The average one-year-old baby boy is 29 inches tall and 23 pounds. My 4-month-old baby boy is 29 inches long and 21 pounds. If I had time or energy to think about betting, I’d bet that he’ll top 30 pounds by his first birthday and be, oh - I don’t know - 33 inches long. That would be the size of a hefty 2-year-old. That’s my boy!
1.Your toddler asks for a banana. You peel the banana. Your infant fusses a bit, so you walk over and try to hand him the banana. Your toddler and husband look on like you’re insane – which you are after four months of sleep deprivation.
2.Your toddler has a dirty diaper. You interrupt his play to clean it up. You bundle the diaper, kiss the toddler and head off in search of a plastic bag for proper disposal. On the way back from the garage you see your toddler contentedly playing again – with a bare bottom. It seems you completely forgot to put a new diaper on.
Yes, both of these happened to me today. And yes, I’m exhausted.
On that note, I’m going to bed for another six or (hopefully) seven hours of much interrupted sleep.
Night! *yawn*
Some parents are absolute idiots. Naturally we all make mistakes, and sleep deprivation and inexperience can help us make some pretty big mistakes, but doing something as stupid as leaving your baby alone in any kind of seat on a counter or table is just, well, stupid.
Bumbo seats are wonderful creations. I didn’t have one for Jake, but I got one for Brian – and he loves it.
If you don’t already know, a Bumbo seat is a foam chair that is specially molded to a baby’s body so that a baby can sit up before they are able to do so on their own. There are no latches or straps, and there is a label on the back reminding parents to be responsible and supervise their baby while he is sitting in the chair. It also reminds parents not to do something as idiotic as putting the seat on an elevated surface.
A few weeks ago we had a stomach bug, and I learned a lot about dealing with diarrhea. If your little one is struck down with diarrhea, here’s what worked for us:
Infants:
-Wait a day to see if it will just run its course.
-Make sure your formula isn’t diluted; full strength formula can be constipating which is good in this case.
-If infant diarrhea lasts longer than 24-48 hours, call your doctor. You might even want to call sooner.
-They will most likely tell you to take your baby off formula (I’m not sure about breast milk) and give him Pedialyte instead for 24 hours.
-Then you’ll do half formula and half Pedialyte for a day or two
-And finally you’ll be back on full formula, and hopefully the diarrhea will be cleared up.
*A note – be sure to stock up on diaper rash ointment and use it liberally. There is nothing worse than a baby who’s tummy and butt hurts.
Toddlers:
I sincerely feel that toddler diarrhea was worse than infant diarrhea. Infants don’t walk with theirs….
Unless you have an amazingly helpful husband and a bathroom large enough for your whole family, most likely you’re in charge of bath time – or maybe your husband is. In my house, going from one toddler to one toddler plus one newborn at bath time was tricky.
So I just threw them both in the bath. Of course I waited until Brian’s little belly button was healed, but now both boys go into the tub at the same time.
Jake goes on the end next to the faucet and Brian lays on his little mesh bath chair at the other end. I kneel in the middle. Jake, the oldest, goes first. We wash his hair and then soap him up. We rinse and he happily plays with his toys and “helps” wash Brian after that.
Here’s my method for Cry It Out. There are many different ones and mine is a combination of many “expert” opinions. After all, I’m the real expert on my kiddos.
1. Wait until your baby is at least four months old. Ideally you’ve been letting them fall asleep on their own since birth (after rocking, of course), which will make it easier. But if not, never fear – the end result is the same.
2. Establish a solid bedtime routine. This will clue your baby in that it’s sleep time every night. Be sure you’re starting bedtime around the same time every night when your child looks sleepy (Not after she’s fussing.)
3. The first night, go through your routine. Bathe, rock, snuggle, nurse or feed, and then sing or rock some more. Instead of waiting for your baby to fall sound asleep, as soon as you see her eyes drifting shut, gently place her in the crib.
4. Her eyes will most likely pop open and she’ll wonder why in the world she’s not still in your arms.
My oldest had a sleep problem. By four months he was waking up every two hours at night and had been sleeping four or five when he came home from the hospital. After examining the problem and researching it, I discovered that we were the problem.
