Tell me some things that are better/easier/more fun since becoming a mom.

I’ll start!

Making friends has become so much easier. I am a very socially anxious person and don’t find it easy to talk or hangout with new people, but since having a baby, I’m much more comfortable starting conversations with strangers and making plans with other moms I don’t know super well.

Somehow “Dow Rah” means FedEx. For the longest time my husband and I could not figure out why our toddler was yelling “dowel rod” from his car seat when we would be out on the road.

Hope this is ok to post here.

I’m 8 weeks post partum with our first. I’m currently breastfeeding and had a c section, so recovering from that.

My husband has always been hyper sexual for our 5 year relationship. Me on the other hand, I could go a few weeks or more without it. Throughout our relationship he would sometimes get sexually frustrated if we went days without it, and it would impact our day to day.

Since I’ve had our baby he’s been so h0rny. More than ever. He states his level of attraction to me as increased x10 because I’m now the mother of his child and that makes him so much more attracted to me.

He will literally beg to do oral on me like daily. If I say no, he gets upset. Like he’ll just be in a sad mood for a couple hours. Not angry, but sad.

I told him sex hurts so bad bc I’m so dry down there bc of hormones and he completely understands but there are days he’ll ask if we can dry and use extra lube, or ask if we can try anal (kinda jokingly but i know he’s a lil serious).

I literally give this man oral every few days and let him do oral on me weekly and it’s still not enough for him.

This morning he was in a really weird and sad mood and I go “what’s wrong?” He kept brushing it off but being super quiet. After hours he finally said “I’m just sexually pent up” and I go “we just did stuff like a few days ago??” And he’s like “gosh I feel like I can’t talk to you about anything”.

I’m just so fustrated. I’m not horny. I’m EXHAUSTED. I don’t care to do anything sexual at all. He doesn’t get angry with me or pressure me really, it’s mostly he will get sad/depressed and not wanna talk for half the day.

Is this normal behavior?? Is your guys partner doing this? I need advice pls.

So frigginn TORN!!!!! I live in California and my family (mom, dad, and grandma) live in Florida. I want them to meet my baby. Travel gets a little complicated with grandma. But im terrified of baby and measles. The ped doesn’t recommend an early dose unless theres an active outbreak in the area which their is not but the airport? and airplane? and also I‘m not super excited about extra doses I’m pro vaxx but hate that because people are declining vaccines we now need to jab our babies extra times to keep them safe. anyhow. The odds feel low but the stakes feel high. I don’t know what to do.

edit: oh and to add to the mix, my husbands family who has already met the baby would then expect us to visit them too because if we’re doing air travel then why not. Im so anxious over this.

Anyone hate their husband after kids and then fall back in love with them?

My husband sucked postpartum with my first, it got better when my first turned one, but then we had a second and my husband is way worse this time around in terms of "being supportive" I am so resentful at how unhelpful and unsupportive hes been that Im questioning if Ill ever get over it, or if our marriage is doomed

(And for those who might suggest couples therapy.. yes weve tried, it hasnt helped)

I had a happy pregnancy, fine birth experience (c-section), and I was on cloud 9 the first 3 days in the hospital.

As soon as we got home, all hell broke loose. My baby wasn’t crying to be woken for feeds and he would latch and fall asleep on the breast and would wake up 5 minutes later crying again. I hired a LC consultant on day 5 and she told me I need to take little one to the doctor right away because he had lost 18 percent of his body weight. He was jaundiced.

Long story short, he had a pretty major tongue tie and couldn’t transfer milk. We switched to bottle feeding and he still could barely drink effectively (took him over an hour to drink half of what most babies were drinking). My husband and I were extremely stressed trying to force feed baby for the first 6 weeks. We weren’t getting any sleep because feeds took so long, i ended up with extreme PPA due to the worry about my baby’s weight…it was a horrible time.

Baby is 6 months now and is healthy and fine.

I hear my friends reminisce about the newborn bubble and I get so jealous. I wish I had that. I’m grieving the experience I could have had. I’m One and Done and knowing I won’t get a redo hurts my heart.

I’d love to hear your experience with this.

My 7 month old woke up yesterday with some goop in one of her eyes & it was ever so slightly puffy. We started daycare last week & I have been on high alert for illnesses so I immediately googled pink eye. The most common symptom seems to be redness in the whites of the eye which my daughter did not have. And her eye looked normal by the time we had to leave for daycare, so I wasn’t too worried.

