r/NewParents

My wife was on a work trip yesterday so I had our 9 month old solo all day. Overall it went fine, but he’s in that phase where diaper changes are basically a wrestling match with a very motivated opponent, so I was trying to keep things moving as fast as possible.

When my wife called that night, I mentioned I hadn’t been using wipes every time for wet diapers. I still changed him right away every single time and put a clean dry diaper on immediately, but if it was just pee and his skin looked totally normal, I skipped the wipe. Poop is obviously a different story. Wipes every time, no question. She wasn’t happy hearing that, and we’ve kinda been going back and forth on it for a couple weeks now.

My reasoning is that he has pretty sensitive skin and even gentle wipes make him a little red sometimes. Plus he absolutely hates diaper changes lately, so adding wiping to the whole thing makes him even more upset. Her reasoning is that hygiene matters and urine can cause rashes if you’re not cleaning properly, which I get too. I don’t think either of us is trying to be careless. We’re both just trying to do right by him and ended up in different places on this one.

I’m not looking for anyone to pick sides or roast either of us. I’m mostly curious what other parents actually do in real life. For wet diapers only, do you wipe every single time? Only if the skin looks wet or irritated? Did your pediatrician ever say anything specific about it? His next checkup is coming up and I’m gonna ask then, but I figured I’d see what other parents have experienced in the meantime.

I recently gave birth to my beautiful baby Girl she is 2 and a half weeks old.
She is my second child, my eldest is 4.

This afternoon she started crying uncontrollably, nothing soothed her, it was relentless and continued for a few hours. We called nurse on call who advised we should go to ED or our regular paediatrician. Yes I get babies cry, but nothing settled her at all..and her cry changed and we too the nurse on call advice and went into our local emergency department.

The triage nurse was awful, she said what is with parents who can’t stand a baby crying ? Babies cry you know? I felt so small and humiliated in that moment. Yes this is a new baby and we’re still getting to know her, but also not our first child.

Anyhow turns out the paediatrician thinks it’s just colic, which I thought she was too young for but he said can occur anywhere from 2 weeks. My son never had colic so I didn’t know
Now I feel so stupid for going to the Emergency Department

Not sure what I want or why I posted but anyhow I did..

my 12 day old baby will NOT sleep anywhere but right by me. we don’t have to be touching but by the time i wake up she has wormed her way over to be touching me. i hate it. having her in the bed stresses me out but idk what else to do. as soon as i lay her in the bassinet she starts crying. & if i manage to get her laid down without her crying it takes no more than 30 mins before she’s crying. how do i get her to sleep in her bassinet?

Sorry if this is the wrong flair….
I’m really struggling to stay awake whilst feeding my new born baby, she’s 4 days old. Twice now I’ve woken up just in time before dropping her. I’m a single mum so no one that can be awake on the feeds with me.

I have been sick all day and am @really fucking exhausted. after my baby (9m) had his dinner i went to rinse him off and dress him and he would constantly crawl away. he does not tolerate nappy changes or being dressed in general and screams if i hold him down. so i let him be and laid down on the couch. I switched on the TV and played dancing fruits and he kept looking between the TV and I. he then cried and i went to pick him up and sat him on my lap and watched tv together. he actually accepted my hug and sat on my lap for a good 20 minutes. i felt so seen and it actually felt nice to finally be able to hug him without a protest. i then felt guilty for getting frustrated with him cause he’s literally just a baby. parenting is so fucking hard when you’re sick.

To the new parents out there. My wife has been discussing our baby’s cluster feeding. To keep up with the times, I’ve been referring to it as “chunkmaxxing.” I’m hoping this will catch on. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

My toddler has been quietly absorbing every adult conversation in this house and i just realised like he knows my manager is being a jerk and that the office is being reconstructed.... He knows my friend got an EV scooter and asked me for its remote control.... He knows that papa is on a new project with nosy teammates

We thought he was just playing bt he notices everything

Anyone else realise their toddler might be a tiny spy ?? 🥰

The last few days have been a wreck - I got a horrible stomach bug which caused me to get super dehydrated and since then my baby has been getting so frustrated while trying to breastfeed. The next day I got the flu and my period back at 5.5 months postpartum 😭 I’m guessing all of this is contributing to my milk being so low.