Apparently, rocking my baby to sleep all the time and putting him down only when he was knocked out didn’t teach him to fall asleep on his own. In fact, he liked the rocking and Mommy so much, he wanted to do it again every time he came out of a deep sleep at night – every two hours.
I love Jenny McCarthy. She’s hilarious and speaks (and writes) the way I think. Of course I can’t speak that way since I teach and parent, but I love reading her books. I laughed at the first one. I laughed harder at the second. And then I cried reading her latest.
Louder than Words
I’m rather wasteful when it comes to a lot of things. I don’t usually eat leftovers despite my good intentions. I get bored with lotions and shower gels long before they are used up. And baby gear was so much fun to buy, I went a bit overboard. Now, if you’re being frugal and wise, perhaps you can learn from my mistakes. Here are some of the most expensive baby gear items I wasted:
High Tech Diaper Pail
I didn’t have a Diaper Genie, but I had something similar. It would hold over 400 diapers or something ridiculous. To a new mommy this sounded great – until I got my first whiff of 400 diapers.
I’ll sleep with anything that needs to be warm in the middle of the night. At the moment I’m sleeping with two bottles of water. Every night I make two bottles, throw the lids on and put them in bed next to me. (Sorry, dear – spot’s taken.)
I measure out the scoops of formula and put them in the handy formula dispenser next to the bed, and then I’m ready for action late at night.
When Brian wakes up, I’m a bottle slinger.
I’ve mentioned before that bedtimes are early in my house. This is for two reasons.
1. It keeps me sane and gives me time to work.
2. It makes my kids happy and healthier.
Bedtimes for kids should follow their natural rhythms. The body has circadian rhythms that give us cues for sleeping and being awake. If you don’t sleep when your body thinks it should, you’ll wake up tired. If you sleep too long, the same thing happens. But if you sleep during the “ideal” times, you wake up feeling rested and ready to go.
So when are these ideal times? They vary by person and child, but for the average baby and toddler, bedtime should be 6-8pm, and morning should start at 6-8am. Yes, it’s early. But it’s far better to have a rested and happy child. Besides, in a few years you won’t be able to get them out of bed in the mornings and you can sleep in then. And I’m counting on it.
Brian is now going to bed at 7pm. I’ve been waiting somewhat patiently for the routine early bedtime, and now I have it. Jake goes to read stories with Mom around 7:30 most nights, and is out around an hour later. Now, he’s in a little preschool which wears him out, so he’ll be asleep by 7 most nights, too.
I am so excited!
There are so many baby items I got with my first, I couldn’t imagine needing more- until I was pregnant with my second. Then there were a few things I realized I didn’t get the first time, so I was sure to get the second. None were necessary, but they were fun to find. This round of infant required a Boppy pillow
Now, there is only one baby item left to buy that I honestly thought I wouldn’t need. But now having tried to walk to the park with a thirty-four pound toddler in a hiking backpack pushing his almost seventeen pound brother in the stroller, I’ve decided I want a double stroller.
I’m not sure if it is the calcium in his milk or the size of his little fingers, but Brian’s fingernails grow at an astonishing rate. It doesn’t help that his little hands are always up by his face. I live in fear of him scratching himself on his eye. (I shudder just thinking about it.)
I prefer to cut his fingernails with clippers, but there are other ways. Cutting baby nails is tricky since the little one is unlikely to hold still just because you asked him to. I actually have the same problem with toddler nails, but that is easily solved with basic bribery.
To cut a baby’s nails, I…
1. Wait until he is sleeping and then cut at my leisure.
Sleep is a big deal for parents. As I mentioned in my post about newborn and baby sleep, there are plenty of ways to help your baby get a good night’s sleep.
Here are some of my favorites:
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child
The Happiest Baby on the Block: The New Way to Calm Crying and Help Your Baby Sleep Longer
The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night
I’ve also read these, but they didn’t suit my lifestyle.
I shared with you my experiences and research on newborn sleep a while ago. Now, with Brian getting a bit older, and me getting a bit more desperate for an early bedtime, let’s discuss the middle stage of little ones and sleep. I’ll share more on toddler sleep another time.
As Brian approaches four months of age, his sleep patterns will hopefully begin to settle. First his bedtime will move earlier hopefully much earlier. Then he will develop a morning nap at about the same time, and finally an afternoon nap will settle in. Since he’ll be going to be so early, he’ll probably still wake up one or two times a night until close to nine months.