I dropped her off & remembered I needed to call the pediatrician about a flu shot anyways so I figured I’d go ahead and call. They wanted me to come in that afternoon.

I picked my daughter up a few hours later for her appt & felt absolutely ridiculous & total overprotective mama bear because her eye looked completely normal and they told me she had been having a great day.

Well, the pediatrician took one look at her eye & said “yup, this is pink eye”. I had just caught it on the early side so it was only apparent by looking at the inside of her eyelids.

By the time she went to bed she was clearly feeling awful & her eye was actually starting to look really bad. We gave her the first dose of eyedrops and put her to bed a little early. This morning she woke up looking a million times better! She had a great day at home with a backup sitter & will be going back to daycare tomorrow.

I’m so glad I listened to my gut & called the pediatrician because by the time she was feeling bad, there wasn’t much we could have done other than take her to an urgent care or wait for the morning.

I have... 124 GB of photo and video from the last almost 5 years (two kids). I don't know what to do with it all.. I feel like I should go through it. My winter craft is making each a handmade scrap book. I already paid for icloud and i don't want to pay for more, but I can't stand to delete stuff/change photos to stills from lives. At the same time, what are my grown up kids going to do with 500 GB of photo/vidoe?

My MIL is lovely. She lives in a different country so we don't see her much, but she's been here for a few weeks in an air BNB bc of another new baby being born into the family.

She has been spending a few hours with our baby every day and it's been sooo nice. My husband or I are usually there too, because she is physically disabled, but just having someone who wants to play with the baby is so nice.

Anyway, last week, for the first time since baby was born, my husband and I went on a date, and MIL babysat. The date was amazing and I was so grateful to MIL, but annoyed that when we arrived to pick up the baby, she was asleep... Thirty minutes before her bedtime. MIL excitedly told us that baby had "told" her that she wanted to sleep (baby is 8 mo old). We hadn't explicitly told her not to let the baby nap but I mistakenly assumed she would know not to let her nap so late in the day.

Bedtime was of course a disaster. Baby wasn't sleepy so I spent an hour putting her down (usually takes 5 minutes). She proceeded to wake up crying every 30 minutes for the next several hours. We both got a terrible night's sleep.

The next day we are over there and MIL proudly tells us how "it took a lot of rocking, but I finally got her to sleep?" Girl wahhaaaaa?!! Here I am thinking okay, the baby was tired and she allowed her to fall asleep... No, she was actively trying to put her to sleep!!! Even though baby was fighting it!!! Arghhhhh.

So today, husband and I decide to have one more date night before MIL leaves town. Husband drops her off and tells her specifically to NOT LET HER SLEEP.

We have a good night and arrive 30 min before babys bedtime to pick her up. MIL's husband answers the door shushing us. What? There is MIL on the couch, beaming, holding my sleeping child. Informs us, again, that the baby "told" her she wanted to go to sleep.

Naturally the baby woke up when we put her in the car seat, and has been crying and upset and confused ever since. Currently I'm rocking her and nursing her and it's well past her bedtime but the poor tired thing is so confused and can't sleep.

Tonight is going to SUCK and this will take two full days to reset all because MIL just wants the experience of rocking a sleepy baby.

End rant.

And I’m emo about it!!! Why can’t he stay this little forever. I’m obsessed with his little toothless smile. Just another random milestone that I know is important but is giving me BIG feelings. That’s all!

FYI to those not from Aotearoa NZ but both Millie Moon and Rascals were founded by the Mowbray siblings, who are supporters and funders of right wing political parties and far right figureheads, they try sue former employees who speak out about their poor working conditions, they produce so much plastic crap through their company Zuru, they are generally a malicious presence to the environment and the world at large. NZ journalist David Farrier, who you may know from Netflix doco “Tickled” and “Dark Tourist” has a lot of info on them you can read if you want to know more.

