Random question, but how the heck do you keep your child’s socks clean?! We have a very clean house and sweep/vacuum/mop regularly, but at the end of the day you’d think my child had been running around in the mud in her socks all day.
I’ve tried stain remover and soaking them overnight, and everything else I could think of.
Besides buying black socks, does anyone have any tricks for this?
I have a wonderful 4 year old girl who I love very much, but I have always had bigger challenges with her.
She very much seems to be a perfectionist (like me) and is very hard on herself if she can’t do things just right. If she is building blocks and accidentally knocks them over, or if she is dressing a doll and the clothes get stuck, she will throw herself on the floor and scream. We recently were working on writing letters, and if she can’t figure out how to write a letter the right way, she will throw the pen across the room and scream. Can’t draw perfectly, will crumple up the paper and throw it out.
She is also sensitive to correction (although I suspect this is normal at this age when they want to do everything themselves) as she does not want to know that she is doing something ‘wrong’. She will even make comments like “I’m bad at soccer because I can’t score” “I ruined this picture because I’m bad at drawing”.
We are very careful to not talk about ourselves like that in front of her, and to tell her that mistakes/accidents are okay, and it’s hard work to learn something and we don’t always get it right the first time. We are constantly building her up and telling her how great she is doing. It’s just hard to see her like this, and because I was the same type of child it makes me extra sad because I know how crappy it feels.
Does anyone have suggestions for how I can encourage her and help her deal with these feelings of ‘not good enough’ without a meltdown?
Over the last week and a half or so, my six month old has been crying and pulling away from his bottle. He is a big baby and was generally a pretty big eater, and would honestly have drank any bottle I ever gave him, even if he just ate.
Lately he will take a bit of his bottle, and then kick his legs and arch his back and pull away from the bottle. I’ve played around with the flow of the nipple and that doesn’t seem to make a difference, and he generally pulls away before he even lets me put the bottle back in his mouth, so I don’t think the flow is the problem. I would maybe assume that he wasn’t hungry, but he seems to be very hungry and due for a bottle when this happens (and will generally gulp the first little bit and then refuse). Any thoughts on what could be causing this? He had bad reflex as a baby but grew out of it around three months, and it makes me nervous because the symptoms were similar to this. He also seems to take a full bottle fine in the middle of the night when he is half asleep.
Some other info I’ve thought about that could be related: he had a virus about two weeks ago; he started eating some purées in the last month, he seems more gassy lately and often passes gas while drinking his bottle (if he does drink it).
We tried Ferber with our 5 month old a few days ago. We took away his beloved pacifier cold turkey, but he only cried for 5 minutes and then fell asleep until 5 AM. I was so impressed at how quickly he picked it up! And I thought that was it 😂
However, the last few nights he has gone to bed easily after about 2 minutes of crying, and then woken up multiple times in the night. Am I supposed to feed him? Am I supposed to let him cry for 5 minutes to see if he resettles?
When we sleep trained our first baby, she had one wake up for the first night and then started sleeping through the night daily after that, so I’m a bit confused on how to approach the multiple wakings, and what he needs from me during this time.
He is formula fed, so I’m fairly certain he’s getting enough to eat during the day!
We just started (some version of) Ferber 2 nights ago and cut the pacifier cold turkey for my 5 month old. It went shockingly well, he literally cried for 4 minutes before falling asleep, and now will fall asleep within 3 minutes for naps and bedtime, all on his own without the pacifier. The first night he slept through the night.
The second night, tonight, it seems that he is waking and crying more frequently, so I gave him a dream feed at the beginning of the night and a bottle later on because I was worried that he was hungry. How do I know if he’s waking out of habit, or if he actually has a need? He’s formula fed so I know how much he eats and I feel like it’s enough… but am I just supposed to let him CIO all through the night and assume he doesn’t need anything?
My baby will be 5 months next week. He hasn’t started to roll over yet, but he has started to kind of turn onto his side. He doesn’t do this when he sleeps, but it is clearly time to take away the swaddle.
I was nervous to take away the swaddle because he’s so great at putting himself to sleep the second he is swaddled. I have tried just swaddling one arm, but he still wakes himself up frequently by moving his one arm.
I remember the transition out of a swaddle being really rough for my first baby. Has anyone ever gone straight from a swaddle to sleep training?
I figure it it’s a difficult transition then I might as well get it all overwith at once, and I believe he’s at a good age to sleep train. Or do you think that’s too much change at once? Thanks!
This seems like such a weird question to ask because I had such a different experience with my first baby. With my first baby, she needed to be rocked for hours to fall asleep, gently placed in the crib so she wouldn’t wake up, and then she would still wake up pretty much every hour in the night for the first six months. With her sleep training made sense and was much needed- it worked very quickly and worked very well.
