u/ApricityMind

Hi everyone!
I’m about 2.5 weeks post-op from a laparoscopic appendectomy. I had my external stitches removed a few days ago, and the surgeon said everything was healing normally.
However, I’ve noticed today small, pea-sized lumps under the skin around my incisions, including my belly button and one of the side incisions. They feel like little balls underneath the skin when I touch them.
I’m wondering if this is a normal part of healing, maybe internal stitches or scar tissue, or if it’s something I should be concerned about.
Has anyone else experienced this after laparoscopic surgery? Did the lumps eventually disappear, and how long did it take?
Thanks!

My 5-month-old has never been a great sleeper. Her daytime naps are usually only 15–20 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes, and a 1-hour nap is very rare. Night sleep isn’t great either.
During her wake windows we try to keep her quite active: tummy time, playing on her back, toys, singing/dancing, carrying her around, BabyBjörn bouncer, short supported sitting, sensory activities, etc. We also usually do a 1–2 hour walk in the morning. In the morning she can sometimes happily lie on her mat looking at toys for ~30 minutes, but as the day goes on she gets progressively fussier.
By around 5pm we’re exhausted because nothing seems to entertain her for long. We constantly rotate her between the mat, tummy, back, our arms, bouncer, sofa, different toys/rooms, etc. We’ve tried homemade sensory games too, but she isn’t always interested.
We’re avoiding screens, ideally until age 2, but some evenings I completely understand why parents resort to them because entertaining a baby for the entire day is exhausting 😅
I’ve also started putting her to bed around 7:30 instead of 8:30 because the evening fussiness becomes so intense.
So I’m wondering:
What do you actually do with your 5-month-old during wake windows?
How much independent play is realistic at this age, and how can I encourage more of it?
Do you also feel like you’re repeating the same toys/activities all day?
Is evening fussiness still normal at 5 months? When does the “witching hour” usually stop?
She isn’t really rolling yet (occasionally belly-to-back, probably accidentally), and I wonder if she’s also frustrated because she wants to move more. Possibly teething too, although I can’t see any teeth yet.

I’m 10 days post laparoscopic appendectomy and my belly button incision has started hurting quite strongly when I get up from lying down or use my abdominal muscles.
What worries me is that this incision didn’t really hurt before, it started around 6 days post op and now the pain seems stronger and isn’t improving over the last few days. I don’t see any redness, discharge, fever, or other signs of infection, and I haven’t been lifting anything heavy.
Has anyone had this happen during normal healing? I’m worried about a possible port-site/incisional hernia, although I don’t see an obvious bulge.

Hey how strict and for how long you followed the light food diet after surgery? My surgeon said i can eat everything and no diet needed, except foods that used to cause me bloating.
I am thinking at least first week to stick to soups, rice, chicken, potatoes, some oatmeal and maybe some fruit.
I really need to recover asap because i have 4 month baby so just looking of all the ways to speed up healing.

I have my first daughter and i need to make a decision if I am with her till 12 months and then she goes to daycare or till around 16-18months:
I need to communicate it to my work asap so they can plan. Baby is just 4.5 months at the moment so it is hard for me to imagine how they are at 12 vs 16-18months. I do not have many kids around me so I really do not know if there is a big difference?
People who have kids when did you leave baby in daycare? Do you think it is worth to wait longer till 16-18months?
Let me know your thoughts!

We have Stokke yoyo 3 as our only stroller. So far im using newborn bassinet type of part because baby is 4.5months and i love that stroller is so small. I also take long walks with it daily so baby sleeps in it. For example today i did 2 walks each was 2hrs so main naps for her today were in stroller.

However, i started reading that after 6 months when we change the part, people say this stroller is bad for babies who wants to nap because it does not fully recline.

I want to ask for people who had this stroller did your kid napped comfortably? Or if you have other stroller, do you think it is better to buy another stroller for comfortable napping? Thanks

My baby is almost 4 months old and we’re on week TWO of absolutely horrible sleep. I’m so sleep deprived at this point and would really love to hear from anyone who went through something similar.
Before this, she was actually a great sleeper:
Slept roughly 9–10pm until 7am
Usually only woke once, around 3–5am to breastfeed
Now:
She wakes up approximately every 40 minutes ALL NIGHT
Usually once per night we get a “long” stretch of 1.5–2 hours
Everything else is basically 40-minute stretches 😭
She is exclusively breastfed and refuses both bottles and pacifiers
The biggest problem is that the boob is basically her sleep button.
If she wakes and I immediately breastfeed her, she eats and normally falls back asleep within 5–10 minutes.
But if I try ANYTHING else — holding her, rocking, touching her, singing, shushing, etc. — she wakes up completely. Then it can take an HOUR or more to get her back to sleep.
My husband can try instead, but she will often scream/cry with him for ages before eventually falling asleep.
And she isn’t only comfort sucking when I breastfeed her. She actually eats quite a lot, which means she’s now feeding many, many times throughout the night.
I’m exhausted and honestly starting to feel desperate. I’ve read so much advice online and tried different things, but nothing seems to change the constant waking.
If your baby was like this during the 4-month regression, what actually helped? Did you actively change the boob-to-sleep association, or did you just ride it out? Did it eventually improve naturally?
At this point I will take ALL the advice and success stories. 😭

