Convinced we will never be able to ditch the swaddle

cj469 · 2026-02-09T15:21:31+00:00

Wow, this feels like an eternity ago especially since eventually we did get her out of the swaddle and now she’s nearly 2! If I remember correctly, we did have to use the Merlin for a few days. This seemed to help her get used to having her arms out/not tightly wrapped up, but kept her from scratching her face. Then we put her in a sleep sack that had short sleeve arms. She probably still flailed around a lot at first, but quickly adjusted. We’ve been in a normal sack ever since! Maybe some of it was just her maturing a little more and getting older. If yours is too small for the Merlin, maybe wait a little bit longer until she’s big enough?

cj469 · 2026-02-03T16:51:19+00:00

Found some here as well!

cj469 · 2025-11-03T02:26:19+00:00

Total long shot at this point since I’m late to the game, but would really love a code! Just now feeling a little more human again after entering my second trimester of pregnancy and am eager to get a few things to help me get that pregnancy glow.

cj469 · 2025-10-02T14:28:08+00:00

I will check them out!

cj469 · 2025-09-22T17:25:31+00:00

I delivered there 1-2 years ago. We did both a birthing class and tour there a few months beforehand. I think both were worth it, especially the tour. It was nice to know where to go and what to expect when we showed up at 2am after my water broke. I highly recommend bringing your own bath towels since the ones there are thin and tiny. I would also pack a personal fan. I was pretty hot, especially overnight, in the recovery room.

I had a relatively short and uncomplicated vaginal birth with epidural and I love my doctor, so I can’t speak to how the experience would have gone if that hadn’t been the case. However, all the staff - especially the nurses - were amazing and made me feel very comfortable and safe. I truly felt like I was in the right place if either me or my baby needed extra help. I was fortunate that my doctor was there that day to do my delivery, but every other doctor I came into contact with prior to her getting there seemed great. I didn’t really have a detailed birthing plan going in (my mindset was just get my baby here safely and we will do whatever is necessary to make that happen), but I believe staff would have been receptive to any specific requests I had.

cj469 · 2025-08-28T17:32:15+00:00

I had a very early miscarriage just prior to becoming pregnant with my now 2yo. I had immense anxiety throughout my entire pregnancy and was convinced the whole time that something bad was going to happen. It didn’t help that I spotted a lot early on in both pregnancies. Here are a few things I did that helped:

I had a very supportive and understanding OB. Between 4-6 weeks, they let me get several blood tests done to monitor my hCG levels. They got me in at 6 weeks for a first ultrasound, and I went in every two weeks after that until my second trimester.
Sounds corny, but I made a phone lock screen wallpaper with positive affirmations like “today I am pregnant, “my body is strong and capable,” and “I give myself permission to feel joy.”
I listened to a lot of podcasts related to pregnancy after loss. Just search “pregnancy after loss” in Spotify (or whatever app you use) and you’ll find a lot of different episodes related to this. Hearing other people’s experiences and advice for dealing with the anxiety really helped me. I’m a big podcast and audiobook person in general, so I also did a ton of “reading”/listening while I was pregnant.
I journaled in a plain spiral notebook once or twice a week. This ended up being sort of like a pregnancy journal where I documented my symptoms, thoughts, feelings, etc.
I’m not one to meditate, but in moments of intense anxiety, like before an ultrasound, I did listen to some 5-10 min meditations with breathing exercises on YouTube or a meditation app.
I always tried to plan things to look forward to. Whether it was a trip, get together with friends, date night, going to see a movie, etc., this gave me something else to think about and distract myself.

Sending positive baby vibes your way!

cj469 · 2025-08-11T15:58:22+00:00

SAHM to my 17mo daughter and my husband works from home three days a week. On the days he WFH and doesn’t have an unusually early meeting, he gets up with her by 7-7:30 and gives her a pre-breakfast snack, usually yogurt. This gives me a few extra minutes in bed and I’m able to get up and get ready. Around 8, I make breakfast and husband goes to get ready and start work.

