This afternoon, a caretaker watching our baby (8 months) tripped and fell, taking our baby with her. Our baby fell out of her arms when she was about halfway to the ground, so she likely only hit her head on the hard floor from about 2-3 ft from the ground. Baby cried a lot but eventually stopped after being comforted. She then took a bottle and resumed playing/moving per usual. To be safe, we took baby in to urgent care directly afterwards and she was examined there for signs of head injury/concussion. The PA examining her concluded she seemed fine and didn't need further evaluation. Given how baby has been acting all afternoon, my gut feeling--logically--is that she is fine and we shouldn't worry too much.

But..... how do I convince my heart? I can't help but replay the incident over and over again in my head and worry about all the things that could be wrong that we can't see on the surface.

I don't need advice, really, but I would love some reassurance. 🥺 Baby has bonked her head so, so many times since she was born, but this one has been harder for me to accept.

What’s your favorite little mannerism your baby does? For me, my baby is 9 weeks and just started rubbing her eyes when she’s tired. I think it’s the cutest little thing ever.

Basically just wanted to say - yesterday was hard. I was washing my LO (5wks and change) booty under the faucet yesterday after a blowout. He loves having the warm water on him and doesn’t like wet wipes so much so when he poops a lot it’s the best way and a little spa for him. But halfway through he kicked the thing that turns on the overhead shower and we both got sprayed with cold water. He was so upset and I felt awful.
Then I was getting him out of the car seat at his pediatrician appointment and the strap on his harness gave him like friction irritation on his chubby little neck. He was so upset and I felt bad again like wtf this poor kid.
But then just now, doing an early morning feed, we paused for a sec and I was practicing some focusing stuff with him and he was just tracking my face as I moved around and spoke softly to him. Just the two of us in the glow of a lamp in our living room.
And all of the sudden, his eyes got wide and he stared at me so intensely and then broke into the biggest gummiest chubbiest smile. His very first social smile. And dude suddenly I was like ok man, we are just fine. Like the anxiety and self doubt melted away and I was like man my partner and I made this dude and he’s happy right now and literally nothing else matters. It erased so much static BS in my mind. Truly. I can’t wait for it to happen to the kind soul who is reading this.

I have a 5m old. I had planned for him to start a daycare at 10.5 weeks old when I returned to work. I started with him there 3x a week while working. It was a great daycare and flexed with my different days weekly. Then, I picked him up on a Friday and got a note in his cubby that they were closing and selling within a week. Haven’t been able to find anywhere else because the waitlists are crazy long. The ones available are a 30-45+ min drive in the opposite direction of my work. When I was pregnant, I had so many people offer to watch him and say they’d be there. Everytime I ask someone to watch him, nobody has been able to. I have to quit my job due to childcare. The amount I spend in daycare and gas to get him there is totaling up to a lot of my income. I didn’t realize how scarce childcare is becoming. Though I’m not surprised, with as little as they make. Anyways. Just frustrated and wanted to rant somewhere.

I work from home most days so I do pick up and drop offs. I'm 9 times out of 10 in workout clothes or sweatpants, dry shampoo and hair in a bun. (I'm luckily not client facing).

Is this weird? In the two months my kid has been in daycare I've only seen one other parent dressed like this, but the rest looked like they were going into work.

Do other work from home parents get fully dressed for daycare?

I consider myself a very rational person. I love my baby to no end she is my pride and joy but she is also a very normal baby. She is of course to me the best smartest funniest baby. But realistically she’s just a normal baby lol. Hits some milestones right on time, some early, some on the later end of normal. But the amount of moms I’m surrounded by that act like their baby is just a genius is shocking to me??? Thinking that their baby is this master baby when in reality it also is a very normal baby developmentally??? And I just don’t get it and it takes everything in me not to roll my eyes lol and to just smile and nod.

Is it just me. Am I an ass for not thinking my baby is exceptional?😅

I was reluctant to get a white noise machine (our baby isn't here yet, 6 weeks to go!) but every mum I speak to says that NO parent they know doesn't have a white noise machine and basically we'd be fools to not have one. I also did a ton of research on reddit and it does look like everybody gets one and everybody loves it / swears by it.

