Parenting Contents Archive

Finish this sentence: This one time, I was so tired….

I want your funniest sleep deprivation stories! Water in the coffee pot but no coffee? Sliced up bananas and then put the knife in the refrigerator? My favorite was when my husband couldn’t remember the words for “low, medium, high” on our bedroom fan and asked if I could turn it from medium to mild. Also, not an interesting story to retell, but I still laugh remembering my husband, half-asleep, rolling over the side of the bed and going WHUMP on the floor (he was not injured). Whaddaya got? Lay it on me!

1 Child For Us

And no more thank you. It turns out that nearly 50% of families in the uk have only one child. Quite suprised with that statistic. Nevertheless we have decided we only want one from the beginning and we are sticking to it. It would be nice for our son to have a sibling but we cant justify the extra childcare costs/time for ourselves and how much more difficult it would become. Just sick of people saying about lonely child and they must have a sibling, people need to learn to keep schtum.

Very loud newborn

My 7 week old daughter sleeps 3.5-5 hour stretches at night. When she wakes up and cries, we feed her and put her back to sleep. However, she is very loud. She grunts and makes noises, but either appears asleep or turns her head and goes back to sleep. Is it normal? It wakes up every time and I am almost unable to sleep.

Holiday division of labor

Just out of curiosity, what is your household division of labor for the holidays? We are a Christmas family and, like many other families I'm sure, I (mom) am Santa. I've planned and purchased the kid gifts, two things for myself, and done the stockings. I told my husband he is responsible for at least 1 gift for each kid and filling my stocking. I'm willing to give him a shortlist of ideas, but he needs to do something. I won't let him wake up Christmas morning not knowing anything that's under the tree. I also take the kids to the store and let them pick out something they think dad will like, and he does the same for me. The oldest is 3, so last year he got crazy Christmas boxers and socks and I got a Chewbacca apron. As for extended family I handle my side and he handles his side. That usually means his side doesn't get anything, but that's not my problem!

Confused on swaddles?

My little guy is 8 weeks old today! All articles say to stop swaddling at 8 weeks or when they show signs of rolling. Which is more important? Do we need to stop swaddling today? He isn’t showing any signs of rolling back to front, despite being a total boss at tummy time. What should my next step be? We’ve been using the swaddleme’s mostly, he’s too big for them now anyway. We have one swaddle I cannot remember the brand of that has arms and a halo swaddlesack that he enjoys but is too warm for overnight/ unless he is only in his diaper. We also have some sleeping gowns that are only wearable blankets, but he needs some restriction still(Moro reflex has not calmed.) Brand recommendations? Very specific if you can since everything is named so so similarly. I’ll be making an Amazon order later today and just feel overwhelmed

Good study habits are important for getting through college. So is awareness of your mental health and how to get help. Stress is so common in college, it can be hard to recognize when it becomes clinically treatable anxiety or depression. @ElissaNadworny https://t.co/iTnDnE4mQb

1 month early

I’m a very happy father and want to be as helpful as possible to my partner. This is our first child and just having this girl with us 1 month before her expected delivery, we are very caught off guard. I would love some advice on a few things. 1.) we have a year and a half old golden retriever, she is being taken care of by a friend currently but she will be back with us soon. What sort of advice do you have introducing a premature baby to a dog and am I just overthinking this? 2.) my daughter will only sleep any extended time in one of our arms. Bassinets haven’t worked at all yet and even swaddling hasn’t worked well. Is this something we should keep trying to force or will things change once she gets back to a normal weight? She is 5lb 10ish oz. We have been taking turns sleeping and have some help from in laws but this can’t be like this forever. Feeling a bit over our heads but hanging in there I’m only worried how much more stress having a dog in this situation may be.

Need Help Processing…

My daughter is 15 months old. She was conceived after years of infertility, miscarriage, and IVF. The birth experience was not ideal. I had a placental accreta that was missed and ended up needing surgery and blood transfusions. I was able to keep my uterus which I’m told is fairly rare with accreta. Here’s where I’m stuck. Husband is confident he wants another kid. In an ideal world I would too. However, we would need to do another round or two of IVF and pregnancy would be considered high risk due to the previous accreta. The high risk OB said there’s about a 15% chance of accreta happening again. If I were to develop another accreta it would mean an automatic c-section at 35-36 weeks as well as a hysterectomy. Idk, it seems so scary. I love my daughter and she’s perfect so am I stupid risking myself for another hypothetical child? If I don’t want to keep trying I feel like I am letting my husband down. I just feel so stuck on what to do.

