I was on the fence about going to this postpartum baby yoga class near me because it's pretty expensive, $30 for an hour whereas all the other classes at this studio are $20 for 90 minutes. And money is really tight right now. But I thought, what the hell, I'll treat myself to one class and see what it's all about.

Class was at 10:45 so I started to get ready around 9 am. Got myself showered and dressed while baby was napping. Baby woke up at 9:45, I changed her, fed her, got her dressed in this cute little outfit to show her off, put her down under her baby gym while I ate breakfast. She was in a great mood and I was feeling proud of myself for leaving plenty of time to get ready. Got all her stuff together, diaper bag, change of clothes just in case, grabbed my yoga mat. At 10:40 just as I was getting ready to put her in her carrier and walk out the door (later than I was hoping to leave but the yoga studio is just down the street) she starts crying and rooting. I'm not proud to say, I immediately burst into tears.

I considered trying to show up late -- surely since she had just eaten 45 minutes ago this would be a short feed -- but that didn't pan out because she ended up staying on the boob until 11:20. I emailed asking if I could move my reservation to next week but I'm not hopeful since I didn't get my email out until after class had started.

So now I'm out $30 and my baby is all dressed up with nowhere to go. I feel like a complete idiot for thinking this was a good idea. Learn from my mistakes, don't try to go to mom & baby activities before 6 months. Save your money and stay home.

Edit: Thanks everyone for the encouragement, they let me move my registration to next week so I'm going to try again!

Idk if this is normal but I got the final bill for both my baby’s NICU stay and my labor

For my birth is was almost $70k (THANK FUCK INSURANCE COVERED IT) and for the NICU is was like $90k for a week

WHAT THE FUCK, from the bottom of my heart, truly WHAT THE FUCK

I got laid off so don’t work and my partner and I aren’t married so the state essentially paid for my birth and NICU minus $3k because I’m on state insurance but from the bottom of my heart whhyyyyy wtffff who tf can pay this???? Why is it this much???? Who has this money just laying about????

Is this really how much this cost??? Am i insane for thinking this isn’t normal?????

I’ll keep it simple since there’s no way around it. The hospital, Memorial Hospital down in FL, is charging us $27k for delivery our baby. The hospital is out of network for the baby but the hospital was in network for mom for the c-section.

Bottom line, apparently we had to find a hospital that was in network for both mom and baby prior to any of this so that we could get covered by both companies. As a surprise to no one we did not know that and now we are being billed $27k.

We already sent an appeal to the insurance which got denied, the hospital just points back at the insurance, and we have no idea what else to do. Looking for any advice from people in similar situations.

Also, out of curiosity, in a situation like this, what are you supposed to do during birth? Get the c-section at the designated hospital and then somehow convince the doctors to transport the baby to a different hospital that is in network for them?? Genuinely, this is baffling, i think i would have been better off sending my wife away to canada or something for the 9 months and then have her come back after everything was done 🫩

Posting here mainly to vent after the sixth night wake-up of our sick one-year-old while my husband snores.

My husband and I had very little marital issues up until the birth of our first child together. He mostly cooked, did his own laundry, paid for a cleaning service, and more. I genuinely felt like our domestic duties were split fairly.

Cut to the birth of our son and I was immediately saddled with 100% of the nights despite many conversations about my desire for him to take over mornings (he always gets up around 5am so I can sleep uninterrupted). I went so far as to purchase and organize a second set of everything for his downstairs office/guest room so this could be done—extra crib, sheets, clothes, blankets, towels, etc. He never used it. It sat at the top of our steps until I finally put it away myself.

I even used to pump, keep up my over supply so he had bottles to give and had a stocked freezer for this very purpose. All while only getting 2-3 hours of sleep at a time for MONTHS.

At the time I justified the brunt of childcare falling on my lap because he was working long hours at a startup and I was only working part-time. However now that I am working more, watching my son full time, and going back to school to get a secondary degree, having to study late at night after my son goes to bed, I am STILL doing nights by myself.

Even more infuriating, if I’m not in bed and am trying to get work done for class, he will text me to let me know our son is up crying and I didn’t respond in a quick enough matter of time and it’s interrupted his sleep.

I’m so beyond resentful of him it’s destroyed everything I felt we had in marriage. He’s a good dad during the day, our son loves him, but he’s not a partner. He hasn’t even done a fraction of the work I’ve done and honestly I want to leave once I’m financially stable again, but I don’t want to do that to my son.

