u/CCK_1009

My LO is 6 months old and I’m struggling to find good resources that tell me what type of toys are developmentally good for them. I’m worried he’s bored or not stimulated enough but on the other hand also conscious that they course find the whisk much more exisiting then some of the actual toys they have. But I’d still want to research if there are some things that are really good for them, e.g teaching them about cause and effect, object permanence etc. we’re already spending lots of time outdoors so that’s covered.

Does anyone have any recommendations? Are the lovevery kits a good guide? (I think they’re quite expensive so not going to buy the kits but maybe good for inspiration?) we do like the Montessori approach. Thanks

Has anyone used the same tiles on the back of their kitchen island as they used for their splashback?

Do you like how it turned out, or did it feel like too much of the same?

Bonus points if you can share some photos! Thanks 😊

I’m currently on parental leave with my first kid and am considering going back only 3 days a week beginning of next year for the long term (we want more kids eventually)- if it’s possible at my company, which I don’t know yet. I’m planning to have that chat with them soon but wanted to gauge experiences here first. Is that realistic in a corporate job that is not admin focused? Would be keen to hear experiences if someone has done that and if the company was chill about it or more of a struggle to get approved / tips how to get it approved.

For context, I work in a large Australian tech company in in-house consulting / corporate strategy, have been with them for 4 years since starting as a graduate there and have built very good rapport in the team. The job is relatively demanding but I was always able to maintain a good work life balance and structure my own time, as my workplace is quite flexible and in general has a good work culture, especially for parents. People in my team have done 4 day working weeks (so I know I’d get that approved easily) but no one 3 days so far. I do believe my role could be restructured / adjusted to be able to be done in 3 days and I’d also be open to a change in my role remit to allow for it.

Thanks!

Sorry for the long post but trying to give as much context as possible!

Quick background
\- 18 weeks old months old, breastfed
\- Sleeping through the night since \~8 weeks — 0-1 brief wake-ups, only ever needed a dummy reinserted, no feeds needed, no fuss
\- 3-4 naps/day, totaling \~3h40-4h30 (last few days mainly just 3 naps). Goes down for naps super easily, just swaddle, white noise and dummy in a dark room, doesn’t need to be rocked or anything but is dependent on the dummy for falling asleep and sometimes staying asleep past first sleep cycle (but not always!)
\- usually bedtime 7:30-7:45pm, wake \~7:30am, 11.5h night sleep in own room, own cot

We just did a 24h trip (two long-haul flights) across an 8-hour time difference, basically flipping his day and night.

Current pattern
\- Bedtime is never the problem, he goes down easily every single night
\- The disruption consistently lands 3-4 hours after bedtime (roughly 10-11:45pm)
\- Severity varies night to night, some resolve in minutes, one went past an hour
\- Once he’s back asleep, he doesn’t wake again and sleeps until 8-8:30am
\- Daytime naps and mood have been completely normal throughout and we have no issues with naps

Night-by-night since arrival

Night 1 (arrival night): Got home very late (\~1am local). First sleep attempt only lasted 40 min, then inconsolable for about an hour, nothing worked. Eventually got him down in the carrier around 3:30am and he slept solidly from there.

Night 2: Bedtime 7:40pm, fell asleep instantly. Woke at 11pm, hard to settle, ended up feeding. Woke again at 1:30am, inconsolable for about an hour - this time didn't feed or use the carrier, just dummy reinsertion + check-ins. Eventually resettled himself, slept through to 8:20am.

Night 3: Bedtime 7:20pm, no issues. Woke at 11:40pm, crying/whinging and patting and tummy rubs did nothing. Picking him up stopped the crying instantly, but it restarted the moment he was put back down. Around 1:15am I fed him as we still couldn’t settle him. He fed well, seemed content, burped, but started crying again in the cot shortly after. Tried firm, steady hand pressure on his chest (+ holding his legs still) instead — that worked, gradually eased the pressure off over \~10 min, he lost his dummy partway through and didn't seem to mind, and fell asleep.

Night 4: Woke briefly at 10pm but dummy + hand pressure resolved it quickly. Woke again at 11:55pm, more cranky and hand pressure for \~29 min only partially worked (he'd go quiet, then start crying again). Switched him from a sleep sack + separate arm-wrap to a traditional tight stretch-wrap swaddle (fully double-swaddled) which settled him.

Night 5 (last night):Woke at 10:50pm, immediately hysterical (was back in the sleep sack + arm-wrap combo, not the tighter swaddle). Switched him to the tighter blanket swaddle mid-cry — he still cried another 2-3 min, hand pressure barely helped, held his legs down but once he stopped screaming and found his dummy again, he self-settled.

What I'm trying to figure out if this is most likely lingering jet lag/circadian adjustment, a Moro reflex/startle issue (tighter swaddle = fewer wake-ups), or a sleep-association / sleep regression problem that's gotten muddied because we've responded differently almost every night? Any advice on creating more consistency, red flags to watch for, or whether this is just within normal range for jet lag recovery at this age would be really appreciated.

Sorry for the long post but trying to give as much context as possible!

Quick background
- 18 weeks old months old, breastfed
- Sleeping through the night since ~8 weeks — 0-1 brief wake-ups, only ever needed a dummy reinserted, no feeds needed, no fuss
- 3-4 naps/day, totaling ~3h40-4h30 (last few days mainly just 3 naps). Goes down for naps super easily, just swaddle, white noise and dummy in a dark room, doesn’t need to be rocked or anything but is dependent on the dummy for falling asleep and sometimes staying asleep past first sleep cycle (but not always!)
- usually bedtime 7:30-7:45pm, wake ~7:30am, 11.5h night sleep in own room, own cot

We just did a 24h trip (two long-haul flights) across an 8-hour time difference, basically flipping his day and night.