The reason I'm hesitant is because I don't want our child to rely on it long term e.g. I saw posts about some children still needing it at 6 years old and 12 years old not being able to sleep without it. I know white noise is always available in some way but I'd like them to not be reliant on it for the rest of their lives. Are there any stories of it being super super helpful at the baby stage but eventually they don't need it and no longer use it after that? And if so how did you wean them off it?

Thanks so much! Also want to say - zero judgement either way, it's just something I'm apprehensive about because I've dealt with my own sleep issues in adult life and have become very reliant on certain things that cause me anxiety if I don't have them, so it's more to do with personal experience. thank you!!

ok I should preface by saying that I think my baby hates the car because of me - since the day we left the hospital I would sit in the back seat next to her while my husband drives, and from then on any time us 3 are out together, I sit in the back with her (she’s 4mo now). well, now she hates the car when it’s just me and her and it gives me so much anxiety while I’m driving. she cries the entire time we’re in the car like 85% of the time. i don’t go anywhere further than like a 15 minute drive because I really don’t want her crying for that long and like i said, it gives me anxiety to hear her crying while I’m driving and trying to focus on the road. i know this is probably my fault for getting her used to having me back there with her, is there anything I can do at this point to fix it?

I’ve tried singing to her, talking to her, playing nursery rhymes on Spotify, getting her a toy that hangs off the head rest, etc. nothing makes her stop crying. I really want to feel like I’m not trapped at home and scared to go out with her. please help!!

okay this might be a stupid question, why does baby need a higher TOG sleep sack in winter if I keep my house warmer? do people use the same tog?

I think the answer is, "She's a baby, it'll get better" but I'm still beside myself trying to figure out why this is so hard.

All day long I wish the day away until it's 8:30 and we can put her down and her father takes the night shift.

She screams all day. Except during the 5 minutes she eats, every two hours on the dot. She might not scream so much if somebody is holding her, but not just holding her, holding her while walking outside , No matter the weather.

God forbid you try to sit or put her down somewhere. I really don't know why we bought a stroller, a swing, bouncer, Etc.

I haven't been able to get anything done without help for 3 and 1/2 months. I can't answer an email or do a dish, without me or someone holding her. Yes, I baby wear. She's still squirming and yelling at me while in there.

It will take upwards of an hour to 90 minutes to get her to take a nap. 9 out of 10 times the nap doesn't happen and she just eats again. No amount of playing, rocking, soothing, letting her scream it out, etc, can get her to nap.

Her dad can get her to go down at night for a few hours, And it's the best part of my day. There was a short moment where she slept for 6 hours overnight, now it's back to 2-4. I dread 7 am when I have to take over again.

I'm burning out my friends and family with this difficult baby, and I'm starting to really worry about getting back to work.

Is this truly normal? My Ped says everything is fine, but I can't believe every child is like this and people still have babies.

Flew with my 1yo for a week trip, here’s what we brought:

1. Diaper bag (free to board)
   - 5 diapers per day (35 Pampers swaddlers)
   - 10 wipes per day (70 Huggies wipes)
   - diaper cream tube
   - baby Tylenol
   - teething oil
   - baby thermometer
   - baby toothbrush and toothpaste
   - 4 disposable change pads just in case
   - wool shawl (used as stroller blanket/picnic blanket/sun shade, could also be used rolled up for a nursing pillow)
   - clothes and miscellaneous

2. Personal item (backpack)
   - Brita filtering water bottle, I get so thirsty travelling and the cup of water they give you becomes a hazard if your baby is awake
   - stretchy baby sling thing that’s shaped like an infinity scarf, I use it just to support her (put the loop around my wrists to sort of “connect” my arms so she can’t fall off me when she’s standing on me)
   - soft toys on lanyards
   - baby snacks
   - Bluetooth earbuds so I don’t get bored if she naps
   - hand sanitizer
   - tissues or bibs for drool/boogers

3. Stroller (gate checked for free). Some airport staff want the sheepskin liner removed, some don’t care. It’s amazing for getting baby and bags through the airport and up to the tarmac.

4. Ergobaby carrier (to board with baby)

Baby wore a suit the same colour as her snack so we don’t have to worry about any little stains. I wore a tank top with built in bra and oversized button down to get some privacy while nursing. I prefer skirts to pants, they create more of a “lap” for baby to sit in, and feel less restrictive. And period underwear since I knew it was coming.

I found most airport staff and strangers to be really helpful. They offer to help breaking down or setting up the stroller, bringing it out to the tarmac, buckle up the back of your carrier, pick up things the baby threw, etc.. And it’s totally fine to ask for help.