Anyways, there’s not really a point to this other than to express my growing resentment and frustration. I never thought I’d be in this situation either. I thought I married one of the “good” ones, but having a child has changed our marriage for the worst and I don’t know how it will recover.

TLDR: my son is one-year-old and my husband has never done a night shift despite us both working and me going back to school. I’m burnt out and resentful, this isn’t the man I married.

OH. Editing to add that I do basically 100% of the cooking, cleaning, laundry, food shopping, and household management.

I really didn’t think I could experience gender disappointment. But I found out we are having our second boy. We only want two kids, so this is it for us. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t incredibly disappointed and grieving the daughter I thought I would have. I don’t doubt I will love this baby boy so much, just like my first; but I cannot pretend I’m not insanely disappointed and sad that I will never have a daughter. I have a great relationship with my mom and wanted to have that with a daughter.
Those who have boys; what did you do to help you overcome your gender disappointment? What are things I can look at as positives moving forward knowing I’ll be a boy mom?

how do you feel about it?

Our first baby is about 6 weeks old. Due to a lot of factors we are currently triple feeding him.

Therefore, he gets a lot of cold formula and pumped breastmilk out of the fridge unheated.
Several times now while family has been over they’ve seen me get a bottle straight out of the fridge and give it to him. They act like they’ve seen a second coming of Christ and can’t believe he’ll drink a cold bottle.

Before having the baby we saw all the bottle warmers and such and figured babies probably preferred warm ones but never thought too hard about it.

Is this really that big of a deal? Are we unknowingly really lucky not having to heat milk/formula up at 3 am or while we’re out in public?

I would love to hear from others about their experiences with cold vs. warm feedings.

I’m still pretty freshly postpartum (5 weeks) and I’m exclusively pumping. I’m 25 pounds heavier than my pre pregnancy weight and although I’m trying not to stress about it right now, the number on the scale is in the back of my mind. Is it even possible to lose weight while breast feeding? I want to get back to lifting weights and I do go for nightly walks with my family. I know my body did an amazing thing and is still doing an amazing thing by breast feeding but I’d also like to feel good about myself.

I prepared for the birth of my child for many, many months including how much it was going to cost us. I can’t tell you how many times I called my insurance company to make sure my insurance plan was covered, my husband’s insurance plan was covered, and all in all that we were covered no matter what. I knew it was still gonna be a hefty bill, but I needed to make sure that there weren’t going to be any insane surprises.

While you can plan for these types of situations, you can’t plan for what life can throw at you. About two weeks before I gave birth not only did we lose my husband’s brother, but my husband got laid off from work. We lost our insurance, we lost his steady paychecks, we lost paternity leave which was going to be 100% covered by his company, and he was unable to sign up for disability because he had been with the company for only 10 months. These events put us in a place of uncertainty and I didn’t know how we were gonna pay the bills.

My son came into this world at the end of July and I just got some of the medical bills. On the low end we were going to owe over $6000, which we really have no way of paying. I decided to call the hospital today to ask for an itemized bill and to see if they had any payment plan option. While the representative on the phone was helping me look up payment plan options. She asked me if I wanted to see if I qualified for financial assistance. She told me it was possible that I could get 60 to 100% of the medical bill covered. With my luck I didn’t think I was going to receive any kind of help. The next thing she told me on the phone you’re covered. We had been joking around, so I thought maybe she was playing some sort of evil prank, so when I asked her to clarify, she said your hospital bill is 100% covered and you don’t owe us anything. I cried right then in there and I’ve pretty much been crying all day. This was a huge burden, lifted off my shoulders and I feel so grateful.

The moral of the story is be an advocate for yourself and sometimes good things can happen 💕

I am 6 months post partum, and I still look 5-6 months pregnant. (not an exaggeration, I compared photos.)

I am 5’0, 117 pounds, (I was 100lbs pre-pregnancy) and every bit of that extra weight is in my stomach. It looks so round, and sticks out further than my boobs. I legitimately look pregnant still.

And anyone I mention my weight to, my feelings are invalidated because “oh your so tiny though,” “ugh i wish I was only 117,” like okay, maybe. But 117 pounds on someone with my frame/height, (between 4’11-5’0) and it is ALL in your belly, YOU LOOK PREGNANT. I do not fit any of my pre pregnancy clothes. I cannot wear anything other than my maternity clothes or my husbands baggie t shirts. I can’t even wear my old t shirts anymore.

