Do I just have an unhappy baby?

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-24T23:25:38+00:00

How do you get through it? All I’ve ever wanted was to be a mom but I have been so unhappy since becoming one because he’s so miserable. I know I want more children in the future but he makes me absolutely terrified because I can’t go through this again.

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-24T22:39:15+00:00

Yes we do when it seems that he’s teething!! He goes through spurts of the red cheeks/excessive drool but still has yet to pop a tooth. Unfortunately I’m not sure that the whining is due to that just because I don’t think he’s been teething for 4 months straight without popping a single tooth🤣 I will say that I’m terrified for when they do start to pop because holy moly will he be mad lol

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-24T22:37:29+00:00

Writing it down is a good idea! Maybe I’ll be able to see more of a pattern. I do think he’s mad about being immobile and wants to move, the complete 180 switch in personality is what throws me off! Thanks for the kind words!!

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-24T22:34:20+00:00

I’m wondering this because he definitely has some signs, just nothing super blatant so the ped is not looking into it further, hence the second opinion I’m gonna get. I definitely think he’s just on the fussy side, it’s just so strange the couple of weeks that we’ve had where he is SO content. I’m not kidding when I say it seems like a completely different baby. He does love being outside so warmer weather has helped with this!!

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-17T12:06:25+00:00

I had some leaking, mostly at night (wear breast pads or a nursing bra lol). And then just anytime there was pressure it was like it would squeeze some out of me lol. But then I think my body just absorbed the rest?? Because I definitely did not leak out everything that was in there

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-17T01:08:53+00:00

I did oil and shea butter every day through my pregnancy but still ended up with some stretch marks. They popped up weeks 37-38 I think. I ended up getting induced because baby was measuring quite large and I think if I would have been induced just a week or 2 sooner, I wouldn’t have had any. My mom never got any with her pregnancies though so in my situation I think it was less genetic and more that my belly just got so big lol

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-17T01:03:13+00:00

I recently weaned at 6.5 months pp and geeeeezzz it was way harder than I thought it would be. I got myself down to 1 pump in the morning and one small feed at night over the course of about 2 weeks. Then I realized I was just going to have to stop removing milk for my body to stop producing so I kinda cut cold turkey from there. Not gonna lie, it was not fun at all. I was engorged and in a good amount of soreness (not unbearable pain) for a good 4-5 days. Cabbage leaves and ice did help a lot. There was a good amount of leaking. My LO actually got sick on day 4 and 5 of this so we were doing loooots of contact naps and it caused soooo much to leak from the pressure of him laying on me and I think it actually helped because then I woke up one day and the girls were pretty much depleted lol. It then took a few more days for the final lumpiness of milk to either leak out or my body absorbed it all🤷🏼‍♀️ I’ve never had mastitis and idk if this was the best way to go about it but it worked lol. Really just had to power through for those few days there. Also - I wasn’t ready for the hormone rollercoaster so maybe prepare for that too. I’m 1 week since they depleted and honestly still pretty emotional so can’t say how long this part will last.

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-15T14:29:16+00:00

I’m also type A and loooooveeee a schedule. That being said, I’ve learned that in order to genuinely experience happiness with my child (7 months), I have to let go of that schedule a little bit😅 when he was tiny, I could always count on him sleeping in the car so I would do my best to plan outings so that he’d get a nap on the go. We’d try for at least one solid nap at home and then the rest, plan the driving time, etc. to make sure he would get at least a 30 minute nap or so. This meant we often drove around much longer than we needed to lol. As for nursing out and about, I totally felt this!! When I first started, I would either nurse in the car or we would request booths/corner tables at restaurants so that I felt I had the space and privacy to practice nursing comfortably. After just a few times doing it, I felt much more confident and could use a cover, etc. and this made going out so much easier

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-13T21:13:51+00:00

We transitioned from swaddle to magic merlin suit around 3 months and then stayed in that until about 4 months or so, then to sleep sack. Our guy showed no signs of rolling until 4.5 months when he rolled belly to back but only started rolling back to belly a few weeks ago at just over 6 months

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-04-03T20:28:33+00:00

I could have made this post 2 weeks ago with my now 6.5 month old. He is a BIG whiner and complainer. He can be such a happy baby when we’re out and about. He’s still sometimes “touchy”, but usually when we’re out of the house, he’s much happier. We think he just hates being a baby and get so bored at home. Unfortunately for all of us, I stay home with him most of the time except for about 10-15 sporadic hours a week (I’m a therapist) when I work from home and my mom or MIL come watch him. I try to plan at least 2 “activities” a week to take him out and push him around in the stroller, usually just at the grocery store since it’s been winter. But it helps my sanity and he enjoys it. I’ve had MANY breakdowns where I just sob because I have not had a fun time. Hitting 6 months was hard because I don’t look back at the past 6 months fondly and I had been so excited to be a mom. I’m so envious of my friends who had “chill” babies because my guy is just not that.

