It’s okay to let baby fuss for a minute or two so you can: change your pants, take off your bra, put your hair up, grab that one pillow to stick under your elbow when you nurse or bottle feed, or get yourself some water.

Allowing yourself to be comfortable makes you a more patient and maybe even better version of yourself.

So my 11 month old slept decently until the past 2 nights, despite napping well during the day, suddenly started waking up every hour at night. So we thought, ah another sleep regression.

Suddenly, after the past 2 nights, she babbles much more complex sounds, plays with more intent, started taking independent steps, is showing much more interest in enjoying things (like looking at pictures in books instead of chewing the pages, taking apart puzzle pieces and inspecting them, enjoying the different tastes of food slowly, copying more complex movements, etc.) and is like a completely sentient being all of a sudden.

It’s like we have a compleeedtely different baby now. Over the course of 2-3 days. Feels like a huge software update.

Has anyone else experienced something like this?

Our toddler has been fixated on having a bottle to go to sleep even at 2yo. We thought it would just be that way for awhile until something unexpected happened on a vacation.

I was opening the trunk at our hotel to take out the luggage and her glass bottle fell out of a bag and broke on the floor.

My LO saw the glass on the floor and my wife told her that her bottle broke so we don’t have one for her tonight.

She nodded her head but still asked for it at night. But then reminded her it broke. She nodded and then replayed the whole scenario out loud.

“I don’t have bottle”

“Daddy dropped it”

“Glass all over the floor!”

And ended it with “accidents happen”

Then asked for a story and went to sleep.

Happened a few more nights but after about a week. She doesn’t ask for it and just wants a story before bed.

So glad we finally got them off the bottle. Just not in the way I expected 😂

Hi! Just bought our 10 week old daughter the Woolino ultimate sleep bag, as it’s recommended like crazy and I do like the idea of: 4-seasons, antimicrobial, will last until she’s 2, I like the snaps and the car seat opening, it’s got cute hot air balloons on it.
My husband has had a lot of questions and concerns though, he says the length seems like it’s not safe for sleeping, it’s a tripping hazard (for us), he kind of just doesn’t like the extra fabric, diaper changing might be more difficult, and then the fact that you have to air dry it.
I quit my job to be a stay at home mom so the $98 came out of his credit card. I feel weirdly guilty about it not being a good purchase. So — should I just return it??? Or does it end up being the godsend people say it is? She’s had naps in it today and haven’t experienced any magic yet, in fact she was waking up a little more than usual if anything.

Edit: This sub is crazy active! Wow! Thank you to everyone for your responses. I’m feeling a lot more confident in the purchase. Definitely going to think about my own mental blocks when it comes to having a single income and making purchases for us. I will be buying a backup sleep sack, probably a cheaper one but we’ll see. Also, she has successfully slept overnight with arms out of a swaddle! Growing up real fast so I’m sure that extra fabric will be filled before I can blink.

I’ll start off by saying, I’m an only child, and I hated it. Although my parents had a lot to do with my miserable childhood as well. I hate the “only child syndrome” stigma around only children. I don’t want my daughter to be lonely growing up either. I suffered a lot through my pregnancy mentally, and am now dealing with postpartum depression. I don’t know that I can handle another, but I might be selling myself short. I would love to hear your opinions. ❤️

It can be a little thing, it can be your baby hitting a major milestone. It can be more than one.

I'll start:

1. I fed my baby a blueberry puree pouch while she was wearing a white hoodie and managed to keep it clean.

2. Our baby had two teeth punch through her gums.

Share your happy!

Please don't judge me, but I have an 8-month-old, and I keep wondering why people choose to have more than one child.

She's a pretty good baby, but 8 months of exhaustion is catching up with me. I feel like I can never catch a break. Even when she sleeps, an hour to myself doesn't feel like enough after hours of constantly entertaining her, taking care of her.

I can't watch TV around her, stroller walks last 10 minutes before she wants to be carried, and she doesn't seem to enjoy food or car rides either.

Right now, I can't imagine having another baby. But I wonder if I'm missing something that makes others want to do it all over again.

Parents of multiple kids, did you feel this way with your first? What made you want another?

EDIT: Edit: Honestly, I never imagined this post would get so much attention! 🥹 I’m a little overwhelmed by the number of comments, but in the best way. Thank you to everyone who took the time to share your stories, experiences, and honest thoughts with me. I’m slowly reading through them all, and it’s really interesting to hear so many different perspectives. 🤍

I spent the last 53 minutes trying to get my 7 month old to finally sleep (rocking, singing, patting, the whole process), only for my husband to walk in and immediately forget what an inside voice is😭😭😭

Baby wakes up, husband picks him up, and now I’m back to square one… only this time I’m more annoyed at my husband.

