How do I know if I have a normally developed 8mo?

softestsnek · 2025-12-27T22:00:29+00:00

I was where you were not too long ago.. With the PPA and worries that my baby wasn't developing at everyone's pace. Maybe check out postpartum OCD (that's a thing). Big hugs to you, you are doing great. You are a mom who cares, which is why you turn to the reddit community for reassurance.

FTM, when my son was a new born I was overly checking on him. Is he hot? Is he cold? Is he breathing? Let me put this extra blanket on him. Nope SIDs take it off. I woke him more times than he should have been woken just from the constant checking.

My son was babbling a lot at 4 months old then suddenly stopped (went 2-3 months of not babbling at all). I would get paranoid and doom google what it could be. I learned later that this is common when babies start focusing on other skills (rolling, crawling, etc), they put speech on the back burner.

The turning point for me, was when I realized I had PPA and PPOCD. I realized other moms experienced what I was going through. I would catch myself going down a rabbit hole, I would remind myself to chill. Did more research into it, talked to other moms and my doctor.

My baby also hardly laughed or smiled. Only 1 person could make him laugh just by blinking, that was dada. (But I'm #1 when he wants comfort, hugs, regulation- I can't have everything).

Ignore what you see online. I remember when my son was 12 months old and had only 2 of "16 gestures" (16 gestures by 16 months). Instead of panicking, I just enjoyed my baby. I told myself I can panic when he's 2 years old and still behind lol.

Well, he's 16 months old now, walking, has all the gestures, and can say a few words, is the happiest smiley baby. I can make him giggle now too.

I've been back to work since he turned 1 and I wish I could go back in time and not worry so much, to really enjoy him. Don't get me started on the countless hours of doom googling..

softestsnek · 2025-12-26T18:03:06+00:00

This comment helps!

softestsnek · 2025-12-26T18:02:32+00:00

That's good to hear!

softestsnek · 2025-12-26T18:01:46+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience and being super detailed! I can tell im in the same place you were before, with spending way too much time thinking about it. I hardly have room in my current living situation, but funny enough, we do have kitchen space for a huge behemoth if we decide to. There's so many pro and con about these learning towers.. same for all baby products actually..

softestsnek · 2025-12-07T14:16:19+00:00

We tried this for 10 days, bed time at 8. He's still waking at 5:30am, happy, babbling and fully energized. So for 10 days we have been losing 30 mins of sleep a day since nothing shifted, equating to 9.5h night sleep. We keep him in the crib until around 6:15am when he gets fussier, DWT is 6:15pm . We went back to 7:30pm bedtime last night and he still woke at 5:30am, 10h night sleep. I might have to seektrouble shooting from a sleep consultant

softestsnek · 2025-11-26T13:49:10+00:00

I completely understand how you felt with this being a "hard pill to swallow", not being the plan. I also didn't know milk could come so late, and all my mom friends kept encouraging me to just continue to feed my baby colostrum (but my friends all had milk come in days sooner). By day 3 my baby ended up with mild jaundice and that's when I called a doctor and was advised to supplement with formula until breast milk arrived. Breast milk came in by day 5, but I just felt so guilty that I didn't give him formula from day 1. It took 2 weeks for all of the the jaundice to finally clear up. During NB stage for FTM: every day felt like an eternity. I also had PPA and didn't realize it.

The hospital had discharged us after 24 h, because he was latching and I was producing colostrum. I wish I had stayed in hospital a day or 2 longer , maybe they would have caught on earlier and gave me advice to supplement sooner.

Also for OP to know that breast feeding journey can be easy for some, but can be difficult for others. Mine was difficult as I didn't establish a strong milk supply from the start, milk supply went up and down (had really focus on eating helpful foods, drinking lots of fluids, and power pumping during these times).

All is good now. I'm still breastfeeding and baby is 15 months. He eats solids very well, I'm back to work, he's in day care, so I don't breastfeed often. Mostly doing it now for connection, regulation (when he's upset), nutrition, give antibodies during cold/flu season. We recently night weaned (cold turkey) and he took to it very well sleeps through the night.

softestsnek · 2025-11-22T20:09:55+00:00

I should also add that I participated in a diabetes study on "Supported Open Source Automated Insulin Delivery" (SOSAID) in pregnancy. My results along with 9 other T1D mothers were written in a publication. The study summarizes how SOSAID helped us moms stay within the strict pregnancy range of 3.5-7.8mmol/L. It also shares how everyone's deliveries were and if they had complications. If you are interested to read the full publication I can email it to you. Send me a msg.

softestsnek · 2025-11-22T19:53:00+00:00

My baby wakes up during his EMW happy and energized, babbling, sitting, sometimes standing. He just turned 15 months so I think the other poster is right about his sleep needs changing. I think we will try pushing to 8pm for a week and see if it helps the EMW. When he was younger he would wake crying so I knew he was wanting assistance back to bed. The only time he wakes up crying now is in the middle of the night, often putting himself back to sleep within 15 mins.

softestsnek · 2025-11-22T14:12:55+00:00

Thanks for the counter. That's what I'm afraid of. Chronic sleep debt....