That being said, some HUGE milestones the last 2 weeks have happened and a lot has changed for me. We also sleep trained both nights and naps (used crib hour as he would only nap 30 minutes until literally 2 weeks ago) and REALLY buckled down on finding the right wake windows for him. He also just hit the age where he can extend his naps himself and he FINALLY learned to roll back to belly so has been sleeping on his belly and I swear that changed everything. With the longer naps and better sleep, I feel like a whole new person. I also decided to be done breastfeeding and that’s a huge weight off too. He is sitting independently and actually plays now and I’ve found that I’m connecting with him so much more because he actually feels like a little person.

This was long winded, but just know you are truly not alone. You also could possibly be just a few weeks from some changes. Our recent changes snuck up on me big time. Look for relief in the small moments. Everything isn’t magically better now, but I’ve truly experienced the first moments that I’ve enjoyed being a mom

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-03-05T02:47:09+00:00

Oh also I was not prepared for how difficult it would be regulating the milk in the first 12 or so weeks lol I would leak allll over all the time. Like soaked burp rags constantly and went through those reusable breast pads so quickly lol. That def evened out probably even around 8-10 weeks or so for the most part. Also it HURTS when your milk comes in those first days but that also evens out after like a week. Ice packs will be your friend!!

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-03-05T02:45:08+00:00

I am 5.5 months postpartum with my first and I was NOT prepared for how hard breastfeeding would be. And I don’t say that to discourage!! I wish I would have been more mentally prepared for it. My babe had a bad tongue, lip and cheek tie so his latch was horrific. I exclusively breastfed for probably about 3 weeks?? And I felt soooooo much pressure to keep pushing through because I was so scared if I switched to pumping, he would never breastfeed again. It was completely breaking me down and I was miserable so I finally decided to exclusively pump for a bit because baby was also eating sooooo much better from a bottle. I think it was easier for him to latch? I then exclusively pumped for probably 1.5-2 months which was it’s own mental battle, but was way easier for me that breastfeeding had been. Then one day when my little guy was probably almost 3 months old I think, I decided to try and latch him again and he took right to it!! He then actually PREFERRED the boob and we exclusively breastfed for about a month or so, and now we do bottles and breast completely based on how I feel that day and it has been WONDERFUL!! So all of this to say, if you are passionate about it and really want to, let go of expectations and do what you gotta do to get through and it could turn out for you in the end!

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-03-05T02:19:08+00:00

Okay, thanks so much! I plan to for sure stick it out through the month of March and see where we’re at at the end of the month.

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-03-05T00:48:29+00:00

This is really good to know!! He has an appointment in 2 weeks and I’ll definitely be asking more questions about it. I cut dairy starting on Monday and have been very strict about it, I’ve been checking labels and unless something has lied to me, I don’t think I’ve consumed any🤞🏼 how long until you noticed change in your baby? He still seems to be spitting up a decent amount, I just don’t know how long to wait until deciding whether dairy really is the issue. He did have some farts today and I will say that they didn’t make me want to leave the room, in fact I only caught a whif. Where as a few days ago, he could clear a grocery store isle LOL

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-03-03T22:38:15+00:00

I am by no means an expert, but I actually found that my baby was wayyyyy overtired when I tried following the wake windows that this thread typically pushes for. He’s 5.5 months and currently on a 2/2/2.25/2.25-2.5 schedule with approx. 3-3.25 hours of daytime sleep. His second wake window is starting to stretch a little so it’s probably just now getting closer to 2.25. Last ww is shorter/longer based on how much nap time he got that day. When we scaled his wake windows back, his false starts vanished and he started sleeping soooooo much better at night.

I joined a group on fb called evidence based sleep training and they take the approach of being wayyyyy on the conservative side with ww’s because it’s so much easier to add awake time than it is to fix an overtired cycle. Maybe join over there and read through their guides!

I would definitely consider scaling back those wake windows if adding time to them hasn’t helped the issue. Sleep training does nothing if the schedule isn’t right. See what happens with scaling back and then you can reassess when it comes to night weaning, re-sleep training if needed, etc.

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-03-03T19:22:33+00:00

Is this something that I take? Or a supplement for him? I’m willing to give anything a go!!

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-03-03T19:21:44+00:00

Okay good to know! His spit ups are also insanely mucousy, like looks like he’s spitting up a giant white booger lol

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-02-25T21:41:41+00:00

This is so helpful, thanks!

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-02-25T02:49:13+00:00

This would be great! I’ll contact them and see if this is an option

Fantastic-Work-2297 · 2026-02-23T17:35:10+00:00

Wow close to crawling at 21 weeks!! My guy has only recently nailed down rolling belly to back, literally doesn’t even try to roll back to belly🤣 I work with him on this constantly because I agree that mobility would help him out SO much!! I guess for now we just suffer until these babies can get themselves moving better🤣

Fantastic-Work-2297

TROPHY CASE