r/BabyBumpsandBeyondAu

Alright you beautiful mamas and papas. Let’s hear them. your favourite books to read your little ones or the ones that they’ve loved more than any others.

We’ve got a 3 month old and are big readers so I’m slowly building his library and looking for books across all ages that you love to read and they want you to read 100 times over. the ones you read when they were 4 weeks to keep yourself sane and the ones they’re loving at 7 and have read 300 times this week.

Our favourite ones so far are

- Piranhas don’t eat bananas by Aaron Blabey

- Imagine by Alison Lester

- Here, Bear and Everywhere by Damien Balassone and Jess Racklyeft

- Welcome Baby by Jess Racklyeft

- Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox and Helen Oxenbury.

We’re also reading Peter Pan chapter by chapter each night as he does his final feed at the moment and it is lots of fun.

View Poll

For anyone that has grandparents come to their house regularly to babysit - what do you do for them in terms of lunch/dinner/snacks? My MIL and mum have my 10 month old one day a week each, and while my mum is set up to have my baby at her house, my MIL prefers to come to ours (which is so fine!). But what should I be offering in terms of meals available to her? I have asked if there’s anything she’d like us to stock that she can have, but she said not to worry. I often WFH so will always make her a couple of coffees and occasionally offer lunch if I’m making something. But tonight she came over about 5pm to watch baby while we went to an event, bought her own dinner, shared it with baby and then we got a doorbell notification later in the night that she ordered food. I feel awful I didn’t think to have anything for her! What do others normally do or find works well? She‘s the type to automatically say “I’m fine!” but I don’t want her to have to bring her own food or not cater to her when she’s regularly looking after our baby in our home.

My LO turned two a week ago but for the past five weeks she’s been teething. She has been completely miserable for five weeks. Multiple wake ups in the night, dribbling so much we’ve put her back in bibs, chewing everything, loss of appetite. It’s been horrible and I feel so awful for her. It seems like one molar finally pops through and then the pain from another one starts. They have not come through at the same time, at the moment two have popped through so we’re waiting for the other two to come. Did anyone else struggle with their two year olds molars? We do paracetamol when it’s bad at night, teething toys, cold wash cloths etc but she just seems so sad from the pain 😩

Hi Mums! I’m just curious at your planned caesarean experience please. Do you get skin to skin right after baby comes out? Can you please describe your delivery day in detail? Thanks in advance! I’ll be doing a planned caesarean and just wanting to know what I should expect.

They say if your toddler starts standing on their head that they are calling their future sibling.
Has this come true for anyone???

We are in a 30yo brick house with no heating in the bedroom. I've been dressing baby in a singlet, singlet suit, long suit, long fleece suit and 3.5tog sleeved sleepsuit. He's still unsettled from midnight onwards. We are potentially looking at teething so it could be that but I think he's cold because when I pick him up and cuddle, he's usually asleep before I have even sat back down in bed. He sleeps in a cot beside me and I won't consider cosleeping. He's also EBF so I put him on the boob if he's awake but he's mostly comfort sucking.

I'm 12 weeks pregnant and my relationship has completely broken down. I'm terrified and heartbroken and have no idea what to do. The baby's father has strongly stated that he wants me to have an abortion (still legal where I am) and that it "isn't a good time to have a baby" and even though I'm sure I'm going to keep the baby, I have no idea how to do anything now. He has had an ex pop back up in his life and is manipulating him and he's really struggling because he knows that she's a total POS and it will never work with her but she's guilting him into feeling like he has to be with her. I know that he loves me and the baby, but he's such a sensitive person and she's really just gotten into his head about everything and it seems that he's going to go and be with her.

I don't think I'm really looking for relationship advice, I know this isn't okay and that I need to prioritize myself and my baby regardless of what he does and whether he leaves to be with his ex or we work out, but how do I cope? How do I try to prioritize myself when I thought I was going to have a beautiful family with the love of my life and now I'm facing being a single parent? I'm lost and hurt and really just needed to vent to people who aren't just going to tell me that "it's all going to be okay" and "he'll come around" and "he'll change his mind once the baby gets here" because right now none of that is helpful.

I have Hyperemesis Gravidarum and have been horrendously sick, I'm struggling to eat or shower or function at all and now it's worse. I don't know if I need sympathy or something else, I'm just having a really bad time and needed to vent.

