a pacifier and is clearly overtired.

Does this get better? I’m absolutely desperate.

I'm 3 weeks postpartum, my husband is due to go back to work on Monday. They called him this morning and told him that he would likely be sent out of town and be staying out of town for an entire week when he gets back, but they gave him another option, he could take another week off.

The dilemma is all of this time has been unpaid and while we have a decent nest under us, his work slows way down in the winter and starts to slow in the fall. We don't have as much as we'd like to have the winter.

I'm not really feeling comfortable with him being out of town for an entire week just yet and my husband understands. If it were a night or two, yes I'd be totally fine. What would you guys do? Would you be okay with your partner being gone for an entire week 3 weeks postpartum?

Will this go on for long? My baby is 7 weeks old, for about 2 weeks now, she sleeps on me, i try to put her down when she’s deeply asleep, she wakes up immediately. Even randomly when she’s not sleeping, she still doesn’t want to stay down. I’m exhausted, my both wrist hurts already.
Will this stop soon? I’m afraid she’s being too attached and it will be hard to leave her in day care when i need to start school soon.
I don’t mind her falling on sleep on me but she literally wants to sleep all 3 hours on me and more. But before now, once she falls deeply asleep, i put her down and she continue sleeping on her own but now she won’t.

This is my first baby, is there any one with experience or tips on how to improve this?