Please tell me I’m not the only one and share your funniest/ most ridiculous wake up stories!! 🤣

I have a 4 month old, and am starting to wonder if I should be playing music while driving in the car and "playing" at home. Are we? I'm new lol. If so, what is the best Spotify playlist, because I'm not sure my millennial Blink 182 playlists are going to cut it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewParents/s/pDaa489OdG

Please don't roast me.

I recently asked why people choose to have more than one child, and the sibling factor came up a LOT.

Honestly, I’m curious why having a sibling is considered so important.

My father had six siblings, and their relationships caused a lot of pain, including a major financial betrayal. My mother’s side is okay, but nothing that makes me wish I had that kind of family dynamic. I have two siblings myself, and we’re good friends, but we all have our own lives and live in different countries. My husband’s relationship with his sibling has also brought stress to the family.

I understand that siblings can be wonderful, but they can also cause emotional damage. What’s wrong with being an only child? Can’t children find their own chosen family through close friends?

Is having a biological sibling really irreplaceable? And what about the relationship between parents? Having a second child means dividing your time and attention, including the time you have for your partner. Honestly, I struggle with the idea of compromising that relationship.

I’ve also seen only children say they want a second child because they don't want their child to experience what they experienced growing up.

I’m genuinely curious: What makes having a sibling so important that people feel their child needs one?

At my baby’s checkup appointment the doctor mentioned that by 4 months I should not be creating a feed to sleep association. I am a first time parent. Unfortunately this is what works sometimes for us, and my baby likes nursing to sleep. She said “ don’t nurse to sleep unless you want to be doing it for a VERY long time”. What does this even mean? Why is this bad?

Currently been using aquaphor since they were born and been noticing it dries out their skin and I would like to see what you guys recommend to keep baby’s skin moisturized without stripping out the oils.

I believe we’re going through the 4 month regression. I’m so exhausted and desperate for sleep. My doctor said we could start rice cereal when he turns 4 months, but I feel hesitant. Does it actually help babies sleep through the night? My baby also exclusively gets breastmilk & im starting to wonder if I do formula at night, will he sleep longer? My migraines are so bad from this sleep deprivation.

So this happened .. I was with my baby at the doctor’s office for his vaccination. He was getting a lil over-stimulated and fussy so I have him his soother and tried to calm him down by blowing on his face(usually works). One boomer had the audacity to come to where I was sitting and tell me “He wants to talk and explore.. you are irritating him”. I was like WTF how do you even think that you know my child (who I carried for 9 months and has been with me 24*7 for last 8 months) more than me. I respected his age(in his late 60s so wasn’t rude) but I still gave him an eye roll and politely said no, he just wants to rest. And he was calm within next 2 mins because I know how to calm my baby down duh 🙄
It didn’t bother me as much tbh but it can be a very touchy topic for many mothers. Why can’t boomers just mind their own business?

Hello, I am a new mom with a 3 month old, im struggling with PPD and PPA. We just got new neighbors with a baby older than ours my question is what do I do? The neighbors leave their baby alone in the room that faces our front door and window with the window open and he just cries for hours. He sounds like a whaling cat, its not Its not like hes having a fit he sounds lonely and no one goes to check on him. At first we thought maybe they were sleep training but its hours throughout the day and night. It’s not the crying itself that bothers us its the absence of adult voices. Its gets me really anxious due to being postpartum and my husband has even shut the doors and windows to drown out the neighbors baby sound because its making him distressed, my husband was neglected growing up and it triggers him. I know its none of our business but i cant help but worry. We’ve introduced ourselves and ive stated if they ever need anything were here to help. If the mom is struggling with postpartum i would love to spend time with her and heal together but i just dont know how to approach it. Any advice? & Any advice on my PPD and PPA?

Ps not to long ago we had neighbors with a baby who cried and screamed a lot, we were never concerned because we always heard the parents. So Its not the crying itself.

I’m a first time mom to a baby girl. When I initially took her home, I was trying to do everything “right.” We’re always told what not to do .. don’t share a bed, don’t feed to sleep, don’t let them sit in a dirty diaper, etc. It’s only been 13 weeks but I feel like I’ve learned so much and now I’m wondering what else I can do to make mine and baby’s life easier. I don’t care if it’s not recommended lol (don’t come for me). For example, I learned babies love a contact nap and sleep so much better/will nap longer so I try to make time to allow an extended contact nap if she’s fussing and not napping well when being transferred. Sometimes I’ll do it also because I simply enjoy the cuddles. Another example is nursing to sleep. I kept seeing these “routines” of feed, change diaper, wake window, nap. However, my girl would not stay down for her nap for very long if I followed that. I read on Reddit about nursing to nap/sleep and tried it and it has worked wonders for getting my little babe down for naps/bedtime. I also felt this immediate need to change her diaper if I saw the little blue line so she would end up in a scream fest because I would change it first thing when she’d wake from a nap. Now, instead, I nurse from one side, change diaper, then nurse from other side, and it’s been more pleasant for both of us. Unless it’s a poopy diaper in which case I’d change it right away. I think I’m rambling, it’s late, my baby is asleep, and my mom brain can’t clearly articulate what I’m trying to convey. Basically, what practices can I do to help my baby be more comfortable regardless if it’s “recommended” or not.