I’m now on my second baby, my son. He is almost 5 months old. He has always been a better sleeper than her, and we discovered recently that he actually does not like being rocked- he wants to be placed in his crib, and then he closes his eyes and puts himself to sleep. This has been great, except he still wakes frequently some nights- some nights he will sleep 9 hours in a row, and some nights he will wake up every 2 hours. Although I know this is normal at this age, I do know that he’s getting plenty of milk through the day as he is formula fed. So I don’t think waking at night is because he needs to eat- if anything he will eat out of comfort when he wakes.
My other concern is that he usually naps anywhere from 25-45 mins at a time but no longer, whether it is a contact nap or in his crib. I was hoping that sleep training would help him to be able to nap for longer as it did with my daughter.
My question is this- we did a Ferber method with my daughter so we left her to cry for periods at a time. I had always planned to sleep train my son at five or six months as well, but because my son does not cry when we put him down to sleep and instead just falls asleep, I don’t understand how this method would work for him. Am I just supposed to start it in the middle of the night when he wakes? Usually I just feed him a bit, burp him, and then lay him back down.
This seems like a strange situation to be in because I am used to how my first baby was, so I would love if others could weigh in on if they have experienced this and how to go about it!
My daughter will be 4 next month and I am stumped on what to get her! I feel like she has it all. Her interests are: DOLLS, Little People, playing outside, princesses, dress-up, play makeup and jewellery, arts and crafts, basically anything girly.
I don’t like buying toys that she will lose interest within a few days and will just end up getting donated, so I try to be intentional about what I buy her.
Any suggestions?
We sleep trained our first baby around 5/6 months, and it worked great for her! Our second baby is 4 months and I’m wondering if that is too early to sleep train him? I recall hearing that between 4-6 months is a good time to start. We do somewhat of a Ferber method. I know there is a 4 month sleep regression, but I’m wondering if sleep training now would help that, or if that would make it a terrible time for sleep training?
He currently puts himself to sleep independently for crib naps during the day once I lay him down with his swaddle and soother, but wakes a ton at night out of habit (he does eat tons during the day).
My other question, he is currently still swaddled as he doesn’t roll yet. Should I go cold turkey with the swaddle while sleep training?
Please share your experience if you have sleep trained a baby this age!
How many oz of formula does your 4 month old drink in a day, and at one time?
Mine used to be a somewhat decent sleeper but has been waking every 2-3 hours at night (before the 4 month sleep regression, from about 2.5 months). I feed him a lot during the day and his diapers are always super wet (day and night) so I feel like he’s getting plenty to eat. But his frequent wake-ups make me wonder if I should be giving him more during the day. I believe he is on the bigger end for his age.
Thanks!
My daughter is almost 4 and I am genuinely shocked. I feel like every time it seems like it can’t get worse- it does.
For some background, she can be so sweet and empathetic. She is wonderful at daycare and Sunday School when she is in a classroom setting without us. When she is just with us though (Mom and Dad) at home or even out in public, all hell breaks loose.
Transitions are hard, I get it. Hearing ‘no’ is hard. But everything results in a screaming meltdown on the floor. Asking her to do anything she doesn’t want to do is like pulling teeth and always results in whining and tantrums. I know we are her safe place but it seems like anyone else I know with a girl of similar age does not experience tantrums quite to this level?
I do think she is very sensitive. She doesn’t nap so is likely exhausted, she gets overstimulated. Maybe some sensory stuff. She is for sure a ‘deeply feeling kid’. But I feel like our life is just made up of constantly trying to talk her down from a tantrum or get her to stop screaming. I try to hold boundaries and follow through with what I say. I try to feed her healthy and limit screen time. Am I doing something wrong?! She truly seems like the most difficult preschooler I know, to the point where I’ve stopped hanging out with a lot of friends with 4 year old girls because I’m embarrassed about how mine acts. She plays great with other kids and is super social and sweet, but as soon as I have to tell her no or make a transition, she freaks out.
I feel bad for her because I know she has really big emotions that she doesn’t always understand, is probably so tired and overstimulated at the end of the day- so I get it. But I also feel bad for us as her parents to pretty much deal with constant screaming and a ‘difficult child’. I’m scared this is going to affect our relationship with her.
Is this normal? If you experienced this (with a daughter specifically), what helped? When did it get better? Please, I will take any advice I can get 🥺
She is starting play therapy soon to help learn some emotional regulation, but I’ll take what I can get until then.
I am a few months postpartum and want to start losing some weight. I am getting 10,000+ steps a day and want to add in some strength training- I have all kinds of dumbbells at home so preferably dumbbell workouts.
Which free YouTube strength workouts have you had success with? Or any other types of workouts that you have found to be effective at home?