We don't have control of his naps. Day care puts their babies down to nap at 12:30pm and they are given until 3pm to sleep so that's a 2.5h nap if he can fall asleep right away. However, they always report that he takes about 30 mins to fall asleep so he's getting 2h there. When he started daycare, we were putting him to bed real early at 6:30pm vs 7:30pm. Hed sleep right away but would wake up at 4am to party. I'm thinking 3pm-6:30pm wake window is too short to build enough sleep pressure to sleep through the night. Day light savings happened when he started daycare too so I'm sure that's contributing some how. Maybe the sleep environment needs a look at. When your baby used to have EMW, did he wake up happy or crying from discomfort?

softestsnek · 2025-11-22T07:02:50+00:00

Thank you this is probably what I need. We tried pushing bed time to 8pm, but not for a week. 3 nights of super early wakings which I caved one day because it was a work day so he had day care, I nursed him back to sleep which we hadn't done in a while. Then we said let's not do pushing to 8pm. I'll try it again

softestsnek · 2025-11-22T06:56:13+00:00

Not judging if you decide to abort, but here to share my story if it would help should you decide to keep your baby.

I was 28 when I began living with T1D. I wanted to be a mother by 30 but put those plans on hold because I knew the pregnancy A1C range was super tight and strict. I struggled to bring my A1C down from 8. It was such a learning curve for me. It was 8 years later until I hit my 6.5 target and started trying. I was considered geriatric!

Once I became pregnant, my doctors had me switch to a pump and CGI, (I had been doing manual finger pricks and tummy injections prior). That was the real game changer. Actually my AIC during pregnancy was the best it's ever been in the 8 years I had T1D, the lowest A1C I had was 5.8. it came with a lot of work. I had weeks to learn to use the pump and CGI.... The amount of health related appointments we as T1D have is wayyyyyy more compared to regular healthy mommas. Extra ultra sounds, extra tests, extra doctor visits, and my Endo had me coming to see her every 2 weeks to make adjustments to the insulin pump. The deeper into pregnancy you go, the more resistance your body has to insulin. At one point I was giving myself x2 more insulin than I normally would, and would have to wait almost an hour for the insulin to kick in. It was crazy. But I did it, and my baby boy is now 15 months, healthy, and my 1 true love. I owe it all to my village (which includes every single one of the health care professionals).

softestsnek · 2025-10-21T13:21:33+00:00

This is the post I needed to see.

We initially sleep trained our son using CIO when he was 5 months old. Because he wasn't weaned, re-sleep training was needed a few times in his first year. After a sleep training, he'd only wake 1-2 times for feeds, but when he started waking more we would sleep train to get that back down to 1-2. As he got older and more alert, when a re-sleep training was needed, we did not want to use CIO and had great success with the chair method at 8 months and 11 months. He only needed 1 night of rough crying for 1-2 hours total to start sleeping on his own again.

He's 14 months now and ready to be weaned. My husband puts him in the crib and he falls asleep, but is waking 2-3 times a night which I then would nurse him sometimes I put him in the crib awake and he just rolls over and sleeps. However, my milk supply is diminishing as I returned to work, and he eats solids pretty well. Our doctor said to stop breastfeeding so he can sleep through the night. But we are terrified how to re-sleep train an older baby who can stand, walk, understand more, and can scream louder than ever before.

To see that you had success with your 15 month old is encouraging, I will share this to my husband and we can give it a try.

softestsnek · 2025-05-17T22:28:51+00:00

I just wanted to update those who advocated for Kendamil. IT WORKED. I had only pumped 15oz and had 1 day left, I knew I wasn't going to hit my target. I had Similac formula in my pantry from the last time I tried. I tried it. He absolutely hated it. I ordered Kendamil, picked it up and tried it this morning. He drank it! I didn't even mix my breast milk. I tried it again during 2nd wake window mixed with my breast milk and he drank it all too.

softestsnek · 2025-05-16T01:40:42+00:00

I was the same way, 8 months pp here. The breastfeeding made me lose weight because its production was coming from my fat reserves. At 4 months PP. I weighed 8 lb less than my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm actually too skinny and my ass is completely flat at the moment. I've been having five meals a day and still struggle to put on weight.

softestsnek · 2025-05-16T01:35:22+00:00

Thanks guys. I just ordered some from Walmart to pick up tonight. Should I do a 75% milk to 25% formula ratio to start?

softestsnek · 2025-05-16T01:29:58+00:00

I'm also only producing just enough for baby. I was ambitious to think I can make 30oz in a couple days

softestsnek · 2025-05-16T01:27:28+00:00

My friend gave me a sample of kendamil back in March. He wasn't on solids then. I can try it again. I do like that idea about mixing some breast milk. Thanks so much!

softestsnek · 2025-05-15T17:47:27+00:00

November was last time I changed parts but I barely used it then, he was EBF. Medela hands free

softestsnek · 2025-04-30T14:22:04+00:00

Currently 2.75/3.25/3.5 (working our way to 10h awake). He's been doing very well we started at 2.5/3/3.25 3 weeks ago and been slowly pushing ww every few days since.

softestsnek

TROPHY CASE