Good news is she still has wet and dirty diapers but I am so worried that she’s not getting enough. The last couple nights she has woken up halfway through the night and tried to nurse but just goes on and off wailing in between and this can go on for up to 2 hours until she gets tired enough and falls asleep.

I tried giving her formula just this last week out of curiosity (before I got sick), and she refused to even take a sip no matter what I tried (offered by different people, positions, temp).

I have been trying to give her a chance to breastfeed every hour or two to keep her from getting hungry and to get my supply up but after 2 days so far it doesn’t seem to be doing much and she is still getting frustrated every time.

Is there a certain kind of formula I could try that is more similar to breastmilk? Or somewhere I can get samples of different kinds to try out? (So far I don’t blame her for not wanting formula, it smells so nasty and completely different from breastmilk!) Or if I continue this for another day or two will my milk supply quickly get back up?

My boy never liked the stroller. Not when he was a newborn, not when we changed from bassinet to a seat, not now when he’s 14 months.

My arms are strong as steel, but I’m still dreaming of the day when he would sit and let me chill.

I own two strollers, bought before he was born of course. I have Uppababy Cruz V2 and Stokke Yoyo3. He won’t sit in both, not facing me or facing the world.

Oh we also got a Trike, Doona Liki. He liked it for maybe 2 weeks and not anymore. It’s worse now since he’s tall enough to stand on the ground.

Do I still have hope?

We have a 10 mo old who doesn’t quite crawl yet but still rolls around everywhere and I feel like anytime I tell people she hangs out in her large playpen most of the day when we aren’t holding her, we get concerned looks. Baby jail is the best thing ever. She plays with her toys and we get in there and play with her too. We have a 3 yo English bulldog who is so hyper and scratches us unintentionally all of time so I can’t even imagine any other safe set up with LO and the dog. I guess I just need some reassurance that we aren’t harming our baby by using the baby jail a lot of the day.

What in the world do you mean when you are getting them ready for bed? Isn’t “bed” all the time at this stage?

Should we be adjusting our routine to establish better habits??

Right now our almost 2 month old is doing 4oz every 3 hours but we do try to get 4 hour stretches somewhere between 11pm and 7am depending on when the feeds fall.

I was thinking of trying to adjust the around 7pm wake period to include a face/ hair wash to pretend like I know what people mean when they post “before bed” or “getting ready for bed”. I do usually do this at least every other day but should I start setting a time for it?

We do a bath every 4 days or so. Should we increase/ do just water baths? He doesn’t mind the bath but doesn’t appreciate the drying off portion as much.

We have him basically living in sleepers even when we go out for doctor appts. We haven’t gone out really anywhere else yet due to reasons so we’re not changing him into summer clothes so no reason to change him into another sleeper for bedtime. (I did order a summer outfit bc I’d like to start being more ambitious!)

We do tummy time / play / reading whenever he stays awake after a feed.

Are there more things we should be doing to “set him up for success”?

I’ve started a playlist for the car for my 3 month old

Problem is I only have 2 songs so far that don’t drive me insane

The happy song (this song is MAGIC for cheering baby up)
And Over in the Meadow

Can you recommend baby songs that are really catchy for adults too?

Hey!

So my LO is two months old and I have found she is very fidgety when sleeping - it’s not REM sleep. This mostly occurs after a feed when she goes back into her cot. She will bash her hands around for hours - anyone else??

I am unable to sleep as not only is she very loud I get concerned somthing is wrong so I keep watching to see if she needs me.

Hi, I have a little baby boy who will be 3 weeks tomorrow. We’ve been dealing with no sleep since the day he was born and I know that’s typical, but over the last week he’s developed the symptoms below. He’s exclusively breastfed. I have cut out dairy starting today in case it’s CMPA (my brother & niece both had CMPA) & he has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning. Any advice????