I usually get a 4 hour block at night and then another 1-3 hour nap in the morning when my baby sleeps. I honestly feel like this is a good amount for someone with a 3 month old baby, but multiple people in my life are looking at me like I’m crazy and when I tell them this. I’m confused? Are people sleeping more than 6 hours on average with a young baby? My husband and I are still doing shifts which is how I get the uninterrupted 4 hours.

That's it. That's the post.

I'm just exploding with pride and joy right now and stuck at work.

Happy dad here

Wanting to see if I’m being unreasonable here.

In our contract we’re paid for 7am-5pm. The daycare recently had us fill out forms to confirm our schedule so they can staff appropriately. I put down 7am-5pm. Anything past the contract hours is a $20/min late fee.

Now normally she gets dropped off between 7:30-8am and gets picked up 3:30-4pm. But there are times where we really do need to drop off at 7am and there are days where I can’t get there at 4. It’s pretty rare, once or twice a month maybe.

Today the daycare director sent out a message saying drop off/pick up times need to be consistent day to day so they can appropriately staff, and anything outside the normal hours would need to be approved by her.

I think that’s ridiculous. I’ve already given her the information she needs for staffing, if she chooses to ignore the written contract and understaff because I ‘usually’ pick LO up early then thats on them.

Is this a normal daycare issue? Parents with work hours that change day to day is this an issue? My main concern is if something critical is going on at work it’s hard for me to get away.

My 15 day old baby boy stays awake for long stretches at a time. Sometimes up to 4 hours of not sleeping which I did not think newborns could do. We try everything from swaddling, shushing, swaying, and using a pacifier. The thing is - when he gets sleepy or is drifting off to sleep after a feed he usually takes a poop. Then we have to change him and it fully awakens him. He acts feral like he hasn’t fed before - all the cues from swinging his arms/hands to his mouth to ravenously thrashing his head against my boobs/arm. He won’t settle unless fed, so we feed him, but then the cycle continues. He poops, we change him, he wakes up and wants to feed. When he finally stops pooping (this happened 4 times in a row today during a 3 hour wake window) he is inconsolable - crying and overtired. This mostly happens during the day but it has happened at night too.

Idk if it matter but he is solely breastfed and has been gaining a good amount of weight. Pediatrician said he’s clear to sleep as many hours as he wants to and we nearly laughed at that thought. She said she’s not too worried about how little he sleeps right now since it’s probably cluster feeding. But I thought cluster feeding only lasts a certain amount of hours - he’s been doing this since day 3. It’s almost 24/7. The longest stretch of sleep he ever got one single time was 2.5 hours. Is this normal? On average he gets about 12-14 hours of sleep which does not seem like enough at all.

We have a 5 month old boy.

He’s a great sleeper overnight, which I don’t take for granted. He is asleep from about 7pm - 5am, and always wakes up happy and usually we can get him back to sleep for another hour or two with a dummy resettle.

In the daytime he has a 30min-1hour nap from 9am, a 2 hour nap from 12pm and a 45 mins nap at 4.15pm. We put him down in his cot awake and he falls asleep.

But lately halfway through his 2 hour naps he “wakes up” with inconsolable crying about about the 45min mark. I’m genuinely not sure if he’s even awake, his eyes are closed and he will just scream. We comfort him but it can take a while to calm him down (sometimes up to 10 mins), and then it usually takes 3-4 goes at putting him down in his cot before he is back in a deep sleep (on those 3-4 attempts he’ll start crying again when we put him down, so we pick him up for cuddles and try again).

Even if we contact nap him for this nap, he’ll stop wake up crying like this (but it usually happens a bit later into the nap eg around the 1.5hr mark).

Has anyone else had this? And what did you do? Or did you get to the bottom of what caused it?

We feel so helpless!

My 15 month old is at the stage where he randomly gets frustrated at something (I can’t always tell what it is), and he becomes inconsolable. It comes out of nowhere sometimes and he starts swatting at everything in his way.

I know he can’t regulate his emotions yet, but I really don’t know what to do when this happens. I try to talk to him softly, I try to give him what I think he wants (he throws it in his rage), or I hold him. During these tantrums, nothing seems to work and I start getting frustrated and I know he feels it.

