Postpartum Tuesday: Classic Dream Blanket

Anyone know if these are made in bigger sizes for beds? They would be perfect for fl weather.

Eating help! Here’s one I haven’t seen before that I can recall and the internet isn’t much help. My formula fed 6 month old has his days and nights mixed up for eating. He’s on a great sleeping schedule overnight and with naps; however he refuses to eat during the day and gets all his nutrition overnight. He started sleeping through the night around 4 months, like 12 hours sleeping through the night. We then had a few runs of sickness through the house and I guess haven’t recovered. He’s never been the biggest fan of bottles. He doesn’t just happily suck them down. We had a good run for awhile where we were getting 6 ounce bottles down easily in 10-15 minutes every 3ish hours during the day. Now he won’t do more than 4 ounces at a time during the day and usually it’s like 1-2 and fighting the whole time. He wakes every 2-3 hours all night long and happily sucks down 6 ounces at a time.

We’re obviously working to slowly decrease what we’re offering at night but it’s hard because he’s hungry. I think he won’t eat during the day because he has better things to do – watch his older brother, roll, etc. Advice and commiseration welcomed because I’m exhausted!

Hair twirling….my 2 year old has always sucked her thumb while twirling her hair but in the last week the hair twirling has gotten excessive. She’s gotten her finger caught a few times; twice bad enough that we had to cut it out. We’ve started having her sleep in pigtails, which helps somewhat but doesn’t solve it entirely. My husband thinks we should get her hair cut super short. I’m reluctant.

I’m sure a big part of it is her new 2 month old brother — she’s dealing relatively well (and much better than a month ago) but change is tough. Any thoughts on whether this will decrease on its own? Other things we should try? So far we’ve been gently redirecting when possible, but not telling her to stop (I heard that can make it worse). The times it gets really bad are car rides and at night, when we aren’t around to intervene (and when she’s bored, I think).

I read it while pregnant as well (handle notwithstanding, my kid is 2). I thought it was a good read and helpful when thinking about my general philosophy or approach toward parenting, not really as a guide like How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen (I second NewMomAnon’s endorsement of that book). In other words, I liked some of the suggestions and implemented them, but I would recommend framing them as ways to communicate with / understand / relate to your child rather than specific strategies to get desired outcomes. I think that if you implemented all of her strategies thinking they will necessarily lead to a well-behaved good sleeper who will eat anything, you may be sorely disappointed.

I also think that while reading it it is very important to consider the different environment and societal supports you will have as a working parent in the U.S. (assuming this is the case for you).

I’ve “implemented” some of the following suggestions:

– When she was a baby, the “pause.” I thought this was helpful. Don’t expect it to magically make your kid able to sleep through the night, but for my relatively good sleeper, I do think it helped me start to be able to distinguish her cries and get to the bottom of why she was fussing, and sometimes she did calm down on her own. I had and still have a kind of biological flight-or-fight response to my kid crying and it is good to have a reminder not to panic and spring into action right away.

– Saying “please” and “thank you” and generally being super polite with my kid from the beginning. I think this makes less of a difference with her behavior than with my own state of mind (it kind of puts me in a good mood).

– Letting kid just be rather than constantly interacting or trying to entertain her. This book, I felt, gave me confidence in my feeling that it was OK to just sit on our condo deck with her in her high chair in the summer reading a book while she experimented with yogurt as a 6 month old and watched the birds and the breeze in the trees. I’m generally a bit nervous/anxious so I need a voice in my head telling me to step back and let my kid experience the world on her own without my constant hovering/running commentary/quizzing about colors and numbers and shapes; Bringing Up Bebe can be that voice for me.

I also thought the discussion of food was helpful but Ellyn Satter’s book provided more concrete, less aspirational methods for approaching babies / children and food.

High chairs or boosters for picnic tables for 2 1/2 or 3 yo?

We’re going camping this spring/summer several times. Kid is large for her age. We had been thinking of getting something like the Inglesina Fast Table Chair to hook on to picnic tables but I’m wondering if that makes sense since kid will be approaching the weight limit soon. Any other suggestions?

Haven’t tried her in her old IKEA Antilop for a while and I don’t know that she’d fit any more.

Ugh when you run out for an errand for 25 minutes and come home to find your husband has thawed 8 oz of milk “just in case” (note my 2-month-old eats maaaaaybe 3 oz per feeding, and still mostly refuses to drink from a bottle, so I’m not sure exactly what he thought he was going to do with all that milk — bathe him in it??)

Does anyone have any opinions (good or bad) on Junior League? I know it varies a ton by chapter and geographic region. But I’m considering it and would love to hear some anonymous, unfiltered thoughts. FWIW, I’m in the Midwest, and my chapter would be in a smaller metro area. Thanks in advance!