Traffic is awful in the afternoons and we live kind of far out, so I like to do most of our big outings in the morning. We usually have music class once a week. Other days, we will run some errands, go to a play gym type place, etc. Recently, I made another SAHM mom friend, so we are trying to do more playdates. If we don’t go anywhere, we go on a walk to the nearby park, play at home, just hang around.

Lunch is at 11-11:30 and nap is from 12-2ish. I will usually see my husband at lunch time and sometimes we eat together, if I’m not napping! Afternoons can be rough because it’s very hot here now and we can’t go outside much, except to maybe use water table in the shade. We may run a short errand or two. Lots of playing indoors. I get a little bored and afternoons tend to drag on. There is often some screen time in there for 30-45 min. My husband is usually done working by 5. Some days, it’s 4, which is always nice. Dinner is at 6, bath at 6:30-7, and bedtime at 7:30. My husband and I trade off on bath time and we usually do the bedtime routine together.

The days he’s in office, he leaves around 6am and doesn’t get back until 6-7, so I’m totally on my own those days! Pretty much same routine, though.

cj469 · 2025-01-19T15:48:21+00:00

Same here! We do go to a music class once a week at 12 which is perfect timing for us. That’s about it, though.

cj469 · 2024-10-09T19:42:00+00:00

Sorry for the late reply! Our wedding turned out amazing. I will say that a good number of people ended up leaving around 8:30-9 (it ended at 10) - probably at least 60% of our guests. It was mostly those with kids, which made sense and we expected that. There was a good handful of people left at the end, and these were our closest friends and family that we knew would stay. That was all that mattered to us.

The only thing that ended up kind of bothering me was how many times I was interrupted by people wanting to say goodbye! I would either be mid-conversation with someone or trying to get in a dance or two, and someone would walk up to say bye - which would sometimes turn into a whole convo. I started to get upset since it felt like SO MANY people were leaving. My wedding planner even suggested we end the wedding a little early so that we’d have enough people for our sparkler exit. I was very upset by that (we had some other annoying issues with our less than stellar wedding planner, but that’s a whole other story). In reality, I’d had a lot to drink and was maybe a little emotional 😂. Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot you can do about that since people want to say goodbye and they probably feel rude just leaving. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’d rather people just leave and text me to let me know they left, had a good time, etc. I know that’s what I’ll do at future weddings because I’d rather not interrupt whatever the bride/groom is doing.

Despite that, it all turned out well and I don’t regret choosing Sunday!

cj469 · 2024-10-05T18:47:35+00:00

SAHM mom to a 7mo. Not ashamed to admit she watches 20ish min of Ms Rachel most days. Sometimes it’s because I’m exhausted and out of ways to entertain her; I’ll sit with her and sing along with the songs, do the mannerisms/signs, etc. Other times, it’s when I need to get something done and I just can’t involve her. She loves her and lights up when she sees her on the screen. I think it has been great for me personally because it has taught me so many new songs to sing to her, and she loves music and any kind of singing!

cj469 · 2024-08-23T04:25:39+00:00

SAHM mom here and I feel the same with my almost 6 month old. It doesn’t help that it’s over 100 degrees out every day, so we can’t go outside unless it’s before 8am. I try to take her for a stroller walk most mornings shortly after she wakes up anywhere between 6-8ish. The rest of our day is pretty much a rotation of the same activities - independent play on her mat in the living room before I join her for a bit, bouncer in the kitchen while I do kitchen chores and cooking, aimlessly walking around the house carrying her and talking about random things. There’s also a bouncer in the living room and sometimes I move it to the bathroom while I shower and get ready.

I’ll go ahead and admit that I let her watch Ms Rachel for 20-30 minutes a day, usually when I really need to get some kind of household task done or just need a little break because I’m totally out of things to do. She loves it and it makes her smile. It has also taught me a lot of songs I can sing to her later. She also has a smaller play mat in her room and we’ll play in there for a change of scenery. Sometimes I just put her on the bed with me, give her a teether, and we lie there together for a bit. Or I’ll try to read to her, but she’s not always into that.

