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The Curse of the 45 Minute Nap

December 14, 2012 by Sarah Leave a Comment

It’s baaaaa-aaack. Already? The 45 minute nap reared it’s ugly face so soon into our lives again. Ethan is just 8 weeks old this week….and it’s back already. Sigh. I don’t recall the 45 minute nap finding Braden so fast, but this is the main cause of my lack of blogging lately. Ethan used to have a blissful 2-3 hour swing nap every morning while Braden ate his breakfast and did his usual morning things while mommy sipped her coffee and blogged. Not.any.more. About every other day Ethan has 45 minute naps all day. It is a big waste of my day. Yup, I said it and I know my mommy friends know exactly what I mean.

I spend about 30 minutes getting Ethan fed and rocking him until he’s asleep to lay him down. So by the time that happens he’s been sleeping for at least 5-10 minutes (depending on how tired he is) and if he pulls a 45 minute nap? Then that only gives me about 35ish minutes to myself to get stuff done around the house.

On a 45 minute nap day? I want to pull out all my hair. Braden senses this and becomes extra naughty. I’m trying to put Baby Brother to sleep in his room in the glider and Big Brother comes bounding in like a baby elephant, hides in Ethan’s closet and starts kicking the door. He knows I can’t yell at him because I have a trying-to-get-to-sleep baby in my arms, and if I have to rinse-lather-repeat this scenario all day…I’m just fried by the end of it.

But, luckily there is a silver lining to this. Yesterday was a 45 minute nap day, for the most part, and it’s like he saves his sleep for night time and slept over 8 hours last night. So that? I will happily take it. He already has wake periods of up to 4 hours if he is having an I-don’t-want-to-nap-day…but then he happily goes to bed at night for a long stretch.

So why the 45 minute nap? I did read Baby Wise when I was pregnant with Braden and decided it wouldn’t work for my family, but they coined the term “45 minute intruder” nap and it is SO true. We have sleep cycles of light-deep-light and that 2nd “light” phase comes in at 45 minutes. Eventually they are supposed to outgrow it, and Braden did when we sleep trained him.

I know there’s nothing I can do, Ethan is way too young to sleep train, so I guess I’ll just have to suck it up on the 45 minute nap days and pray that he keeps having good nighttime sleeps.

Has your family fallen victim to the 45 minute nap? And now, I leave you with cute baby pictures that could have been cuter if I didn’t take them so late in the day when my natural light was disappearing….but you get the point!

ECGSignature

20Leave a CommentThe+Curse+of+the+45+Minute+Nap2012-12-14+14%3A42%3A00Sarah

Filed Under: 45 minute nap, Ethan, sleep Tagged With: 45 minute nap, Ethan, sleep

Worries of a Mommy-To-Be of Two

August 24, 2012 by Sarah 11 Comments

I have seen a similar themed post on pretty much every blogger pregnant with baby #2′s blog, which makes me feel like what I’m about to write about is totally normal.

I have always known that I wanted more than one child. I just prayed that God would bless us with more children, and praise Him because here we are – almost 30 weeks pregnant with Baby #2. I’ve never wanted Braden to be a single child, but as we thought about when would be the “perfect” time to expand our family…there is no perfect time.We’re at a point with Braden right now where there’s no more diapers, he’s more independent, he sleeps wonderfully and so do we, and life is pretty darn easy and a whole lotta fun. He’s so so so much fun and we’re loving this age…but in a couple of months we’ll be starting all over again with a brand new baby. Don’t get me wrong! We know what we signed up for and we’re very happy about it…but it’s just like with any major milestone in life, it never seems like there’s a perfect time to take that leap of faith and change your life forever.

So what are some of my worries?

