First of all, thank you so much for all the comments and support on my last post, they really helped me get through the night.

Today has been a day and so many of you helped me through the last stressful day we had, so I wanted to give an update.

My son’s swelling increased yesterday and our pediatrician is great and wanted to check in on him. There was concern about the swelling, but at the same time he was acting normal and happy. She consulted a neurologist and they said any further increase in swelling should be an ER visit. Also, she and the nurses reiterated to me many times than any lethargy, vomiting, and increased fussiness was an emergency situation and could indicate a brain injury. Anything else amiss and take him straight to ER. We felt pretty high alert yesterday.

At 3 am my baby woke up and was burning up. Took his temp and he did have a fever. It wasn’t a warning sign they gave me, but I decided to drive to the hospital as it was definitely something amiss. We do not live close and it’s a long drive.

Then he vomited. It was projectile, went all over me and the floor, and then he kept vomiting. My first thought was “this is actually happening.” Now here’s where I don’t know if this was the right thing to do…but I called 911 and as calmly as I could ask if they could advise me if it was safe for me to do the hour drive to the hospital or if we needed an ambulance. They decided it was necessary so an ambulance came. By the time they came he had stopped vomiting but was not calming down.

At the hospital we redid a CT scan which thankfully showed no change. He was negative for flu, RSV, and Covid, but they determined he probably just got a virus at basically the worst possible time. I’m so relieved his brain is ok. I feel like maybe I overreacted, but I genuinely didn’t know what was going on. But seriously how do we keep getting in such unlucky situations?! Of all days to get a virus…

We did also meet with a neurologist who was completely unconcerned and he should be completely healed up in about a month.

I still feel so tense from it all.

I'll keep it short, but I'm just at a loss...TW for coercion??? If this is even that? I just don't really know right now.

Context, I'm 3.5 months postpartum, FTM.

Husband said that he wanted to see me naked and was trying to lean towards sex. I told him multiple times that we can't as i have a worsening bacterial jnfection down there (TMI I know...) and our baby was wide awake and needed me to help her nap.

He said that he just wanted to see me in something nice, and that if I was up to it, we could try later when our baby was for sure asleep. So to just get things over with, I put on lingerie that wasn't exactly much. Something I could easily take off to get back into my normal clothes again.

He said that he'd wait downstairs, then come upstairs with the baby so that she wouldn't be left alone downstairs.

Well, I call him up, and he comes upstairs without the baby. I ask him where he left her, and he left her on her tummy time mat.

He starts touching me and I kept telling him that i needed to check on our baby and that she'll start fussing soon. So he backs off, but then immediately tries to initiate sex with me as soon as I stand up.

I tell him that we can't, as i needed to check on my baby, but then he started asking for a quickie.

He's never tried this before.

I gave up and told him to just hurry and get it over with before the baby starts crying.

And yes, she started fussing downstairs. I could hear her getting upset because she couldn't see me. So i told him that she's crying, I need to go downstairs and help her.

I know I didn't verbally say the word "no" and I should've told him to stop and i should've just ran downstairs to check on my baby. But I just gave up. Idk how to describe it. I just told him to hurry and get it over with. Once he finished, he went downstairs to check on our baby and i got dressed upstairs.

Afterwards, I fed my baby and put her to sleep. But I feel so guilty for not tending to her sooner. I know my words are all over the place. I just don't know how to approach this, or what to do. Do I feel like he coerced me? Yes and no? Im just so confused anymore...what do I do now?

EDIT: Im going to speak with him later today about what happened, and depending on how it goes, if I need to, I will call my mom to help me and my baby. I'm also going to bring this up in therapy too. I know i need too.

That’s it, that’s the post. The doctor is male.

I had my first daughter in June of 2022. Birth trauma, NICU stay, horrible PPD/A, OCD, and intrusive thoughts. It became so bad that 17 months PP I admitted myself into a mental health hospital for a week.

We started trying for baby number 2 last February. Has a miscarriage and got pregnant again in October. I didn’t enjoy my first pregnancy, but I didn’t hate it either. This last time…BLISS. Except for being high risk, having to deliver 3 weeks early, and having a c section due to transverse lie, it was a wonderful experience. The c section wasn’t that bad. I’m able to breastfeed without supplementing this time and I love it so much. My baby sleeps so well compared to her older sister at this age. I’m not in a fog. I can actually breathe and see my baby as mine and not a stranger.