I feel very self conscious with my belly still so big and round. I don’t know what to do about it. The last 2-3 weeks i have begun diastis recti rehabilitation workouts, as well as the treadmill, and full body post-partum workouts, while also making diet changes and counting calories. ( I’m still learning and counting calories easily gets very tedious, which is very hard to manage at times with kids + infant) but I’m trying to consume no more than 1400 cals.

I guess it’s not been so long. I just thought I wouldn’t look so pregnant this far post partum. I wouldn’t expect my body to be perfect or even at pre pregnancy weight by any means, but I seriously look like I birthed him yesterday. I’m so sick of feeling this way, not fitting anything, therefore not leaving the house.

I have a wedding to attend soon and it’s stressing me out just thinking of how an I going to find something that is formal and doesn’t make me look so pregnant.

If anyone has advice I’m open. I think I’m mostly venting. I feel like I’m doing all the right things. Maybe I haven’t given it enough time idk. I would so, so much rather this extra 17 pounds to be evenly distributed throughout my body, instead, I’m skinny every where and have this huge round belly. It is hurting me mentally.

If anyone has had this specific problem, please let me know

My mom meal prepped for my first and it was a huge help when I had a c-section. My second is due in early January and will be a second c-section. It’s a little different this time as my mom won’t be able to do the prep for me and I have a toddler. For those who have meal preped for postpartum, what were the family faves? bonus if it landed well with a consistenly inconsistent picker eater.

Starting out by saying that me and my MIL have a good relationship and she is a good person but jesus she sucks with babies.

She only had one kid and my baby is 3 month old, she just doesn't listen. I tell her he is getting tired she says she is going to try to make him sleep but gives up after about 3 minutes into soothing him.

She puts toy after toy after toy on his face and think that's playing. She literally put him in his carrier and just stood there looking at him singing thinking he would just fall asleep.

How do you deal with your in laws or family overall when they are helping you taking care of the baby? I am a FTM so nothing that I would actually appreciate more than a more experienced mother showing me some tricks or sharing this heavy job with me.

Any tips on getting a toddler to start toddling? My baby turned a year 2 weeks ago but he isn't interested in using his walker toy. He loves walking while holding our hands, cruising on furniture. He hasnt stood alone yet either.

He is also 5 weeks early. He crawled a bit late too - right at 10 months actual.

I’m just here to rant… idk if my cycle is coming or not and I’m just in my feels but you guys are my diary that talks back lol so here goes nothing…

Baby girl will be a year in about 2 weeks. I(24f) hit a bit of a rough patch after hubby(27m) went back to work when she was about 6 weeks old. It was hard finding a routine (which I crave) at first. I struggled getting stuff done around the house because she was always fussy and wanted to be held. But now that she is almost a year I’ve gotten it down for the most part. Of course there are still some days where I get absolutely nothing done. But I’m here for progress not perfection. Hubby does help where he can but baby girl mainly wants me which can get overstimulating on some days.

Hubby works more than 40 hours a week most weeks. Some days he works his eight hour shifts and comes home for dinner and has to go back out for OT that’s being offered so that are finances are good (I don’t work). Often times when I’m in the mood, he’s not. He says when we have sex at night he is really sleepy in the morning and it’s hard to wake up. Which I get because for some reason I’m the same way, idk if it’s because we get super relaxed after sex or what? Who knows.

So since he goes to work super early, we don’t have sex in the morning. And now he says he doesn’t want to have sex on week nights but also not on Saturday nights either because we have church in the morning on Sundays. Which leaves Friday nights… well I’ve tried initiating at those times and it just seems like he’s not interested anymore I’ve even tried early in the day on Saturday and he just seems to be “too busy”.

On another note since this post is long already anyways… he likes my long hair. I’ve told him I have split ends and want to get it trimmed. He didn’t really want me to and I told him my hair grew even longer because of the prenatals. So I went to go get my hair trimmed today and they only took off about 1.5-2 inches because I didn’t want a drastic change and don’t want short hair. So now my hair reaches to my lower back so it’s still long. I actually love it. But he came home from work today I tried initiating sex again while baby girl was taking a nap and he didn’t want to for whatever reason. But he looked at my hair and said “oh noooo it’s short now” I kept explaining it was well needed and it’s definitely not short as it still reaches my lower back. It just seems like he didn’t like it which made everything worse…

Idk…. I just feel like he’s not interested anymore…

I have always had some health anxiety but now that I’m a mom I’m just so extremely scared of getting sick and dying.
Has anyone else had the same experience?
And yes, I have a therapist etc!

