u/Punrusorth

It is a comedy/drama set in the 1960s where a group of Irish women won a ticket to go to Lourdes. They go there hoping for a miracle for their/or their family's physical illness...but what ended up happening is much more beautiful & the true healing they needed was much deeper.

I always cry watching this film.

I spoke to some grad nurses & we were making small talk. We talked about how when I was hired as a grad nurse, I had the NUM, ANUM, & a psychologist on the interview panel. The grad laughed & said all she had was a phone interview with an AI?!

What?!?! This was in QLD, BTW.

A few days after I gave birth, I was struggling & my husband reached out to my spiritual father. He explained that I was struggling a lot & asked him to give me a call.

The priest did not respond. My husband later followed up & specifically asked whether he had received the message....but again, no response, despite the messaged being read.

I have moved away while pregnant, so I can no longer see him or speak with him at church. This is why we have been trying to reach him by message...

Now, a year plus later, my husband has reached out to him again & the same thing has happened. The message has been seen, but there has been no reply. He did not try to text him back or contact me.

I understand that priests are busy, have many responsibilities & cannot always be available to everyone. I am not expecting a priest to be available 24/7 or to solve all my problems. However, I would have thought that when someone reaches out because their wife is struggling, especially after childbirth, a simple acknowledgement/explanation would be appropriate...

What troubles me most is that this has happened twice & the second time was well after the first incident. We have not received any explanation for the lack of response. My husband messaged "Christ is Risen" in between & Merry Christmas & those messaged were replied to.

Given that I have moved away and cannot speak with him in person, how should I approach this situation? I'll be honest, my husband is a bit pissed off & he has clergy in his family & said this isn't OK.

I am trying to understand what is reasonable to expect in this relationship & whether this relationship is over???

My husband has only confessed about this & said he is not happy at all. I am honestly kinda hurt...

I EBF until my child turned 14 months. It was not an easy journey & it was hard early on.

I experienced weight gain, extreme dryness down there, & also I struggled at times because I felt so touched out. There were times when I had to feed him every 2 hours when he was 5 months & I had to learn to stretch it. I would get so anxious when I know the 2h mark is up & he needs to feed & I am not around.

When I casually mentioned how only when I gradually stopped BF, I started losing weight without putting any effort in & my comment was deleted & so were other comments of mums with similar experience. Comments from other mums saying how BF helped with weight loss were kept.

I also mentioned having extreme dryness & how intimacy can be extremely uncomfortable even with lube & again, my comment was deleted & I was told it was probably some pelvic floor issue...even though my PT said my pelvic floor is fine.

I also notice how when mums ask tips on how to start night weaning because they are tired & exhausted from waking up multiple times at night & they were told it is completely natural, how night weaning can encourage their LOs to wean completely under 2. My comment on what worked for me was also....deleted.

I am all for breastfeeding & the benefits are great, but can we not ignore how hard it can be & how it isn't always pleasant?

Hi everyone,

My LO is now 14m old & we sleep trained him when he was 7m old. I wanted to share our experience because I know there are probably other exhausted parents who are sitting on the fence about sleep training.

Before sleep training, he was an absolute nightmare sleeper from the day he was born. He would wake every 30mins to an hour throughout the night. I tried everything...

I tried co-sleeping, but honestly, it made things worse for us. He knew I was beside him and would constantly want to be picked up, patted or held.

We even went to a sleep clinic & stayed there for a few days. They used responsive settling & although it helped us stop contact napping, our nighttime sleep somehow got worse & worse.

We weren't dealing with illness, teething, gas, etc. We were simply dealing with a baby who barely slept..

I was sleep deprived to the point where I was having a breakdown almost every day. It got to the point where I was genuinely scared of being alone with my baby because I was mentally struggling so much.

Eventually, we decided to try the Ferber method.

I did A LOT of reading beforehand because I was terrified that I would cause some kind of permanent psychological harm to my baby. After reading the actual research rather than social media posts & TikTok vids, I felt comfortable trying it.