Sharp sudden Screaming in sleep
Crying while Trying to poop (able to pass gas though)
Constantly wanting to nurse (can nurse for over an hour and still want more, gaining 44g a day on average)
Never sleeps more than an hour, ONLY consoled when nursing
Dry/red skin, always having to lotion
Screams like he’s in pain in car seat
Bright green stool
Always hot/red, no fever
Constant sneezing
Constant hiccups, even when kept upright after eating
Dark skin around eyes
Rash on bottom, tried diaper cream

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!

So many people have commented that my 8 month old is very alert or observant that I’m beginning to wonder what they mean. It will come from strangers at the store, family, acquaintances. This is my first so to me she just seems normal? Is this something people say to all babies? If you had an “alert” baby what do you think this means exactly?

Our LO’s been super congested on and off for a couple weeks, and I keep going back and forth between “this is probably normal” and “something doesn’t feel right” esp at night when it sounds like he can’t breathe through his nose properly.We’ve tried saline drops, bulb aspirator, and an electric one, but it’s kinda hit or miss. Sometimes a little comes out, but most of the time it feels too thick or just ends up irritating his nose more than helping.At 2am though I start spiraling and second guessing everything again For parents who’ve been through this stage, what actually worked day to day when your baby was really congested?

Anybody else has a baby that doesn't really enjoy contact napping or contact anything, prefers to be left alone in their comfy whatever. Wriggles out with all their might into freedom. BUT, but.. Strictly requires us to remain in a 1 metre radius around them at all times?

When I read about parents having velcro babies, I feel jealous (although I know it may not always be fun but when else can we ever enjoy holding them this close, this wittle, squishy sized and teeny..needing us. It just goes by so fast) but here I am being put on a leash under constant supervision for the past 5 months and counting😭

I am a ftm to a 9 month old boy. Since day 1 I have been struggling. I don’t know if he’s a high needs baby or if I’m just not cut out for this but I’m so tired of it all. I keep hearing it will get better “after 3 months, after 6 months, etc…” but it hasn’t. Today he cried almost all morning from 9:30 until 1 pm and at some point I just put him in his crib for 15 minutes because I was afraid I might shake him. The crying is just so hard for me. People keep telling me to power through the crying and move on with my day. Someone said he’s running the household because I walk on eggshells to avoid him crying. I don’t want him to become entitled like that but there’s only so much crying I can take. I get nothing done around the house, some days I don’t eat or drink much water because I know it will make him cry if I stop to prepare something. Tv helps. Miss Rachel buys me some time to make his bottles and prepare his solids. After caring for him and meeting his needs, there was so much crying the whole way through that the best way for me to care for myself is to just avoid any crying. I have headphones and ear protection. Makes no difference. I’m just venting, but if anyone else struggled like this I would love to hear your story.

Share your LOs age and nap routine because we have been going THROUGH it for daytime naps.

Our girl just turned 3 months and somewhere between becoming vividly aware of surroundings and possibly going through a growth spurt she has major FOMO?

For the last 2 weeks, she has been fighting EVERY SINGLE NAP like it’s an Olympic sport. I’m talking screaming crying for 45 minutes because now she’s overtired. We tried dim lights, blackout, white noise, swaddle, no swaddle, shushing, pacifier, all the things. It was always a fight and I’d end up having to nurse her to sleep. Soon she started associating the dark room with naps and would cry as soon as we brought her to our room.

Just today I tried a variation of a nap routine I saw on the Taking Cara Babies site and started it as soon as she did her first yawn even though I thought it was too early (literally only 30-45 min after she woke up from her last nap) because i thought what do I have to lose? And there was NO CRYING. 😱 Maybe we just needed a nap routine/transition.

1. Bring baby up to room where it’s dim calm lighting but not black out (removing that dark room pressure to nap association)
2. Diaper change / get out toots
3. Top off feed / burp
4. Sleep sack (we’re transitioning out of swaddle)
5. Short story and cuddles
6. Close blinds/lights out
7. White noise
8. Rock to sleep (We don’t put baby down drowsy but awake yet. That hasn’t worked for us and only extended the overtired cycle 🥴 so we contact nap then transfer to bassinet)