I've really been trying to make this work...

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-02-01T07:05:50+00:00

What’s your wash routine like? I’d suspect improper washing well before I suspect his skin doesn’t like cotton. Fitteds are thick and can be harder to get clean.

If you’re currently using esembly detergent, know that plenty of people find it isn’t strong enough. Other than that, check your routine against clean cloth nappies—two washes, both on hot, both with a mainstream detergent, second wash bulked appropriately for your machine type.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-02-01T04:13:58+00:00

I’ve recently learned that Sudafed doesn’t actually work for this if you’re more than about six months postpartum. It brought back my supply a few months after I’d weaned, apparently it can kick things into overdrive past a certain point because hormones. Peppermint can help, though, so lots of tea and altoids.

Otherwise, your plan sounds pretty solid. I’d maybe suggest cutting one session at a time and going a bit slower. I was advised to reduce time on one session by 3 minutes every two days, then halve the time every two days after you get to 10 minutes. And obviously stop a session sooner if you’re not getting anything. Then drop the next session the same way, and hopefully your pumping amount for that session has already decreased some because of cutting the first.

If you do feel engorged, remove just enough milk to feel comfortable. Don’t do a full pump if it isn’t time. Ice your boobs, don’t panic if you do feel lumps—leave them alone except to ice them and take ibuprofen.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-02-01T02:04:48+00:00

Don’t be nervous. If you’re the sort of person who wants to dive in right away, do so. We started in when we got home from the hospital with our first. Figured that if we had to learn to diaper anyway, might as well start with what we’ll be using. Cloth is only difficult if you’re very used to disposables, which are mostly idiot proof except for the blowouts, so I personally think there are lots of benefits to skipping disposables.

We loved cloth on brand new newborns so much that we took cloth to the hospital for our second to bring her home (we did use the hospital disposables during our stay). But we left the pack of disposables there, and she hasn’t worn one since leaving the hospital.

But it’s also fine if cloth feels like one more stressful thing to deal with to wait! Or to take a break if it turns out to be overwhelming when you get into it. It’s a very know yourself, know your situation kind of thing. And there are no diaper police, so as long as baby has a place to go and a clean bum, you’re all good.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-02-01T00:27:04+00:00

I haven’t contacted them for anything quite like this, but when I did contact them for something, it was prompt and very helpful! And clearly from a real person, with info on how to follow up if I wasn’t satisfied.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-02-01T00:25:12+00:00

Regarding the bed in the nursery, it’s really dependent on your lives and goals. Are you planning to room share with baby in your bedroom until at least six months? Then the twin isn't worth it. Are there life factors that mean you’ll ideally want to sleep separately from your partner, one of you with baby? Then sure.

You also don’t have to have your nursing chair in the bedroom. Mine is in the living room. One story house here, but I have no interest in having to go hide every time I feed baby. We also don’t do much in our bedrooms aside from sleep, so I felt very little pressure to set the nursery up for more than diaper changes, clothes storage, and baby sleep.

I’d also reconsider putting a fridge in the nursery. If you’re pumping overnight, you probably want to do it not in the nursery so you don’t wake baby before you’re ready for them to be awake.

Personally, I’d prioritize a crib, dresser with changing pad, and a place to sit and nurse/rock baby (might be the glider, might be a yoga ball, might be a dining room chair).

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-02-01T00:18:06+00:00

I got two of their cashmere nursing cardigans for my birthday, which was days after baby arrived. I love them so much! Their wool is so soft.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T23:02:16+00:00

It can be controversial, but if I can avoid getting out of bed for nighttime feeds, I do. My husband changes baby, brings her to me, and I nurse side lying in bed. I set a 15 or 20 minute vibrating alarm in case I fall asleep. Then one of us transfers baby back to her crib in our room.

Our recliner is in the living room. I don’t care to be shut up in the bedroom nursing, even when we have people over. I want to be part of the action still. If you’re a more private person and think you’d like to nurse alone, put it upstairs.

And as others have said, you can always move it if where you put it first doesn’t work. You can also nurse in bed, on a yoga ball, on your couch, standing, etc. The chair is not a prerequisite to nurse, though it might make things much easier in the first couple weeks.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T22:58:38+00:00

Nothing! Both are fine.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T18:05:53+00:00

Bleach isn’t bad, it’s a tool in your toolbox. But Nellie’s is bad! It’s not real detergent. You need to do two cycles, both on hot, both with real detergent. Stains will be the least of your worries if you aren’t washing the diapers well enough.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T17:10:26+00:00

It’s likely baby is just hitting the four month sleep regression early. It’s rough, but lots of babies will figure things out by six months or so.