I’m truly at a loss here. My baby is 8, almost 9 months old and we’ve had probably the worst 24 hours we’ve ever had. Last night he was up every hour, on the hour from 8pm-2am waking from a very still sleep crying very hard. This morning he woke up an hour earlier than normal and wouldn’t go back down. He was very unhappy and I assumed he was just not well rested from the night. He had a bottle fine, took his first nap, and then woke up a bit happier. Until he had his afternoon bottle. Immediately after finishing it, he is screaming and crying the most blood curdling cry I’ve ever heard from him. Eyes wide open. Snot and tears everywhere. Just sounding like he’s in pain. He stares me dead in the eyes while he’s crying like that and it just feels like he’s looking at me with desperation. He’s throwing his body back while I’m holding him and also pushing off of me. I finally got him settled down about 20 minutes later and then he was ok. It happened again at his next two bottles. After the last one, I called the after hours nurses line. The nurse asked me if this was my first baby, I said yes, and he said “kids cry, it’s probably gas or teething”. I’ve never felt so dismissed. This isn’t my first day with my baby, we’ve dealt with plenty of gas and teething already and he cried, but not like this.

A few background notes
- He’s been exclusively formula-fed since 3 weeks, and he’s on the same exact formula as the day we started it.
- He’s been eating purées for a few months. We’ve never had an issue and have not tried anything new recently
- He does eat some food, but barely anything and has not had anything new.
- He has been constipated the last few weeks. We have him prune juice over the weekend and he had two really good, large poops the last two days. He did not poop today, but the last time he went was yesterday late evening so that’s not an abnormal time gap between bowel movements for him at all.
- His gas today has smelled horrific
- The nurse did ask me to check his mouth for sores or any teeth coming through and I did not see or feel anything. He only has his bottom two front teeth currently

His pediatrician doesn’t have any openings tomorrow, and neither do the other providers in their office. We plan on taking him to urgent care tomorrow morning just to make sure we’re not missing anything. I don’t know what else to do, but this is so out of character I just know there’s something going on. Even if it is minor. Has anyone experienced anything like this?

Any parents with experiences with a cranial helmet or did you say no and experienced natural, eventual rounding?

We went to a private helmet provider who obviously pushed for a helmet after their assessment. We want to make the best decision for our LO but the cost is astronomical… we are in Ontario and our insurance may not cover it. It would cost us close to $4k out of pocket.

Here are the results of their assessment of my LO’s head:

ODD: 7.1
CVAI: 5.2%
Mild to moderate plagiocephaly

CR: 95.9%
Moderate to severe brachycephaly

Any input would be great to help us make the decision!

My five week old is colicky. I'm exhausted. Dh is mostly useless because he wants me to ask when I need help. I keep having people say "It'll get better" but I feel like they're just telling me to suck it up. Im tired. Im depressed. Yes I know it will get better. I have an amazing 14 year old who was a colicky baby. She is my best friend. But right now when ive been rocking or carrying or feeding a crying baby for 4 hours to try to get her to go to sleep, "it'll get better" pisses me off.

Our daughter (now about 2.5 yrs old) had an average head of hair from birth until around 2 yrs. Now it seems like that original crop of hair is thinning, and she has a whole new crop of hair coming in underneath, thicker and wavier. At the moment it looks pretty silly- she has a small ponytail and a lot of shorter hair going every which way. Is this normal? She’s our first, so we are figuring it out as we go.

Edit: Thanks for all the input! I really needed info from people who MM worked for, and who can’t afford things like Courtier. It looks like people who liked Millie but switches because of the burn scandal mostly use Pampers Amore, Freestyle, and Rascal. I will research those.

I am interested in hearing from people who switched from Millie Moon since all babies are different and what works for one might not work for the next. If Millie was working for you (no blowouts, no overnight leaks using the standard diaper, no rashes) and you switched to a financially comparable or cheaper option, what do you buy now? I can’t afford to buy packs of diapers that end up going unused. I’m hoping other former Millie Moon users have babies with similar body shape, skin sensitivity, etc. as mine since we all landed there originally.