We started by moving him into his own room & having a consistent bedtime routine.

Bath, book, cuddles in his sleep sack, & then into the cot.

The first few days were really difficult for me emotionally. Hearing him cry was incredibly hard... but we reassured him using the Ferber check-in method you can find online.

On the first night, he slept for 5hrs straight. He woke once for a feed and then slept for another 6hrs...felt like a miracle.

He had gone from waking every 30mis to 1 hour to sleeping for long stretches on night one.

7 months later, I can honestly say that sleep training was one of the best decisions we made for our family.

He only wakes crying now when he's sick, teething, uncomfortable, etc. Otherwise, he sleeps beautifully.

Now, when he is tired, he points to his cot because he wants to go to bed. He genuinely seems to associate his cot with sleep & comfort.

He's also still an extremely happy, affectionate little boy. He's obsessed with me, wants me around constantly.. but when it comes to bedtime, he is happy to be in his cot in his room.

I'm a completely different person now...I have evenings where I can relax, watch something, have some time to myself & go to bed without lying there anxiously waiting for the next wake up.

I have energy again. I'm happier, more patient & I feel like I can actually enjoy motherhood rather than spending the entire day worrying about how little sleep I'm going to get that night.

I recently spoke to another mum whose children are 5 & 2, and they still wake multiple times every night. She hasn't had a proper night's sleep in years. She has not slept in the same bed as her husband for years.

She was exhausted and depressed &, it broke my heart because I remember exactly what that level of sleep deprivation felt like.

if you're considering it and you're terrified that you're going to permanently damage your child, I would encourage you to read the actual research rather than relying on social media claims...

The research we found said: behavioural sleep interventions have not been shown to cause lasting problems w attachment, emotional development or behaviour.

For our family, sleep training didn't make my baby less attached to me.

I'm sharing this because I know there are some desperate parents out there. I always thought it will never work for my baby, but it did & I am so glad.

Hi all

We recently started attending a playgroup at our local community centre with my 14m old & I find it quite awkward being there..

There’s a group of mums who are friendly on the surface.. they smile, say hello, etc... but they mostly stay together in their own circle, chatting w each other. No one really makes an effort to come over & have a conversation with me or get to know us.

The only person I actually talk to much is the organiser, who happens to be Canadian who moved here 10 years ago.

I’m guessing some of these mums may have known each other for years, possibly even from school, as it is a small town.... so naturally they already have established friendships..

What I find strange is that there are also other mums/dads who seem to come by themselves & they don't really seem to talk to each other either. I would have thought a playgroup would be a place where people would naturally try to meet other parents, especially when everyone has young children.. I tried talking to some of the parents who are alone & they seem happy that I talked to them?!

I’m not expecting everyone to become my BFF.. but even just someone saying, “Hey, I don’t think we’ve met before, I’m ___” would make such a difference..

Does anyone else have the same issue with playgroups? Is this normal?!

Hi all

Looking to get a push trike, especially the 8 in 1 Canopy Trike from Kmart for my son's Xmas present. He will be 18 months then.

What is your experience with it? Is it worth it?

Any other push trike recommendations?

Thank you!

I have a 13.5 month old & he has been having a mix of purees & BLW when he was younger. Now that he is older, he has pretty much what we have.

There are times when he coughs or gags & we encourage him to cough it out, which he does. We do not interfere at all & we just keep an eye on him. I know gagging looks scary because they are coughing, gagging, & have their watery eyes, but we know he is safe & it is just their natural reflex working.

We have told my parents about this & yet, every time he gags when he eats (which is not often), they freak out like he is dying. They keep saying that the piece he had is too big (which is not), or that it is too much for him & needs to be softer. My dad even wanted my mum to shove her fingers in to take the food out & my husband had to tell her to stop.

I am so annoyed at this.

Does anyone else find this common with older folks?!

Hi

I'm hoping to reach people with experience in rare diseases, pqediatric neurology, neuro-ophthalmology, or medical genetics.