Guilt. Mega, mega guilt. What will Braden think when my attention almost fully goes to his brand new baby sister/brother? It’s not all about him anymore.
Love. I know I will love Squishy. I already do, just how I loved Braden when I was pregnant with him. But how much love can my heart hold? The love I have for Braden as his mother…I can’t even describe it – but I know you mommies out there know exactly what I’m talking about. How do you possibly love another baby as much as you love your first!? I know it’s possible! I see it all the time with my family & friends, but before it actually happens to me…I just can’t picture it all.
Time. How will I manage? I want to still do stuff with just Braden…but breastfeeding a new baby – how? I know that one day I’ll be able to pump and Jay or whomever can give bottles…but certainly not in the beginning. We have this family of 3 thing NAILED! It’s just so easy, so I know it will take time to adjust to being a family of 4.
Work. How will I go back to work? I know Jay will learn to be a father of two just as I learn to be a mother of two…but just taking care of one is so easy…how about two!? It will come, this I know…but it just seems so complicated to me right now.
Comparisons. Baby Squishy has some big “shoes” to fill. I will love this babe no matter if s/he is the most colicky baby on the face of the earth (PLEASE don’t be!! haha)…but Baby Braden was phenomenal. He had his sleep regression, like most babies, but other than that he was and still is to this day such an amazing baby/toddler. How can I not compare my two babies?!…but at the same time I don’t want to set “expectations” on a newborn…because really it’s just silly and there’s nothing you can do about it! But even still I can’t help but wonder that because Braden was such a good baby…does that mean I’ll “pay” for it this time?

I know these feelings are normal, and I’m actually, truly excited to be having another child and to make Braden a big brother. I know he’ll love his baby sister/brother – I just know it. It’s the kind of person that he is. But I’m just so in my comfort zone right now and change can be so scary. I’m not having anxiety attacks about this…it’s not something that has me in a constant state of worry…but it’s just things that have popped up in my brain from time to time.

My friend Myndee at Fresh GraNOLA blog wrote this post on how she felt before she had her 2nd baby…and it has made me feel so much better. What are your experiences with having subsequent children?

In other news, I am 30 weeks pregnant today! 70 or so days to go. If you want to read back, here is my 30 week post from last time. Here’s a mini-update for you:

DONE WORK! In my last 30 week post I still had 8.5 weeks of work to go. I cannot imagine this time! CANNOT! Call me a princess, call me whatever you want, but I am blessed to not have to work anymore than past 30 weeks and I’m taking it. I don’t know how my colleagues work full-time 12 hour day/night lines in the 3rd trimester with other children at home, you’re heroines!
Sleep is juuuuuuust starting to get uncomfortable, definitely feels better to sleep with a pillow between my legs now to help with hip pain…and it feels like I have to “heave ho” to turn over with the belly now!
I can blame approximately 3 lbs of my pregnancy weight on the baby now!
Actually still feeling really good – I can still bend over Braden to put on his shoes! (Jay can’t even do this without a 30 week belly! haha!)
My next appointment is the beginning of September and then I go to every 2 week appointments already! Unless it’s raining I think Braden will have to come with me to my appointments, but that’s okay.
Varicose veins. Gross. How unsightly. Sigh. I only got a few spider veins on my lateral left knee last time…this time I have one big varicose vein, but luckily it’s well hidden…and plenty more spider veins to add to the collection.
I still get nauseous if I don’t eat
I have had no desire to exercise…at all. Probably a lot due to the extreme heat we’ve had this summer, but in all honesty – who cares? Really… I’m just trying to enjoy this and relax if I can. My daily housework is a workout in itself anyway!

And I leave you with another funny!

ECGSignature

10811 CommentsWorries+of+a+Mommy-To-Be+of+Two2012-08-24+14%3A33%3A00Sarah

Filed Under: baby #2, family of 4, motherhood, on my heart, pregnancy, pregnant problems Tagged With: baby #2, motherhood, on my heart, pregnancy, Sarah

Getting Serious About Potty Learning/Training

April 28, 2012 by Sarah 6 Comments

He’s 2 years and 3 months old today. Time to grow up, kid!! As much as I love my cloth diapers, mama is SO ready to have a break from diapering and doing all the laundry that comes with it. A 5+ month break would be just AWESOME, okay buddy?

