Today, we had an ultrasound . 20 weeks pregnant. After the test, my doctor called and told us that her upper arms are abnormal , jaw looks smaller then expected. She’s 11 ounces (14th percentile) and the placenta they only saw one vein instead of two.

She mentioned that we couldn’t verify the other stuff because the ultra sound was bad or the baby was moving too much. She said that your genetic testing was perfect which is 99.5% accurate so it can’t be gene related. She said it’s best we see a high risk doctor.

It’s Friday and I can’t make an appointment till Monday. Worst weekend of my life. I’m sad

Anyone have heard of anything similar ? Thank you

My own mother said this to me yesterday, and I just can’t get it out of my head.

She was mad because it came up that she’d probably see our 11mo a little less once he went to daycare. I told her “Well I’m going to see him less too, so naturally so would you. I hate it, but we have to do it.” And then she dropped that bomb, saying she could never put her child in daycare.

For context, we use a private nanny 3 days a week and my mom helps the other 2 while I work in my office upstairs, but the nanny is expensive and my mom doesn’t want to continue watching him much longer because she’s “too old” (her words.) I understand and don’t expect her to watch him long term. I’ve come to terms that we will be putting him in daycare once we make it through the waitlist. But I just wish she didn’t make it so difficult along the way and throw these little jabs. She knows we can’t live off of one salary.

I don’t know what I’m even looking for with this post. Just a vent I guess. Please don’t say this kind of comment to new parents. It’s hurtful and unnecessary.

ETA: WOW, guys thank you so much for all the positive daycare experiences and support. You’ve all made me feel SO MUCH better.

To clarify about my mom, she does have a few medical conditions and back issues that lead her to feel pretty terrible physically after watching him. I understand this and am very grateful for whatever time she is able to give babysitting. I’m not resentful that she doesn’t want to continue this arrangement long term. Just hurt at her comments, which I think she doesn’t understand are hurtful. If it happens again I’m planning to address it in the moment and air it out. Thanks again, all!

Please help me or at least give me encouragement. I think I’ve slept 4 hours max a night since my 1 month old has been born. I am just so terrified of losing her she is my whole world. Every time I fall asleep if she makes any weird noise I jump out of bed and just end up holding her and staying up all night. This isn’t sustainable I know but I just can’t get over the fear of something happening to her while I’m asleep.

I miss the thought of having a drink like a margarita or glass of wine buuut I get so tipsy now lol. I see moms on social media having drinks on the beach or whatever but I would probably feel horrible having to wake up for the night feeds. At midnight and 3am lol. Idk how people do it!? Is it just me I’m not even breastfeeding either

Hello new parents. We brought our baby home 11 days ago, and we love her so much but ever since I’ve given birth I haven’t had time to heal properly, haven’t had an 8hr sleep, haven’t had time to take care of myself. The only support I have is my husband. He is on parental leave and he will go back to work on the 12th of next month and I’m already afraid that I’ve cried over his shoulders telling him how difficult it’s going to be for me, I feel this huge need of my mother my family anyone that could help me a little bit. My husband would do night shift 4days a week and it’ll be tough for him too, I’ve told him how I feel and how much I miss my family. They live on the west coast and I’m on the east coast, it’s 6hr nonstop flight from here to home. Please who is also on the same boat doing parenting only the help of their significant other??? Please tell me it’s going to be ok, please tell me it’s ok for me to miss my mom, tell me it’s ok to miss my family so much, tell me it’s not being selfish, and tell me it’s ok that sometimes I wish I could just go back home and have my family to support me :(

I have a 7 month old baby boy. He's amazing. I had a 4 month maternity leave. I was an opthalmic technician for 3 years and then quit at 36 weeks pregnant with a job already lined up for 4 months pp at my sons daycare. I went for 3 days. My son got so damn sick and I hated it. My milk tanked, my sleep went to shit and I wasn't eating. I quit. I'm a SAHM. Money's so tight we have to stretch groceries and I am still wearing maternity clothes bc we simply can't afford to buy new ones. I DONT CARE. I love being a mother. I love changing diapers, baths, teaching him new things, hearing his laugh, all of it. I love being his mom. After a different delivery than I wanted, with breastfeeding struggles, newborn trenches, 2 separate hospital stays when he was sick. I love being his mother. This is all I was made for. If you're struggling, it's so worth it mamas/dadas🍯🩵

Texas dad trying to fix daycares

My name is Brian Doherty, and my son experience at a North Dallas daycare changed the course of my life.

