u/miri_7218

Hi all, I have a four month old who is not ready for solids yet, but thinking ahead to when we begin to introduce in a couple of months.

We live in a tiny apartment and don’t actually have space for a dining table (adults eat on the couch over the coffee table or sitting on floor cushions). We have been handed down a proper high chair but don’t really like the idea of bub just sitting in it in the middle of the room since we don’t have a table to put it up against? It seems impractical to just be standing around her while she eats rather than all being seated at the table together.

I like the idea of just putting her in a little booster/floor seat next to us on the floor so it can be shared experience and I can feed her more easily. Has anyone else done this and are there any concerns with doing this for all her meals? TIA!

Hi all! My baby is 3.5 months old and is a fairly average sleeper from what I can tell. We still haven’t ever gotten longer than 3-hour stretches (more like hourly for the second half of the night), but I feel really lucky that when she wakes, I feed her and she goes back down really quickly.

Some nights we can have as many as 5-6 wakings, and I feel her every single time. Some of these I know are comfort feeds since she only nurses for a couple of minutes then passes straight out again.

I’m not at all stressed about doing this. She is still tiny and it’s working for us—no plans to shake it up. But curious about how others managed this as baby gets older? Does everyone else who’s being very responsive overnight nurse back to sleep every single time? Did you stop doing this at a certain point? Keen to hear whatever you have to share about this. TIA!

I am going to lose my entire mind.

Despite having read about a million “it gets better” posts (thank you to everyone who writes those!), I’m hoping for some reassurance that what I’m going through is normal and won’t last forever.

Baby is 10.5 weeks old and I definitely thought things would be starting to feel easier by now, but they really really aren’t. I can point to some individual things that are objectively easier (breastfeeding is less painful, I have time to shower and brush my teeth now), but overall I’m still struggling so profoundly.

Baby still feeds CONSTANTLY and even though feeds are getting shorter, I still absolutely hate the physical relentlessness of breastfeeding. It doesn’t at all feel like an opportunity to bond with my little girl—just something I have to get through. I know I can stop any time and don’t have any objection to formula conceptually, but it doesn’t really sound easier to me with all the bottle prep, etc? We have also been trying to get baby to take a bottle for over a month with no success so I don’t know how realistic it would be to formula or combo feed.

I find her awake periods stressful not knowing how to pass the time and feeling anxiety about the “shouldn’ts”—too much container time, too much time on her back, etc. Contact naps are the only time in the day that I feel 100 percent confident that I’m giving her exactly what she needs with no downside or risk.

We also have yet to get more than a 3 hour stretch of sleep overnight. I know this is within the normal range for her age, but every time I see someone mention a younger baby getting 4-5 hour stretches, it feels demoralizing.

I also find the insistence that we “call on our village” to be completely impractical in this broken society we’ve built. I have lots of wonderful friends who would be happy to help, but they’re all at fucking work! We don’t live in a collective society and I just feel so profoundly isolated and exhausted.

I’m hoping to hear from people who were feeling like me and are on the other side. Please tell me it won’t always feel like this!