The reason why I had a goal of 2 years, 3 months in mind to seriously potty train Braden is because that’s when my nephew Luke was trained, and they really seem to be developing on pretty much the same curve. Up until now I’ve been using the term “potty learning“, but now…I’m going to do my research this week, and I’m hoping by the beginning of next week we can go into hard core potty training. I am a firm believer that kids CAN be trained. Touchy subject to some, I know…but I sleep trained my baby, and look how awesome that went! I know, and it is not my intent, to push potty training on him. I do not want him to have a bad experience, make it negative in any way at all….but I want it done. I feel like I know he’s ready by things he says and the interest he does have in the potty now. He loves to sit on the potty, but as soon as his naked little bum hits the toilet seat he says “done!” He does understand and say to us “Pee on potty! Get potty treat!” but then he doesn’t actually do it!

So here’s where my week approaching of research comes in. We’ve been reading this book for months with Braden:

It also came with a little boy doll and potty so that Braden can “teach” the doll how to use the potty and it comes with this DVD, which I will start showing to Braden this upcoming week, every day.

Laura trained my nephew Luke with this book:

It sounds too good to be true, but I think with whatever method I use, if I’m just consistent and have the determination to do it, I will, and so will Braden. One of my Twitter friends saw some of my tweets about potty training and says she swears by the three day method. I will use this week to review which method, or a combination of the two???, will work best for us.

For my mommy friends who have potty trained your toddlers…here are some concerns I have, and points I wanted to make, and if you could comment with suggestions or advice, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Braden typically doesn’t care if he is soaking wet or even if he has a poopy diaper…does this mean he’s not ready?
He is holding his bladder longer every week, and seems to have one big huge pee a few times a day
I leave him commando (sans diaper) in the morning for up to 2 hours and he doesn’t have an accident
He shows great interest when me or Jay go to the potty
Knows he gets a “potty treat” (I have a jar of M&M’s) if he goes…but doesn’t seem motivated on his own enough to pee to actually get said treat.
When I see Braden pooping, I have asked him in the past “do you want to go poop on the potty?” he says “no”
Has been quite upset, even seems “devastated”, when I have changed his poopy diapers lately
He only poops every 3-4 days…will that be really hard to train?
Do I go right into night training too? I really don’t want to just do a load of 3 cloth diapers every 3 days only for nighttime use…know what I mean?
We will not be using cloth “pull ups” only underwear
What do you think of this reward system:

As far as rewards go…I have this free potty chart that I’m going to put in our bathroom, and he can put a Thomas sticker whenever he does each of these things:

I am also going to take away all of his toy trains…seriously! And make a very visual chart so that when he pees once, he will get a sticker and then get “Thomas” back. Then when he pees/poops twice, he will get to put the stickers on his chart and get “Percy” back, and so on and so forth. Mean mommy? I don’t know, in my head that as a reward system will probably work better than the M&M’s, his face lit up like a Christmas tree when my Mom gave him a bunch of new trains last weekend! So why not take them away and give them back? Plus I have brand new trains, some of the “big” ones that he will get once he’s farther along in training. I also will be telling him that he will get a train table in his room once his diaper change table is gone. I’m not 100% sure he will understand that…but it’s worth a shot. We do have a train table for him, was going to save it for Christmas, but #1 he won’t actually get to “open” it at Christmas…we’d have to set it up and leave it at home anyway, and #2 if it’s a big motivator in helping my boy get potty trained, it’s worth the early present!

I’d love to hear your encouraging stories and helpful advice, friends!
Sarah

1896 Comments2012-04-28+20%3A28%3A00Sarah

Filed Under: Braden, milestone, motherhood, potty learning, potty training, toddler

Toddler Sleep

February 26, 2012 by Sarah 8 Comments

If you’ve been around this blog for any length of time, you know that I have Braden on a good sleep routine. We did sleep training when he was 5 months and after some hiccups, colds, and teething….he had it down pat 100% by 7 months, sleeping 12+ hours through the night and never looked back. I admit it, I’ve been super lucky with a boy who loves his sleep. He probably gets this from his father! Don’t hate me, but I can also attest that I have never, not once, been up with a sick or teething child in all his life. The rare time that he’s been sick, he’s slept even more. When he wakes up wailing, the odd time, I give it a minute and if he hasn’t settled, I usually just go in, reassure him that everything is okay and he goes back to sleep no problem.

