American Baby has an article this month about the whens, whys, and hows of letting go of certain baby habits. They give solid advice, but I thought I'd share my own experiences with a few of these items:
Pacifier: Leah had hers until about 16 months. By then it stayed mostly in her bed, but when we decided to get rid of it altogether (because of the late night wake-ups to retrieve it from the floor!) we went cold turkey. No nuk. Nothing.
We thought it would be much harder. For about a week, she fought her naptimes a bit, but we just ignored her yells, and she'd still go to sleep. At night, you wouldn't have known anything had changed!
Ben had his a bit longer, because at about 16 months we flew to Rhode Island for my brother's wedding. I overruled Aaron, and said there was NO WAY I was flying across the country with a 1 1/2 year old and no pacifier. But we got rid of it a few weeks after we returned, in much the same way - and the same results- that we had with Leah.
Naked Time: Um, still working on this one. We try to keep at least pants on Leah - she can take her shirt off if there is no one visiting (this includes grandparents). How do we really explain to her that it's okay for Ben to have his shirt off cause he's a boy, but she can't, cause she's a girl? Doesn't make sense to her, since they look exactly the same!
Ben has become convinced that anytime he comes in from outside his pants need to come off...thanks to our early puddle-splashing this spring. He has to at least have pants (and shirt) on at the table. And if we have company. I know, we are very hard-core.
Afternoon Nap: Leah hasn't napped in the afternoon regularly since she was 2 1/2. At that point, it was maybe an every-other-day thing, or even less than that. Then I realized that it was taking me longer and sapping more of my energy to try to get her to nap then I would use if I just let her stay up...so we started quiet times. She listens to audiobooks, books with CDs, or music. Quiet time is done when Ben wakes up, but sometimes it extends longer...like three hours...!
Ben is our sleeper. He continues to take an afternoon nap, and he turns 3 next week (next week!) . In fact, he walks up the steps holding my hand, and shuts his eyes as soon as he lays down. I think he looks forward to it, although every once in awhile he'll fight it, if there's something interesting going on downstairs. Can't say as I blame him, but I swear he puts up the fight just to make us look bad! And then as soon as we get out of the room he starts yawning and rubbing his eyes. Stinker.
Both kids go to bed happily between 7:30 & 8pm, and get up around 7am. I really don't know what I'm going to do once Ben stops napping...I'm not sure he's the type of kid who will happily listen to stories by himself. We'll see!
Because Momma is NOT ready to give up her naptime...not entirely, anyway.
Like a waterfall in slow motion, Part One
2 years ago
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2 comments:
Not sure if you'd like to hear my parenting expertise but...
We never did the paci thing. I was too worried that Kenzie would get nipple confusion (first time mom paranoia) & I had also heard horrible things about it falling out during the night. I did NOT want to pop that dumb thing back in 50 times.
As far as naked time goes, we are still dealing with that issue. We have always joked that Kenzie is a nudist. I have recently started making sure that she is wearing clothes when it's not appropriate to be naked. Preston is always in a diaper...at least.
And afternoon naps...LOVE them. Preston is a great napper & consistantly sleeps from 12:30-2:30/3:00.
Kenzie quit naps around the time that she turned 4. Now she has quiet time if there's a day with no preschool.
:)
My kids don't do the naked thing (well except before bath time). So I get to chuckle when we visit others and the clothes come off.
How in the world do these kids not freeze to death, running around half naked?
Miranda didn't use a pacifier and she still ended up sucking her thumb. I believe she was copying Lincoln, even though she started when she was 2-3 months old. She sucks her left thumb (although is right handed) and Lincoln his right (although he quit finally). I seriously think she saw him doing it and copied him, do you think it's possible?
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