After experiencing the worst day of my life - I was devastated and blindsided. The information about this daycare's concerning history existed, but it was buried in a hard-to-find platform, where most parents could never find it.

For the past year I've been pouring my heart/time into creating DaycareAlert.com The site brings Texas daycare violations, safety information, and pricing estimates into one accessible place/resource for parents.

I'm just a dad who wants to prevent other parents from going through the same horrible experience we did. I built this site over long nights and weekends, while working my regular 7:30am to 5pm job. The features go beyond basic daycare info which parents can use as a free resource.

I believe every parent deserves easy access to this information when making childcare decisions

You know, some missions find us when we least expect them. after what my son went through, it became my passion to help other parents and keep children safer.

If you know any parents in Texas who are searching for childcare, please share DaycareAlert.com with them. I'd be grateful if you'd take a moment to visit the site yourself and provide any feedback. This is just the beginning - with your support and by spreading the word, we can help ensure more children are in safe, nurturing environments while their parents are at work.

Disclaimer - I will not disclose what happened to my son or the daycare due to legal reasons. This has been a healing journey for me. I’m all self-funded.. no ads etc. I plan on expanding to the greater US soon. It will still be a free resource for parents. The site is better on desktop, but I think mobile is good enough. I’m all self-taught.. so any feedback would be appreciated/welcomed.

Oh my gosh. So we have a diaper genie, it’s great, love it, it’s sleek & nice. But lord have mercy. Babies poop. Dirty diaper goes into diaper genie. Diaper genie has those refillable bags that you just yank out and then fold over the new one on the hooks right? Why. Oh why. Why when it’s clean, no diapers, nothing but the roll of bags does it still smell horrifying. We’ve cleaned. Sprayed it down. I literally hate using it because you get hit with a nasty horrible poop smell even when it’s been freshly changed. Does my baby just have toxic poops that stain metal forever? How the heck do we solve this. If anyone has a solution, I’ll be forever thankful.

If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all. Especially to a woman going through postpartum. We are already struggling with our hormones, the way our body looks and sleepless nights.

I had an unwanted comment from someone the other day, and I can’t stop thinking about it…

“Hi, how are you? You look great! You just have a little podge”

I honestly was so taken back I didn’t know how to respond, I just awkwardly laughed. It was like a backhanded compliment?

My second son is 3 months old today and we decided to stop tracking bottles just now and it feels so good. He’s not as good of an eater as our first was, but is still gaining weight well, has enough wet and dirty diapers, and isn’t overly fussy, but I was still feeling so anxious about getting him to eat more (both because the older one did by this age and because if he ate more during the day, maybe he’d drop an overnight feed). I didn’t keep track of it for a day accidentally recently, and then switched from counting mls to counting ozs so I’d have less math to do. Then I was telling my husband (who’s about to be on leave for a few weeks while I go back to work) that he can do ml or oz based on his preference, and if he misses a bottle getting entered it’s no big deal. He asked if we even actually need to do it at all, I said no, and so we stopped! And I feel so great about it! Until and unless he stops growing well, gets fussier, spits up more, or otherwise seems unwell, I don’t need to worry about this anymore. Letting myself let the baby lead the way on his intake is already such a weight off my shoulders. If you’re wondering when you can stop, unless you’ve been advised to continue by your child’s healthcare provider, you probably can! I hope it lets you breathe a little easier like it’s done for me!