But now? He’s 2, and so much has changed. Going to Maui he would cry and fuss for a few minutes, then be settled and fine for the night. It took awhile, but eventually he would settle for his monster 3-4 hour naps all by himself and was sleeping great at night. Ever since we got home, essentially since he’s turned 2 he’s so off with his sleep habits. Here’s what we’re dealing with now:

Pretty much every time he goes down for a nap or night time he cries. Only for a minute or even just one “MOMMY!” but then he’s fine
Very inconsistent naps, sometimes 1 hour, sometimes 3 hours
Always wakes up cranky from his naps
Waking up very early, to what we’re used to in the AM at 6
Going to bed at the same time, 7

I know 11 hours of sleep is enough for him at this age, but he used to do at LEAST 12.5 hours, usually 13. Seems like a drastic drop to me. One thought that has crossed our minds, which scares me, is to drop his nap. I wonder if he wakes up cranky and pissed off from his naps because he doesn’t need them anymore? I’ve read of this happening with other mommy bloggers, and one solution is to move them to a toddler bed…

I really don’t know that I’m ready for this! Actually to the suggestion of one of Jay’s daddy friends, we thought we’d set it up in his room, just so he can get used to it and see what he does.

He actually wasn’t that impressed. Totally took the wind out of my sails. I thought I’d be Mom of the Year with a Thomas toddler bed and bedding!

At least the cat likes it! So for now…we have both his crib up and the bed. There’s enough room and maybe one time he’ll want to sleep in his new bed? Who knows.I’m really in no hurry to get him out of his crib, he just needs to be out before another baby comes along, so we do have quite awhile! I’m just trying to think of anything for why he’s been so off with his sleep now.

Any suggestions? I’m all ears! If you’ve had similar experiences with your toddlers, I’d love to hear them. For now, I’m just going to gauge day-by-day whether or not he needs to nap or not and not automatically put him down.

2308 CommentsToddler+Sleep2012-02-26+16%3A03%3A00Sarah

Filed Under: Braden, sleep, toddler Tagged With: sleep, toddler, toddler bed

1+ Week Sans Soother

February 7, 2012 by Sarah 15 Comments

We knew it was coming. I’ve mentioned it before. We all knew…except for him. I don’t know why I had it in my head that “when Braden turns 2, we’re getting rid of the soother”. But I did…so we did. Little did I know it would feel like I was killing one of his best friends. I had some major mommy guilt, let me tell you.

As many of you know, Braden has 2 comfort objects. His beloved blankie and his soother. Collectively known (by him) as “duckie soo”. I really wanted to keep his soother around for selfish reasons. I wanted him to have it on our plane ride to Maui in hopes of helping with his ears, and also just to have an extra comfort item to rely on. Lately he’s been using it mostly for teething. So to bridge the gap between his soother an no soother, I gave him a Molar Muncher that I bought off a steal site awhile ago. He’s used it now and again over the months, but always preferred his soother.

So on January 29, his 2nd day as a 2 year old, I took his soother away. He did ask for it for nap time, but I just said “no more soo. Soo is all gone.” We read some books like we always do and I put him down with his blankie and his munchie (Molar Muncher). He fussed, not even cried, off and on for a half hour and then had a good 2 hour nap. not too bad! I thought to myself! This gave me so much hope, I wasn’t a monster after all.

But then…came bed time.

He didn’t ask for soo. But he sure went down fighting this time. He cried. He cried OUT for me. Do you know how heartbreaking it is to hear your child call out for you? “Mommy! Mommy!” He fussed/whined/cried off and on for 45 minutes. I do stress the one and off part, it was not constant and there were many times I thought he did fall asleep. But at the 45 minute mark, my heart couldn’t bear it anymore. I went it, we had some snuggles and rocked in the glider for awhile. I put him back down to sleep and 5 minutes later he was out. He did wake up at 11:45 and cried for 5 minutes, but put himself back to sleep.

