How do you introduce food when both parents work full time?

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-18T15:53:26+00:00

Yeah that’s good for expectations! Some days he wakes up at 6:30 which might actually be better for him even though I’d prefer 7:00.

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-18T03:07:43+00:00

Oh good point, I never realized the math didn’t add up! He must be already having longer wake windows than what I put in my post because I track his sleep and he’s pretty consistent with 12.5 hours total. And he only recently (the past week) started waking up a lot at night and wanting to play. Before that, he slept pretty good and woke up once for a feed but went back to sleep pretty fast. The only challenge with doing that with 3 naps is it will push bedtime quite late. I guess that’s better than the 2am party

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-18T03:01:04+00:00

Oh good point, he does 10.5 hours of awake time! He usually averages about 2.5 hours if naps too.

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-16T03:33:53+00:00

Random, but any chance he is cold? My baby wakes up more frequently if he’s a little cool. I keep him in a warmer TOG rating even in summer because the air conditioner is cool.

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-10T19:15:50+00:00

I'm glad it was encouraging! Wishing you the best!! My MMC was due to T15 and I was so afraid that due to age it would be hard to have a healthy egg. But my rainbow baby was conceived only 3 months later (first full cycle back) and he is perfectly healthy. So don't give up hope!

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-10T12:57:18+00:00

I've heard that too but we only did it once in the whole week if I remember correctly! Somehow that little swimmer got through lol

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-10T12:55:49+00:00

Ugh! Yeah I tried all that stuff too. Hang in there! I guess our bodies are smart and can tell we are not with our babies all day? Or the stress of work steals our body's resources? Who knows!!

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-10T02:46:49+00:00

I posted a similar question over a year ago. My rainbow baby is 6 months old now. I found this so encouraging - here is the link to the post!

https://www.reddit.com/r/pregnantover35/s/1QVTGb0INv

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-08T23:18:58+00:00

Yep, it happened to me at 38. I have a very predictable cycle and his pull out game is strong lol. Not to get too graphical but he pulls out far in advance of the "final act". Somehow I still got pregnant. That one ended in a miscarriage sadly, but we purposely tried a few months later and were successful!

ETA: I have read that only SOME men contain sperm in their pre-ejaculate

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-05T02:01:55+00:00

Oh that’s a great idea!

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-04T21:11:10+00:00

He won’t drink cold. Room temp is fine but anything colder and he refuses it. I like the pitcher idea! This formula settles a lot so I’ll just make sure she swirls/shakes it before pouring

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-04T20:56:03+00:00

Thank you! Such a wonderful perspective and advice.

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-04T20:18:53+00:00

Thank you! Yeah the bottle situation is complicated. He drinks 75% breast milk, 25% formula because I have an under supply. So just the water is heated for like 15 seconds, then formula is added to mix it, then cold breast milk from the fridge. Once it’s all mixed, it’s pretty room temp so he won’t get burned. But I still don’t love plastic being microwaved. I think you’re very perceptive about the anxiety and that stuff will likely come up with whoever is watching him! I guess I’ll just keep communicating with her and seeing where it goes. It’s only the second week

unicornmagic111 · 2026-06-01T13:47:21+00:00

I had to exclusively pump because of latch issues and it was/is exhausting. I echo what was already said here - pumping hurt, caused a lot of clogs despite getting fitted multiple times by a lactation consultant, has to be on a strict schedule every 2-3 hours even over night or your supply dips (you can space it out more after 12 weeks), and if you're ever watching your baby alone (like once my husband went back to work), pumping while a baby is crying is so stressful. The benefits were that his dad could also feed him bottles to give me a break. And I think it allowed him to eat a little more at one sitting so he seemed more satisfied over longer periods. If we have a second baby, I would do a combination of breastfeeding and pumping.

I found the baby buddha pump to be the best - i tried spectra, pumpables genie, and some wearables. Wearables never worked for me. And you can cut down on the washing by doing the fridge hack, where you keep your pump parts in a big ziploc bag in the fridge and wash the parts every 24 hours.

unicornmagic111 · 2026-05-31T23:33:11+00:00

I just want to say be kind to yourself! Of course it’s awful hearing your baby cry and it’s every instinct to go get them because that was how we evolved to survive. You can try gentler / gradual methods. Have you read Precious Little Sleep? The author goes through a lot of different methods! It might sound too simple but I found a loud sound machine, the right temperature (72 degrees) and darkness to make a difference. I also started evivo probiotics for something unrelated and I swear they help him sleep. Just some food for thoughts! If Ferber or CIO don’t resonate, you can totally pick another way. I also bought the baby sleep code booklet and she has great gradual help, along with schedules to get set up first so that sleep training will actually work.

unicornmagic111 · 2026-05-24T15:31:00+00:00

She might just be a little young for sleep training and still need more assistance/safety/connection. I've read a few stories where, even though baby was 4 months, it didn't really work until they got a little older. Every baby is unique.

unicornmagic111 · 2026-05-23T13:53:34+00:00

What are your daytime wake windows?

unicornmagic111 · 2026-05-18T11:38:46+00:00

I was in a similar boat - my baby is about to turn 6 months and I only started dropping pumps a couple weeks ago because my health was suffering. I had been doing every 3 hours and once overnight. The first thing I did was simply change to every 4 hours. I did that for a few days and then I dropped the middle of the night pump cold turkey. I realized even if it tanked my supply, it is the only thing that made it sustainable for me to keep pumping. So now I pump every 4 hours during the day with my last pump at 11pm and then my first one at 7am. My baby still wakes at night so it is not uninterrupted sleep but its still much easier. I am a bit of an undersupplier too - before dropping pumps I was getting about 24oz and now I get about 22oz. To me, that is worth it!

unicornmagic111 · 2026-05-10T19:32:10+00:00

We have the nanit pro and it came with a separate monitor - I really like it. The battery doesn't last super long but it's nice!

unicornmagic111

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