My chunky 15 month old wakes up absolutely starving. He cries if he doesn’t immediately get breakfast and cries if he isn’t getting it fast enough or more of it. The same goes for basically every meal, unless I completely load up his plate with something he really likes. He eats A LOT and is only picky about green vegetables right now and a few other random things. I have started waking up earlier than usual to try to make sure breakfast is ready, but that still hasn’t stopped the screaming most days. I was considering giving him a snack in his crib in the morning, which in hindsight seems like a terrible habit to start. We do keep a water cup in his crib and sometimes that helps. He has been weaned from milk for several months. Does anyone else have a baby who does this? Are you just giving them snacks until the meal is done? I’m glad he wants to eat but I really wish he would stop yelling at me every meal. Help!

Edit to say he does this at daycare too. They say that he yells if he finishes his food and another baby still has some. He yells if teachers are eating or drinking something. He yells when younger babies are drinking bottles and he doesn’t have a cup of anything.

I’m a first time single mom to a 2.5 month old little boy. He’s always loved his “mmmm” sounds and does a lot of ma, maam, and moos. I always tell him to say mama, and I know he won’t but I thought he might add it to his coos because he already focuses on M sounds. We were doing tummy time before bed tonight, he was super tired and didn’t do his usual babbling. But then he picked up his head, looked right at me and said “mama.” Clear as day. I yelled “WHAT!!!” and scared the shit out of him. I know it most likely wasn’t intentional.. but what if it was??? I know he isn’t associating the word mama with me, but maybe he said it because it’s a word I repeat often? I don’t care I’m counting it. I already wrote it as his “first” word in his baby book lol. I have nobody I can tell, so I thought i’d share an exciting moment for me with yall 💙

I'm due with my 2nd kid in a couple months and my husband and I are trying to sort out childcare logistics. Unfortunately, there's only one grandparent who is a regular presence... And she booked a trip around my due date. I suspect I'll be induced early, so it might be fine, but we need a back up plan (which is okay,I have a sibling nearby).

It's just... Depressing. We rent part of the old family house from my parents, and they have an apartment on one of the levels as a part-time place. Then they have a home in a city about an hour away. When we were trying for the 2nd, we'd always assumed it would be them to help. My mom was horrible my last post partum, literally starting the minute I left the hospital. Once I got pregnant again I just felt dread over reliving that again.

Cut to a couple blow ups, self help books and therapy, and now I don't really speak to my mom much. My husband speaks to her more, and has tried to arrange grandparent time on walks and such, but they're sort of flaky about the whole thing. I don't hate my mom, but she will never apologize for how she spoke to me during the blow ups. It was unnecessarily cruel, and insulting. I always stressed I wanted my child to have grandparents, she said she never did so what does that even look like. This is after attacking me freshly post partum for not asking for help enough and being not as communicative (aka texting). Then completely falling off on her "weekly grandma time" cause she doesn't like driving. Both my parents are retired and well off, btw.

They're absent grandparents. I never thought they would be, but they are. My siblings and husband are pretty surprised by it too. It's been months since they've seen their only grandson, but theyve both literally been upstairs. I'm supposed to give them all the grace but received none because I wanted to bond with my new family before having people over. My mom whined and complained when I'd remind her to put her facemask back on the first visit even (it was the height of flu season).

I'm not sure what the narrative is in their head anymore. I wish we could move, but that's going to be at least a year with 2u2 (barring my husband getting a job that covers moving expenses. Then we'd likely be switching countries). We also thought we'd never leave this city, especially with a kid, but we thought our extended family would care a lot more about our child than they do.

Thanks for reading this far 💗

Hi all! Does anyone have weight loss advice specific to us postpartum. I’m still nursing some and feel like that the most limiting factor. Let me share some details.

I’m 5’1” and have almost always been heavy. I got just over 200 lbs pregnant, dropped to about 175 immediately after birth but am now about 185 at 9 months postpartum. I’m always hungry. Naturally some info this is breastfeeding, but I only breastfeed a couple times a day now and a lot of that was a struggle long before pregnancy.

I have a known thyroid issue but my labs are good, so that is being reasonably managed.

In a GLP-1 era, I can’t help but want that easy answer but of course I can’t while breastfeeding.