Older babies will have a few quirks, and this is the marvelous age where many parents begin to fully understand the terms “Cry It Out” and “Sleep Training.”
It’s an odd thing, but if I can muster up the energy to climb on the treadmill at the end of the day, I’ll have extra energy the next day – even if I have to stay up later to do it. Like I said, it’s odd.
Exercise gives me (and presumably you) an endorphin kick and it also helps energize me the following day. Thirty or forty-five minutes on the treadmill should be burning off some calories, which I serious need, but it also is building up muscles and repairing the damage lack of exercise has done.
I’ll admit it, I didn’t exercise properly for the last two years. Coincidently my son is now two.
Exercising with a Baby
It should have been easy. There are tons of ways to exercise with a baby, and for a long time, we were doing just fine.
I can’t complain. My two-month-old is going up to seven hours at a stretch now at night. My only trouble is that he starts his stretch at eight PM and then sees no problen hanging out for an hour when he does wake up. This is a new annoying habit. (The habit is annoying, not the baby – he’s adorable!)
I know my company is simply to die for, but I’m doing everything I can to remind him that he is supposed to go right back to sleep after a quick meal. So far he’s having a memory lapse.
To help him remember faster, I’m:
Rice cereal is usually the first food given to a baby. According to experts babies should not be given solids, including rice cereal, until six months. When Jake was a baby, it was four months, but now apparently the “new” rule is six months.
I like to live on the edge, so I’ve already cheated. Brian has had cereal. And it didn’t work.
Sleep for little ones is such a huge topic, I’m breaking it up into three sections: Newborns, Infants and Toddlers. Each has certain things that make their sleep patterns different and they have different quirks and solutions.
Newborn Sleep
When a baby is born and for the first eight to twelve weeks, his sleep is random, yet plentiful. Or at least is should be. The first few days, or weeks if your baby was early, are easy. Plop the baby down and he sleeps. He falls asleep easily and sleeps for decent amounts of time.
As he grows, he becomes more aware of the world and all there is to see and do. Who wants to sleep through that?
A constipated baby on a liquid diet is no small feat. The iron in formula can cause the usual liquid poop to become more clay-like and hard for a baby to pass. In my vast formula feeding experience, which is rather extensive, there are two ways to deal with constipation in infants:
1. Dilute the formula. The iron in formula gives poop the lovely green color and can thicken it up. If you add a bit of extra water to each bottle, say a quarter of an ounce, it may be all that’s needed to keep things running smoothly.
2. Slip them some juice. Apple juice and prune juice are both great for loosing up the bowels, but apple tastes better (a personal preference.) Adding a half an ounce or so of juice to a single bottle should help soften things up.
If neither method is working after a couple of days, contact your doctor. Also, it’s normal for a formula fed baby to go a day or two without pooping and a breastfed baby can go three or four before there is cause for concern. If you’re worried, talk to your doctor. I’m not an expert; I’m just an experienced mom.
My boys are going to be like peas in a pod. This is clear by the fact that they have already synchronized their bowel movements.
Jake, being a toddler, will make a dirty diaper and continue to play without alerting me to its presence. Meanwhile Brian, the seven-week-old infant, will be leisurely sucking at his bottle, halfway through a feeding and pause to make one of his own.
We put down the bottle to change Brian’s diaper and sibling rivalry rears its head.
My infant, Brian, wears onesies at night and his pajamas during the day. Odd, I know.
At night he is double swaddled and sleeps up to six hours at a stretch because of it. I don’t want him to overheat, so I dress him lightly in a onesie and socks. (His feet have a tendency to pop out the bottom.)
When he wakes up, I could leave him in the onesie and sometimes do. Guilt, however over the drawer full of cute pajamas overcomes me. They are too hot to wear at night with the swaddles, so I put them on him during the day.
Backwards, I guess. But it works and that is all that really matters with a seven week old baby.
One of the worst things is to snuggle up to your baby and get a whiff of sour milk. This seems to be worst in the mornings, at least at my house. My baby goes to bed with skin fresh from his bath, but wakes up a bit sour. I think it has to do with the two night feedings in the dark. It’s hard to get the milk wiped up well if you can’t see it.