Anyone else experience this? I’m not concerned, just curious. My baby’s adjusted age is 10 weeks, and chronological age is 16 weeks.

Probably around 2 months home, I’d let my in-laws watch him for a few hours. It was nice, but now, I can’t stand to even be away that long. I think part of it is that he’s more alert now, and I feel like if I’m distressed without him, he must miss me too.

I also went back to work recently and have someone who babysits him in my house while I work from home. I hate it lol. I just want to take care of him.

Hi everyone,

Mum to an 11 day old baby, and sadly I’ve got 0 breastmilk supply so he’s exclusively bottle fed. We’ve been using ready made formula, and now have a Nuby cool system to move to powdered formula.

My question: the scoop for actimel powder doesn’t nicely empty into the Nuby powder dispenser. Are there any recommended tips and tricks to make that easier that anyone’s aware of?

Thanks so much, love this community, it’s been so helpful so far 💜

So I’m just posting because if you’re anything like me you’ve probably tried multiple different products and still wound up stinky — Salt & Stone extra strength deodorant actually works on postpartum BO!

I ran around with my dog for 45 minutes and thought surely it can’t defeat that. It did. Make sure it’s the extra strength with baking soda! Evidently pp Bo is acidic so the acid based deodorants like lume (I do my best to use nontoxic/clean products especially now as through pregnancy and breastfeeding) don’t work as well as a base like baking soda. Anyways! In case that will help anyone!

The things that excite one post childbirth ha

Hey guys, I’m getting the itch to take my 6 week old camping. The thought makes me excited but then I think about all the things we need to bring and get a little overwhelmed… please tell me all the products you brought and or bought for your baby that made your life easier for camping.

Is anybody experiencing pain in calves? It feels like precramping pain. Sometimes it’s just one leg at a time, sometimes it’s both. It would stay for a few days and go away then come back. I’m 3 months postpartum and I have benign fasciculation syndrome.

My LO just turned 10 weeks old today. My wife and I are wanting to add a book to our nighttime routine. We use soft books during the day as a playtime activity. Currently our routine is diaper change, pajamas, sleep sack, white noise, feed (breast fed) and rock to sleep before placing in bassinet. It has worked well so far and luckily we have a good sleeper. Where should we add a book/bedtime story? Before the entire routine starts? before the last feed? or after the feed before we place into bassinet? We are having a hard time deciding as we want baby to engage with the book but feel that would also serve as a distraction when we are trying to wind down. I have also suggested me reading the story out loud while baby feeds as to not disrupt the current routine but still have some “story time”.

Side note: I know baths help with a nighttime routine also but am worried it would dry their skin out. Do you use soap every time or just get them wet? Sorry for all the questions, I’m new to this!

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

We have a 4 month old and we’re on the 4 naps/day schedule. Usually we try to have the last nap ends at 530-6 for 730-8 bedtime with 2ish hours wake window. Sometimes his 3rd nap is at awkward times like 3-330 to 4-430. In this case, is it better to have a 4th quick nap at 6-630 and put him down for bedtime at 9-930? OR skip the 4th nap and put him down early at 6-630?

My third child is 16mo and barely talks. It took forever to get to “mama” and “dada”. He doesn’t label either of us, he just says them for anything. Even when he cries, it’s just crying, not asking for anyone. He can also say “nana”, “gaga”, and “gog”.

He also knows a few signs but they are meshed together. “Help”, “more”, “and “milk” are all the same sign. “Please” is a chaotic Wheels On The Bus motion.

If you ask him where the car/ball/keys are, he will look for them and maybe go get them. If you say to give a kiss/hug, he might do it. If you say “outside”, he goes to the door.

He points to his nose, ears, belly button, and fingers when asked.

But “gog” is EVERYTHING. If it’s because of a dog, it is a very distinct “Gah-g”. But everything is “gog” too. Cow, car, ball, book, shoes, ect. If you ask him to say xx, he says “gog”.

Is this remotely close to normal? I’m stressed out. I know I shouldn’t be but admittedly, my anxiety is worse with this kiddo.

Thank you in advance.