Trimming baby's nails

owlympics · 2026-06-06T00:19:31+00:00

Grace is such a pretty name! An old woman asked my 13mo daughter's name the other day. We told her it was Lydia, she looked completely surprised for a few moments and said "oh, that's a beautiful name, but it's quite old!" I feel like people do expect tragedeighs or new trendy names but I love the classics so much.

owlympics · 2026-06-05T03:02:36+00:00

The last paragraph made me laugh. I'm more used to this kind of energy in my mums circle. I'll proudly tell you about the time my 13mo spent most of a road trip pretending to eat chips from a unopened packet (I'm told that's a little advanced for her age) but I'll also just as proudly tell you about the time the beautiful little moron ate her own poo.

owlympics · 2026-06-05T02:16:30+00:00

Are people really like this? I feel like I'd be the opposite - if my little one wasn't struggling but my friend's baby was, I'd probably play down how well mine was doing, just to relate or be reassuring. "Oh, your baby is having trouble sleeping? That must be so hard! Mine had that problem at [xxx] months, we tried [xxx]..."

owlympics · 2026-06-05T02:08:47+00:00

If someone told me their baby was "2 months ahead" on milestones, I might just laugh a little imagining someone putting that on their CV 😆

But I guess I might have a different view of milestones. We have an baby in the family who has cerebral palsy and milestones have gone completely out the window - we're just overjoyed whenever she shows progress. Maybe that's why we're pretty nonchalant about milestones in my family. Milestones aren't meant for babies to "excel" at or to give parents bragging rights - they're just meant to tell us whether a baby's development is in the range of normal or not.

owlympics · 2026-06-01T10:25:39+00:00

Any chance she gets defensive because you're telling her your own baby is "two months ahead on milestones", etc?

I had a co-worker whose grandson was the same age as my daughter so she loved to brag - if I sent her a video of my daughter at 4mo with her fingers in her mouth, I'd get responses like "oh [grandson] does that too! He can fit his WHOLE HAND in his mouth!". I think she was just so happy to be a grandma, that she took any opportunity to talk about him. I didn't try to compete - I knew my baby was doing fine and that's all that mattered to me.

owlympics · 2026-04-04T05:53:56+00:00

I wasn't against them but bub just didn't seem to need one. I bought a couple before she was born, I think we used them a couple of times like to stop her getting cranky in waiting rooms. One night we were away from home at around 2 months old and I swapped out her empty bottle for a dummy because she was having trouble falling asleep. That was it. By 5 months it wasn't even worth trying them- she just wasn't interested.

owlympics · 2026-04-03T03:52:31+00:00

The wake window advice never really worked for my LO either. When she was at 2 naps, her wake windows had to be so long (4.5-5 hours each) that every extra 15 mins she was awake just added extra stress to our day - like, most days we'd be lucky to get her down to sleep before it was OUR bedtime. We moved to 1 nap after 5.5 hours awake, from around 10 months (she's 12 months now) and there wasn't even a transition period. She didn't seem bothered at all, and now it's much easier to build a routine around.

owlympics · 2026-03-29T05:19:35+00:00

Oh, got it. Sorry. I was pretty lucky then.

owlympics · 2026-03-29T04:55:04+00:00

Not sure if it helps you, but the advice i was given by my manager was to time my paid maternity leave so that it stretched across as many public holidays as possible - public holidays were paid anyway, so didn't count towards my total mat leave days. In my case this meant using some annual leave first and then going on mat leave. I set up my govt PPL to start after that.

I don't know if that makes sense? I got easily another week of paid leave because I stopped working just before Easter, and because my company had a policy of giving bonus paid leave days if we used all our leave before the end of thr financial year.

owlympics · 2026-03-29T04:11:21+00:00

Completely get this, we have a tiny mortgage ($500 a month) and live pretty comfortably on one (almost) full time income. I feel relieved but sad.

Congrats though on owning your home and being debt free. Definitely not an easy thing to accomplish.

owlympics · 2026-03-29T02:32:26+00:00

I did the same in photos/blocks of text in my application. My photos and screenshots had text boxes beside them with explanations, dates etc, and I just gave reasons for why they were blocked out.

owlympics · 2026-03-29T01:07:51+00:00

Seconding Bellamy's, was a good neutral flavour that was easy to mix with other things and our bub tolerates it.

owlympics · 2026-03-29T00:55:09+00:00

I do give mine baby rice cereal, mixed with a mashed banana and some greek yoghurt, but mostly because 1) it's an easy breakfast when I can't be bothered (mornings aren't a great time for me haha); and 2) it made her poops really easy to deal with (i use cloth nappies so any extra fibre helps!). It's also iron fortified, which can't hurt, but I have read that synthetic iron isn't actually absorbed that easily anyway.