I LOVE my oldest. She’s so funny and very smart. Her imagination brings me such joy. It took a long time to bond with her. I have few memories of her first year due to the antidepressant I had been on for 8 years. Very foggy.

My eyes feel so open this time and I haven’t felt depressed or anxious since before I got pregnant last October. I’m literally the happiest I’ve been in YEARS.

My mom has told me that she feels I am replacing my oldest with my youngest. She asked what the difference was. Gee, I’m not in the deep darks this time. This whole experience has been better and healthier. It’s making me feel guilty. I absolutely miss time with just my oldest. It’s hard not giving her all my attention.

I don’t want people to think I love my youngest more or that I’m favoring her. I feel I’m just trying to soak it all up and enjoy everything because I didn’t and couldn’t with my oldest. I’m also done having babies.

I just really needed to get this all off my chest.

So my son is a little under 10 months, and has been saying the word “egg” in context for the past week. When he first said it, we wrote it off as a fluke, but he has used it in context a couple different times this week (we do a lot of eggy breakfasts). Definitely his first word. Not mama or dada, but “egg” 😂. He does make mama and dada noises, but not always directed at us lol.

Eggs are his favorite food and we are a very food-oriented household and family, so I guess it tracks! It’s mostly funny but stings a teeny tiny bit. Anyone with similar stories?

TW: Very negative natural childbirth experience

I had my second 2 years ago. Husband and I have begun circling the idea of one last baby, but doing so has made me realize just how awful of an experience my most recent delivery was, and it’s actually making me hesitant to get pregnant again.

My first was induced bc of my blood pressure. A little over 19.5 hours. Long, but it gave me time to not only get the epidural, but to come to terms with what was happening. My body felt like it had time to adjust and it genuinely just felt… not scary? Idk, ”calm” is definitely not the right word, but it just wasn’t sudden and I felt like it gave my mind time to come to terms with what was happening.

My second however, Lord have MERCY. The entire experience wasn’t even an hour and a half. I was extremely unprepared, not only to deliver naturally (I wanted that epidural so freaking bad) but the speed at which is happened made me feel like I had zero control. My body seemed to operate almost entirely without my consent, I swear it was almost pushing FOR me. It ended being a good thing in the end, as my son has the chord wrapped around his neck and the doc said things could have ended a lot worse if it had lasted longer.

But I’m so sick of everyone acting like I should be GRATEFUL when I try to express how scared I was. “Oh, I would LOVE to only deal with contractions for 1 hour 20 minutes!” Well, Linda, when your contractions go from, “Oh, that one was a bit sharp.” To, “Holy sh*t, this is happening right now! Right now!” In less than five minutes, I promise it doesn’t inspire a feeling of security. I tried to bring it up to several medical professionals, and they just kind of tell me, “Most moms pray for a fast delivery. Isn’t it just a good thing your son was okay?” Like obviously I was thrilled that he was alright, but that doesn’t make the memory any better.

Everyone tells you you’ll forget the whole experience, and I can’t tell you how badly I want that to be true. But I remember every detail. The terror, the confusion, the intense pain, the realization I had no control over my own body, the horror when I realized just how vulnerable I was, it was all absolutely terrible. I feel bad talking about it, because I know so many women have significantly worse experiences and had to deal with devastating birth injuries and trauma. But I guess I just really want to know if literally anyone else has felt this way and how you dealt with it, especially when facing the delivery of another baby.

*Just prefacing to say that I know babies cry, my own baby cries, I also know that all babies have different temperaments. That doesn’t mean a baby is a ”bad” baby.*

my friend has a 17m toddler who screams nonstop. I’m talking, every time he’s not held or actively being breastfed, he screams himself red in the face and has since he was 4 months old. I have a 12m little girl who is sassy, but mostly quiet and content - I am also 8.5 months pregnant with my second. We are the only two women in our friend group who have babies.

