u/snuffbox360

At night she sleeps in the bassinet. But I feel like she doesn’t sleep as good there. She wakes up more often. So during the day, me and my husband switch off holding her as long as we’re awake. She sleeps so long in our arms so I feel like it’s good for her growth. And it’s good for me too because with PPD and PPA, holding her just makes me feel so much better and more connected to her. Sometimes my husband worries that I’m getting her used to it and I’m setting us up to have her refuse to sleep in the bassinet. Is there any harm in holding her literally all day?

My baby is 3 weeks old. We had a NICU stay due to dehydration and I found out she wasn’t getting basically any breastmilk from me in her first few days of life. I feel immense guilt from that time. I’m worried that my baby didn’t feel attached to me because of that time. She obviously is too young to smile at me or look at me. But she sleeps fine in her bassinet. All my friends babies hated their bassinet and wanted to be held. Mine never cries to just be held. She only cries when she wants to eat. I feel like I’ll feel so much better when she starts showing signs of wanting me. Or just gives me any type of positive feedback. Because right now, she just seems like a potato and I feel like I have no idea if she really loves me. And I’m worried that maybe she doesn’t love me or trust me because of that time when I thought she was being fed but she wasn’t….

I was holding my baby upright after a feed and was distracted and when I looked down at my baby, I saw her head turned and her ear was basically touching her shoulder. I fixed her head immediately and she wasn’t crying, but I’m worried like what if she wasn’t breathing???? She’s only 3 weeks old

Baby is 2 weeks old. Will be 3 weeks this Friday. She was cluster feeding the past few days. Today she’s just sleeping so much! She reached birth weight so we don’t have to wake her up for feeds. She generally wakes up after about 3.5 hours, but she just wakes up to eat and then knocks back out. She seems to be sleeping heavier today too. She’s easier to transition to the bassinet and car seat. Still screaming bloody murder during diaper changes though. We haven’t been able to do any tummy time today since she’s so sleepy. Is she going through a growth spurt? Is this normal? I feel like I have to really pay attention to her hunger cues too cause I feel like she’s too sleepy to really wake up and cry. She will cry a bit then fall back asleep.

UPDATE: It’s 2am and she’s wide awake

I was EBF my baby and everyone said we were doing great. Her diapers were great the two days we were in the hospital. Then we discharged on day 3 and her diaper count barely made the cut. On day 4 she had no wet diapers and we walked into the pediatrician office who said she lost 17% of her weight and we needed to supplement with formula. When we got home, I noticed she was lethargic. We went to the ER and her sodium was 158. She was dehydrated. We spent 6 days in the NICU. I found out that my supply is great, but she doesn’t transfer milk well. She was born small at 6lb 4oz so her mouth is small. She also has a tongue tie and I think she has a lip tie too. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t really eating anything for the 4 days of life. Maybe drops of my milk that were leaking from me. But who knows… when I worked with the lactation consultants in the NICU, I realized how breastfeeding was really supposed to be like and it was not like what I was doing. I realized she wasn’t really swallowing and only using me as a pacifier the whole time. So now I triple feed. We just breastfeed for practice and I give her pumped milk.

My main problem is I am absolutely worried sick about what I did to my child’s future. Did I cause brain damage? Will she have developmental delays? I know high sodium can mess with the brain. Low glucose too. Idk how low her blood sugar was cause the only time it was checked was after I gave her formula. And I think it was in the 50’s so still kinda low. I seriously can’t live with the fact that I might’ve cause irreversible brain damage in my daughter! I wanted to do everything right and I made her so perfect. She’s so adorable. But now I might’ve given her a lifetime of needing to be dependent on me. Everything seems normal right now but she’s 2 weeks old. Can’t really tell anything at this point. I feel like I won’t be at ease until she’s maybe a year or two old. And I want to enjoy this newborn time with her. If she does turn out to have a developmental delays, idk how I will live with myself. As of right now, i feel like I’m so overcome with worry that I can barely move or do anything. My husband has been taking over a lot for me…. I can barely shower or drink water. My appetite is bad. I can’t live like this for two years. I’m hoping the doctor will order some sort of brain imaging for me at her one month check up but you know how doctors and insurances are…. I seriously can’t cope. I don’t think my husband understands the extent of how guilty I feel. I’m convinced she has some brain damage and it was all my fault. I don’t know how meds or therapy will help but I have an appointment tomorrow. I don’t know what will make me feel better other than knowing my baby will be okay. I’m constantly praying to whatever God is out there to please make my daughter healthy even if it means taking everything away from me. I don’t know what to do guys. I just can’t handle this at all. I’m going crazy…

Fell asleep for almost an hour holding my baby. She was fine, but her neck looked hyperextended when I woke up. I immediately put her in the bassinet. I feel like such crap though because that could’ve been really really bad. Just wanted to vent.

Age: 15 days, weight: 6lbs 8 oz. Birth weight 6lbs 4oz and born at 37 weeks.

I’m loosing my mind and my mental health is suffering. I do have an appointment with psych and therapy btw.

My baby was EBF for about 4 days. She had great diaper counts for the two days we were in the hospital, but she was born c section and not sure if the fluids contributed to that. The third day she barely and questionably met the diaper count and it was orange colored. That was when we discharged from the hospital. I also noticed she was very cold in our home. We went out and bought socks for her. On the 4th day we walked into the peds office who said she lost 18% of her weight. Bilirubin was 14 so below therapy levels. He said we could manage by formula feeding. We went home for a couple hours and I fed her some of my pumped breast milk and was trying to give formula as well. I noticed she was lethargic and had a very weak cry. We took her to the hospital. Sodium 158. Blood sugar was in the 50’s. But I gave her breastmilk at home through a bottle. We were in the NICU do 6 days and found that she doesn’t transfer milk well. Even with some bottles, she wasn’t doing well. My supply was great though and I was able to give her pumped milk the whole time. My milk came in on day 2. The docs assured me the whole time that her neuro exam is fine and no imaging is indicated. She perked back up a few hours after she had a fluid bolus and some formula in the ER. Since then, she seems like her normal self. She has a lot of twitchy movements and googly eyes in her sleep but Google says that’s normal. She does have some ankle clonus when she’s fussy. But Google says that’s normal too. I have no idea what’s normal or not in a newborn as this is my first baby.

So what I’m wondering is what are the chances in long term brain damage? I’m concerned about neonatal hypoglycemic brain injury. I know we never saw a low blood sugar on her, but we never really got a good idea of what her sugars were like the first 3 days of life. I’m also concerned about brain damage from the hypernatremia. Obviously time will tell, but if she did have brain injury from these things, would there likely be more signs? The docs in the NICU said her vitals were good so they weren’t concerned for seizures. But there were at least two times that I caught on her monitor that her O2 dropped as low as 84% and sustained with good waveform. The nurses and I had no idea why. She went back up after about a minute or two.

Thanks in advance. My mental health is suffering over this. I wish we could get a head ultrasound or something because I feel sick to my stomach that I might’ve given my child a lifetime of health issues. I wanna enjoy the newborn phase and I can’t. Please help.

Baby is 2 weeks old and now I’m concerned she hasn’t been getting her needed fats from my milk. I haven’t been shaking my bottles to get all the stuff stuck to the side off… anyone else like me? Was she at least getting some of it?

Our baby is now almost 2 weeks old and me and my husband still have zero routine. We’re sometimes eating dinner at midnight. Sleeping on the downstairs couch. Haven’t cooked since baby was born. I really miss having a routine. It doesn’t help that I get sundown scaries really bad every night