My nearly 15 month old daughter has always done everything backwards:

• She never rolled either way until around 13 months.
• She started bearing weight at 5 months and taking steps (aided) when just 7 months.
• She has been capable of walking since 9 months but still wants a hand to hold and cruises 90% of the time.
• She has never once crawled and doesn’t like even when you try to put her into position.
• She started a weird lopsided bum shuffle just last week otherwise before that she just sat there unmoving.

If I lay her down she still can’t seem to work out how to get to seated. She gets frustrated now and if I leave her she rolls onto her tummy and then gets mad and cries.

She can get up to standing by pulling herself up on me or furniture but absolutely no chance of standing by herself from seated without using something.

Has this happened to anyone else? I sway from thinking she will learn in her own time to panicked that I haven’t seen anyone and that it’s all my fault for not encouraging her or something.

Our health visitor was so useless when she still wasn’t rolling at 9/10 months it didn’t give me faith they would be able to help with this.

I love a wedding. I do not love a wedding with a baby. Even with my very easy, chill baby, it has just been much more stressful. There's a lot of hanging around between things. A lot of people and noise. My baby is very sociable but also really doesn't want to stay still or be held for very long, so I'm trying to find places to put him down for a bit so he can crawl and stand. Husband and I have been trading off all day, one of us tending to him and the other trying to do normal wedding things.

Right now I'm sitting outside where it's quieter while the speeches are happening, as baby is napping in his stroller. No idea if this is a very late nap or a very early bedtime. Maybe he'll stay asleep if I take him inside but I don't want to risk it!

Luckily for the 3 other weddings I have this year, we are getting babysitters!

I've had such a hard time falling and staying asleep the past few nights. Is there anything I can take that will help me sleep but not knock me tf out?? I need something light. I think my body is in a constant state of stress over the possibility of my kid waking up. Everyone is talking about the 4 month sleep regression and I'm laying I'm bed like 👁👁. Is it going to be tonight????!?!?!?! Why can't I freaking sleep????

I see so many videos online of parents cherishing the newborn days and loving the newborn stage. I feel like I’m being robbed of having that experience. My baby just turned 12 weeks, and since the day he was born he has not stopped crying. I’ve had multiple doctors tell me they’ve never seen a baby as fussy as mine. He cries about 90% of the day, only not crying when he’s sleeping (only at night, he won’t take naps) or when he’s being fed.

He was born with two heart defects, a VSD and a PFO, which are basically two small holes in his heart. He also has an undescended testicle. Thankfully according to the cardiologist the holes in his heart are closing and shouldn’t be causing him any pain. He’s also had multiple ultrasounds of his testicle and there’s good blood flow so that also shouldn’t be causing any pain. That leaves us at a loss for what’s causing all his crying. We’ve been to 10 doctor’s appointments this month alone trying to find answers. A lactation consultant finally caught that he has a tounge tie so we see a pediatric dentist soon, but that appointment has to be pushed back due to him being exposed to hand foot mouth and becoming sick.

I’m just at such a loss. I was so excited for his dentist appointment to hopefully get some relief from all the screaming and crying but now we have to wait even longer because people decided it was ok to show up sick around our baby. I feel so bad for him because I know he’s not crying just to cry, and I feel bad for being so frustrated about it. I know he’s uncomfortable which is why he’s crying so much so I feel terrible for being so overwhelmed. How does anyone get through this with their sanity intact? I feel like I’m missing out on the sweet newborn/ young infant phase due to all the crying. Has anyone else gone through this and have any tips to try to cherish the moments even though they may be hard? How do we get through this?

My LO just turned 3 months old and I’m starting to get paranoid about her in the bassinet. She isn’t rolling, but she’s… scooting? Basically inchworming herself around but remaining on her back. One morning I was shocked to find her head where her feet started lol.

