Parenting Contents Archive

I finally won the custody battle

My baby's father tried every trick in the book, with his parents help but after exactly 150 days I finally won the case. The judge said I must look into becoming a lawyer and he told the father to stop running to court, expecting a different outcome. Feels like I can finally breathe again.

Literally the phase our son is in right now!!

Okay ladies, tell me about your purse.

This isn’t parenting related but where I thought I could get the best answers! My kiddo is 5 and no longer needs a lot/ anything when we go out, but I realized I’ve basically been carrying around a purse big enough to carry all the old essentials except that it’s practically EMPTY most days. So I’m in the market for a new, smaller purse. What are you guys carrying?

My 18 year old son says you can't tell me what to do I'm 18

This is such a cliche line but he has started using it to avoid doing laundry and other household chores and he always pulls the "I'm 18" card. How do I deal with this?

Is it reasonable to not let an 11 year old nap after school? They won't sleep at night.

Every day that they take a nap after school, they're up all night mad that they can't play games or do this or that instead of laying in bed. But I tell them ahead of time, if you nap and refuse to get up, you won't sleep tonight and you can't come out. You'll have to just lay there trying to sleep anyway. It wouldn't be such an issue if they didn't give me such a hard time yelling that I'm mean/coming out for whatever over and over and crying and etc. I'm not the parent, I'm just here overnight and certain hours as a sitter. ​ To clarify: They sleep at night if I do not let them nap. letting them nap keeps them on an up-late, nap-after-school cycle, and not letting them nap keeps them on a lights out at 9, wake up for school cycle. They're getting the same amount of sleep.

Husband doesn’t care about Mother’s Day

I was telling my husband about my Mother’s Day plans and how I’m going to be visiting my mom, and he took it as an opportunity to rant about how Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are stupid fake holidays, how it’s just a cash grab for corporations to trick us into spending money, how he doesn’t care about it, etc. etc. He went about this for multiple minutes, until I finally told him it was hurtful, and asked him “Did you even stop to think that maybe I’m excited about my first Mother’s Day as a mom?” Rather than apologize or anything, he just told me I’m entitled to my opinion. Am I wrong to be upset? Like I feel like he could’ve at least said he was sorry for hurting my feelings and that he didn’t realize it was important to me or SOMETHING.

Is it normal to have no libido 9 months postpartum?

I’ve never really had a high libido but it’s basically been at 0 since having my baby. I’m still breastfeeding so I think it’s normal, but my husband is bugging me to have sex a lot and it’s driving me nuts. He suggested we go to a sex therapist but I’m pretty sure I’m just in a postpartum stage and it’s normal to not be interested. I’ve also been having major issues with him and his parents (he’s showing big signs of enmeshment that I haven’t noticed before LO was born) and it just grosses me out. I quit my job to be a SAHM and we have no one around to babysit and we don’t have any hired help like cleaners or landscapers so I’m doing childcare or housework 95% of my life unless I’m sleeping. I love my son and my SAHM life but my husband is really unhappy.

Anxiety over living in the US

Anyone else filled with anxiety over living in this country? It’s almost everyday we hear about some new tragedy related to gun violence and I just can’t deal with it anymore. Our government is hell bent on ensuring that nothing changes and our children remain vulnerable to violence and it makes me physically ill. I lay awake at night fantasizing about leaving but then think about alllllll of the logistics that would go into it and it just doesn’t even feel possible. I truly feel trapped and I don’t know what to even do anymore. Voting doesn’t work. Protesting doesn’t work. They don’t care. Sorry for the negative rant I am just so put out right now. Anyone relate?

Timing Naps and Feeding!

How are you supposed to line these up! I have a 3 month old LO, and based on all the nap schedules for their age, I'm looking at anywhere between 60-120 minutes of LO being awake between naps. Cool, I can make that work. But I'm ALSO supposed to feed them every 3 hours (EBF). The timing just never works in the day based on how long they nap. I'd have to wake them up mid nap in order for this to line up! What am I missing here? 😅😅😅

Feel like it’s my fault that my son has low muscle tone because I was terrible about taking my prenatal vitamins.