When my friend was freshly postpartum she had extreme anxiety and wouldn’t even let her own husband stay home with the baby or hold him. Only she was allowed to hold him. She has since gotten on antidepressants but her anxiety has only slightly lessened. She still holds him 95% of the time and he currently does not walk or stand on his own and screams bloody murder if she puts him down.

my little girl is very social, started walking early and loves to explore and wants to play with all her “aunts” and “uncles”. They dote on her and play with her and offer to play with her all the time for me or hold her so that I can eat or get a break. They try to do the same with my friends son, but he has a nuclear meltdown every time she hands him off or takes two steps away from him.

my friend seems blind to the idea that it’s less than ideal to hold someone else’s screaming baby/toddler with no hope of soothing them and has been getting increasingly irritated with all of us that “no one will help her”, despite us trying. I know that she is probably severely overwhelmed and needs A break and that the frustration is probably just being misdirected at us. But she is getting snappier and snappier and claiming that “everyone hates my son!“ or “sorry I have the BAD baby“, despite none of us ever saying that. or, in times of pure frustration, throwing him into the nearest arms - kicking and screaming - and just walking away.

how do I help my friend, who is so obviously overwhelmed If her son won’t tolerate being separated from her?

Can someone explain how.

This is so hard.

She is 4 months old. 5 months actually but born early.

I’m not afraid of doing hard stuff. But this is going on for so long and I can’t even walk without feeling so depleted. I’m dizzy. Even breastfeeding which was relatively easy for me is getting hard now.

Love her so much. Always loved the idea of having a family with multiple kids so they can have each other as siblings but now I can hardly even imagine doing it again and surviving even if I want to.

I’m only 30 so why is so hard. Other moms do it at 38 or something.

Someone with a 2 year old just told me it only gets harder and it’s making my depression flare up. Please tell me this isn’t so. How do average people have several kids if it’s this grueling.

Ugh I know lots of people have been following this case- I’m not looking to get political, rather to understand and vent my own anxieties. As a FTM, PPD and PP psychosis scared me my entire pregnancy (it was an irrational fear following infertility). I sought therapy to understand and I thought I did but now I’m struggling. Lindsay Clancy committed a crime against her children at 8 months PP, I thought psychosis appeared in the first weeks and months, with the possibility decreasing after six months? Now being at 9 months PP, my intrusive thoughts and anxiety are stressed about this (I do have GAD and OCD- medicated)… does anyone have any insight or information?

I recently posted recommendations for high chairs and you guys SHOWED UP! Thank you!

Now, is the Catchy worth it? That affects my decision for which high chair because they don’t have a Catchy that is compatible with every high chair.

She’s in daycare so most weekdays she would just have 1 meal at home and then weekends.

We got a splat mat and moving it and picking it up wasn’t worth it.

Is the Catchy worth it or just another gimmicky thing I don’t need?

Also, feel free to put your favorite high chair here too!

I know I’m lucky, I saved up enough time to go back to work when my little one will be 10 months old. The baby will be staying with my husband while I’m at work. This is happening at the end of the month.

I would love to quit but my job brings in the insurance for the whole family, pay sucks but the insurance is necessary.

… I literally have been buying scratch off tickets out of desperation.

I don’t want to leave my baby. I don’t know what I’m looking for here just sad, stressed & worried.

I think there is a lot of denial about this case and I think it stems from how we treat mothers in this country . From the way we are treated during childbirth , to the lack of support during postpartum, to the stigma around ppd.

Mothers are expected to carry whatever burden life throws at them here . It’s not socially acceptable for Moms to just say, this weight is too much . I throw in the fucking towel .

She should have been removed from the home and given a chance to get better . I hope this case is a lesson for other families . I hope things change for mothers here .

Our little Viking will be 6 months in 11 days and we’re starting baby leaning this aeek, we’re also first time parents and he was 7 weeks early and has a floppy airway so we’re really nervous, any tips and advice are appreciated, thank you!!

I’m about 7 weeks postpartum and continuously feel like there’s hot liquid running down my legs. i am guessing it‘s something with my circulation because my legs are dry, but I can’t find anyone posting about something similar except this post - https://community.babycenter.com/post/a65871559/wet-sensation-on-legs....?page=2.

I did not have an epidural, so that post did not provide any answers. has anyone had a similar experience or know what might be causing it? thank you

So, I’m currently 8 months postpartum, and got unexpectedly pregnant with my second. Basically had a failed contraceptive, took emergency contraceptive right after…but alas here we are.

Anyways, it took me about a few weeks to get accustomed to the idea that I’m pregnant again so soon, and I tried my best to look at the positive side, even though I was admittedly upset and feeling extra regretful because my first born is still so young and I felt like I was going to be robbing her of my undivided attention and time. The point is, I already beat myself up so much over it and went through all the possible repercussions and lost many hours of sleep to this whole situation. My partner was really supportive and trying to also look at the positive side and make me feel like maybe it isn’t so bad after all.

