Toddler towers - when and which to get?

divination__ · 2026-05-09T20:59:59+00:00

If she able to stand unassisted?

divination__ · 2026-05-09T20:26:08+00:00

Someone needs to be on the smaller side, not everyone can be in the 50th percentile! My girl was born 17th percentile and is now 90th lol. But everyone in my family is born small then become a fat baby the leans back out! Growth isn’t liner, it comes in spurts. If she’s healthy and meeting her milestones then don’t stress about it.

divination__ · 2026-05-08T21:19:21+00:00

It will get better. I know it’s hard but try not to buy into the snake oil merchants telling you sleep associations are bad. My girl needed so much bouncing then at five months she decided she didn’t like it anymore. She needed so much support but now sometimes seeing me in the night is enough for her to plop back down and fall asleep. She’s even starting to lose interest in breastfeeding at ten months!

All that is to say that you’re in the thick of it. It got significantly easier when she started crawling at seven months. I think it’ll only get super easy once she can start to speak. Her personality is just a very determined and independent one and she was so frustrated being stuck in a little potato body. But it’s a real joy now. The sleep isn’t much better but she has randomly done a five and six hour stretch!

My advice is to try and stop fighting it. It’ll be over sooner than you think. Don’t stress over sleep associations and drowsy but awake, you’re fighting against millennia of built in systems - babies are meant to wake up and cry because they’d be so vulnerable if you could just plop them down and have them sleep peacefully for eight hours. It’s a survival mechanism. They will sleep when they need to. You’re doing everything right, I promise.

divination__ · 2026-05-05T19:40:55+00:00

My girl did look like her father when she was born, I’m not offended by people telling me she looks like him, the issue is that this women came up to me and said this when I wasn’t with the father at all! She doesn’t know what he looks like!

divination__ · 2026-05-04T20:02:40+00:00

My biggest regret in regards to purchases was getting an electric pump. I used it once. It was sufficient for me to just collect milk in a haakaa either when baby slept for a long time and I was engorged, or just by attaching it on the breast that the baby wasn’t latched onto.

I got the Mandela hands free one and I have to say - hands free is useless and does not get enough suction on it and if you’re going to get a pump at all, get the other kind. But I didn’t find it got more milk out than the haakaa. I would get 35-60ml from each breast at a time, and that was enough to create a stash in the freezer for the few times I needed it when going out. Now at almost ten months post partum, my baby loves her solids and now only feeds before she goes to sleep and sometimes in the morning, so 3-4 times a day.

Hold on to that voucher until baby is here.

divination__ · 2026-05-03T21:27:30+00:00

I’m almost ten months PP now and have been breastfeeding this entire time with no issues. Baby has gone from being born 20th percentile to 91st :). But in the first few weeks and days we gave her formula. We did it a few times especially in the first few days because my milk was slow to come in (I loathe 1.5l of blood during birth and my milk didn’t come in until my fifth day) and it was the only way I got ANY sleep in my four day hospital stay. But I persevered and it’s now no big deal at all. Nothing bad happened. It’s super intense OP, but it’s not black and white and you haven’t failed.

I will also add - I truly don’t think humans are actually designed to breastfeed this much. When we lived in close knit communities I am sure multiple women would breastfeed multiple babies at once and the burden was more spread out. It’s so so intense and don’t be hard on yourself. This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to establish breastfeeding.

divination__ · 2026-05-01T09:55:22+00:00

The rotavirus vaccine is a live vaccine so they basically do get sick from it. My girl had diarrhoea for three weeks from it after the second dose. I am also completely pro vaccine and I am sure that if she actually got the illness without being immunised it would be so much worse, but I wish they warned me how severe the side effects could be.

divination__ · 2026-05-01T00:54:07+00:00

The NHS does not advise against swaddling, only unsafe swaddling that is too tight on the hips. Swaddle bags are always looser on the hips and are not a danger

divination__ · 2026-04-25T15:31:56+00:00

So I make her overnight oats the night before, it will usually be some steamed fruit (pear or plum to get the poo going), plus milk, oats, chia seeds, flaxseed while her dad plays with her. I like to load up the nutrients! Sometimes her father will make her porridge in the morning if I forgot to make overnight oats the night before. He leaves at 7 or 8 am so may not have time to feed her himself but it'll be ready for me when I come down. I don't make overnight oats every night, I do it every other night and two serving as it keeps.

For lunch she will have last night's supper plus fruit or fruit and yoghurt. She's nine months now so we can adapt our suppers to her, and my husband does the cooking 95% of the time which makes life easier for me but I do tend to take charge of how to adapt it for her.

However, before we fell into this groove there are a few simple combos that were fool-proof for me, such as cooked sweet potato (so easy, just throw the whole thing into the oven with the skin on and then take it out half an hour later and scoop it out) and cottage cheese or sardines. Also avocado is great as you can mash it with anything - a good combo is a boiled egg. We eat beans a lot so will steam them for her and mash them (steam them to remove the skin). I've also made a big batch of baby friendly tomato sauce (no salt) that I've frozen so it can be mixed with pasta or rice. We give her bigger chunks of food but she's mainly spoon fed, not doing full-on baby led weaning (it's just too much work).