I forgot to take my vitamins a lot. I also threw them up a lot. I wasn’t even able to eat much during the first trimester because I was so nauseous. Not something I’m proud of. I was just thinking about this today and realized it could be my fault that my son has low muscle tone. Ugh. His muscle tone isn’t super low but he is in physical therapy. He finally started walking at 18mo. I just worry about my kids so much. I have so much mom guilt for so many things I did wrong. 😩

Getting induced tomorrow

Hi everyone I’m getting induced as of tomorrow, and I’m super scared . I have tried meditating, watching all kinds of methods to prepare myself mentally , doing perineal messages , drinking raspberry leaf tea all sorts of things to prepare for labor . However , I’m so scared to the point that I was planning on contacting my OB to postpone my induction or something. I feel like my body isn’t ready for a labor yet… The reason I’m getting induced is due to gestational diabetes and I don’t know if I can further wait until 40 weeks. Any recommendations on how to relieve stress and worries ? My partner keep assuring me I will be alright and my body is made to bear the labor however I feel like I’m not mentally or physically ready to go through it.

Has anyone conceived while they are really sick?

My little guy just entered daycare and it seems like every month around ovulation I get sick as luck would have it! I'm otherwise healthy and blood tests have always been fine, but any articles around dangers of conceiving while you are sick? I know prenatals are supposed to help baby develop correctly but if you're sick, are there any articles that would cancel that out? Should I just wait until next month again to try and conceive? It's not just bad colds, I had Covid, stomach flu, strep and pink eye. Normally I don't get sick but it's also post Covid and I'm back in the office/travelling more to boot.

Ton of pureeds dont know what all to do with them

I recieve WIC benefits for my 11mo, since he is EBF we get A TON of pureed food through WIC. 64 containers of fruits/veggies and 31meats. Now he is getting better with solids I was wondering if y'all have any recipes on things i can do with the pureeds? I saw somewhere at some point putting it on toast as a spread, have been thinking of trying to do dots and freeze them especially with the summer heat already upon us. Just to add I have donated to the local food pantry and also just moms in need.

What is the deal with napping?

My LO will be 7 months in a couple days. Once she hit 12 weeks she was a great nighttime sleeper! We have the odd nights where she is up a couple times but overall, a stellar sleeper. Falls asleep in my arms and I put her in the crib. I've never sleep trained her because it hasn't been an issue. Now the napping.... The girl HAS to sleep on someone or in the stroller/car/harness for a movement nap. I've tried to transfer her from my arms to the crib and she usually just pops her eyes open right away. Every once in a while she stays asleep for about 20 mins after transfer. I also let her cry sometimes and it hasn't gone great. My question is-has anyone just nap trained and not sleep trained at night? Anyone else have a great nighttime sleeper and a clingy daytime sleeper? Hoping to get some time back during the day to get something done lol.

When/how to transition baby from sleep sack to blanket.

I am debating transitioning my 18 month old toddler from her sleep sack into a blanket. I have found a couple of conflicting results on Google on AAP recommendations for this (Answers vary from 12 -18 months.). Her safety is my number one priority so I don’t want to risk it if it’s too early. I am worried because she moves around a lot in her crib throughout the night. I have a thermometer in the room and I try to keep the room per AAP temperaturerecommendations, and I cycle through sleep sacks depending on the season. However, I just want to give her the opportunity to warm up or cool down if needed. Any advice as to how to transition a baby from a sleep sack to a blanket (If it’s safe.)? I would love some blanket suggestions too! Thank you all so much! Edited to add that I plan on placing her to sleep with a blanket only during nap times for the foreseeable future (If it’s safe.) since I keep a watch on her on my video monitor.