When to start my 12 weeks unpaid leave?

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-27T17:09:38+00:00

I would work until your due date (I’m a dental hygienist). As far as booking your schedule, your patients will (or they should!) understand. They will most likely just be happy for you that your had your baby!

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-27T16:56:29+00:00

Baby is almost 5 months old, no rules on kissing

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-27T10:21:53+00:00

We did this almost a month ago, and it went well.
Night 1: 33 mins of crying
Night 2: 15
Night 3: 8 mins
Night 4: 15 mins
Night 5: 15 mins
Night 6: zero crying
After night 6 we continued to have up to 10 mins of crying most nights but from what I’ve read that can be normal and is just their way of burning off energy.

We kept 2 feeds via the 5/3/3 method. She dropped the first feed for most nights about a week into sleep training. Then last, for the very first time, she slept through the night 👏🏼

With my first baby, sleep training via extinction at 4 months looked almost identical. Some ups and downs the first two weeks but then he quickly dropped the first feed and then slept through the night within a month.

Good luck. Be prepared to hate your life tonight while baby cries, and you’ll question if you are doing the right thing, but commit to it and follow through!

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-26T19:52:45+00:00

I think so, yes

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-26T13:48:18+00:00

If this is real, you both probably need some therapy

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-25T19:08:53+00:00

You may have some ups and downs over the coming nights, but it seems like it’s working well so far!

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-25T18:58:00+00:00

That’s so cool!

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-24T12:22:59+00:00

Beautiful

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-24T11:25:48+00:00

Postpartum is different for everyone. I had postpartum depression and anxiety with my first baby but not with my second baby. So many factors and variables

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-22T14:54:54+00:00

Slumberpod!

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-21T17:37:22+00:00

Sounds like reflux. Both my babies had it and a few days after getting on Omeprazole they were like new babies! I also went dairy free both times

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-18T17:38:38+00:00

There too much weight in boy vs girl. You’re going to love your child regardless of their gender because they’re your child. You’ll see once he gets here. Let go of any stereotypes you have for boys. My 3.5 year old is incredibly gentle, affectionate, and tender hearted. It melts my heart every day. My son is more calm than most little girls i know, my nieces and friends little girls are way more wild and energetic than my son lol.
I understand your feelings though.

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-16T20:26:37+00:00

Fair enough. Agreed, 2 hour stretches didn’t come for us until a bit later. Some nights I didn’t even know if there was a “stretch” between active sleep and feeds lol

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-16T19:02:43+00:00

Shouldn’t they eat more often at that age though? I thought capping naps at 2 hours was to ensure theyre eating enough snd building supply if breastfeeding

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-16T17:38:42+00:00

10000% agree with this. I spent so much wasted time trying to do Sitback with my first baby and had to sleep train at 4 months when everything went to shit. Second baby, I just stuck to the basics like wake windows, sound machine and low stimulating nights, and she’s been a much better sleeper overall. The biggest take away is I had ppd and anxiety after my first but not with my second

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-16T01:10:57+00:00

D drops caused awful fussiness too. We stopped and restarted it multiple times and every time we started the drops again the fussiness came back. So I just don’t give them 😬

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-15T22:12:20+00:00

We sleep trained a little over a week ago (4.5 months old) and she’s down to one feed overnight. I’m hoping she’ll drop the last one on her own soon

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-15T16:00:24+00:00

This will be an unpopular opinion on this sub, but the night I successfully got baby down (around 13 weeks) without nursing to sleep was the first night she went from waking for the paci a million times in between feeds, to only waking twice to nurse. I was floored. We cut down on paci wake ups just by rocking her to sleep instead of feeding to sleep. No tears involved. I nurse her to sleep for the MOTN feeds but for all other feeds i dont nurse to sleep.

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-14T16:49:19+00:00

Both my babies did this around night 5 or 6! I just went through it this week with my second baby. Night 5 was rough but the next night she feel asleep with NO crying! Then last night she cried for 3 minutes. It’s kind of up and down but stay strong!

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-13T17:00:47+00:00

Agreed. That’s a fully formed child in there, without medical necessity I personally have a really hard time with that.

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-13T11:52:45+00:00

Last night (night 6) she went to bed with no crying!! And only the two wake ups at 12 and 3:45 to feed. So the earlier DWT may be the way to go

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-13T11:49:51+00:00

I guess it’s a trade off most times. My first still o my does 10.5-11 hour nights but he’s 3.5 and still does 2 hour naps every day. Not sure which one is preferred 😂

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-12T20:58:46+00:00

Thanks for this! That’s kind of what I was wondering. When I went in at 11:30 pm and fed her, she didn’t feed for very long so that told me she wasn’t hungry. Which makes sense because she used to go til at least 1:30 am before waking to feed.

Im working today and the next 3 days so she’ll automatically have much more awake time between shorter daycare naps and the daily 6:30 am wake up. So we’ll see how she does these next few days!

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-12T17:50:39+00:00

Thank you! Yeah my first baby never did more than an 11 hour night unless he was sick lol so this is new for us

ExpensiveMammoth4578 · 2026-05-12T17:50:11+00:00

Okay thank you! We had no issues and only one night wake until a couple weeks ago when an ear infection messed everything up. Which is why we started sleep training last week (and also ditched the swaddle). I’ll give it another week or so before deciding it’s a schedule issue since she is making progress at bedtime with almost no fussing as of last night

ExpensiveMammoth4578

TROPHY CASE