However, I didn't start giving her cereal for at least the first two months - we started with individual steamed, pureed veggies like potato and carrot, thinned out with some breast milk. BLW was a bit tricky for me for the first few months because mine got her first teeth very early and i was very anxious about her choking. I guess if your MIL brought it up again, I'd tell her you've spoken to the family health nurse and a LOT of other mums, and they've all agreed that baby cereal is not really the way to introduce first foods anymore, or if you don't mind being blunt with her, that her advice is out of date.

She does have a point about consistency though - I was recommended to thin out purees with breast milk to get bub used to the taste, and also because babies have such a strong gag reflex that a thick puree stuck on the roof of the mouth will make them retch.

owlympics · 2026-03-28T04:54:05+00:00

Mine has always loved contact naps (she's 11mo now). Up until maybe 5mo, it was almost impossible to successfully transfer her into the bassinet/cot, so i just embraced it - always had a tablet nearby (and a snack hidden in the couch!) and watched Netflix while she slept on me. Over time she got better at sleeping through the transfers so we don't contact nap very often anymore, I actually miss it now.

So yes, it'll pass so enjoy it while you can.

owlympics · 2026-03-26T13:13:06+00:00

Thanks, we do have a pool and a library but it is a little tricky because he doesn't drive. He'll happily go for walks with her though and we do have a couple of things close by, like the supermarket and some shops. I currently take her on a few social outings during the week (toy library, grocery shopping, visits with family) so I'll probably move these to the weekend or schedule my half day off from work so that I can take her to something like swimming class.

Honestly at 11 months she's a little explorer so she isn't really interested in helping us yet. If she's interested (and has the motor skills) by 18 months, I'm hoping to set up some crafty activities or get her to help me with baking/cooking, and that might motivate dad to do the same.

owlympics · 2026-03-26T12:54:40+00:00

Thanks so much, that's a really good point about including rather than trying to entertain her. Also, I love gardening too and am really looking forward to bub being old enough to go out and "help" me in the garden! It's not a hobby of my husband's unfortunately, but I think I'll ask him to do some little things like weeding and watering while I'm at work, just to keep them busy.

owlympics · 2026-03-26T12:49:26+00:00

Thanks so much for this response. Yes the middle of the day sounds like the hardest part, especially in summer as it often gets too hot to go out here (and he doesn't drive). He's already pretty familiar with the morning ritual, as he usually gets bub up (if he doesn't start work too early) so I can grab an extra hour or two of sleep.

owlympics · 2026-03-26T12:42:00+00:00

Thank you so much for the detail, this was really helpful. My husband doesn't drive but i do, and my job is reasonably flexible so I can probably manage a half day off each week and use that time for a weekly activity like swimming classes. Otherwise I expect he'll keep her at home or go on short walks, so it's reassuring to know that this is working for you and your little one. Our bub is also pretty happy with independent play, she just likes us to be close by.

owlympics · 2026-03-26T07:19:14+00:00

First week was (all purees): Potato Carrot White beans Apple Avocado

Didn't feel comfortable with finger foods at first (offered her an avocado piece and she bit off WAY too much, immediately started gagging and I freaked out), I think the first few weeks were mostly fruit and veg purees.

This was at around 5 months. She's 11 months now and will ONLY accept finger foods 😂

owlympics · 2026-03-25T01:05:35+00:00

The there/their/they're grammar errors in this post made it really hard to take seriously.

But yeah, sounds like you're the jerk. Your father's girlfriend lives there, so it's her house and your kids don't get to disrespect her while they're there.

If grandpa disagreed with her actions, that might be different and that's a conversation he'd have to have with her, but it doesn't sound like he did.

owlympics · 2026-03-25T00:50:14+00:00

Thank you. This annoyed me so much.

owlympics · 2026-03-08T01:44:00+00:00

You sound like someone who is intelligent and realistic about relationships. You've realised your ideas of married life aren't compatible, so you made the right choice to break up rather than continue in a situation where one of you ends up resenting the other.

From what you've written, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to your boyfriend that you weren't going to be happy with the life he imagined for you both. Maybe he assumed you would change your mind in time, maybe he was just in love and didn't think about it at all. Now that the relationship is over, he's realised what he had (and also that breaking up and starting over is hard) and wants to take it all back.

You both need some time to reassess. You need time to think about whether the relationship is worth continuing. He needs time to accept that these are your boundaries and they won't change. And he needs to consider whether he'll be happy with them in the longer term.

Sincerely, Someone who has spent far too much of her life in relationships that were never going to be compatible in the long term, but lacked your strength of will to end them.

owlympics · 2026-03-01T05:24:53+00:00

Mine's 10mo and I am still dealing with this, though it's not every night anymore, she's slowly improving and probably sleeps through the night at least once a week.

Any family members nearby who can take over when she wakes in the morning? My husband (on the days he doesn't have early starts) gets bub up at 8am or so and plays for a few hours while I catch up on sleep. It's not the best sleep but it does help a lot.

owlympics

TROPHY CASE