A baby in Australia was born full-term & completely healthy. She had normal eye movements, was alert, feeding well, & meeting expected milestones.

At 6 weeks of age, everything changed almost overnight. Her eyelids became swollen, and she lost the ability to move her eyes. She was admitted to hospital for 2 months & underwent extensive investigations, including MRI, blood tests, & genetic testing. Everything is normal.

Tests Elena had done:

- 4x MRI (including the most recent one specifically for the orbit muscles and 2x with contrast)

- Lumbar Puncture

- WES genetic testing - full body MRI and ultrasound -EMG performed tested for Botulism

- Liver and Kidney Functions plus several other blood tests to check for infections or any metabolic abnormalities

- Steroid/Pyrastigmine/Metabolic Cocktail/Prednisolne/Fentolin trial - extensive ophthalmology eye structure health exam including pupil dilating drops

- Teller Acuity Cards Test to check vision

The best explanation the family has been given is that this could be caused by a gene that hasn't yet been discovered.

I'm wondering:

\- Has anyone encountered an infant with acute ophthalmoplegia (loss of eye movements) after a completely normal start to life?

\- Are there rare genetic, neuromuscular, mitochondrial, autoimmune, or neuro-ophthalmic conditions that could present like this despite normal MRI & routine testing?

\- Are there international undiagnosed disease programs or specialists with expertise in unexplained pediatric eye movement disorders that the family should consider?

Any ideas, papers, or names of experts would be greatly appreciated. Even if it's a long shot, we're hoping someone may recognize this pattern.

Thank you.

Hi all

Does anyone's bub suffer from eczema? We live in Tasmania, so it is cold now & he has eczema. I am seeing a doctor tomorrow, but I have been moisturising him with epaderm ointment for 3 weeks now, 3-4x a day with no improvement. I used aveeno ointment & QV sting free ointment & those brands made it worse?

I am not asking for medical advise... but I'd like to know what has worked with your bub.

We have tried:

• breastmilk baths

-100% cotton clothing at all times

• 30C baths, lasting 5 mins max

-3-4x moisturising with ointments

-Qv bath oil if not using breastmilk

-bathing him once every 2-3 days

and nothing is working...

I came across a post by Dr. Greer Kirshenbaum claiming that over 6000 studies on maternal separation show babies were not meant to be separated from their mothers & that sleep training is essentially a much more extreme version of the maternal separation used in animal studies.

Her argument is that animal studies separate pups from their mothers for around 3 hours a day, whereas sleep-trained babies are "separated" for around 16 hours a day (naps + overnight)... therefore sleep training may have similar long-term effects on the brain, stress response & emotional development.

I'm trying to understand whether this comparison is scientifically valid???

My questions are:

- Is it appropriate to compare maternal separation paradigms in rodents with human sleep training?

- Are these animal models actually intended to represent normal sleep training, or are they models of neglect or severe early-life stress?

- Does the fact that there are thousands of maternal separation studies strengthen the argument against sleep training, or is that conflating two different areas of research?

- How do developmental psychologists, neuroscientists, or paediatric sleep researchers generally interpret this evidence?

I'm genuinely looking for evidence-based answers rather than opinions. If anyone works in developmental neuroscience, paediatrics, psychology, or sleep research, I'd really appreciate your perspective...

Her post: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1554705206251478&id=100051360410981

Hi all,

I have a 12 month old & he is absolutely delightful.

The first 6 months were hell because he woke up literally every 30mins to an hour. I wasn't living..I was surviving. I isolated myself because I was so exhausted & focused solely on getting as much sleep as I could. Thankfully, sleep training worked & now he sleeps through the night, which has been amazing...

These days, he only wakes if he's unwell, teething, or something is bothering him.

I'd love for my son to have a sibling, but I'm not planning on having another baby anytime soon. I definitely don't want 2 under 2, both for health reasons & because I don't want to be traumatised again, lol. Everyone I know who had 2 under 2 has advised against it..but they mention that as their children got older, they are very close.

It got me thinking... what do you think is the best age gap between siblings?