The next few days can be broken down like this:

Day #2: No nap and fussed for 20 minutes at bedtime. Meanwhile, I’m at work texting back and forth with Jay while tweeting to the world in desperation as to whether or not we have made the right decision. Should we have taken it? Should we wait until he’s done teething? Is it really that bad? We decided since we invested so much time already into the no soother thing…we’d just push through it, because it would be harder if we had to give it back and take it away again.
Day #3: No nap and fussed for 5 minutes at bedtime.
Day #4: No nap and fussed for 20 minutes at bedtime.
Day #5: Finally had a 2 hour nap after he fussed for 20 minutes or so and about 5 minutes of fussing at bedtime.

And so on and so forth. The fussing thing, I actually believe, has nothing to do with the no soother thing. It probably isn’t helping, but ever since about Christmas time he’s been fussing off and on at bedtime for no particular reason. He could have 3 soothers in bed with him and still fuss. He’s also so much more aware of his surroundings, that if he’s in a new place, or even if he’s in a place he’s not at all the time (like my Mom’s) he cries out and fusses for up to 10 minutes before he settles. When he settles, he typically settles all night.

It’s times like this that I am so thankful that we sleep trained him with SleepEasy. If you want, just click the links to look through my old posts, but the gist of it is…Braden knows how to self soothe and put himself back to sleep. If I followed SleepEasy by the book, he shouldn’t have kept his soother in the first place. At the time (and I still don’t regret it), I did not want to take EVERYTHING away from him when we sleep trained and felt it was necessary for him to keep his soother. Also, I never, ever was running into his room to put his soother back in his mouth 50 times a night…so nothing like that was changing for us.

As I said before, Braden was having problems settling to sleep. This happened over Christmas at Mom’s and it was even happening at home the odd time. I knew this would happen in Maui too. Pretty much every nap and bedtime for the first 3 days was up to 10 minutes of crying/fussing but then he’d be totally settled and sleep right through his nap or the night and wake up happy. This is always the sign of a well-rested Braden: waking up happy.

Had we not used SleepEasy for him or had he not been able to learn the art of self-soothing in one way or another? I imagine I would be in his room for HOURS reading books, singing rocking, praying, and begging for him to go to sleep. Not how I want to spend my should-be-child-free time on vacation….trying to get said child to sleep! I did spend extra time before lying him down singing and rocking with him and making sure he was nice and calm, but he would still fuss and cry for a bit.

I know there are tons of mamas who would disagree with letting Braden cry it out (CIO) but there is no other option for my family! I’ve done my research, Braden knows he’s not abandoned, he’s very much loved and comforted by us throughout the day. If I ran to him EVERY time he fussed or cried…neither of us would sleep, neither of us would be well rested and happy. He hasn’t been a fall-asleep-in-my-arms baby sincee he was that…maybe the last time at 4 months? This way? We all get a full night’s sleep at the price of him fussing (not even full on CRYING) for up to 10 minutes.

Has your 2ish year old(s) gone through this phase? He’s fussing almost every night, even though we’re at home now? I don’t know if it’s a new development stage? The soother? 2 year molars? Combo of everything or nothing? Just wondering your experiences!

Anywho, the soother is GONE! He hasn’t even asked for it since we have taken it away, we’re not looking back now!

24415 Comments1%2B+Week+Sans+Soother2012-02-07+13%3A21%3A00Sarah

Filed Under: Braden, milestone, motherhood, sleep, sleep training, toddler

Can You “Train” Your Children?

January 5, 2012 by Sarah 6 Comments

I read a blog post awhile ago (which the post is no longer available), and the writer pretty much has come to the realization that you cannot train your children [to sleep] because they are “human beings” and “not robots”…I, however…beg to differ!

Of course there’s that precious(ly annoying at times!) newborn stage where no matter how much you want them on a schedule, it ain’t happening. The cluster feeding, the peeing/pooping in diapers the minute after you change it, oh wait…I want a baby in the near future, let’s not think about all those things right now! BUT, there certainly does come a point in your baby’s life where, per my research and personal experience, you can “train” them. If you want some proof, please take some time to read on our experiences with using SleepEasy to sleep train/sleep learn Braden. It worked like a charm and I really believe the research/methodology behind the theory of it.