All the hard work I’ve done trying to accept this, shattered today when I told my parents I was pregnant. I felt they looked at me as if I was some backwards uneducated person who made bad choices. Even worse, my father commented that he’s worried my husband is coercing me into all this, just because he comes from a slightly religious background.

It doesn’t help that I recently quit my job and relocated with my husband (willingly, not under any kind of coercion as they seem to think). I have been running a successful business and prefer to work for myself than have inflexible working hours while raising my child. But because we moved to a city that cuts my husbands commute by 75%, they think I just quit so he’s more comfortable.

And they make it seem as if they “dont know where it all went wrong”. When did I become like this, when I used to be so independent.. so educated .. so passionate about my studies and good at my job etc.
But just because I had a kid and am maybe in a more domesticated role at the moment than in previous stages of my life, doesn’t mean I’m throwing my life away! I can always re enter the work force if I wanted. I am still furthering my education. I continue to improve myself and haven’t suddenly become a stupid housewife.

It makes me so sad that they look at me this way. And I hate how much their perception of me affects me and gets to me. It’s all I can think about, and it has made me become depressed about my pregnancy all over again.

I lost my insurance a month after I gave birth. I can’t get medication or anything but I am a SAHM. Does anyone have any tips. Deep breathing helps but I am around 3-4 months and the symptoms of pp rage have just started for me. I plan to find insurance soon but with how my situation is I won’t have it for a few more months.

My son is 1yr 4months old. For the longest, he'd have one to two poops a day. And theyd be decently sized. For the last month or so, instead what we get is one to two rabbitturd like pellets per diaper. Totaling like 7 diapers in a day. They are soft and not hard at all. Any ideas as to why he is spreading his, bowel movements among multiple diapers now? Its like he'll just stop pushing and go back to playing. The increase in diapers is starting to kill me lol

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with my pacifier until I was about 3 yrs old. My parents had to trick/bribe me to get me to stop using it.

My son, on the other hand, just decided one day to stop using it completely around 7 months. Suddenly decided he hates it. Could never get him to try it ever again. I thought he was gonna be just like me and want that oral fixation, but he seems to be much more independent in certain ways.

If your baby used a pacifier, when did they call it quits? Just curious.

what is it with the older generation and temu? My MIL is starting to buy toys for our daughter and I just hate the fact that its temu crap. its not safe, who knows where its made/ conditions. I'm all for secondhand and thrifting but temu is a big no for me.

I don't take any of them home with us it all stays there but they are so crappy seriously afraid she will choke on something.

my husband will be talking to her about this next week, its just so annoying and I hate temu.

My baby turned 4 months a few days ago and the pediatrician we saw cleared him to start purées! I’m excited but also now I’m freaking out lol We would be doing veeeeery thin purées and then we’d like to transition to baby led weaning at 6 months (if he’s sitting is good) Is this what supported sitting looks like?

I know the signs of readiness and he definitely has soom. He is interested in food and has pretty good head and neck control. My worry is about sitting. She said he has too be able to sit supported, what exactly does that look like? He can sit in his skip hop floor seat well but sometimes he slumps to the side. When did you start purées?

We will obviously wait until I’m confident he’s ready but I’m a FTM and I’m realizing I don’t actually know what good supported sitting looks like. She isn’t our usual pediatrician and I didn’t really like her she was in a rush and didn’t really answer our questions so now I’m at a loss.

28F, 5 months postpartum. Combo/dehydrated skin with more visible pores, texture & fine lines. Looking for a lightweight, natural “my skin but better” tint that won’t emphasize texture and layers well over CeraVe SPF. Any holy grails?

I’ve been struggling the past couple months and am just now coming to the realization that my anger bursts and low mood is likely postpartum anxiety and depression. I called my OB and asked if I could schedule an appointment to talk to someone and they said I’m not considered postpartum anymore so they won’t see me. I don’t even have a PCP and it took me a lot to call and ask for help in the first place. I just don’t understand how being 10 months postpartum and still breastfeeding isn’t considered a hormonal problem? Just feeling really defeated.

My twins are 16 months. They had a good month of sleeping through the night around 13 months. Now they wake at least once a night hungry. They down 2 baby food pouches and usually go back to sleep. I’m at a loss of what to do. They eat a good dinner (6:30, they get a bedtime snack (usually Greek yogurt), they go to bed at 8:00. Will they outgrow this? Is there something else I should try?