My baby is almost 4 months old, and for the last 2–3 days she has been super fussy basically all day, which is quite different from her usual self.
She’s constantly making complaining/whining noises and just seems uncomfortable. If I pick her up — she complains. If I put her down — she complains. If I play with her — she complains. 😅 If I try to ignore the complaining for a little while, it eventually turns into proper crying.
She does still have moments where she smiles, interacts and seems happy, so she’s not crying nonstop. She has no fever and otherwise I can’t see anything obviously wrong. But most of the day she just seems like something is bothering her or she’s uncomfortable.
The nights have suddenly become awful too. She’s waking almost every hour and needs help settling again.
My first thought was teething, but I checked her gums and I can’t see any teeth coming through or anything particularly obvious. Can babies be this affected by teething before you can actually see anything on the gums?
Did anyone else have a phase like this around 4 months? Was it teething, the 4-month sleep regression/developmental changes, or did it turn out to be something else?
I feel like I’ve tried everything and she’s basically like, “No thanks, I’d still like to complain.” 😂

We want to go on a 1-2 weeks trip with our at that time almost 5 months baby, but we do not know where is baby friendly? Any suggestion for country/special place?
We used to travel a lot all around the world and our trips were always adventurous. However now with the baby we will need something more stroller and baby friendly but we have no idea where to go.
Anyone has any experience with traveling with 4-5 months old?
We prefer Europe for this trip because I am mentally not ready to have a long haul flight yet with the baby.

I have AGA and also I am 3.5months pp. Anyone used any good treatment to help with this?

Hi everyone,
My daughter is 3 months old. Since birth she’s done really well with tummy time and has always been able to lift and hold her head while on her tummy.
However, during the pull-to-sit exercise (when she’s lying on her back and I gently pull her up by her hands), she does really badly. Her head is fully lagging back the whole time instead of coming up with her body.
I’m wondering if anyone else’s baby was like this at 3 months. When did your baby start keeping their head in line with their body during the pull-to-sit exercise? Did it improve on its own?
Our pediatrician has seen her, but I’d love to hear other parents’ experiences.

Hi, I want to order a book to read and I am not sure which one.

What I like:
Fast pace-something that grips from first pages
Good plot-i care more about plot than character
I enjoy different type of books: romance, thriller, fantasy, drama and etc:

I prefer not to read about war and other topics that are too heavy. I am postpartum so pretty emotional as it is 😂

Our pediatrician told us that at my baby’s 4-month vaccination, we can choose between the free MenC vaccine and the paid MenACWY vaccine.
For us, the cost isn’t a factor we just want to choose the safest option.
From what I’ve read, some MenC vaccines contain an aluminum adjuvant, while the MenACWY vaccine we’re considering does not. Has anyone come across any good scientific studies comparing their safety, or have any evidence-based opinions on this?
Thanks!

Our baby is crying a lot, mostly in the evenings but sometimes during the day too. We talked with pediatrician and she adviced me to try CMPA diet and also said it will go away with time.

But when? It is 12 weeks already and today we had a bad day and I do not know when it will get better. We have to take a flight in a few weeks and i am afraid because when she starts screaming, nothing helps.

Hi everyone, it seems that my algorithm on social media only shows me stories and people talking about how vaccines are bad and how MMR vaccine turned healthy happy kids autistic.

I am trying to find the pro vaccine material constantly but somehow i only see horror stories.

My husband is pro vaccines and our families as well, so we will vaccinate our kid. However, only seeing negative stories make me panic.

So i am just looking for personal experiences if you vaccinated your kids with MMR and all was fine to calm myself down that not everything is so bad as social media makes it look like.

Hi, any show worth to watch? I have hbo, disney, prime, netflix and sky

I like different type of shows, so everything, that gets you hooked from the first episode, will work!

I’ve had migraine with aura for the last 12 years. At first, doctors thought it was anxiety or panic attacks, but later I was diagnosed with migraine with aura.
Before pregnancy, I would usually get one migraine with aura every 1.5–2 years. However, since giving birth to my daughter 2.5 months ago, I’ve already had four migraine auras in about three months, which is a huge increase for me.
My attacks usually start with zigzag lines in my vision. After the visual aura goes away, I often feel like my brain isn’t working properly. Sometimes I can’t understand what I’m reading, I struggle to speak or find words, and other times one hand goes numb or my tongue or lips feel numb. It varies from attack to attack. Afterward, I sometimes get a headache, but sometimes I don’t have much of a headache at all.
I’m wondering if anyone else experienced a big increase in migraine with aura after giving birth.
● Did your migraines eventually become less frequent as your hormones settled?
● How long did it take?
● Did breastfeeding seem to make any difference?
● Was there anything that actually helped reduce the frequency?
I’d really appreciate hearing other people’s experiences.

Hi everyone, since yesterday I have noticed that my 2.5months baby has one eye less open after she wakes up. It takes 15min or so for it to become normal. This started just since yesterday, before was not like that. We have paediatrician appointment in 2 weeks, but I am worried. Does anyone have any similar experience?

Good thriller for the beginner

Hi everyone,

I never read thrillers, but now, since i have a small baby I started reading again and found that thrillers are great to help me stay awake while trying to make baby sleep.

I read all the “housemaid” series, but I am looking for something with less obvious plot twist since i guessed all of the plot twists in those books.

Any suggestions?

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to understand what is actually normal for babies?

How old is your baby, and how much do they cry in a typical day? Do they cry every day? Have you ever had days where they barely cried at all?

Also, do you usually know why they’re crying (hungry, tired, needs a diaper, etc.), or are there times when they seem to cry for no obvious reason?

Our baby is 11 weeks and cries every day, and while we can often calm her with feeding, holding, walking around, or distracting her, I’m struggling to tell whether this is just normal baby behavior or whether we should keep investigating with our pediatrician for something like reflux, an allergy, or another issue.

I’d really appreciate hearing what your experience has been with babies around this age.