u/crazystitcher

We want to do an international trip with our baby before he turns 1 (next February) but are not sure on where to go.

We're currently thinking of New Zealand (we live in Sydney so not a huge flight) and most likely planning to go in January some time.

Any recommendations on where would be good to go with an 11 month old? Either in New Zealand or somewhere else internationally?

We've recently started solids with our almost 6 month old (he'll be 6 months on Monday it's gone too fast 😭). So far we've just done purees but wanting to also do some baby led weaning. But now his first tooth is coming through.

Is this gonna affect trying to do baby led weaning? I know about doing the squish test for anything we do give him, but will the tooth mean he's able to bite off a piece that could then potentially get stuck? Or am I just overthinking and everything's gonna be fine?

People talk about how good skin to skin is after birth and in the early days, especially if you have a NICU baby.

But no one talks about how good it is long term.

My almost 6 month old was having some shorter feeds yesterday and just getting super distracted, meanwhile I had quite a painful clogged duct.

Husband suggested trying skin to skin and feeding that way - lo and behold he had a fantastic feed and the clogged duct went away.

Not saying it's a fix for everything. But having troubles with a feed? Try some skin to skin!

In the last couple of days my 5 month old has started refusing to feed from my right breast about 75% of the time, including overnight. I know it's not a supply issue as I did a pump this morning due to the engorgement (as well as hand expressing overnight to take the edge off). But he's literally crying, arching his back and pushing away from me when I try to offer him that side.

I have minor success feeding him in football hold, but it's not comfortable for me and as it's not something I've done much of previously his latch is terrible and I end up with lipstick nipple after.

To make matters worse we've just gone on a little getaway for a few nights.

I'm really worried about:

a) my supply dropping drastically on that side if I can't get him to feed more

And

b) getting mastitis because that side isn't getting emptied and I don't have my pump with me (I pumped at home before we left and chose to leave it there which was probably a mistake)

Anyone had similar happen? Any advice or suggestions as to why this could be? Any tips to protect my supply/prevent mastitis if he won't feed?

He did something similar a few weeks ago where he would **only** feed from that side in football hold but that doesn't seem to be cutting it this time.

For the last two weeks my 5 month old has been a terrible sleeper. I've got 1 or 2 good nights from him in this time but most nights he's waking 5, 6, 7 times where previously he was waking once or twice.

I know it's biologically normal at this age for them to wake more frequently and need help settling. Thankfully he's only waking to feed once a night so on nights my husband is home he's able to do some of the resettling, but I still get woken either way. And he's a shift worker so 2 out of every 8 nights it's just me the whole night and I'm struggling with such broken sleep.

There's something so much worse about knowing he's capable of 6+ hour stretches of sleep (we even got a couple 8 hour ones before this) and then suddenly dropping to a max 3 hour stretch (if I'm lucky).

I know (I hope) it'll get better, and I know it could be even worse (at least it's not every hour the entire night) but right now I'm just so tired and even considering my husband's offer of a night alone in a hotel room to try to get some sleep.

Anyway, rant over.

I'm wanting to replace one of his overnight feeds with formula so that I can get longer stretches of sleep most nights (I'll be doing the bottle some nights as husband does shift work but when he's home he will do it so I can sleep) because I'm struggling hard with the sleep deprivation that comes with broken sleep due to breastfeeding overnight.

I'm wanting to do as much of the bottle prep before bed as possible and pre-fill the bottle most of the way with water and then keep a thermos of boiled water nearby to add the remainder before I make up the bottle so I don't have to warm it up (would love if bub drank room temp bottles but he's not a fan so far). We're in a two-storey house with bedrooms upstairs and kitchen downstairs so I would be leaving the bottle, thermos and pre-portioned formula amount in bubs room so he's not having to wait too long while I go downstairs.

For those who do this - how much water do you leave out to be added in later? I'm gonna start out with just a 120ml bottle as I don't think he'll drink a bigger bottle overnight.

Climbing mummas, did you have to get new shoes after returning to climbing after baby?

Planning to go for my first climb tomorrow (didn't climb at all during pregnancy) and just put my shoes on for the first time in over a year and oh boy do they feel tight. Definitely tighter than before pregnancy.

Curious to hear other people's experiences with their shoes post pregnancy and baby.

We're planning a few nights away in the southern highlands of NSW at the end of July with our then 5.5 month old and wondering what's the best way to dress him to keep him warm?

Also as the weather cools down more in Sydney should we be changing how we currently dress him? Most days he's Inna sleeveless bodysuit as a base layer and either;

- a bonds wondersuit if I'm feeling lazy (what he wore at night) with a jumper or cardi over the top and a beanie if we're going for a walk early morning

OR

- a long sleeve bodysuit, pants and a jumper or cardi over the top plus beanie.

We then include a pram blanket if we're walking outside and it's quite cold which is what I did for our morning walk today when it was only about 10⁰.

I'm guessing what we're currently dressing him in isn't going to suffice as it gets colder and definitely isn't going to suffice in the southern highlands.