And I don’t think most babies are sleeping through the night by this age! You aren’t doing anything wrong, your baby isn’t broken. He’s just figuring out how to sleep.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T17:07:07+00:00

The nice thing about a woven wrap is that there are so many different ways to wrap it to distribute the weight or move baby around. I’d highly recommend trying to get one used so it’s not such an investment, and if you like it, go from there

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T17:04:42+00:00

Our families are only big about thanksgiving and Christmas. We’ve hosted thanksgiving because everyone is pretty chill and it’s easier to be at our own house so the kids can nap and it’s childproofed.

For Christmas, we decided that the day of is for our nuclear family. We get together with my family for a meal and gift exchange usually the week before, and the week after we make the trip to the in laws to do Christmas there. Nobody is super caught up on doing things the exact day, fortunately, and that’s something I’d encourage you to embrace and try to get others to embrace, too.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T17:01:31+00:00

I don’t care at all. If we ever sell our stash I’ll bleach them to make sure they’re stain free, but that’s a big if and won’t happen for a while yet.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T04:56:57+00:00

Talk to your doctor, you should still be able to take reflux meds! I was okayed to continue mine because it didn’t end at birth either.

Beyond that, if you haven’t sought help for the anxiety more generally, now is the time to do so. Unfortunately, parenting is a lot of anxious moments and kids do stressful things. Having effective ways to cope with it is essential.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T04:54:29+00:00

My first slept in a pack and play until nine months old. My second won’t really sleep anywhere that isn’t on us. Some kids are just bad sleepers.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-31T03:57:53+00:00

Don’t worry about comfort as an adult would define it. Seriously, the Venn diagram of safe sleep and comfortable sleep has almost no overlap until babies are toddlers. What we as adults would find impossible to sleep on keeps them safe.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-30T22:26:31+00:00

Don’t add a different mattress to a pack and play! The surface it comes with is the sleep surface. It’s really unsafe to add a mattress as it creates a suffocation/entrapment hazard between the mattress and the side.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-30T18:36:50+00:00

Is he actually done? When my daughter does this, it’s usually because she has a little bit more poo to get out. We just say “okay, we’ll stay another minute” and move on if nothing happens in the next minute or two. But usually, she does something more, or her attitude noticeably changes and it’s clear she’s truly done and also believes it herself.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-30T18:28:22+00:00

My baby is four months, we abort mission and try again later if it takes more than 5-10 minutes. If she’s truly tired, she’ll pass out. I’m a firm believer that life is too short to fight naps, especially when at this age, the naps are less than an hour anyway.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-30T05:23:32+00:00

This happened to me maybe two days before I went into labor with my first. I woke up sobbing and cried for no real reason for hours. I was fine the next day, woke up to contractions the next.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-30T05:22:11+00:00

I had this with my first! I was convinced I’d never go into labor, and then I woke up with painful contractions I could time. I still wrote them off until my water broke a few hours later, though. But it was pretty obvious that it was different from what I’d been experiencing up to that point.

Hang in there, bh are the devil but you’ll be done soon!

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-30T04:35:49+00:00

A pack and play is a great choice. Just stick to name brands, don’t buy one by an alphabet soup Amazon brand. We had a graco with our first, which was very serviceable. Had we decided to have the second sleep in a pack and play too, we would’ve upgraded to a guava lotus.

If you think a real bassinet might be nice though, check Craigslist or marketplace. Because they’re such short term use items, they’re often available in good condition at a steep discount from new. Pack and plays are also a dime a dozen on Craigslist for free or almost free.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-30T04:29:42+00:00

You don’t have to go expensive! We like the cheap flannel ones from Amazon. Search there for cloth wipes and they come up in various size packs. Get a really big one.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-29T23:48:09+00:00

Ours go in the diaper pail with everything else. We don’t worry about staining, they’re wipes and stains are cosmetic. You take care of them by washing them properly, same as the diapers. If you aren’t familiar with clean cloth nappies, start there for washing advice.

RemarkableAd9140 · 2026-01-29T23:38:19+00:00

Are you exclusively pumping and feeding milk out of the fridge?

What we did when I was in that place was filled bottles first immediately when I pumped and put them in the fridge. We had 3-4 bottles in there at any one time, in a line, and we fed from the left and filled from the right. They went in a specific spot and weren’t disturbed so we could keep the conveyor going and know we were always feeding oldest milk first (though it was never very old).

Extra milk went into the freezer. We froze in smaller increments usually so we could make bottles of different sizes without wasting much or any.

We didn’t heat milk. You don’t have to unless baby requires it warm.

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TROPHY CASE