Jennifer H

1. I needed to know I wasn’t alone in my struggles (especially breastfeeding), and I needed to know what I was experiencing was normal (especially baby sleep!). I also needed to hear success stories from people with similar breastfeeding challenges (mainly, inverted nipples).
2. I needed people to check in on me and see how I was doing. I loved getting those check-in texts in the early days/weeks.
3. I needed to know that it was normal not to feel like myself and that I would develop a new normal for myself, that was a combination of my old self and my new mom self.

Re baby sleep schedules: The idea of getting babies who have three or more naps per day on a schedule drives me nuts!! In my experience with my three kids and observing many other babies, some babies seem inclined to be on a schedule and some do not. My babies were not, and when I couldn’t get my first on a schedule (mainly because his nap lengths varied tremendously), I felt like a failure. Once my babies transitioned to two naps, they were much more scheduled. But before that, all bets were off. The one exception was when my middle child was in the NICU for 8 days. She was on an amazing schedule of eating almost exactly every three hours, guided by her sleep. But the day she came home, it was over. I think she loved all the cozy sleep props they used. Anyway, I found guidance around wake-time windows to be much more helpful in guiding newborn sleep. Schedules may work for some babies, but not all.

Hi! My name is Jennie, and I have three kids ages 2-7. I live in San Francisco and work in k-12 education. I read Expecting Better when I was pregnant with my first child and found it so helpful for reducing my worries and filling my need for data. I’ve been an Emily fan ever since! I love the content that has to do with older children and panic headlines, and I love contributing to questions related to younger children (especially breastfeeding with inverted nipples!). So nice to meet the Parent Data team virtually! Thanks for all that you do ❤️