I do have a GP appointment booked but just want to hear others experience.

Baby has not gained any weight since month 4 to month 5.5. In fact it looks like 100g has been lost. However baby has gained in height percentile from 16% to 48% and has at least 5-6 wet heavy nappies per day.

I’ve been told by the child health nurse that my supply has dropped. I also noticed baby is lazy to work for that second letdown, just gives up after the first one. Sometimes also screams at the breast.

Baby has short naps but sleeps 4+ hour stretches at night.

Is it possible the weight gain will just come later? For now i’m assuming i have low supply and feeding 10-12 times/day. I have never had issues with breastfeeding prior.

One of my friends has a newborn (and a toddler!). I want to. Prepare her lasagna to bring over but I'm wondering what the best way to do it is. Would you prefer to receive: one large one, individual portions in foil trays that go in the oven or a large one that I have cooked and then cut into individual portions and frozen so they can be taken out one at a time and heated either in the oven or in the microwave? I know individual portions in foil trays would look the nicest, but would needing to put in the oven(or air fryer) be annoying?

Had bubs in the middle of a career change and decided to put my career on pause. But now I’m wondering if I will ever be able to go back.

My brain feels like it is so full of baby (baby’s schedule, their feeding, their admin etc etc) that I’m struggling to find the capacity to think about anything else.

I want to work, have a career but I also want to stay home and spend these formative years raising and loving my baby but I can’t help but feel like I am stuck in limbo.

I feel like everyone around me is moving forward and my feet are just stuck to the ground. I find myself grieving the life I could have had. This baby was very much wanted but I just can’t shake the feeling. I feel at such a loss.

Hubby is so incredibly loving and caring but he is the type of person who likes slow growth and is very happy with where he is at in his career. Although his job is low paying, he finds it incredibly rewarding. He’s had to deal with abuse in the workplace and has finally landed a job he feels comfortable in.

I feel like I must compensate his low ambition with pushing myself in a high stress, high paying career but I’m also struggling with a lot of back and forth of what I want out of life.

Am I wrong in feeling like this - should I change my perspective? Has anyone else navigated this and found a balance?

Anyone else experienced this? I do have the GP booked. Keeping water up. He is on 3x solids a day. He goes from constipated to not. He loves his food. It’s making me so sad he will strain and go red in the face and then often cry out. Immediately happy when it’s over

I saw my midwife this week for the first time and she has started me on aspirin due to my papp-a was low (0.24) i have my morphology scan this week to fully determine weather my baby is growth restricted, small or if everything is all good and well! My question is pls tell me your IUGR stories - good and bad please i search through reddit but only keep finding them from different countries and i need aus experience lol my other question is did were all growth scans (fortnightly is what im projected to have to have) bulk billed or through the hospital? this morphology scan is costing me $290 before medicare rebate and although they are necessary and needed for my baby i don’t want to pay every fortnight for scans 😭😭

Hi!
I am a pregnant with our first baby, so my husband & I are starting to have conversations about things we want to be firm with when it comes to parenting. The conversations are spanning from newborn to teenagers.

I am curious to know what other parents non negotiables are. Rules, family traditions, boundaries etc.
Including topics like school/education, holidays, memories, behaviour, discipline, wellbeing, friends, activities etc.

Or if not things that you are firm on, things you wish you had implemented sooner or at all.

Thank you!

Anyone else in or has been in the triple feeding trenches able to offer some words of advice? I had a traumatic and early c section at 36+2 with a large PPH. I was in hospital for 5 days with no feeding support, an inability to latch and vein told to “just give her formula” we had to push for an LC review and then when they finally came the day of discharge they offered little to no support. I told all the midwives she wasn’t latching, I was had expressing nothing and then pumping with no clue.

She’s now one week old and we’re in the depths of what I realised only yesterday is triple feeding and it’s breaking my soul. I waited for this baby for so long and after multiple losses she’s here and I’m finding it so incredibly hard and like it’s ruining this time together. I’m grieving that she’s never going to be this small again and I’m missing it.

I started seeing an IBCLC who I saw today but thanks to postpartum fog I can’t remember what she told me with our positioning and every feed is being met with distress by me. We also picked up a hospital pump today and started domperidone.

