This was a great read. I was surprised to find that apples, peaches and peppers are among the most dangerous!
http://www.sprig.com/10_Most_Dangerous_Foods
my discoveries while raising no. 3
And this is the book I recommend for potty training: “Toilet Learning.” I liked it because it’s educational for parents and kids. The first half of the book is a guide for parents that basically discourages you from starting to potty train too early. The second half is a picture book for your child. It tells your child everything he needs to know about going to the potty in a very straightforward way. The other unique advice the author gives is to let the only reward for going in the potty be staying nice and dry. There’s no candy, bribery, praise, etc. The feeling of being nice and dry should be the only prize. The book’s illustrations are just simple line drawings, no rhymes or anything like that—but it says it in a way children can understand. And till this day Evan still asks me to read him that book and gets so excited about it. Cracks me up. “You don’t like to be wet and sticky, you like to be nice and dryyyyy.”
Toilet Learning: The Picture Book Technique for Children and Parents
There is one book I recommend to any woman trying to get pregnant or trying not to get pregnant. It’s called “Taking Charge of Your Fertility,” and it teaches you how to read 3 bodily signs to know when you’re fertile: your temperature, your cervical fluid and the position of your cervix. It also breaks down your cycle into days and explains what’s going on on what days so you know exactly when you’re most likely to conceive and when you’re not. It is NOT the rhythm method. It’s called the Fertility Awareness Method and it’s much more informed and reliable. You can either use this information in the book for birth control or baby-making. I used it for both. In our first year of marriage, I got so sick of the pill—I felt like I was having PMS all month instead of just the week before my period. I was fighting with Dave constantly and I just wanted to get off it. So I picked up this book, started charting (they provide you with detailed charts to track your bodily signs and a lot of other things) and got off the pill. It was a great decision. I think because I was charting for 4 years for birth control before we started trying, I was already in tune with my body’s cycle. We just had to switch the timing of things. Instead of NOT having sex on the days I was fertile, we HAD to have sex on the days I was fertile. We ended up getting pregnant in 3 months. The first 2 months we were too stressed an ended up fighting instead of lovemaking on our fertile days, which is a very real and frustrating factor in “trying.” So if you’re in either category, trying or not trying to conceive, you really should read this book. To me it was like lightbulbs turning on on every page—I thought to myself why on earth didn’t they teach us this in 5th, 6th and 9th grade sex ed? Maybe I wasn’t paying attention...or maybe it wasn’t as relevant to me back then.
I learned a new term the other day: Infant Stimulation. My uncle and aunty’s son was born premature and she got really into infant stimulation to help speed up his development. Today he is a musical genius and we just attended his wedding (he married another musical genius). It got me thinking about how what you do with your baby, how you play with him/her, can really alter the course of his/her life.
What is infant stimulation?
For babies, playing stimulates their senses, and helps them learn and develop. Playing with your baby — or infant stimulation — includes activities that arouse or stimulate your baby’s sense of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. Infant stimulation can improve your baby’s curiosity, attention span, memory, and nervous system development. Babies who are stimulated reach developmental milestones faster, have better muscle coordination, and a more secure self image.
Infant Stimulation Activities
Sometimes it’s hard to know how to play with your infant when they are not yet that responsive. Even as they become more responsive, the creativity is often lacking when you’re sleep deprived. Here are some ideas for things you can do and “toys” you can make from household items. (You don’t need to break the bank on often OVER-stimulating toys.) I’m going to try some of these out on Cole soon.
MOVING IMAGES - Hold a mirror to one side of your baby's face. When he can focus on it, move it slowly across his field of vision. Shine a torch on the wall and move it slowly so he can follow the light.
RATTLES - Put some dried beans into a plastic container and fasten the lid on securely with tape. Shake it gently to one side of your baby's head and wait for him to locate the sound. You can try different sounds as well such as rice, buttons and macaroni. CARDBOARD BOXES - Babies love playing with empty soap or toothpaste boxes. You can even fill these with buttons or dried beans. Remember to seal the box properly.
WOOLLY BALL - Make pompoms using colorful wool. These can be of different sizes and colors. Tie these to the mobile or let the baby play with them.
SCRUNCH BAG - Fill a bag with colored cellophane paper, metallic gift-wrap or any other paper that makes noise. Fasten the bag firmly, then let your baby discover the noise it makes when he kicks at it or scrunches it in his fists.
PLAY MAT - Sew pieces of material with different textures-wool, corduroy, satin, terry toweling, fur fabric, etc, on to a piece of blanket or thick cotton for your baby to play on. As the baby explores the mat he will encounter different textures.
COTTON-REEL PRAM TOY - Collect some scraps of fabric with different textures-terry toweling, velvet or satin, for example. Sew or glue them firmly around empty cotton reels. Thread them on to a length of thick cord, making a knot at either side of each cotton reel so that it has room to move. Tie across the pram or cot.
BUBBLES - Make a bubble mixture by mixing one teaspoon of vegetable oil, three teaspoons of washing -up liquid and half a cup of water. Bend a piece of wire into a ring for blowing the bubble mixture through. Your baby will love to look at these elusive bubbles.
HANDKERCHIEF TRAIL -Tie several hankies or thin scarves together by the corners. Push them into an empty tissue box by the corners -the end of one just sticking out of the opening. Watch your baby's delight as he pulls out one handkerchief and then finds another…and them yet another!
