What to Do When Your Toddler Cries at Nap Time

What to Do When Your Toddler Cries at Nap Time. Ten common reasons toddlers cry before nap time and what to do each time.

After going through all of the effort to teach your baby to sleep well, it can be unsettling and unnerving if your toddler starts to cry at nap time. 

While solving a baby's nap issues can be tricky, it is more straight forward than solving a toddler's nap issues. The older children get, the more complex and individual they become. In this post, I discuss various reasons a toddler might start crying before nap time and how to respond to each scenario. 

For this post, I am assuming your toddler has been a good sleeper in the past and was taught and expected to sleep independently already. The crying is different than how things have been in life for your toddler up to this point. 

Toddler is Crying Because of a Sleep Regression

Since you have made it this far into your parenting journey, a sleep regression is nothing new to you. You know all about sleep regressions and what they mean. This is when your toddler suddenly stops sleeping well and seemingly for no reason. If this is a literal regression, there is nothing you can do but wait it out.

At this point you should know your toddler well enough to have a good idea of how to respond and how not to respond during a sleep regression. Does your toddler need to just blow off some steam for a minute before settling down? If yes, just let her be. Does your toddler tend to do better if you go in and address her somewhat? If yes, go in.

How to Choose the Best Parenting Strategy for You

How to Choose the Best Parenting Strategy for You. Tips for thinking through options to choose the parenting strategy that best suits you and your family. 

by Diana

While I haven’t had kids for that long of my life – my oldest is 5.5 years old – I have done a lot of research as a mom.  My husband and I have also had a lot of conversation analyzing parenting, how things are going, and what we can do better.  At this point in our parenting journey, here are our parenting systems.  Some of these things won’t apply to everyone, but this is what we try to do. 

First, make sure you are on the same page with your partner.  

No need to try to implement any new parenting or discipline stuff by yourself.  That being said, if you and your partner are not on the same page, kids (even young ones) will figure it out.  They know that certain behaviors may be acceptable with one person and not another, and they will act accordingly.

Kaitlyn Preteen Summary: 11.25 Years Old

Eleven year old preteen girl information. Schedule, extra curricular activities, and more.

This is a summary for Kaitlyn from 11 years old to 11.25 years old.

EATING

Everything is the same with Kaitlyn for eating. If you don't know, Kaitlyn is my most particular eater of my children. Brayden and McKenna eat anything anytime and love a variety of flavors. Brinley is usually the same, but has her moments (usually when she really wants to get back to playing). Kaitlyn had reflux as a baby and has always been more sensitive about her foods. She does not love many, many foods. 

That doesn't mean we give her a pass, though. I have never required that she eat foods that exacerbate heartburn, but I do require a varied diet. She eats that variety even if she doesn't love it. I thinks she would live on pasta, bread, rice, and the occasional fruit if I let her. We don't have battles at all; she just doesn't love many foods.

The Basics of a Dreamfeed

The basics of a dreamfeed. The things you need to know to help the dreamfeed effectively work for your baby to sleep through the night. 

The dreamfeed is a helpful tool to help your baby sleep through the night when you are also sleeping through the night. Baby need so many feedings in a 24 hour period, and the dreamfeed is a way to make sure another feeding happens during your day so fewer need to happen during your night.

The term "dreamfeed" comes from the book Secrets of the Baby Whisperer (affiliate link) by Tracy Hogg. A dreamfeed is simply a late feeding that starts typically between 10-11 PM. The baby is already in bed, but you go in and feed baby one last time before heading off to bed yourself. The idea here is that baby gets a feeding in just before you go to sleep. When baby starts sleeping 7-8 hours straight without eating, these 7-8 hours then fall between 10-6, giving you a good night stretch to sleep yourself.

The dreamfeed is not necessary. If you would rather feed baby and put her to bed in the 7-8 PM hour and then head to bed yourself, go for it. The downside to not doing a dreamfeed is that it will likely be that the 7-8 hour stretch of sleep between night feedings will come between 7-2 instead of 10-6. If you are okay with this, there is nothing wrong with it. What you have to do is be prepared so when you hear stories of the 8 week old sleeping through the night, from 10-6, and yours is still waking up around 2 am, you can not be discouraged. You can remind yourself that your baby is also sleeping well and there is nothing to worry about. 

Some babies do not respond well to the dreamfeed. Some won't wake up for it and some sleep mores soundly through the night without it. Always do what is best for your baby; however, also be sure the dreamfeed legitimately does not work and the problems is not with your implementation of the dreamfeed. Some babies are very particular about certain aspects of the dreamfeed, so you might be able to tweak  one thing and get a great stretch of sleep in the night. 

