Teething Tuesday: Sharky Brush

So I am pretty confident that posting will trigger a sleep regression, but I wanted to post some updates on kiddo’s sleep in case it helps any other parents with rotten sleepers.

Since my last plea for help, I’ve instituted a number of changes. As a preliminary matter, I now try to have lights off by 8 pm if she took a nap during the day, and lights out by 7 if no nap. That’s about half an hour earlier on nap days and generally seems to get her in bed before the overly tired crazies begin.

I’ve moved the bedtime routine (book, song, gratefuls) from the glider to her bed – all sorts of things were going sideways during the transition from glider to bed, so it made sense to simplify. I now give her a “last call” for potty time before she climbs into bed; if she asks to go potty after that, we keep the bathroom lights off and I won’t join her in the bathroom. Last night she demanded potty after lights out and then didn’t do anything in the potty, so she got a time out for lying to mama. We’ll see how that plays out tonight.

I’ve also made some physical changes to her sleeping space – she now has a twin bed that seems to be helping (no more bonking her head or getting an arm stuck in the toddler bed slats at night), I’ve removed all toys and books from her bed except for a couple comfort animals, and we’ve been using a weighted blanket. The weighted blanket isn’t a magic bullet, but I swear it has cut the post-book falling asleep period by half. The blanket is also hot, so I discovered I have to turn down the thermostat at night or she’ll kick it off and wake up.

Finally, and maybe most importantly – I try hard to get her half an hour of physical exertion after dinner and before bed. We’ve been swimming, biking in the apartment building hallways, running laps in the hallways, climbing stairs, etc. It definitely helps.

Just some thoughts for mamas struggling with toddler and preschooler sleep. It isn’t perfect, but we’re generally down to 45 minutes from starting bedtime routine (pjs, teeth brushing, etc) to falling asleep and one or no night wake ups. The OK to Wake clock keeps her in bed until 6:30 am, which works for me.

On the subject of today’s toothbrush… I need some serious help with teeth brushing for my 19 month old. We got him an electric toothbrush for xmas thinking that would make it fun and exciting (initially it did), but he’s really digging in his heels now (again – same as pre-xmas) when we try to move it around in his mouth – he just wants to put it on his lower teeth and not move it anywhere. He gets MAD when we try to help and the last several nights it has been a very big battle with high emotions. I have tried to model for him, tried lots of praise, and tried to just be firm, but it always results in a battle. Any ideas for a reset on this or other tricks to motivate? Maybe there are some easy tricks that haven’t occurred to us – I’m open to any ideas. Thanks in advance!

Placenta previa – success stories??

Did anyone have early placenta previa (I’m 12w) and have it move up and out of the way sooner rather than later? Besides all the activity restrictions (I was having bleeding, so I don’t think they were being overly cautious), I’m worried I will be grounded and have to miss every business trip for the rest of my pregnancy.

I have a call in to my doctor to see what her recommendation is as far as air travel, but I’m bummed. Bleeding is so scary even though I know what’s causing it and that the likelihood that the placenta remains in the wrong place at full term is low.

Of my two friends who have had it, one ended up with a scheduled C because it never moved, and the other delivered normally but suffered from awful bleeding the whole time. Is it all doom and gloom??

Hi ladies,
Piggybacking on all the kindergarten talk yesterday, does anyone have input on whether parents in NYC, which has a December 31 cut-off, actually send their not-qute-5s to kindergarten or hold them back? We are probably moving there over the summer, and looking at options for our 4 year old son. He is currently the youngest, and by far the smallest, in his PreK 4 class (early September birthday in a city with a September 1 cut-off, long story) but seems to thrive on it – he is a highly extroverted, very social and very athletic kid who is doing very well socially and emotionally, and his teacher says he should be ok academically in K. So we are inclined to see the December 31 cutoff as a good thing for him but on the other hand if he will actually be 18 months younger, 6 inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than all the other kids, that would be very helpful to be able to take into account.

FWIW we are looking at parochial schools, public or charter if we can’t get a spot elsewhere, probably in the Bronx.

Thanks!

What nail polish do you use if any? It would be nice to have a neat manicure. Any recommendations for nail polish that lasts the entire work week? Something I can use at home. TIA!

I missed yesterday’s question on early kindergarten entry but wanted to offer a contrasting opinion. Our daughter missed the kindergarten cut-off by a few months but was well prepared for kindergarten in terms of academic, social, and fine motor skills. We sent her to private kindergarten at a preschool and transferred her into first grade at our local public school the following year. For her, it was absolutely the right choice. She is now in fifth grade and doing well socially and academically. She has been elected to student government. Her best friend is almost exactly one year older than she is. She is in the gifted program and every advanced class or group offered, and she is still not always adequately challenged by the pace of instruction. We are convinced that if we’d held her back until traditional kindergarten age, she would have been so bored that she would have been at risk for behavioral, social, and academic problems.

We did not make this decision lightly. We would not have done it if she hadn’t been doing well socially in preschool. We also didn’t rely on our own judgment–we had professional advice to inform us.

We were extremely fortunate that our public school accepted our daughter into first grade. In our district, underage children are never accepted into kindergarten, and underage children who have completed an accredited kindergarten program are only accepted into first grade at the principal’s discretion. Out of about fifteen kids in her private kindergarten class, only two actually went straight to first grade without repeating kindergarten. Several didn’t have the option because their principals didn’t allow it, and most of the other kids’ parents decided to repeat them for various reasons. Repeating kindergarten in public school after attending a preschool-based private kindergarten program is very common, and doesn’t have to be a negative experience. Our school’s public kindergarten is academically more rigorous than the private kindergarten program our daughter attended, and if your child ends up repeating it’s easy to frame it as a different thing than private kindergarten.

Finally, we were advised that private school might not be a good choice for our daughter because none of the private schools in our area will accept underage children or allow grade advancement. If we had gone the private school route, she would have had to repeat kindergarten. So investigate all of your private and public school options carefully ahead of time.