Is this normal behaviour for a 4.5yo or related to my sons issues?

Took my some to a taekwondo class yesterday. He was excited all week but spent the hour running around in circles, singing, tumbling and climbing up the mat pile. After the teacher said to ‘give him 6 months and try again’. A year ago his creche told us his speech was way behind the curve, and in February they kicked him out for disruptive behaviour. We sent him to speech therapy, occupational therapy, a new preschool and delayed his starting school. He’s made massive improvements in every respect, gets on great in preschool, has friends and we can bring him anywhere so long as he’s with us or his grandparents (swimming, sailing, errands, cinema). So I had been thinking taekwondo would be fine, but his behaviour has me really shook. Am I kidding myself in thinking he’s made enough progress to be ready for mainstream activities, or am I tying myself in a knot over typical kid behaviour?

Baby wakes when put down

My LO is 3 mo old and wakes up every time I try and put him down. It doesn’t matter if I do it slow, if I put him on his side and roll him slowly to his back, if I shush him, etc. He will sleep for 15 minutes max before waking up and yelling. He’s also a contact napper. This has led to a lot of co sleeping (we do the safe sleep 7) just so everyone can actually get some sleep. As much as i love the co sleeping snuggles, I want the space in my bed back. It would also be nice to get things done while he naps. So please give me all the tips and tricks to put him down without him waking up so I can regain some sanity.

Make your own with your child. So fun! You could do one for different feelings too. https://t.co/esDvdAawzG

Kids can play for hours with extremely simple means. In fact, researchers have found that children play even more creatively when they don’t have ready-made toys at hand. -Linda K. McGurk, #parentalsage

Parents who have divorced: how old were your kids and how has it impacted them?

Very long story short: I’m extremely unhappy in my marriage. We’ve been married 7 years and we’ve really grown apart in a lot of ways. I’m fine losing money and the financial side of things like child support. But the idea of not seeing my boys (3yrs and 5yrs) everyday is absolutely gut wrenching to me. Even when they are little sh*ts I love them more than I ever knew was possible. To be honest it’s what is still keeping me here. I tried to leave once and was packing my stuff and my 5yr old started asking questions and crying and then I lost it and started bawling. And I backed down. So here I am feeling like I’m stuck in a no win situation. If I leave I don’t get to see my boys everyday and might even have some other “dad” in their life eventually. And if I stay I’ll feel miserable but at least get to see them. I honestly don’t know what to do and could really use the insight and wisdom from those who have gone through this or are in the same position….

Is anyone else constantly sick from child in daycare?

I swear I get a cold or virus every 2-3 weeks. We’ve been sending our child to daycare for about 1.5 years. He’s now 2. He’s constantly bringing some illness home. It sucks for working obviously and just life in general. We wash hands, give him a children’s vitamin, he eats balanced meals. I just don’t get it. I’m losing my mind. Can’t afford to have one of us stay home and watch him so that’s not gonna happen. Anyone else in the same boat?

I feeling really insecure over my parenting this last week.

Hi fellow moms. So over this last week I have not felt good at all, and I’m feeling super guilty about the lack of activities with my kid. It’s all I can do to feed her and take care of her. We have watched a lot of tv, which I also feel very guilty over. I guess I’m looking for advice? Idk. Is it okay to do this while I don’t feel good? I have also get really depressed over the last week or so. My daughter is 19mo old and has health concerns so because of this pandemic we have pretty much stayed home since she was born. We’ve only seen family a few times and being stuck in the house is finally catching up with me and I feel very isolated and alone in this whole parenting thing. I should add that I am a sahm. My husband is here but works all day and has a decently stressful job. He does help out just not till later in the evening. Am I a bad mom? I feel so guilty over being depressed and sick.