Washable Workwear Wednesday: Circle Cardigan

In this week’s scintillating episode of Why Is This My Job: how do I get husband to remember to brush kiddo’s teeth? I am going to lose it if I have to remind him again. Seriously, we do this twice a day, you’d think he’d remember by now. You don’t forget to brush your own teeth.

Advice please!

We toilet trained our son last month using the Oh Crap method (plus small rewards, minus nap/night training). He is on the younger side, but we forged ahead because he clearly had some control over when he was peeing and pooping and he was a terror during diaper changes.

He has been doing really well with the peeing since the first days. Pooping, unfortunately, is a different story. He sometimes goes in the potty, generally at his own direction. But he was also saving it for overnight or naptime from the early days of training. And now, in the past week, he has started simply pooping in his pants, sometimes multiple times a day. He doesn’t like it, and he tells us right after it happens, but still it recurs, I think because he has some fear of pooping in the potty.

Honestly, my husband and I prefer the accidents to the diaper tantrums, but we don’t want to fight an unwinnable battle or drive our kiddo totally crazy. I’d love to hear whether this is a relatively normal phase that we should just power through, or if we should revert to diapers for a while, or if there are any other approaches we should try. Also, he is in daycare, so a lot of the burden is falling on his teachers rather than on us, which I feel bad about.

Thanks so much for any advice. Including ideas for a thank-you gift for his teachers for all their help / suffering.

My previously great 12 week old sleeper has gotten too big for her bassinet, and also has begun violently resisting being swaddled. We have the magic Merlin sleepsuit, but she is slightly too small for it and can still startle herself inside of it, if that makes sense. We’ve gone from 1-2 wake-ups a night to every other hour or so. She’s also gotten much more dependent on having a pacifier in her mouth- it used to fall out and she wouldn’t notice, now she wakes up. We’re thinking of trying a swaddle again, but I have never seen her cry as hard as she did the last night we put her in it. Advice? Suggestions? I start work again very soon and am pretty nervous about the transition anyway, never mind doing it on no sleep for either of us.

My almost 16 month old son has recently started gnawing on his crib. Any advice on how to break him of this newly acquired habit? He is a great sleeper and good at occupying himself when he does wake up but now I’m wondering if it’s because he is spending his time practicing his termite skills. He’s also coughing in the middle of the night. He doesn’t need cry so I’ve been assuming he’s coughing in his sleep, but this wood thing is making me paranoid as well.
Thank you!

Looking for advice from those who used a night nurse. I have a three week old and was planning on a long maternity leave, but I just got a job offer that might require me to jump back into the workforce in a matter of weeks. I’m currently a wreck from sleep deprivation and don’t think I could function at a demanding new job without a better night’s rest. Does anyone have experience using a night nurse? Was it helpful even if you were breast feeding?

On a more general note, I’m totally terrified of starting a new job with a newborn, and worried I’m not up to the challenge. But I don’t feel as if I can pass up this opportunity–it’s a highly respected white collar boutique that almost never hires, and the partners seem like truly decent human beings. Advice on weathering the first few months? I also have a toddler; toddler + newborn + new job seems really overwhelming right now.

Did anyone have sleep issues around six months? Baby finally rolling over so unswaddled the arms, but I think he also just wakes up a lot these days – several times a night. He was previously sleeping through the night. I feel like he’s a little past Magic Merlin? He weighs 19 lbs and is definitely capable of STTN… Is this a sleep regression? He wakes up crying like he’s uncomfortable. I don’t think our presence is soothing so Ferber seems like a funny method. Agh.