My partner wants me to reach out to services to support my MH and I’m seeing someone from the hospital as well.

Can anyone doing the same commiserate, or any successful graduates please tell me it gets better.

Hey mamas 💛

I’m a FTM due to give birth very soon. I was classed as high risk from the moment I was seen at the hospital. Throughout my pregnancy, I’ve seen a lot of different doctors and specialists to monitor both me and baby.

They kept saying that if my blood work and platelets looked good, it would help determine how we deliver on the day. Now I’m 38 weeks and thankfully everything is looking healthy.

At first, the doctors kept telling me that my birth might not go the way I wanted, so I emotionally prepared myself for that. But now that things are looking healthy, I’ve been given the option to choose between a C-section or a vaginal delivery with an epidural.

Now I’m honestly not sure what to do. I just want a healthy, calm, and low-stress birth with decent pain relief.

For those who have delivered before, did you have a vaginal birth or C-section? What was your experience like — recovery, pain, bonding, emotions, and anything you wish you knew beforehand? I’d really appreciate hearing the details to help me make this decision for myself 💛

I have suspicions that my 20 month old has ASD. I’m wanting to get him into a paed asap to be diagnosed with global developmental delay so I can get NDIS funding for speech and OT, and referred to kudos.

Any suggestions?

Midwife said that “there’s no such thing as overfeeding a newborn”. My 4 day old is having 50ml (formula + breast milk in bottle) every 2-3 hours. I feel it’s a lot but she’s hungry when I give her less than that! (Will be asking the midwife again on next visit)

I honestly have no idea where to post this, but as the title says, I’m scared shitless about how my son (10M) is going to turn out as he gets older.

I don’t want to sound like the daughter-in-law who hates her in-laws so I’ll say this:

I am not close with my family. I do not think that my family is better, if anything they’re just as bad. I was not seen, heard, supported and was neglected by both parents while growing up. It has been A LOT to work through and it hasn’t been easy.

Due to the distance my own family (partner, myself and son) have with my side of the family, we see more of my partner’s side, which is where some issues arise.

I primarily have issues with my partner’s brothers.

One is a deadbeat father to his two children, an alcoholic, has verbally and physically assaulted ex-GFs and family members ontop of 17 family violence incidents. A majority of the family do not have much to do with him, unless it involves his children (as he does not have custody, his children stay with my partner’s parents). We see him once or twice a year.

The other is not as much of a POS but his blatant dislike of me has severed any good relationship between us. Even though these reasons are personal he never took time to get to know me and ignored me for the first 6 months of myself and his brother dating, after another 1.5 years when I got pregnant, he began to be nicer but has been inconsiderate bringing up miscarriage once I’d announced my pregnancy, has accused me of cheating, being a gold digger, among other incidences where he’s made comments about me which has resulted in my partner and him fighting.

Most recently, he has made fun of my cat getting run over and having him cremated, saying “You should’ve just chucked his body into the fire”, he even involved his kids in making fun of the situation, and I just feels like after 3 years its all built up to the point where I’m just so done.

But he is a really good uncle to my son. He is extremely caring and loving towards him, and dotes on him whenever he has the chance.

I don’t want to be told that I’m being sensitive or taking it too much to heart, because after so many years I’m so tired of feeling anxious and like I’m unwanted in the family.

I don’t want my kid around this. I don’t know what to do. I’m an only child, so I have no nieces/nephews for my son to grow up with, so my partner’s brother’s children are the only cousins he has.

On the other hand, I don’t want to be scared about my son learning these behaviours and becoming a bully.

So I feel really conflicted about whether or not to bring any of this up to my partner.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. Any advice on how to navigate this situation would be greatly appreciated, figuring out what’s best for my kid without feeling like I’m breaking up the only side of the family he will know.

(I wrote this all in one try, hopefully it’s not all wordvomit. Cheers.)

My baby had Panadol at 3:30pm before her 4:00pm bexero vaccine for meningococcal B.

Doctor said to give two more doses of Panadol 6 hours apart. But that means waking her up at 9:30pm and then 3:30am.

She’s 16 months. Do I need to wake her?? I didn’t think about the timing so couldn’t ask my doctor. I’m assuming I do… but there’s no way she’ll go back down so just checking what other parents did.