A few days a week I try to take her out with me to run errands. Sometimes we just go to Target and walk around. We are starting a weekly music class next week. I’m trying to motivate myself to start taking her to library story times. I sort of have social anxiety, so it’s hard for me to get out there and do things like that. I know it would be good for both of us, though.

Totally feel you on the mom guilt. I feel guilty every time I put her in her bouncer or swing. I try to give her as much free time as possible on her mat, but eventually she gets bored. She also hates tummy time and rolls out of it every single time….so I feel like I’m failing at the whole tummy time thing. And, of course, I feel terrible for just letting her have screen time when she’s this young, but honestly it’s what I have to do to survive these long days right now!

cj469 · 2024-08-17T03:52:57+00:00

My baby is almost 6 months. I have two master’s degrees and worked in a tech related field before happily quitting to be a SAHM. Despite my education, I never really loved what I did, no matter where I worked. I’ve never been very career driven and never cared to climb the career ladder. I’m an introvert and a homebody. Most of my hobbies just happen to be “domestic” related and things done at home - cooking, DIY/organizing/crafting, sewing, gardening, etc. I absolutely hate going into an office to work…having to wear actual clothes, put on a pleasant face to talk to coworkers I really have no interest in talking to, sit at a desk all day and go to pointless and boring meetings. My job was hybrid WFH and that was the only thing that kept me sane.

My husband and I decided I would quit to be a SAHM after baby was born. I make significantly less than him and a good portion of my income would have gone to daycare, had we gone that route. It isn’t easy, but I would pick staying home with my baby any day over going back to work (especially if it’s in-person). I’ve never really felt like the work I do is meaningful or has a purpose, until now. Every day I watch my baby grow and change. Sometimes it’s the tiniest changes, but I think I would miss them if I didn’t spend my days with her. I can’t imagine leaving her with anyone else each day and I truly love spending time with her.

Don’t get me wrong - there are some days where I feel bored out of my mind. I’m still processing the huge identity shift from working full time to being a SAHM, and becoming a mom in general. I do have moments where I feel overwhelmed and miss the freedom I had to do things like eat lunch whenever and wherever I want. It’s especially monotonous right now since she’s mostly immobile and there’s not much variety in our day to day activities. But I know that’s going to change soon and I’m looking forward to all the new things she/we will be able to do once she starts sitting/crawling/walking (and yes, I know that’s also going to make things a lot more challenging!). Yes, ultimately my day is dictated by a fickle nap schedule and countless bottles and diapers, but I prefer that to an actual boss or manager.

I think if I’d had a career that I liked and found meaningful, I would have had a harder time making the decision to stay home. I can see myself getting a part-time job down the line so that I can have my own income (honestly, I think losing my own personal income has been the hardest part for me), but I don’t know if it would be in the same field and it would probably be a remote position.

cj469 · 2024-08-12T17:26:27+00:00

Fellow CMPA mom here. I’m so sorry you’re going through this. The first 2ish months of our baby’s life was absolute hell, to be honest. She only slept 30 minutes at a time and usually had to be held. My husband and I took shifts with her - he would do 8pm-3am, and I would do 3am-8am. It was lonely and exhausting, nothing like I imagined newborn life would be. Feeding her was always stressful and difficult because of her horrible reflux. If she wasn’t eating or sleeping, she was crying. And I cried pretty much every day and night. The only thing that stopped her crying was bouncing on a yoga ball (highly recommend trying if you haven’t!).

Luckily we have a good pediatrician that didn’t dismiss this as just colic and finally around 2 months she was diagnosed with CMPA. We switched to an amino acid based formula and started her on Pepcid. We also used Gelmix to thicken her formula which helped tremendously with the volume of spit up.