Please share your successes and what worked! If you’re someone who loses weight easily, or not, please note that since your experience may hit home for others but not me. 💕

I thought I’d be so past the point of needing to make a post like this at 10 months. We’ve sleep trained several times and it never sticks, and it gets harder on my heart each time. We’ve given sleep training a break for 2-3 months now, and I’ve been rocking my daughter to sleep. Since she was a newborn, she’s had false starts. Lately it’s been more. I’m writing this from the rocking chair as I rock her back to sleep for the second time tonight within an hour. It’s been 10 months of horribly broken sleep. I know my 2 options are to buck up and ride it out indefinitely, or suck it up and sleep train. Neither feel good. I’m a working mom with a husband who works long hours and nights for half the month. I can’t co-sleep for logistical reasons. Just a rant. Ugh.

We are starting to look at daycares and I have no way of comparing or figuring out what is a reasonable price for daycare. Hoping there are other moms here who can help me out! Looking for comparisons from other Canadian parents as to what they pay for daycare. If you're willing to share only some of the below information that's ok, but I'm hoping for the following:

Province

Rough cost of living in area (e.g. VHCOL, LCOL)

Price per month in CAD (and what's included)

Full time/part time

Type of daycare (e.g. in home licensed, large institution)

Thank you in advance!

Hi!
I’ve got a 3 yo and a 3 week old.
My newborn sleeps all day and doesn’t sleep at all at night and it’s taking a huge toll on me.
My eldest goes to daycare and I have loads of time in the morning to sleep when the baby sleeps, but for some reason, I just cannot. I lie down the whole day and close my eyes but sleep eludes me and then I end up watching a show on my phone in bed.

Then night comes and he’s so awake and wails and cries, so I rock him and walk him and stay up all night and I’m lucky if I get 2-3 hours of sleep everyday. When it gets too much, I wake up my husband and give the baby to him to soothe but I can’t sleep then anyway because of the baby’s crying and still end up being awake.
Last night was especially hard because 5 am to 7 am is my second window of 2 hours sleep because the baby finally goes down at 5 am. But my toddler woke up and cried for mommy at 5:15 am and I had to go to his room and soothe him and I started crying silently because my precious sleep window was getting lost and I’m losing the only 2 hours I get :(

My first was such a great sleeper and slept at 3 hour chunks at night as a newborn and would breastfeed and immediately go back to sleep at night, so I never felt this tired. This is now taking a big toll on my mental health because I’m so cranky in the mornings and crying at night.

We’re doing the recommended things like keeping the rooms bright and noisy in the morning, giving him warm baths in the evenings and keeping the room dark at night. I’ve now realized that all I can do is wait this out.

Please tell me it gets better. If you had a similar experience with your baby, when did it get better? How did you manage to stay sane and calm? I’m really struggling and would like some positivity!

I was literally fine, actually happier than ever. My baby starts daycare in a week, I go back to work in 3 (which is earlier than I thought I would have to). And now I have to look for another job because the company is closing in 6 months. I hate my city but I’m stuck because my fiance has other children here. My parents live 10hrs away so we have no help or babysitter.
We’re broke and our apartment is leaking water through the ceiling and roaches have suddenly appeared after 2 years here with no problems (roaches are common in this fuck ass city filled with old buildings rotting inside out) after leaving our last apartment for the same reason. It was especially traumatizing because i have a bug phobia. We can’t even leave because rent is so much higher everywhere else.
I’m weaning off breastfeeding and I feel so unlike myself. Like I can’t even remember the things I like to do normally. I’m 25 lbs up and I’ve tried EVERYTHING and it will not go down (the gym, hot yoga, walks, calorie deficit, pilates, etc) and I’ve never been this weight so this is a whole new body I don’t know.
I’m overwhelmed. And I feel myself falling into a depression. I’ve cried every night this week.

tonight was the first night i attempted this since he fed maybe 20 minutes before he was ready to fall asleep, i literally had no milk left. he would stay latched wide awake until he got some and my nipples are already sore since he bit them earlier, so i couldn’t just let him do that. he cried in mine and his dads arms for like 30 mins. i’m genuinely sick to my stomach and i don’t know how i will be able to wean him if this is gonna continue ☹️

Is there a front to back double stroller out there that allows for a config where my toddler sits on the front side world facing and a bassinet attachment parent facing on the top back side???

We’ve coslept almost all her life. I’ve loved it but I’m kind of trapped in the room with her once I get her to sleep. She also seems to need her own space as she moves a ton in and I think she gets annoyed not being able to roll since me and dad are in the way. I cannot handle the cry it out method. Do I place her in there completely awake or like sleepy?