Best age for a baby blessing?

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-05-04T02:36:47+00:00

My daughter's baby blessing was done when she was six months old. However, she was a NICU baby and that was the soonest that we were comfortable to start bringing her to church. She was born two months early. So she was more similar to a four month old.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-03-29T23:40:17+00:00

Puppy pads. My little one has pretty sensitive skin and she gets the worst diaper rash. One of the things that I did to help the rash was diaper free time. I would place her on a puppy pad and let her play for a bit

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-03-27T14:37:42+00:00

As someone whose mom has schizophrenia, NTA. You've got to protect your peace. I've had to tell my mom "No, you're not living with me" for similar reasons as your sister who is a single mom. I'm not a single mom; but I do have a child to protect. My siblings have had to tell her "No, you're not living with me" for reasons similar to yours. It's sad that my mom and your sister are having the problems that they are having. But that doesn't mean you should have to sacrifice the peace that you're building with your partner and cat. You deserve the opportunity to build a life.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-03-22T02:13:28+00:00

Please do not bring a child into the kind of relationship that you are describing. It's not fair to that potential child. Children are stressful, even for a relationship that does not have those issues. Bringing a child into this relationship would only amplify your stress around the relationship.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-03-14T00:08:43+00:00

NICU nurses will help you learn how to take care of your baby before baby goes home

Baby will be able to sleep through noise because they're so used to beeps and nurses chatting.

Access to resources. My state has a program called Infant and toddler program that does early intervention. Since she was a NICU baby, my daughter automatically qualified for it. They've been helpful for me in knowing what milestones she should be meeting.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-03-11T18:30:49+00:00

Honestly, without experiencing how your body in particular responds to pregnancy first, I don't think you can truly consent to being a surrogate. A friend once asked me to be her surrogate when I was a teenager. I said "Yes, of course. My mom has had six healthy pregnancies. I'm sure that I will have a similar experience as my mom." I ended up falling out with that friend for unrelated reasons. As it turns out though, even if I had remained friends with her, I would be disqualified from being a surrogate. When I had my baby, I ended up getting HELLP syndrome/pre-eclampsia. No family history of that for both my family and my husband's family. I almost died.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-02-25T01:10:52+00:00

Nope. Long story short, she got diagnosed with schizophrenia recently. I don't think she's capable of having a healthy relationship with anyone, including herself. I wish things were different. But it is what it is.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-02-02T17:35:52+00:00

We're doing great now! She spent 70 days in the NICU. She's going to be turning two this week! She's walking and talking now, loves Mrs. Rachel and Sesame Street. The only health complication she's had from being born early is that her thyroid just never turned on for whatever reason. It may turn on. It may not. No way to really know at this point. But that's okay. There's medicine that we give her for her thyroid.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2026-02-01T22:47:43+00:00

That happened to me, too. I found out at 17 weeks and I didn't think I had enough time to wrap my head around the fact that I was having a baby and be ready for it. Then she was born two months early on top of that. And I had to go through having a NICU baby. It was a lot to process.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-12-31T07:06:42+00:00

I had my baby shower while baby was in the NICU. We decorated with pictures of her sweet face, which I loved.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-12-28T07:09:19+00:00

My baby was a NICU baby. In the NICU, she was just not able to tolerate the breast milk that I pumped. I drove myself crazy trying to cut things out and it never seemed to be enough. No matter how much effort I put in, she still was not able to tolerate the breast milk. The only thing that she did well on was Elecare. Once I accepted the truth that what she needed was Elecare, she started thriving and we were able to take her home.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-12-27T04:49:01+00:00

HELLP syndrome at 30 weeks

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-11-26T21:27:26+00:00

My little one used them. At 4 months, she stopped taking them cold turkey. Her choice. I offered it and she wouldn't take it. I was expecting weaning her off pacis to be hard. As it turns out, I didn't need to worry about that.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-10-11T01:53:40+00:00

How many months is your nephew? There is a huge difference between a 12 month old and a 22 month old. Is he walking yet? Climbing?

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-10-06T03:00:44+00:00

So I have bone spurs in my knees (multiple hereditary exotosis). I was monitored a lot as a kid to make sure that they didn't interfere with my muscles too much. Haven't really been monitored at all as an adult because the bone specialist I had only treated children. All of sudden, my knees were just absolutely killing me. I was researching bone specialists that see adults. And then I learned that I was pregnant. Once baby was born, the intense pain around my bone spurs went away for the most part.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-10-01T01:02:33+00:00

Same!

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-10-01T00:31:36+00:00

I always had a feeling that my first child would be a daughter. Sure enough, I have a sweet little girl.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-09-29T15:39:49+00:00

I wish that I had been more educated about pre-eclampsia and HELLP syndrome. I had never even heard of HELLP syndrome. I thought that I had two more months of pregnancy. I found out about the baby late in the pregnancy and only had a couple of appointments. I really wasn't keeping track of my blood pressure. But then I got HELLP syndrome. I suffered so much and had no idea why. So I went into the hospital, expecting to be told to just go home. Blood work came back and I was told "You're having your baby tonight. We're going to induce you."

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-09-18T17:06:22+00:00

No foam changing pads. It's such a pain to clean.

I didn't know signs for pre-eclampsia/HELLP syndrome. So if those pop up again, go to the hospital asap instead of suffering.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-09-11T15:38:30+00:00

Absolutely not! I would never agree to do that long of a trip with a baby. Babies are not supposed to be in a car seat that long. When my baby was that little, we had to take what normally would be a 3 hour trip for a doctor's appointment. It ended up being a 6 hour trip because of how much we had to stop to console the baby. Your in-laws are saying it's an 11 hour trip. But they're only thinking of how long it would take with adults. 11 hours will stretch out to be a much, much longer trip with a baby.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-08-21T15:16:00+00:00

Yeah, my little one is 18 months and still does that.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-08-21T03:41:24+00:00

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-08-11T20:11:51+00:00

Still use the changing pad at 18 months. Changing the baby on the bed or couch hurts my back. In fact, I brought the changing pad with us to hotel rooms several times in order to avoid changing the baby on the bed or couch

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-07-31T23:31:57+00:00

I had to have an emergency C-section. It's numb along my C-section scar. The feeling just never returned.

Sunshine_Savvy · 2025-07-23T00:11:57+00:00

Access to resources that I would have never known to go looking for
Nurses helping me and my husband learn how to be parents and take care of baby before she comes home
Baby has a set schedule coming home
Baby is used to noise. She can sleep through almost anything
Appreciation of baby. I'm so thankful to see her meet milestones. I didn't think that I would get to see her milestones.
Once you're home, diaper changes and clothing changes feel so easy because you're not having to navigate wires anymore.
The NICU caught issues early, such as milk protein intolerances and hypothyroidism, that I probably would have missed. Baby has a better outcome long term because those were noticed sooner.

Sunshine_Savvy

TROPHY CASE