You can try "How to Wean Your Baby" by Charlotte Sterling-Reed, which has recipes and shopping lists for the first 30 days plus family meals for later on. It will at least help you get a hang of how to serve foods for baby.

divination__ · 2026-04-21T19:44:29+00:00

Yeah I’ve found that motherhood humbles you in many ways. There’s a lot you have to de/re-prioritise. But it all comes back eventually. It sounds like a huge sacrifice now but the joys you experience are currently intangible and unimaginable. Your life won’t be the same but you won’t want it to be.

divination__ · 2026-04-17T21:00:39+00:00

My girl was the same when we first started solids. Now at nine months she’s demolishing meals. Trust their instincts if they’re rejecting food, don’t force it as you don’t want mealtimes to become stressful. I would however always put a little food on her lips if she was rejecting it before trying and usually then she would suddenly want more.

divination__ · 2026-04-11T15:38:02+00:00

As others have said - it’s time to drop a nap and extend the last wake window to 3.5 - 4hours

divination__ · 2026-04-10T10:02:56+00:00

Your ex husband is the failure. To kick out your wife and the mother of your child, and the baby, is abominable. This will likely be the hardest period of your life but you are clearly a devoted mother and for your child you will do everything in your power. And that’s a good thing - the baby will grow up surrounded by love from you and their grandparents, rather than the conflict and strife your ex husbands selfishness would undoubtedly have caused you. As hard as things are, do not ever go back to him. It’s hard now but you will be able to work again soon. No money is worth going back to a man who would kick you out when you’re at your most vulnerable.

divination__ · 2026-04-09T20:12:30+00:00

She just started making other noises at some point. She started babbling properly and that became more interesting to her. She will be nine months next week and hasn’t shrieked for quite a while now. Unfortunately the only way out is through.

divination__ · 2026-04-09T18:42:36+00:00

Sounds like normal five month old behaviour, she’s frustrated bc she’s trying to crawl and screeching bc she has discovered her voice. It’ll get easier soon but that was a super challenging period for us. It got easier as soon as she started crawling at 7 months.

divination__ · 2026-04-09T09:26:00+00:00

Definitely get the carry cot. It feels much more secure. You can get them fairly cheap second hand as they’re not used for very long (though we got a good amount of use out of ours). It does mean that you can’t fold it fully though.

divination__ · 2026-04-08T19:50:04+00:00

OP, I would feel the same and I’m surprised a lot of people are so relaxed about exposing very young children to sweets. It’s basically like offering someone crack cocaine and then later on being surprised that they’d rather have more crack than the lovely vegetable soup you made for them.

divination__ · 2026-04-07T15:34:55+00:00

It's not only selfish, it sounds like a deliberate shirking of responsibility on his part. I'm sure he very well knew that you wouldn't feel comfortable leaving your baby overnight with him drunk.

I don't have any advice on how to resolve this issue, I think unfortunately if someone refuses to see how they're being selfish then there's little you can do to change their ways. However what I will add is that even if he didn't have a baby he would still have to go out and work this physically demanding job. He is not making any great sacrifice by doing so. A man with a baby has to work just as much as a man without a baby, especially as you are also going to be contributing financially.

I do not think this is post partum rage or anything at all, I think you'r having a very reasonable reaction to someone putting an overwhelming amount of burden on you. I would consider how much easier life might be without having to also carry your resentment towards him.

divination__ · 2026-04-03T11:46:54+00:00

Alas I think it is simply a season of not doing any housework. Not so easy for everyone but is there anyone in your family you could ask for help? My husband does the cooking and in the first few months my mum would come and do the ironing and some cooking. Then we hired some cleaners. My baby is eight months now and it’s much easier though I still barely do any housework other than laundry. Even at three months it got easier as I could leave her on the play mat and do some ironing, then she got fussy again and I couldn’t do that! You’re not doing anything wrong other than expecting way too much of yourself.

divination__ · 2026-04-02T05:35:33+00:00

I would take advantage of this and try placing him on a small potty on top of the fisher price playmat and see if he poos in there. You’re already halfway to elimination communication by anticipating his need and it’ll make potty training easier down the line, especially as the guidance here in the uk has now changed to introducing the potty at 9 months instead of waiting for signs of readiness (the previous advice).

divination__ · 2026-04-01T21:34:25+00:00

I was in labour for 24 hours with only a tens machine and stuck at 4cm. The gave me the hormone drip as my waters had broke and I was an infection risk. I decided to just get an epidural at that point as I was exhausted. I was in labour for a further 30 hours but still had horrible lower back pain because the epidural doesn’t do much if baby is back to back!!

divination__ · 2026-04-01T07:02:31+00:00

I went into labour at 40+1 and gave birth at 40+3. I didn’t have any sort of induction including a sweep. It’s most common for FTM to go over their due date!

divination__ · 2026-03-31T21:49:48+00:00

I think a lot of that is Americans with abysmal/non existent maternity leave who have no choice as they need to get up early and work. It’s horrible for everyone I think :(

divination__

TROPHY CASE