Current pattern
- Bedtime is never the problem, he goes down easily every single night
- The disruption consistently lands 3-4 hours after bedtime (roughly 10-11:45pm)
- Severity varies night to night, some resolve in minutes, one went past an hour
- Once he’s back asleep, he doesn’t wake again and sleeps until 8-8:30am
- Daytime naps and mood have been completely normal throughout and we have no issues with naps

Night-by-night since arrival

Night 1 (arrival night): Got home very late (~1am local). First sleep attempt only lasted 40 min, then inconsolable for about an hour, nothing worked. Eventually got him down in the carrier around 3:30am and he slept solidly from there.

Night 2: Bedtime 7:40pm, fell asleep instantly. Woke at 11pm, hard to settle, ended up feeding. Woke again at 1:30am, inconsolable for about an hour - this time didn't feed or use the carrier, just dummy reinsertion + check-ins. Eventually resettled himself, slept through to 8:20am.

Night 3: Bedtime 7:20pm, no issues. Woke at 11:40pm, crying/whinging and patting and tummy rubs did nothing. Picking him up stopped the crying instantly, but it restarted the moment he was put back down. Around 1:15am I fed him as we still couldn’t settle him. He fed well, seemed content, burped, but started crying again in the cot shortly after. Tried firm, steady hand pressure on his chest (+ holding his legs still) instead — that worked, gradually eased the pressure off over ~10 min, he lost his dummy partway through and didn't seem to mind, and fell asleep.

Night 4: Woke briefly at 10pm but dummy + hand pressure resolved it quickly. Woke again at 11:55pm, more cranky and hand pressure for ~29 min only partially worked (he'd go quiet, then start crying again). Switched him from a sleep sack + separate arm-wrap to a traditional tight stretch-wrap swaddle (fully double-swaddled) which settled him.

Night 5 (last night):Woke at 10:50pm, immediately hysterical (was back in the sleep sack + arm-wrap combo, not the tighter swaddle). Switched him to the tighter blanket swaddle mid-cry — he still cried another 2-3 min, hand pressure barely helped, held his legs down but once he stopped screaming and found his dummy again, he self-settled.

What I'm trying to figure out if this is most likely lingering jet lag/circadian adjustment, a Moro reflex/startle issue (tighter swaddle = fewer wake-ups), or a sleep-association / sleep regression problem that's gotten muddied because we've responded differently almost every night? Any advice on creating more consistency, red flags to watch for, or whether this is just within normal range for jet lag recovery at this age would be really appreciated.

This is the list of babies names born to parents who attended this school (last quarter). Try to guess in which country (it’s not the US) and what type of Highschool (e.g. public, private, religious domination etc, what vibe it gives off). From the quarterly school magazine.

Sonny
Abe
Jack
Ophelia and Milo
Raphael
Victoria
Ziggy (2x)
Eyal
Josephine
Millie
Ruby (3x)
Louie
Harry (2x)
Boaz
Hayley
Annabelle
Isla
Mimi
Romeo
Rose
Jack
Miles and Tayte
Toby
Bodhi
Jude
Lyla
Koa
Milla
Eli
Wolfe
Grace
Kai
Cooper
Frankie and Tilly
Myles
Nate
Lev
Hamish
Lenny
Rory
Seth
Lou
Nora
Zachary
Aria
Mila
Elliot
Louis
Asa
Ezra

We’re starting our solids journey soon and I want to start buying the things that we’ll need and items that will make our life easier. I’m happy to spend more money on high quality products that ideally can last for more children, want to avoid plastics where possible and ideally want to avoid Temu drop shippers. I already have the Trip Trap + attachments.

We’re considering doing a mix of BLW and spoon feeding / purees. I don’t know what we need at all, so I’m after specific product and brand recommendations for the essentials (e.g plates, spoons, stainless steel lunch boxes, straw cups, bips etc.).

Also curious which book out of the three you found most helpful? Baby Food Bible or Milk to Meals.

I know this might sound a bit silly and very conscious that we’re in a lucky position (that can also still change or go downhill eventually!) but genuinely wondering about sleep training and its benefits: We’ve been very fortunate that our LO (11 weeks) has always been a good sleeper. He sleeps in his own cot since birth and has been fairly easy to put down and to sleep independently. He sleeps 10-11h through the nights without a feed since 8ish weeks and naps fairly reliably through out the day. I’m conscious that this is rare so we’re really counting our blessings while it lasts.

Up until a couple of weeks ago, in most cases we could just put him down for either nap or night time sleep in his swaddle and he’d just fall asleep independently. But recently he will whinge and fuss every time we put him down - until we give him his dummy. Once he has it, he falls asleep almost immediately. I’m tracking his sleep so I’m making sure he’s not over or under tired.

I’m wondering what sleep training entails and if it means we should start working of getting rid of the dummy reliance. Again, while grateful that it works so well with the dummy, I also like the idea of him being able to fall asleep fully independently if it’s possible. I tried just leaving him for 5 minutes to see if he settles by himself without it, but unsuccessful. We’re open to methods like Ferber but are not sure if that is the right method for this situation, given he sleeps quite reliably already? I’m also open to just continue as is given it’s working well for us, but have been a bit influenced by people saying that babies are most receptive for sleep training around 3-4 months, so don’t want to miss the boat if there is anything that can be done.