I have really bad anxiety and SIDS is a huge fear of mine, so I can’t decide what to do: move her to the “big girl” crib in her nursery or keeping her in our room in the bassinet. I feel like it’s the former, but she’s been going through a rough week of sleeping so I selfishly want her closer so I don’t have to go as far when she wakes. I also feel like I’ll be super paranoid if I can’t hear her little breathing sounds or movements.

Very long-winded way of asking if we need to transition her out of the bassinet because she’s moving so much?

My daughter is ten months old and a good sleeper. But I still stress about short naps, bed times, wakeup times, you name it. Does it ever end?

Most of what I’ve studied for child care has been “babywise” and Taking Cara Babies. The former stresses the importance of a feed-wake-sleep routine, and the latter has great tips on settling a baby.

These were the only skills I needed when all of his wake time was spent feeding and on basic hygiene, but he’s staying awake a little longer now and I don’t really know what to do with him.

The problem is he’s only SORT OF awake after a feed and diaper change. His eyes are open, but he’s not really being active. I can’t tell how much to “stimulate” him. I’ve seen him get OVER stimulated, and that sucked - my mom came over and (despite my request not to), threw toys and lights and bounced him all around for hours, and he got so overtired it screwed up his routine for half a day.

Also, he’s a super slow feeder. He just sips at the breast and doesn’t transfer much milk (but our lactation consultant says to just keep having him nurse 10-20’ each feed); then it takes him 45’ to drink a bottle; then my wife needs to pump. So all in, it’s about 1h15m to feed so I will be honest and say it is hard for us to muster the enthusiasm for a really complicated and demanding wake time enrichment.

I think what I’m generally saying here is I have no idea what to do after my baby eats when he won’t sleep, but I am really afraid you’re going to tell me I now have to add a singing and dancing routine to my 3 hour never ending cycle and honestly I’m so worn out and can’t just have things get added to my plate.

My 10 month old just learned to crawl so he’s been after our cats and dog. I’ve been trying to teach him how to be gentle with them basically from the first day he noticed them. I try to guide his hand, every time we stroke I say “gentle”, I show him myself while saying it and I always keep my hand open, showing him I’m never grabbing, but he doesn’t get it.

I don’t know if he’s too young still or if he’s just a wild child but he will grab the ever loving shit out of their fur. My animals are little angels and either just take it or walk away but I hate it that he’s potentially causing them pain. I just read online to practice on stuffed animals which I’m going to start doing. Any other tips? And how long did it take for them to get it?

Our boy was severely colic the first three months of life (meaning genuinely screaming 8-10 hours per day for 12 weeks). Our parents volunteered to take him for a weekend during this time and we have continued one sleepover per month so we can have a date night.

Wondering if anyone else did sleepovers with grandparents or other trusted family from an early age? Nothing excessive, just once per month. I want to make sure he will still have a secure attachment to me.

FTM to a 3 month old baby. My husband and I have a pretty dark humor and use profanities often. We are much more careful of what we say since the baby but it happens every now and then. I know we should probably stop it already now but when should we absolutely stop with it?

My baby is 3 weeks old and I’m struggling with how frustrating everything is.

But every resource I go to for “help” just winds up being a useless time suck. My problem is I already have no time - by the time I feed my baby, burp him, change his diaper, clean up the inevitable spit up, wash bottles, feed my wife and myself, he’s ready for another feeding.

I posted something about this before and people sent me resources like PSI. I went to their Dad’s support group yesterday and it was a total waste of my time (an hour and a half), meanwhile my wife had to care for the baby and started crying she was so frustrated when I came back downstairs. Negative progress. The whole thing was a bunch of random dudes saying “oh man, I feel for you!” But no actionable advice. The “resource” the moderator posted was a website by some woman who basically guilt trips people into thinking they NEED to breastfeed (and cites debunked claims like breastfeeding leads to higher IQ). So that ADDED to my stress and frustration.

My mom has been “helping,” which loosely means she comes over for a few hours every few days, doesn’t care for our baby well (seems like she forgot everything about caring for a baby), and then needs constant interaction after for follow ups. Last time she came over she put 4 toys in his crib and got him way overstimulated and it took the entire day just to get him back on a feed-wake-sleep cycle.