Now that we’re well on our way into toddlerhood, I still firmly believe you can train your children…to a degree. We’re working very hard on making sure Braden learns that he has to eat “x” amount of his meals before he can be “done”, as he would say. He has done REALLY well with this too, and he certainly doesn’t get dessert unless he finishes enough of his meal. He is working on his manners and cleaning up after himself too.

That being said, I have learned, at his particular age of almost 2, he cannot be trained to:

sit still for pictures
“pose” for pictures
not run away from me in public places

The good old bribe of “if you do ‘this’, I’ll give you a cookie!” stopped working between 22-23 months, he figured that one out pretty fast!

I believe in treating infants like dogs. Before you get all fired up at me…let me explain myself a bit better!

K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple Stupid

Babies, infants, toddlers…they don’t understand wordy explanations…so why bother? Keep it simple with as few words in your instructions & explanations.
Example: DON’T: “You can’t have dessert today because you didn’t eat all of your supper, I told you that if you didn’t eat your supper you wouldn’t get your dessert, remember?”
Example: DO: “No cookie, eat your num nums.”

Praise
- Braden responds really well to praise. If he puts his toys away, eats at his kid table, “good boy, Braden! Good job, Braden!” with lots of hooting and hollering…he eats it up and aims to please so he can be celebrated even more!
Discipline
- I’m not quite at this stage yet as Braden doesn’t get time outs…but it’s quickly approaching. I believe in discipline, or else he’s going to end up running this household. We will be using time outs as discipline, I’m not a spanker…if Jay wants to, that’s up to him.

So that is what I meant about treating your child like a dog. Mostly in the way you “train” and “speak” to them…not tying them up outside and letting them fend for themselves…however on certainly bratty days I’ve been tempted!

As always, my disclaimer is this: everyone has the right to parent whichever way they want, whatever way that works best for them and their families…but if you’re anything like me, you believe that children ARE trainable because you need your sanity! I didn’t know that I would sleep train my child, but when he was waking up every hour for no apparent reason, my friend Carley came to the rescue and saved my sanity by lending me that book. You might think I’m evil for making Braden cry it out to learn how to self soothe to get to sleep, and that’s okay…you don’t have to do it! There’s lots of parenting and child raising techniques that I do not, and will not ever, understand…but I do understand that they might work for you!

Have you had experiences where you’ve had to “train” your child? What works best for you and your family?

2726 CommentsCan+You+%22Train%22+Your+Children%3F2012-01-05+20%3A19%3A00Sarah

Filed Under: motherhood, toddler

Trying Times

August 18, 2011 by Sarah 5 Comments

Not everything in life is rosy, so why paint it that way? I like it when people are real, and everything I write here is. If I’ve made it seem like Braden’s the perfect baby, or that I’m the perfect mommy/wife/person, or that we have the perfect life…I assure you that he isn’t, I’m not, and we don’t – to certain degrees! I’m only human. Braden has always been an amazing baby. He was content and happy from day 1. We didn’t suffer through colic, he nursed like a champ, he took solids like a champ and ate everything we gave him, and he’s slept perfectly, minus the blurps we’ve had, but sleep training has fixed that. I would like to think that I’m a pretty decent (or better!) person and that I treat people the way that I want to be treated. I’ve recently been going to meetings, and for my own privacy and others’ I’ll just refer to it as “my meetings”, and it’s really helped me to realize that I and the only one in charge of how I feel and that no one can make be feel any differently about myself, it’s only if I let them.

But with a toddler….

It’s different!

Back to the title – trying times. I don’t know if it’s the insane amount of hours I’ve been working lately, mostly nights at that which makes just about anyone a zombie unless you’re used to it…or what it is, but I’ve been getting so flustered, frustrated, and at times impatient with Braden. I don’t want to feel this way. He is still, for the most part, his usual happy, content self…but the whining has started. Part, or all of this, is related to his age and lack of communication that makes him this way, and I know this. He’ll whine “uhhhh! Uhhhhh!!!!” when he wants something, and to his credit – he has gotten much better about saying “up” or “nummy” when he knows what he wants…but I think it’s just really frustrating for all of us when we have no idea what he wants.