PEEK-A-BOO GAMES - Hide your face behind a cushion and pop our, saying, 'Boo' Or drop a hanky gently on the your baby's face and them let him pull it off. Coming home from the hospital
Things you can do right away with baby...
Sight
Babies begin to tell the difference between light and dark before their born. At birth, an infant can clearly see an object 10–13 inches from her face. For the first three months, babies enjoy contrasting colors and patterns, especially black and white. Older infants like bright, bold colors — red, blue, green, and yellow. In the hospital, you can:
Touch
Touching is one of the best ways to stimulate your baby. It provides contact, reassurance, relaxation, and comfort. Babies like firm and gentle stroking. Touching a variety of textures will fascinate your baby.
Taste and Smell
Babies notice different tastes and smells. You can:
Hearing
A newborn’s most highly developed sense is hearing — babies can hear and remember familiar sounds months before they’re born. One of the easiest ways to calm a newborn is to hold him next to his mother’s chest so he can hear her heart. Infants seem to prefer soft and high-pitched sounds, especially a female’s voice. You can:
Things to remember about infant stimulation
Here’s Cole being exposed to different textures: grass and sand. This was his first time on sand!
Sleep training is one of my favorite baby topics and I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about it yet! When I was pregnant with Evan, I read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child,” and vowed to get him on a good sleep schedule at 3 months with an early bedtime, 3 naps during the day and being in tune with his signs of tiredness. The book gives you options for how you want to put your baby to sleep. At first I used tried no-cry method, by nursing him until he was asleep and then putting him down. That was exhausting. Then I used the graduated-extinction method, where you let them cry, but go in every few minutes to soothe them back to sleep. That was also exhausting and time-consuming. Finally I skimmed Ferber’s “Solve your child’s sleep problems” and tried the cry-it-out method. Evan wasn’t a quick learner—he cried himself to sleep almost every night for a while—sometimes for 30 seconds, sometimes for 10 minutes. But boy am I glad I survived the hard part because now he is such a good sleeper. One of my proudest moments was after his first day of preschool when his teacher told me he was the only new kid who slept at naptime. That made it all worth it. I don't strictly subscribe to any one sleep training philosophy--I think you kinda have to go with your instincts and do what's best for your child—everyone is different. And I’m definitely learning from my mistakes and doing things differently the 2nd time around. #1 - With Cole, I decided early on that I would put him down drowsy, but awake. I seriously think that is the KEY to an easier time sleep training. He’s so good—many nights he just rolls to the side and looks at the crib bumper or plays with his blankie until he falls asleep. Some nights he has a harder time and I have to go up to put his pacifier back in 1-3 times. #2 - The other KEY is not to always nurse them before sleep. So this is where the Babywise book came in handy. The author recommends an SLEEP-EAT-PLAY sequence—when they wake up they eat, then play, then sleep. It’s optimal for their natural body rhythm. So eating never comes right before sleeping. I don’t follow the sleep-eat-play thing strictly, but since Cole is on a 3 hour feeding schedule and I try to have him nap after no more than 2 hours of wakefulness, it just works out that way a lot of the time. The main thing is that I don’t nurse him before sleep unless the eating and sleeping schedules happen to coincide. #3 – And lastly, I’d highly recommend not having a long drawn-out bedtime or naptime routine. With Evan I had to read him 3 books, sing a bunch of songs, pray, rub his back and say the same things every time I put him down for a nap or at night. Every time! That kid didn’t know how good he had it. With Cole I am older and wiser. And I don’t have that kind of time on my hands. His routine is simple: put him in the crib on his back, give him his blankie and a pacifier, and walk out. If he wakes up in the night, the soothing back to sleep routine is even easier: say “sshhhhhh,” put his pacifier in, and walk out. I wanted to make it where anyone can do it, not only me, so “ssshhh” is good because everyone basically sounds the same. Nowadays Evan’s much too complicated bedtime routine each night is: bath at 7:30 pm, shishi on the potty, put on PJs and pull-ups, brush teeth, read a book, climb into bed (in bed before 8 pm), pray to Jesus, sing a few songs, say goodnight, and walk out. He still has it good. Since Cole was born, Daddy has been in charge of putting Evan to bed every night and he does a fabulous job of it. Evan’s more well-behaved with Dave and doesn’t put up a fight to go to sleep like he does with me. Naptimes are good, too: in school he naps from 11:30 am-2 pm and the teacher says they always have to wake him up. On weekends he can nap for up to 3-1/2 hours! And recently Cole has developed a pretty regular sleep pattern. He'll go down at 6:30 pm, wake up to feed once in the night and wake up for the day at about 7 am. During the day he takes 2 naps--a short one at about 9 am and then a long one at around 12 noon. Sometimes he’ll take another catnap at 4:30-ish. Every day is different, though, and I don’t follow the clock so much as his tiredness signs and the 2 hours of wakefulness rule. I love that Cole is already learning to soothe himself to sleep, that I can always count on being free from kids after 7:30 pm, and that I know they are getting the growing, rejuvenating sleep time they need. Speaking of which, I better get to bed for mine.
On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep
Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems: New, Revised, and Expanded Edition
