u/Remarkable-Stay3368

Hi! When do yall read to your babies? My girl is about to turn 3 months and we try to read to her as often as possible, but usually end up reading at night or squeezing in a quick story when she’s not fussing.

At night she tends to be either falling asleep or nursing and half asleep. Is this still effective? Or are we better off trying to squeeze in reading time during the day? I’m thinking I could read to her after her first nap and before floor time, or while she’s doing floor time.

If it helps we also talk to her constantly throughout the day! We narrate everything, tell her about her day at the beginning and end, narrate walks…I don’t think I stop yapping unless she’s deeply focused on a toy 😂 I just want her to be literate and love to read!

My baby girl is almost 3 months old and we’ve noticed that she frequently wants to be facing us. We’ve started propping her up in a reclined sitting position with her back against our legs and her neck supported by our legs or hands. Not quite sitting on her own at all and fully supported but she is almost sitting on her butt. Almost like she’s in a recliner but the recliner is our lap.

However I keep seeing info about how putting baby in a sitting position is unhealthy until they have greater neck control - is what I’m doing considered true sitting position? I can’t figure out how that would be defined.

I don’t want to hurt her but she also LOVES to be facing us in this position while we sing, read, or talk to her. She has great neck control for a baby her age but we still make sure her neck is well supported.

Has anyone else experienced restraint collapse when caring for their child?

I think I finally figured out what’s going on with my brain but I don’t see anything about it online. I do have PPA, but this feels separate. I take care of my baby the majority of the day and then my husband takes over when he gets off work. Frequently that transition is when we have the most arguments.

I think what’s happening is I get overwhelmed and overstimulated throughout the day, but I don’t want to get upset with my baby so I hold it in and either take it out on myself or my husband.

I’d rather just take it out on myself. My husband isn’t doing anything wrong; he’s gone above and beyond to the point where I was worried about his mental health. In some ways this is much better than taking it out on my baby like my parents did. I love her so much and don’t want to repeat those patterns, but I also struggle to admit I feel frustrated and overstimulated by her at times. My husband tells me all the time it’s normal and I know it is. We’re all learning and that is frustrating, but it feels like even acknowledging that will invite in the cycle I’m trying to break. I put so much pressure on myself to be the cycle breaker that I expect perfection from myself (and my husband too) instead of acknowledging my own messiness.

It’s exhausting. I need an outlet to get this discomfort out of my body but by the time shift change comes I’m so exhausted that all I want to do is cry and eat and I end up lashing out at my partner.

Has anyone else experienced this? I’m so tired of it. I want to feel normal.

Hi! I’ve been on sertraline for decades including all throughout my pregnancy. During pregnancy I went from 50mg to 75mg as I was experiencing more intrusive thoughts, and it only helped to take a bit of the edge off.

Now that I’m postpartum my intrusive thoughts have gotten much worse to the point where my brain keeps conjuring up horrible images without warning. My therapist thinks I have PPA and I’m inclined to agree. All of this to say, I’m going to try Paroxetine since it’s safe for nursing.

Has anyone taken Paroxetine to help with PPA? Or even just intrusive thoughts? I want to be able to walk down the street and not picture a car accident or worry about being attacked.

I thought I was so lucky that I had somehow “escaped” PPA/PPD, but then it hit me like a ton of bricks in week 6.

I’ve struggled with anxiety, depression, anger, and complex trauma my entire life. My relationship with my husband has been struggling as well, a large part of it due to my anger issues. Now that I’m postpartum, all of that has gotten harder. We’re being more honest with each other, but I’m so scared I’m pushing my marriage to the absolute limits and we won’t be able to come back.

I get so anxious and upset I lash out and blame him for everything. This isn’t just a postpartum thing, but something I’ve done for a long time. I project and lash out. I resent myself and lash out. I’d been getting better, we’d been getting better, and then I had our beautiful baby and now it feels like I’m backsliding into a bottomless pit.

I want to fix everything but all I can do is move forward. Some days I wish we’d paused the fertility process to focus even more intensely on our issues because I never wanted to start our life with this baby on this note; he’s expressed the same sentiment. We had no idea it would open up the cracks like this, we’d gone to couples counseling prior to having her to help but it wasn’t enough to stop me from myself. But now we’re here. My baby is the love of my life and neither of us would change having her for an instant.

I started therapy again. I’m changing my meds. I just wish I could change my brain and responses to distress in an instant. I want to stop this before I lose the life I love with the man I love. I don’t want to be just coparents but romantic partners again. I want to stop sabotaging myself.

Thanks for listening.

Hi! I have a 10 week old baby and want to make sure I’m helping her take quality naps. We exclusively contact nap and sleep chest-to-chest at night.

Occasionally she will be napping for about an hour and then get fussy, very clearly hungry but not fully awake. I’ll feed her and then she’ll immediately fall back asleep. Similar to nighttime feeds except we’re in a different location and the room is fully bright and noisy (we wanted to ensure she could sleep anywhere and so far it’s working!). When this happens, this does mean her naps don’t have a full wake window in between them. She’ll stir, feed, fall asleep in under 5 minutes, and sleep for another 1-2 hours.

Does this sound ok?? It won’t be an issue to keep up once I’m back at work due to my schedule, and we aren’t sending her to daycare until she’s 1. These naps feel so luxurious and sweet, and I love being right here to respond to her!

Hello! I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions. My 9 week old has a distinct preference for her left side. She will be flat on her back and her head will be turned to the left. I try to gently turn it but she will put it immediately back, so I don’t push it.

I try putting toys she likes on her right side and she will look at them briefly before flipping back to the left. When we do side lying and I try to make sure she gets ample time on her right side, but she is very determined to always look left! It’s not causing any flatness, but I’m worried about potential spine or neck issues. Does anyone have any suggestions to help?