The fourth molar popped through well over a week ago, so I feel like I can’t blame it on teething anymore?? He does have 5 teeth left to cut and the drool and fingers in mouth are still present…but teething has never really gotten him down, other than he doesn’t eat as much as he usually does. (*Update*) BUT, as a fellow mommy blogger and due date friend Katie so kindly asked in her comments…4 of those teeth are eye teeth and they were really painful for her triplets (yes, triplets) who are 2 months older than Braden.

Eating.

God help me. I can deal with the whining, as I said it’s improving and I know it’s an age/communication thing, but with eating problems, I’ve seen it happen with all the kids around me, at some point in their lives. All of my nieces and my nephew have all struggled/fought/refused whatever word you want to pick or was appropriate at the time, eating their food. “Well”, I thought, “That would never happen to my Braden, no way, no how! He LOVES his food!” Psssh. He’s only refused to eat salmon and pickles. The only two foods he doesn’t care for. Until recently. Meals that he’s eaten in a variety of consistencies as he’s gotten older since he was 7-8 months old, he refuses now. He pushes away the utensil and says “done!” He says “done” even before he’s had his first bite of food sometimes! He’s always loved my meatloaf, my BBQ’d ribs…but not this week. He wouldn’t even try a bite. I grew up with a picky-eater brother and Jay was a picky-eater as a child and I will NOT become a short order chef making grilled cheese, Kraft Dinner, hot dogs, or peanut butter sandwiches every meal!

HELP!!!

Braden has gone through phases like this in the past where he hardly eats a thing and then within a few days it’s like he’ll make up for lost time and wolf down EVERYTHING in sight. Two bowls of oatmeal, a banana, and yogurt for breakfast for my little barely 25 pounder! Now he’s eating a ~~forced~~ highly encouraged bowl of oatmeal in the breakfast if we’re lucky. He’s not picky yet, cuz he’s not even eating much of his favorite foods.

Another trying situation right now is that he’s in to everything. He would go through phases where he’d pull everything out of the kitchen drawers and then not even touch a drawer for days or a week. But now he is the definition of a toddler tornado ~~destroying~~ making a mess everywhere he goes. I’ve decided in the upcoming weeks that I will baby proof as much as I possibly can, for my own sanity. I don’t want to be the “naggy” mom that I feel myself becoming by constantly saying “no, Braden!” He’s already repeating “no, no, no, no, no!” when he knows he’s not supposed to be doing something. Plus I am so over putting the colander back into it’s drawer, closing the lazy Susan and replacing it’s contents, and picking up the multiple hoards of toys we own. A lot of people might say, who cares if my house is a mess, they’re only this age once…but I do care. It’s in my core to care what my home looks like and I can’t just let it slip because Braden is a toddler. I hope to have at least one toddler in my home for many years to come! So my question…

How do you, or can you even, discipline at this age?

(almost 19 months)

I’m leaning towards the notion that you just can’t. I’ve yelled at him. Mommy fail. It doesn’t work, he couldn’t care less. When I’ve caught him splashing in the toilet for the 4th time that day and I stomp my feet and say “NO, BRADEN” very sternly, he just looks up and smiles. He got a reaction from mommy, and even if it was negative, it’s probably all that he wanted. I’ve taken a page from my sleep training book and have tried quietly taking his hand and lead him away from the situation without saying a word. That doesn’t work. Sigh. Just a phase?? Too early for time outs? I really don’t think he’d understand it yet. I don’t want to “go there” if it’s a touchy subject for you, but I will never spank or hit my child, so that’s not an option for us either.

Here is where I ask for your advice, suggestions, and comments. I just ask that you please keep it positive and encouraging!

Here’s just a pic I’ve used before of my sweet, little, goofball…the little love of my life, just as a reminder of how sweet he is and not this problem child you might be thinking he is!

P.S. ~~Don’t you dare~~ Please refrain from calling my sweetheart “terrible”, as in “oh, looks like the terrible 2′s are coming early!” I’ve heard it already, and I truly don’t think that Braden is rebelling or being a “terrible” child. I just want to try to help him and us out and to learn from your experiences. I just love him so much and he deserves to have the best mommy that I can be to him, not the frustrating nag that I know I can be at times. Thanks in advance.