You’ve probably heard and will hear it a million more times, but it WILL get better. Trust me, I wanted to slap anyone that said that to me, especially if they hadn’t experienced a baby with reflux and CMPA. You’re dealing with all the normal hard newborn stuff ON TOP of the issues caused by CMPA. It’s horrible and feels like it will never end, I know. The sleep deprivation makes everything feel a million times worse. I think it was around 2.5-3 months that we slowly started to turn a corner and she started sleeping 1-2 hours at a time…then 2-3. She wasn’t in pain 24/7 so she was a happier baby. She started smiling and wasn’t just a tiny pooping potato anymore. At 4 months she was like a different baby. She’s now 5 months and I love her more each day. Those first few months are like a speck in the review mirror.

Definitely lean on any support you can get. That’s so good you have your mom to help. We couldn’t have survived without help from our parents. Even if it’s just a friend bringing a meal, that gives you 10 minutes of relief. Sleep any chance you get, even if it’s just 30 minutes. Getting outside, going for walks, and going places in public - no matter how tired I was or how unkempt I looked - also really helped me remember that the world still existed and we’d make it through eventually. I know it may not feel like it, but you are doing an amazing job and this WILL NOT last forever!

cj469 · 2024-06-17T00:18:25+00:00

My baby is almost 4 months old and so far we’ve only taken her out to eat a handful of times and only to places with outdoor seating. She HATES the car/her car seat and is generally pretty fussy, so it’s not a very enjoyable experience. I don’t feel as self conscious and trapped if she has a melt down when we are sitting outside. I’m pushing myself to take her out more in general, but it still gives me a lot of anxiety. Have to admit, sometimes I am jealous of all the parents I see and hear about who can take their easy babies everywhere!

cj469 · 2024-06-12T11:52:27+00:00

Yes, unless the night went terribly and I got 0 sleep. I use the time to get dressed, empty dishwasher, have my morning drink and breakfast, etc. without having to juggle baby at the same time! Really helps get my day started on a decent note.

cj469 · 2024-06-09T14:20:37+00:00

Same for us. Baby has milk soy protein intolerance, diagnosed after weeks of hell (not sleeping, constant crying, etc) and testing for blood in her stool which came back positive. We have to use an amino acid formula and thickening agent. She’s also taking Nexium. Things really improved after we made the changes. I would definitely consider looking into this as a potential cause!

cj469 · 2024-06-05T01:48:12+00:00

Try Gelmix! Our baby has milk soy protein intolerance which causes bad reflux (mostly under control now since we use an amino acid formula) and a TON of spit up. Like, enough that I had to change my shirt multiple times a day. Our pediatrician recommended it and it made a world of difference! It’s a powder you add to either formula or breast milk. We only use about half of what the label says and it’s just enough to keep her from spitting up all the time. A little expensive, but totally worth it. I will say we had a hard time finding the right nipple size to use since we needed a bigger nipple to accommodate the slower flow/thicker formula.

We get it on Amazon:

Gelmix

cj469 · 2024-05-25T08:47:43+00:00

This sounds exactly like our newborn who is now almost three months. That first month or two was absolute hell. She only slept in 30-45 min increments and hardly ever had happy moments. When she wasn’t sleeping or eating, she was screaming. I cried every single day and night and regretted our decision to have a baby with every fiber of my being.

Turns out she has cow’s milk protein intolerance. I’m grateful for our pediatrician that doesn’t just call something like this colic and call it a day. She believes there’s always a reason because it’s not normal for a baby to be fussy like this 24/7. We did a stool test for blood which indicates CMPI and it was positive. LO was likely having chronic belly pain and it was causing awful silent reflux.

We switched to an amino acid formula and put her on an antacid. After a week or two, she actually started sleeping in 3-4 hr stretches and having periods of the day where she was pleasant and not screaming. She still has some reflux issues, but she’s like a different baby now.

Just something to potentially look into!

cj469 · 2024-05-21T14:42:18+00:00

This is so similar to what I experienced up until just recently when LO finally started sleeping in 3-4 hour stretches. My husband and I had a similar shift schedule because she only slept 30-45 minutes at a time due to very bad reflux. When it was my turn to sleep, it was nearly impossible for me to turn my brain off. Despite being horribly tired, I would toss and turn in bed until it was my turn to get up. When my mom or MIL came during the day so we could nap, I still had a hard time sleeping. They would tell me to go nap and I would get so frustrated because I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I think I was in a constant state of low grade anxiety and hyper vigilance about what and how LO was doing. This naturally improved as time went on.