My baby is 4 months. Size 3. I tried target’s brand briefly (Rite Aid brand worked for my firstborn, but they are out of business.) He got a rash and had multiple blowouts with Target brand, so I went back to Millie Moon. I have over half the box left (so around 50 diapers), and want to find a good alternative before they’re gone. I highly doubt we’ll have a problem since this pack does seem to cause an issue. But I don’t want to risk a new package.

I'm a FTM to a 22 month old boy and this kid is always moving. I'm trying to find a way to get him to settle down before bedtime because currently he is just moving constantly and it takes him awhile to fall asleep. We are working with a speech therapist because he also isn't talking and she said that it's really common amongst little boys to focus on all the gross motor skills and let the fine motor skills go to the wayside- which makes it tough to get them to sit still. She recommended deep massage on arms and legs after bath time when we are applying lotion. She also recommended cuddling him. But how the heck do you do this when he's constantly shimmying himself out of your arms? 😂

We have a bedtime routine of bath after dinner, lotion, jammies and then we let him play until 8pm. We like to try to read to him and cuddle him between 8-8:30pm but we can't get him to sit still with a book for more than a minute or two. Tonight he ran back and forth in our hallway for an hour and 15 minutes, I was reading to him this whole time but of course he doesn't sit for any of it. At 8:15 I tried turning out the lights and rocking him to some lullaby music but he was still trying to escape my arms (and he's a big/heavy kid and I'm small so it's hard for me to keep hold of him 😩). It's been almost 30 minutes in his crib and he's still rolling around making baby noises without any crying.

I may be getting his wake windows wrong? He wakes up between 7-8:30am most mornings, nap between 12:30-1pm until 3pm (he started daycare about a month ago- up until then nap time was always 12pm, daycare lady says she often has to wake him up at 3pm) and then we do bedtime at 8:30pm. I suppose I could try 9pm but then I'm worried he won't fall asleep until 9:30-10pm. He also seems really tired when he gets home from daycare around 5pm but that's obviously way too early for bedtime. Sometimes I wonder if he's over tired, but any time I ask him he shakes his head "no", typical toddler 😅. Of note, we do no screen time at least an hour before bedtime (I was using it around 7pm for 15-30 minutes because it can help us get him to sit still for a bit which is usually when he shows sleepy cues- but speech therapy recommended against this so now I'm trying to avoid it). He also sleeps like a champ once he is asleep. Is it fine for them to take 30-60 minutes to fall asleep? I know it takes me to fall asleep sometimes, but I just feel so guilty when it takes him so long to fall asleep because he could spend that time playing and learning things.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I just need to vent a bit to people who might be able to relate 😔

My daughter is 10 month old and two weeks ago everything went to shit and it just keeps getting worse. She was sleeping 8 pm - 6 am for months, falling asleep happily every night. Now she screams her head off at bedtime. She used to love the bath, now she screams her head off when we put her in the bath.

She wakes every 3-4 hours screaming and takes at least an hour to settle back to sleep. She screams before every nap, and wakes up screaming.

She screams every time I put her down or walk away. Every time I shower, I have to listen to her scream. Every time I go pee, scream. Every time I turn my back for a second so I can grab something to eat, screaming.

I suspect teething but Motrin/Tylenol doesn’t seem to help at all. She’s only happy if I’m holding her or otherwise giving her 100% of my attention. But even when I am, it feels like I’m not doing it right because she’s still pissed off.

I know it’s a phase just like everything, but I am so burned out. I can take the night time sleep disruptions but then during the day it feels like hell. Up until two weeks ago I enjoyed our days together and now I almost dread every day. Every day feels like such a slog and like I’m a prisoner.

I don’t have any family locally who can help or give me a break during the day. My husband is an angel and when he gets home from work he takes over to give me a break but it doesn’t feel like a break. If I stay home and try to relax in the bath or my room, I can hear her freaking out. But I’m too tired to leave the house and even if I did, there’s nowhere I even want to go.

I know it will pass and be fine but I just needed to get this out. 😔 I don’t want to talk to my family or friends about it because it makes me feel like a shitty mom for being so annoyed.

Me and my husband just had our first baby in July, and we are planning on driving from the PNW to GA (est. 1 day and 11hrs) for Thanksgiving in order for his family to finally meet her!

He and I have driven cross-country a handful of times throughout our relationship, but now that we have our little one, I'm realizing just how different this trip is going to be.

I'm looking for helpful tips, I've already gathered some important ones from scrolling this reddit, so here's what I have gathered!

Stop every 2 hours for around 30 minutes at least for changes, feeding, tummy time, play

Leave around her normal bedtime

Expect crankiness

One driving, one in the back with her

Puppy pads for carseat

Please let me know if there's anything I need to think about/plan for, especially for exclusively breastfeeding/pumping (we are okay with formula if needed, but baby is currently ebf)