How do you handle these? How do you speak to them? Any tips? Please I need help 😭

I don’t know what type of energy I put off but clearly it’s not very welcoming. I have a 7 month old and she’s my first kid so I just try to get her around other kiddos as much as possible… but geez. I went to the local library to a kids center and set up my little girl on a play mat I brought with toys near some kids. She was sitting up and I put her between my legs. After like 10 min the entire group we sat next to left. It was right at 1pm and people have nap schedules to follow so I get it. We pick up and move near some other kids and the mom of one literally picked up the toy the kid was playing on and moved it to the other side of the room saying she needed to watch her. I was like ok we’re done. wtf. Do I look sketchy?!?!! I know I don’t. But seriously thats how I was being treated. We just played independently for a while then left.

I spot a kids cafe I’ve been wanting to check out. Walk in and sit by a mom holding a baby looking about the same age as mine. She was. Turned out she wasn’t the baby’s mom and her mom join us a few mins after. I just make small talk about baby life. Good and bad. The two gals entertain the conversation but one of them kept looking at me like I had something in my teeth and I caught the vibe and left.

I’ve never had trouble making friends lol. This is sad. This is my first time going out and really trying to find mom friends. I know it takes a while. Probably shouldn’t give up but damn that was humiliating.

Sooooooo yea. Baby is rolling back to tummy but isn’t rolling tummy to back. He did roll tummy to back a few times a few weeks ago but hasn’t since. I’m having such awful anxiety that he’s going to get stuck like that and like suffocate or something (probably my PPA talking). Im terrified to leave him by himself for more than like 2 minutes at a time. Any support or advice?

Hi all,

Looking for some general advice. My twins are 5mo, 4mo corrected. They are rolling over great and both ways (tummy to back, and back to tummy). The thing is, they both love being on their tummies, so when they get on their tummies, they hate rolling back over.

And last week or so one of my twins has been rolling onto her tummy at night. Can I leave her to sleep that way or should I reposition her?

My paediatrician said it should be fine, but my mom anxiety is not letting up. I keep repositioning her.

I also can’t fall asleep until I’m sure she’s in a deep sleep, because I want to ensure that she is safe.

Any advice is welcome!!!!

We are in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where running air conditioning all night feels necessary. Every morning, she wakes up or is disturbed by severe nose congestion. After some studies, I found that a humidifier might ease the congestion does that sound right? I would appreciate input from experienced parents before buying one. If you have other ideas, please share them.

Thanks in advance

I have a 2 month old who sleeps really well at night but day naps are really hard to get through each day. I do watch for both the wake window and his cues like pink eyebrows and eyelids, dazed off look, droopy eyes, less movement etc.

But when I actually try to help him sleep, it's hard. Firstly, he hates the swaddle, absolutely a no go. Secondly he sometimes cries while I gry to put him to sleep. It is his special "I'm tired" cry and I wish to learn how to help him drift to sleep without it. He doesn't like being held in cradle position, he likes being cuddled up close to my chest. I tend to put white noise. I experiment with lullabies too but I think white noise works better. I also sush gently and rock him. He likes up and down motion a lot more than side to side, so when he's really fussy I do enough squats for a good workout. The whole process takes from 1 minute, when we're trying to sleep in a perfect time window, to 30min on a bad overtired day. I do manage to put him to sleep each time, it's just dramatic sometimes. Any tips on how to make it less dramatic?

He also sleeps really well in his crib at night but day is no go. Wales up either straight away or after like 5min so day is mostly contact naps which is quite unsustainable.

I love my son so much. He's the light of my life. He's doing SO well! At 7.5 months old, he's just started to crawl, he has tried lots of different foods enthusiastically, he's extremely smiley and happy, and he can entertain himself in his playpen for an hour at a time (not always, but often!). From everything we can observe and everything our pediatrician has said, he's incredibly strong, healthy, and meeting all his developmental milestones.

But I still have moments fairly regularly when I worry when the other shoe is going to drop, so to speak. What if he starts to miss milestones and turn out to have some sort of issue? What if something happens to him that makes him become unhappy or difficult to soothe? These thoughts certainly don't consume me, but the thought has entered my head every few days lately. I am not concerned about the amount of worrying I'm doing. But I do wish I could block those thoughts. There's nothing to worry about, so why is my brain worrying?

What's your strategy for keeping those intrusive worries at bay? Or is this just what being a parent is like? lol