HOW are we waking our newborns?!

I'm trying to not go longer than 3 hours inbetween breastfeeds as my baby is not back to birthweight and my boobs are feeling quite engorged.

I'm having such a hard time waking my baby up for feeds and everything I'm reading online is about newborns feeding constantly, mine feels like the opposite?

I've tried changing, stripping down, cold water on belly, ticking feet, blowing, placing on a cold changing mat, talking, moving. It's taking me around 20 minutes to wake.

Surely this isn't normal. I'm worried I won't even make it to 8 feeds today.

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This was exactly me with my first my daughter took 3 month to get to her birth weight and be discharged. My advise which i got off my heath vistior don't bother let baby sleep. Which i did and I decided to exclusively pumped as I couldn't latch either of my children and I couldn't wake them. I did everything they say like you have mentioned change the nappy, change the clothes, put the light, cold cloth and nothing and when i was able to they fell asleep while having a bottle which meant the breast milk was going to waste/bath milk. I would suggest if you wanted to try getting bottles and getting a pump for the night feed. Pump as you would feed and then use that milk to make up bottles in the day either more milk at each feed or extra bottle (if they are taking bottles). I did this for a year with both mine and was perfect for me i could keep track of exactly how much baby was drinking and how often and then show hv when they came to weigh.

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It’s normal. As long as baby is having plenty of wet and dirty nappies, you can just follow their lead with sleeping and feeding. Pump if you’re engorged

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Nursery help please!!!!

I’m due to return to work from maternity leave in January 2027 and I’m DREADING IT, he’ll be 1. I just feel so bad for him, I have such a clingy baby and I think he’s going to think I’ve abandoned him 😭 we co-sleep, is exclusively breastfed (won’t take a bottle / dummy but will sometimes have small amounts of pumped milk in a cup with straw) and I’m the only one who can put him down for naps (fed to sleep) and then I roll away. Not even his dad can put him to sleep (he falls asleep with rocking but wakes the moment he touched the mattress when transferred).

I’ve never spent more than 2 hours away from him (2-3 times). We don’t have any family or friends who can look after the baby to even practice him being away from us.

In an ideal world I would wait for him to go to nursery when he is able to talk and understand that I’m not leaving him forever and I’ll be coming back, the thought of it breaks me!

I’m already struggling with mental health (post natal depression and anxiety). I’m considering taking a career break (if my work will let me), or staying off sick for a few months or paying back my enhanced maternity pay (£9000) and leaving the company! Money will be very tight but this could work for around 6 months.

I don’t know what to do, any suggestions or experience would be appreciated!

Thanks xxx

Keeping Baby Entertained

How are we all keeping our baby’s entertained? My girlie’s wake windows are sometimes up to 2 hours now, and I’m out of things to do😭😂

We practice tummy time, stretches to encourage rolling, reading, singing nursery rhymes, etc. But she only ever lasts a few minutes before getting frustrated, she must think I’m boring😂😂

Ps she also hates her pram so walks aren’t really an option unless she’s in her carrier, but if she’s not tired she gets mad in there too😂

Switching to formula

I will have exclusively fed my 3 month old breastmilk in 2 weeks time and I think for my mental health I want to combo feed. Does anyone have any tips on this? I currently pump 7 times within 24 hours and would like to reduce that so I can live without having to pump every 3 hours. Any tips or advice would be appreciated. Xxx

NAPS (again)

I asked the other day how many of you have dropped to 1 nap already, everywhere is saying 11 months is too young but my god daytime sleep is a battle at the minute. How did you know it was time to drop one?

For the last week and a bit she has refused every single morning nap, then passes out about mid day for an hour. Because of this I have been doing bedtime around 5:30/6 instead of 7 and for the most part she will sleep until 6:30am.

The thing is she seems exhausted all day doing this, but I cannot get her to sleep any earlier and by the time she wakes up it's too late to fit in another nap before bedtime because she's not got enough sleep pressure at her normal bed time.

I know there's a sleep regression around this age, she also seems to be getting some more teeth, and is trying so hard to walk so is this her needing to change her wake windows and drop to a single nap or is it just temporary because of one of the above reasons - and how do you know which it is?