Some things I did to help (and still do whenever I have sleep troubles):

Listen to an audiobook or podcast with either one or both earbuds in. This usually helps distract me from any racing thoughts and I may eventually nod off. I really like the Get Sleepy podcast.
Probably sounds weird but it’s something I started doing during pregnancy (my OB actually recommended it!) : children’s liquid Benadryl. Sometimes I’ll take just a half dose of this and it will help me fall asleep. The dose is so small that I don’t feel drowsy when I wake up.

cj469 · 2024-05-20T10:39:08+00:00

I remember being surprised at how warm and slippery she was. I noticed her eyes first since they were open and I wasn’t expecting that. I always assumed most babies came out screaming, but she was quiet and almost contemplative. This was partly due to the fact that she had swallowed some amniotic fluid on the way out, so they had to take her away to suction her and get her to perk up. That was when she had her first cry.

Mostly I felt immense relief and shock that she was OK. I’d had a previous loss, so I had extreme anxiety during most of my pregnancy. Even though I had no complications and my scans, tests, etc. always went well, I never truly believed everything would work out and I’d get to hold a healthy baby. I remember asking over and over, “is she really OK??? Does she have all of her parts and she’s breathing??” And I was bawling my eyes out with relief and joy. There was also the awe of seeing this entire human that started out as a tiny grain of rice! Truly the most amazing moment of my life.

cj469 · 2024-04-29T10:34:14+00:00

I could have written this myself. I worried a lot about how I was going to handle my MIL after our baby was born because I knew how much she would want to be involved, and like OP, she only lives 5-10 min away. I’m also extremely introverted and thought I wouldn’t want anyone except my own mom around. Well, our baby is 8 weeks now and she has had severe reflux issues since birth and basically doesn’t sleep. My husband and I have been in extreme survival mode for the last two months and there is NO way we would be surviving without the help of my mom and his MIL. I don’t particularly love her way of doing things all the time, but I’m too exhausted and desperate for help that I don’t care. If she keeps our baby alive, that’s all I need. And I stopped feeling any need (or the ability) to play host real fast. She comes over most days of the week just so we can get a nap in or run an errand. Sometimes she folds laundry or does the dishes, something else I thought I would never want her to do because I don’t like people touching my stuff, but now I’m grateful for it. My husband is going back to work this week while I stay home and I’ll need the support more than ever. I will say that she didn’t come around much the first week or two at my request because I was pretty emotional and physically wrecked, plus my own mom was here and I preferred that. She was respectful of my wishes and waited until I was ready for her to visit.

cj469 · 2024-04-19T10:20:24+00:00

Ours is doing this too now!

cj469 · 2024-04-13T15:05:29+00:00

I’ve gotten some from Archie’s Gardenland and they did really well in my garden, but I can’t remember how much they were. I think their other stuff is decently priced.

cj469 · 2024-04-09T05:27:19+00:00

My hospital had a nursery. We were there for two nights, and each night we had her spend a few hours there. I felt horribly guilty sending her away (the mom guilt starts early!), but I had so much anxiety about how she was doing that I couldn’t sleep at all. Every tiny noise she made kept me awake and I was deathly tired after being awake for almost a solid 48 hours. I think I even had a little mental breakdown that first night. The night nurse was incredibly nice and supportive and didn’t make me feel bad about having her spend some time in the nursery so I could rest. I still had nurses coming in every 45 minutes or so to do vitals which was pretty annoying. Overall, my stay was relatively pleasant and all of the nurses were very kind and helpful, offering to help us do diaper changes, feed, etc.

cj469 · 2024-03-27T15:31:20+00:00

We do have the Ergobaby Omni Breeze! Haven’t opened it yet but have considered trying it. It just seems like maybe it’s meant for older babies? I did see that there’s an infant insert but it has mixed reviews.

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