That being said, here’s how I handle sour milk. 
1. Block it. I know Brian is an fickle eater. He’ll suck it down and then stop. When he stops, it dribbles down his chin into the folds of his neck. If I remember, I’ll stick a burp cloth right under his chin
Going to the grocery store with a toddler and an infant is rather complicated it seems. My toddler and infant are slightly more complicated than most because my youngest son has outgrown the infant carrier at six weeks of age. Yet another joy of parenting big babies.
We’ve been out and about almost every day since I was “allowed” to after Brian’s birth. Going out with an infant and toddler doesn’t have to be terrifying.
1. Go Early. Presumably your household is up early with two little ones, so head out as soon as you can. The store will be less crowded which saves more than a few Mommy headaches.
I’m a huge fan of swaddling. I didn’t realize how important it was until after Jake was two months old and beyond sleep deprived. Brian LOVES the swaddle. He wants to be swaddled in the car, in the swing, and anytime he’s on his back for more than a few minutes. 
A few notes on swaddling:
Make it tight. The tighter you swaddle, the more comfortable a baby is. It’s backwards, I know. Try though and see – just don’t do it too tight. Besides, a loose blanket in the crib can be a very bad thing
I work at home. Most of the time, I’m working full-time as a teacher, too. But I’ve elected to stay home for a year with my boys and hope and pray the budget can handle it.
Of course all moms work harder than anyone who is NOT a mom can ever realize, but in addition to that mommy work, I’m also working as a freelance writer.
I started writing a while ago to build up the business in anticipation of one day doing exactly what I am doing. I’m working at home with a toddler and an infant. So far, we’re doing okay.
Working at Home with a Toddler
Obviously, working at home with kids is not easy. I’ve learned a lot in my WAHM experience.
My thoughts on today:
Tomorrow might not be a better day, but it will at least be different. (I sincerely hope.)
That’s all I have to say about that.
As far as I’ve been able to discover, there is no temperature cut off for taking baby outside. That being said, I think every mom has strong feelings about the weather and her children. I live in coastal Texas and the sweltering heat starts up around March and doesn’t let up until after Halloween. As far as I’m concerned, most days are just too hot to take the baby outside.
Older children, like my toddler, can take the heat and keep on trucking. In fact, heat doesn’t seem to bother Jake at all unless the concrete burns his feet – yes, its been known to happen. Heat used to not bother me, but I swell so badly during pregnancy that the sticky Houston weather was too much for me and I haven’t built my immunity back up yet. Now, Baby Brian is only six weeks old and overheats in air conditioning wearing cotton pajamas
Why is it that milk always seems to get stuck in the adorable creases of a baby’s neck? There is nothing worse that going to snuggle my little one and suddenly getting a nose full of sour milk smell. 
Those little creases are almost impossible to keep clean, even in the bath.
That being said, baby neck creases may be stinky sometimes, but they are part of what makes my baby so darn cute!
So the last few days have been rough around my house. We’re approaching the magical Six Weeks where fussiness peaks in newborns, and I’m pretty sure Brian is trying to live up to expectations.
That being said, I’ve got a bit of experience dealing with fussy babies. My first had a mild to moderate dose of colic, and he was a real handful. If you’re trying to deal with a fussy baby, consider some of my hard earned tips:
1. Reinvent the Womb – I didn’t discover Harvey Karp’s Happiest Baby on the Block until it was almost too late.
I have had the unique privilege to mother two big baby boys. When I say big, I mean BIG. My first was 10lb 9oz and I thought he was huge. Everyone agreed with me – even the doctor. Then my second put my first to shame – he was 12lb 8.5oz. And neither one was obese. They are just BIG.
Parenting these big babies has some special problems though. My boys have the same problem their parents do – the world is not built for tall people. I am a rather solid 5’9” (although hopefully less solid soon, but more on that later.) My husband is a lanky 6’5.” It stands to reason we would have tall kids and we do! Thus far in my motherhood experience, I’ve battled the following “Big Baby Battles.”
Outgrowing Clothes
I knew my first was large, so I skipped the whole Preemie and Newborn sizes. Who would have thought he would be out of his cute 0-3 month wardrobe in less than a month?
Just remember, this too shall pass...