Any tips or clothing recommendations are appreciated!

I'm 4 months postpartum and my wedding and engagement rings still don't fit like they did pre-pregnancy. I can just get them on now but they feel quite tight, and given its winter I imagine I won't be able to get them on at all during summer.

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Is this likely to get better? Or should I just try to get them both resized? Did anyone else have similar issues?

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I expected them to stop fitting during pregnancy but I was really looking forward to getting to wear them again after... Seems everyone I know is able to wear theirs again.

We want to take our little man for his first swim soon, and try to get him into the free swim lessons for 3-6 month olds. What swim nappies are people using for their 3 month olds? Happy with either disposable or reusable ones and I'm fully aware they don't catch pee and to put a normal nappy over the top until we're ready to get in the water.

He's probably around the 6kg mark now (was 5.71kg at his last check which was the 7th May) or will be by the time we're ready to take him in the water which will be another week or two. I've seen some of the disposable ones like Huggies and Aldi brand start at 7kg.

When did your baby start linking sleep cycles during the day, specifically when napping in their cot?

My 12 week old is a great napper.... So long as he's contact napping/carrier napping. We have basically zero success getting him to sleep in the pram when we're out, and if we try to put him in the cot at home for a nap he only does about one cycle, maybe a little more sometimes and definitely a little less other times.

With my husband back at work I would love to get him down in the cot more so that I can get other stuff done/get a decent nap myself.

Is there anything I can do to help him sleep longer in the cot during the day? Currently when we do a cot nap I'll put him in his love to dream suit and give him a dummy. I haven't tried white noise but will if it might make a difference.

Do I just need to try to be persistent with putting him in there at least once a day? Will it just naturally get better as he gets older and I need to just be patient and enjoy the contact naps for now?

Forecast in Sydney today is for a top of 17⁰ from about 10am... I need to take my 11 week out at about 8:30. How do I dress him to keep him warm???

So far we've been getting by in wondersuits with the occasionally bodysuit underneath on cooler days but this is the coldest the daytime temperature has been so far and I worry this isn't going to be enough to keep him warm..

I'm hoping he's still asleep when we leave the house and I can keep him in his 2.5TOG love to dream with his wondersuit underneath and just add a beanie to keep his head warm (the love to dream is my best chance for keeping him asleep in the pram) but obviously once he wakes up I'll need to take him out of the love to dream and the wondersuit won't alone won't cut it.

I live in the southern hemisphere so it's getting colder, especially overnight. How the heck do I cope with breastfeeding in the cold?

Last night was one of the coldest nights so far and combined with more frequent night wakes from bub (also probably due to the cold) I had a rough go of feeding and started looking up weaning because I honestly don't think I can do this as it gets colder.

My little man is only 11 weeks and while I've already lasted longer than I thought I would, I'm really torn about whether to stop or keep going. On the one hand I love the bond it's created between us, and I know there's health benefits to continuing breastfeeding. But on the other hand I'm absolutely exhausted and would love to get more than a few hours sleep at a time, and I don't like being cold so I know this is gonna suck.

I have a beautiful 10.5 week old who's currently breastfed including a bottle of EBM once a day or every second day when I just really need a break. I am struggling hard with it though, mostly with the fatigue surrounding it.

During the day he's feeding mostly every 2-2.5 hours, occasionally with a 3 hour gap between. This is usually up until about 10pm and then it'll usually be between 3-5 hours between feeds until about 9am when they start getting closer together again (though it can vary depending on the day - he's currently feeding 2 hours after the last one). His feeds can be anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes of on boob time, so with burping and nappy change and trying to keep him awake to finish the feed it's often up to an hour total from beginning to end.

I'm exhausted. I have a lot of help from my mum and husband, but with my husband going back to work this week I'm doing most of the late night/overnight work on my own (feed, burp, nappy change, hold upright for 10-15 minutes so he doesn't throw up everywhere, settle and transfer to the cot which can take several attempts) because I feel a lot of guilt around interrupting my husband's sleep (I will do it if I have to and he has told me I can but I still have the mindset that since I'm up anyway I should just do it all myself). But this means I can be up close to 2 hours if the transfer to the cot takes several attempts.

Without fail every time I try to go to bed early and have my husband settle him after the feed he has a short sleep and wakes up hungry again or won't transfer and I don't end up getting to sleep, so I'm often not getting to sleep until 11 at the earliest. I also really struggle with sleep inertia when waking up overnight for the feeds.

I'm considering whether I should start combo feeding and doing a bottle of formula once a night so I can (hopefully) get a chunk of sleep. This would probably be his "last" feed around 9/10 pm and I would have someone else (either mum or my husband) give it to him then settle him and transfer him to his cot.

For those who have done combo feeding, how does it work? How will it affect my supply? Will I need to pump when he has the bottle like I would for a bottle of EBM? (At which point I would just do EBM) Am I putting myself at greater risk of clogged ducts/mastitis?

Any other advice or reassurances around the feeding? Do they really get more efficient on the breast (if so when?)