High Maintenance Mom

I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by Dr Richard Ferber, Director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital in Boston and author of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, recently and brushed up on my knowledge (via Dr Ferber and other's books) on sleep and how to achieve it in babies and toddlers. I have been blessed with two good sleepers but that doesnt mean we havent had our late nights and frustrating moments. In our family sleep and nutrition rank highest on the "must get right" scale. While Dr Ferber is clearly a well respected doctor and author, he is not an excellent public speaker. If you had not read his book, the lecture would have been too broad and short for you to gain much insight. Having said that, I am glad I went because just by the amount of parents who brought their kids to the 7:30pm lecture, I could tell we had it good!

I am blessed to be able to breastfeed my 3 month old son and hope to continue to my 6 month goal (I nursed my daughter for 7 months) but understand that there are many mothers who do not have that option and need to feed their child formula from day 1. I reached for a popular formula brand when my daughter was 7 months old and felt OK with my decision. Now, it seems that between the new choice of organic formula and formulas with added DHD/ARA, they are new questions.

An update to my previous article on my 2 year old starting "pre" pre school at a private school in the next town over from ours...it is going so well! Everything I wanted to happen for her has. She asks for her teachers every morning even though she only goes 3 mornings a week, she talks about the things she does at school and she has become more confident and talkative. The confidence factor was my biggest reason for sending her to school.

When I first became pregnant I wondered about logistics non stop. I think that was because I was an event planner and that is what I did best. Now I realize, looking back, that those logistics have helped me and my 2 year old daughter tackle some otherwise difficult events like tooth brushing. From the day she was born, A always came in the bathroom with me when I was showering and getting ready for my day. She saw me do all of the little things that need to be done particularly brushing my teeth. So when it became time for A's teeth to be brushed (I wasn't one of the Mom's who brushed their gums before teeth...maybe next time), she understood why my hand was in her mouth and wanted to try it herself.

I had been using my humidifier to soothe my baby when a friend showed me their white noise machine (Marpac White Noise Machine Sleep Mate Sound Screen 980 Dual Speed Sound Conditioner) which can be purchased via amazon.com.

My daughter was 2.5 when we decided she needed to stop using the binky. I told her we needed to send it to the binky fairy so she could give it to new babies who needed it. I found a company http://thebinkylandfairy.com/ that takes old binkies and in return your child gets a certificate from a fairy thanking your child. (you don't even have to send in the binky if you don't want to). the letter was really impressive, I almost believed it came from a fairy.

Toy-maker Fisher-Price is recalling 83 types of toys - including the
popular Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters - because their paint
contains excessive amounts of lead.

GET A COMPLETE LIST OF THE TOYS RECALLED:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=alerts_recalls&id=5532182

Ever since I found out I was having a baby a while back, it seems that the schedule debate has been looming as if it was a nasty four letter word. It was very clear to me that having a schedule for my new family would be a blessing and something that I would hold to come hell or high water. Let me make myself very clear, however. I do not believe that newborns should be on any schedule except for their own! I am talking about babies old enough to self soothe and those who understand the rhythm of the day. I found an interesting question and answer series on www.aplaceofourown.org in the Topics, Child Care Management, Schedules and Routines.

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N gave up his crib on Friday night and has been sleeping on his mattress on the floor for the past few nights. It was exciting and strange to take apart the crib we've used for the past four years (it was a storage bin for a few months between the kids). B moved out of the crib at about 18 months. He had a stomach flu, threw up, and didn't want to go back into it...