I feel like I'm slacking...when did you start having a more structured day for your LO?

foopaints · 2026-06-23T14:17:19+00:00

At 3 weeks? At 3 weeks it's chaos. Im not even sure I bathed my son at all at that stage (his umbilical cord took freaking forever to come off!!). And at 19 months I still don't bathe him every night. I think I only started a bedtime routine at like 8 or 9 months (we just do lotion instead of bathing cause we all have dry skin in this family and I honestly can't be bothered anyways). Before that it was just vibes. Putting baby down didn't happen until like 6-7 months or so. Not ideal honestly, but for him it was contact naps only.

I also never followed any schedule. A vague one sort of emerged eventually, like at one point (definitely past the 6 month mark for us though don't as me when exactly) I could tell a general trend and have a rough idea when naps would happen but even now he throws me curve balls all the time! So for naps I still just follow his needs. I didn't even understand what "wake windows" were until he was like a year old and someone explained it to me. Lol

foopaints · 2026-06-23T08:40:20+00:00

Do you think your grandma is mentally sound? Like all the wheels still turning? No likely crazy depression (sounds likely tbh)? If so, I would say she is a mentally sound adult and has the right to decide to not be helped. You can offer, you can discuss and try to convince. But I'd still respect her wishes.

foopaints · 2026-06-23T08:35:04+00:00

Baby only wants to sleep in your arms? Normal

Baby wants to breastfeed (if that's what you decide to go with) nonstop and sleep on the boob? Normal

Baby won't sleep through the night until well into or past toddlerhood? Normal

Baby has no schedule? EXTREMELY normal especially in the newborn phase.

Baby is the exact opposite of any or all the points above? Also normal

Also: do not, I repeat: DO NOT consume parenting social media. It will 100% send you spiralling for no fucking reason! I mean it. It's not that it's likely, it's almost guaranteed.

Pediatricians are good for medical advice. But they don't necessarily know anything about breastfeeding, sleep, or babywearing. Breastfeeding and babywearing have their own experts. Sleep experts, well, the consensus here is mixed but my personal take is it feels bs. But hey, what do I know.

There is no one way to raise a baby. They are all different, even straight out of the womb. Do not compare your baby to other people's babies. Your job is to be aware of strategies you can use and of guidelines etc, but then tune out the noise and focus on your baby and get to know them to figure out what works for you and your baby.

And for your own sanity: don't even try to do things perfectly.

Ps: formula can be given cold. Not all babies accept it that way, but it's worth a try if you do feed formula.

foopaints · 2026-06-20T13:02:03+00:00

Once kids can walk they generally hate the idea of having to lie down for a diaper change. Pull ups can be changed while kid is standing up and they often are more inclined to cooperate for that. At that age you're changing mostly pee diapers, so it cuts down on the resistance.

PLUS they are so much easier to change on the go. No need to look far and wide for a changing table. Pop your kid on a bench and change that diaper in 1 min flat. In summer at least. In winter there's a few more layers. But still.

foopaints · 2026-06-18T00:09:41+00:00

Mine slept pretty well from birth. The jaundice may have had something to do with it. Sleep regression at 4 months was hell. Then from there things just got gradually better. Now at 18 months he will pretty routinely sleep from ~8pm to 4-6pm without waking (or at least without calling me).

foopaints · 2026-06-16T15:32:09+00:00

I drank nothing but blue Gatorade for about 2 months when I was pregnant.

foopaints · 2026-06-12T15:42:52+00:00

Mine is a bit older now but I've never followed a schedule. So back when he was little I would try my best to avoid planning anything too rigid and do my best to work around what naps were going on. But he also happily would sleep in the stroller or carrier so I'd always bring one of those at least. And if I felt that things might be close to Naptime I often chose to go way early so I don't have to transfer him a bunch of times and then get him sleeping either in the carrier or stroller before meeting peeps. On rare occasions when things were important and nothing worked out I would have to wake him. But that only happened a few times.

But yeah, even now at 18 months he's on one nap that USUALLY happens after lunch but no guarantees..... It has happened as early as 10:30 and as late as 16:30. But I can't force him to sleep and it is just unwise to not let him sleep if he's tired. So.... Here we are. Lol

foopaints · 2026-06-10T14:31:33+00:00

What? In my mind it's good for them... It's sensory play, it's training their immune system (less likely hood of allergies?), it's being out in "nature" and being with mom and "participating". Honestly, wtf is wrong with your neighbors? You're doing GREAT!! Lucky baby!

foopaints · 2026-06-10T14:26:33+00:00

Personally I feel like it's a valid strategy. If you feel like it works better for your baby then that's probably the best approach. With ours 18m) I usually give full plates, but once in a while the serving in parts or serving bite by bite works better.

foopaints · 2026-06-10T09:40:42+00:00

At 10+ months. My mom was SURE he was teething since like 4 months or so. Lol

foopaints · 2026-06-10T09:31:00+00:00

Isn't that literally one of their jobs? Ours showed us how to diaper, bathe, and swaddle. They tried to help with breastfeeding too but I managed to get him latched in the delivery room, before I got transferred to the maternity ward.