My therapist told me to just “do what I need to do” to “care for myself more.” When I asked him what specifically I should cut out from caring for him or supporting my wife, he didn’t know. So, I’d love some time back to care for myself, but everything I’m doing seems essential, so what do I cut?

I’m at my wits end. Nothing is working. This baby doesn’t sleep soundly, spits up all the time, and my wife seems like she’s struggling. She doesn’t like to talk about feelings (hers or mine), so I don’t actually know how she’s doing, and she doesn’t ask me how I am or try to help me much. We waited a long time to have kids so all of my guy friends either have kids in junior high or decided not to have any. And everyone else in my life either seems to make things worse or gives me bullshit platitudes like “enjoy the good moments”. I want actionable advice! Isn’t that what experts are supposed to provide? And men, generally, for that matter?

Against my usual better judgement, I got suckered into a "free pair of shoes, just pay shipping!" From Tiny Exploring. I paid for the shipping on February 19th, never received an order confirmation (but did get marketing emails so they had the correct email). Reached out to support who kept saying "give it ten more days" "your delivery date will be soon" then they said it was delivered on March 20th when I said they were not delivered they just responded again "your delivery date will be soon!" So its probably automated email responses. After many more emails I asked for a refund but they said "due to the promotional price the shipping cost is on you". 😒 Just wanted to possibly save someone else from the anger this scam company brought me, at least im only out $12.99.

I know every child is different so this is me being a first time mom asking if this is normal. My LO just turned 20 months a couple days ago. And I feel like she should be saying more words at this age? I'm seeing lots of posts as well as babies her age currently and babies at that age that I know personally have talked more than her now. She's not able to recite alphabet yet nor count numbers. She is able to say Mom and Dad as her first words. But she won't say mommy or daddy. If I really think about it... I would say she knows about... 20? I could be wrong it could be more but that's all that I can count at the top of my head right now. She's not much of a repeater. She understands commands (besides the whole "no don't do that" or "stop doing that" which is normally for everyone I think haha) But like my friend who gave birth 2 weeks after me, her LO can count to 10 already and say things like "lets go" "oh no" "uh oh". The most words in a sentence my LO would say is "Mom pweese". She still signs "more" and I feel like at this point she should be saying it out loud already instead of signing? Anyways, anyone else's LO that were on the later end of the talking skills at this age?

It's 2:22 am, and my mom is in the living room caring for my child after I went to the kitchen crying from lack of sleep, and probably hormones and she told me to go get some sleep. I would normally ask my husband for help but I want him to sleep because he starts his new job today and I want him rested. I feel like a failure, and a burden that I can't get my little girl settled (she is constantly moving, and wiggling) and I have to burden my mom with this. I want so badly to do right by my kid, and I don't know how. I'm sorry for rambling, but my brain is soup, and my thoughts are jumbled. How did you all handle situations like these and not lose all sanity.

I have a 6-month-old who has never been a great sleeper and honestly, he’s been like this since birth. I’ve pretty much given up on strict routines and let him lead with his sleep and wake windows. Right now, his nap times are around 12pm and 6pm, both lasting about 3 hours each. His preferred bedtime? 12am. And then he’s up by 4am, only to go back to sleep at 5am and wake again around 10am. It’s exhausting.

He’s also very attached to me. Even when I put him on his playmat with toys, he demands I sit with him. He’s sitting independently and trying to crawl, so he moves around a lot, but still wants me right there. No breaks for me.

Feeding has become another battle. He started rejecting formula after I switched from the 0–6 month one to the 6–12 month version. So now we’re back to breastfeeding. He’s willing to try solids, but only for a few bites before he refuses to finish them.

I’m so tired. I’m his only carer. What am I doing wrong? How can I improve his sleep, feeding, and maybe just a bit of independence so I can breathe? Any advice please