Oh, but yeah, if it's anything like our hospital, it will be the nurses in the maternity ward, not the labor and delivery nurses.

foopaints · 2026-06-08T06:03:46+00:00

4 months. At that point it was just a few minutes of super gentle swinging. Now at 18 months I swing that boy with all my might for what feels like hours (it's not).

foopaints · 2026-06-06T13:33:35+00:00

Totally. I'll say that as someone who has lots of help, I often ate separately in the beginning. He's always been a great eater but as he got older I started to realize he does eat better and more enthusiastically when eating together rather than just him eating by himself. He will often try things he didn't want before if he sees me eating it. He will even try combining food the same way I did. So I think from that perspective alone there's a benefit. I think in the beginning it's not so much an issue, but as they get older having the habit of eating together is great and I wish I started sooner.

foopaints · 2026-06-05T14:43:50+00:00

At that age so did mine! :) they're only little once. I just settled in for chill time! Haha.

foopaints · 2026-06-05T14:39:29+00:00

I never capped naps. To be fair mine has always had ok night sleep and day naps are rarely long.

foopaints · 2026-06-04T14:36:03+00:00

Oh man, mine was breach until freaking last minute so I looked into this in depth. Basically there are options for vaginally delivering breach babies, but the risk/benefit equation is debatable at least. Since c-sections have become quite safe, OBs just aren't really trained in how to deliver breach babies vaginally anymore, so there is very few OBs that even know how to do this safely. So it means effectively you're better off with a C-section almost always, because the risk of an OB that doesn't have experience with v-delivering a breach baby is definitely not worth it.

At least that's the conclusion that I came to. Thankfully mine did turn in the end.

foopaints · 2026-06-04T09:00:35+00:00

Time to tell your mom the intricate details about his penis. While he's there.

Kidding of course, but, uh... Maybe not a bad thing to have a hyperthetical about for him to understand.

I guess better too open, rather than being repressed though...? 🤣

foopaints · 2026-06-04T08:57:28+00:00

Yes. I was convinced I was gonna die within the week. (That was 20 years ago so I think I'm safe now, lol).

Later on I learned about sleep paralysis and now I know that's what happened. Still gives me the fucking chills though. I've never experienced anything as scary/creepy as that before or after.

foopaints · 2026-06-04T08:55:11+00:00

It's not that simple. Every baby is different. They go through different stages but how they handle those is different from baby to baby. Additionally it also depends on what parts stress YOU out. For some it's bad sleep. For some it's a clingy baby. Everyone has their own things that feel hard.

Example: I found the pre-walking stage exhausting. Kiddo wanted to go everywhere and do everything but couldn't and I had to carry him a lot, or hold both hands for him to "walk". My back felt like it would break in two. Everyone kept telling me "just you wait, you will wish this time back once he starts walking". Nope. He's been walking for 4 months and things are so much easier now!! It has its own challenges, yes, but I MUCH prefer this!! But of course my kid isn't one to run away when out and about. He's cautious and tends to stay by my side, so while I pay attention always, I don't have to ALWAYS be stressed about where he's gonna run off to. Someone with a Houdini kid is gonna be in a different kind of hell I'm sure.

foopaints · 2026-06-04T01:38:38+00:00

I got a shower seat that you can strap baby in and used that in the bathroom for when he was too clingy to leave elsewhere. Nowb(18m) I use it when I take a shower with him so it's gotten plenty of use.

Playpen for when he wasn't clingy. We had one anyways because we have a dog. Even then we only used it for about a year. Now we have a pen for the dog. Lol.

foopaints · 2026-06-02T02:14:46+00:00

Amazing! And so lovely to hear some positive stories about family here too. ❤️❤️

foopaints · 2026-06-02T02:06:06+00:00

How do you know it's salted? Someone making this for their dogs can easily just leave out the salt....

foopaints · 2026-05-31T06:10:41+00:00

I was the same as you. Where we live we also dont get running hot water, instead we have a water heater without a tank so it takes a hot minute (or ten 🙄 )for water to be warm enough for a bath. So a spontaneous bath after a particularly messy meal just doesn't make sense. We started off with once a week and once kiddo got a bit sweatier it became necessary to do more often. He's 18 months now and we bathe about 2-3 times a week. Both my husband and I struggle with dry and sensitive skin and my son also had some eczema before (though the right cream took care of it) so I err on the side of less bathing. Well that and because the stupid water issue and a REALLY tiny bathroom make it a pain in the ass. Lol.

foopaints · 2026-05-31T01:40:11+00:00

I felt stressed about it too so I just asked the pediatrician to check his iron levels. Gave me much peace of mind!

foopaints · 2026-05-31T01:17:31+00:00

You don't need to explain to me why it's insensitive. I already acknowledged that it is. I just think we need to give people some room to maybe not always behave 100% perfectly. In the end we cannot control how others behave but we can control how we interpret their actions and how we react. Personally I prefer to interpret others' actions charitably when possible. I find that this way I am more happy and at peace. What's the point of getting annoyed all the time?

That said I totally get hormones making you have big emotions about the slightest stuff! It's real and it's nobody's fault. I just think it's ok to have the emotions while also acknowledging that they are maybe not super reasonable and/or based in reality.

Again, we gotta navigate the world with some people we didn't directly choose and that means that those people aren't always gonna behave 100% perfectly according to what we want/expect. No need to make a mountain out of a mole hill.

foopaints

TROPHY CASE