In general, a dreamfeed works well for most babies. Some babies take work to get to take the dreamfeed initially. I had babies who needed a lot of time and effort put into establishing the dreamfeed before it was really a benefit. For me, it was something I wanted to establish. I wanted to be able to stay up past baby's bedtime to spend time with my husband. With effort, I established a dreamfeed with those babies.

Here are the basics of a dreamfeed to help you get baby sleeping through the night.

Everything You Need To Know About Wonder Week 19

Everything You Need To Know About Wonder Week 19. What is wonder week 19, or leap 4. How to help baby through wonder week 19. What baby learns during wonder week 19 and what to expect.

It did not take long after starting this blog for me to quickly realize a common time period babies were having troubles with sleep. I got an overwhelming number of questions from worried parents about their baby's sleep all of a sudden regressing right around four months old. In fact, the first time I wrote a post on it was two months after starting this blog.

I did some polls to try to figure out why some babies would be having issues while others would not. I came up with some theories as to why problems might be happening. It wasn't until my third child was a baby that the term "Wonder Weeks" first came to my knowledge. Wonder Weeks, by Frans X. Plooij and Hetty van de Rijt, was first published in 1992, yet I hadn't heard of it until 2009. The power of the Internet and moms groups introduced it to me.

This book talks about time periods in your baby's life when your baby is developing new skills, called leaps. These periods are marked with fussiness, clingyness, crying, poor eating, and poor sleep. The Wonder Weeks tells you when to expect these leaps, what skills are being developed during the leaps, things you can do to help baby get through each leap, and how long each leap will last.

Guess when the biggest, baddest leap of all is?

Four months old. This is also known as Wonder Week 19, or Leap 4.

In this post, I am sharing everything you need to know about this wonder week leap so you can help baby get through this sleep regression as smoothly as possible.

Brinley Child Summary: 6 Years Old

Six year old girl schedule and development. How to deal with emotions and what six year old girls are like. 

This is a summary for Brinley from 5 years 10 months old to 6 years old. She is now 6!

SLEEP

Sleep is great! Brinley had one night where she woke up crying because her leg hurt. I am 99% sure it was from growing pains (the 1% is reserved just for the fact that there is always a chance it could be something else). I gave her some pain killer and rubbed some Deep Blue oil on her (the doTERRA Deep Blue products are fantastic for growing pains!). Other than that night, things have been great!

EATING

Eating has shifted some. She has always been a great eater, even through the typical picky slides toddlers go through. She has started to say she doesn't like certain foods and not want to eat them. There isn't one food group she is directing this toward, but I would say most foods fall into the meat category. Brayden and Kaitlyn both spent YEARS not liking meat. They basically didn't like meat until they were about 5-6, so it is funny to have her start to be picky about it now. 

7 Practical Ways to Save Money on Baby Items

Practical Ways to Save Money on Baby Items. Tips to save money on everything you need for baby.

What to know how not to spend a fortune on a new baby? This is the list for you!

1) Accept Hand-Me-Downs

We have been so abundantly blessed to receive a ton of baby gear from friends and family. If you're looking to save money then saying goodbye to any pride you have about accepting second-hand items will do you in good stead. It's also good to bear in mind that by accepting the gift of hand-me-downs from another family you're allowing them to be a blessing to you. Most times people are happy to get rid of clothes and other baby items so that they can de-clutter their home. I would suggest asking what their expectations are. For instance, I when we have been given clothes I always ask if it's okay to pass them on to someone else once we're finished using them. That way, if there's anything that isn't to your taste or doesn't suit your child you can re-gift them to another person with no guilt. Hand-me-downs aren't limited to clothes either. We were given a crib, bassinet, bouncer, baby bath, and a number of other items. Of course, you'll want to know the kind of home the item has come from, but so long as you're comfortable with that there is nothing wrong with second-hand! The only exception is a mattress. Over time they lose their firmness and may not be as safe to use. Not to mention they tend to hold onto dust mites, etc. Do some research and get your baby a good quality mattress, but otherwise be open to receiving second-hand items.

Over 70 Beautiful and Easy Hairstyles for Girls

Over 70 Beautiful and Easy Hairstyles for Girls. These are hairstyles that your daughter can wear to school. Included are braids, ponytails, up dos, buns, pigtails, and half-up dos.

I taught myself how to braid using my Rainbow Bright doll when I was in first grade. That was the start of me doing hair in every toy I had with hair. Fast forward to motherhood and now I have three daughters I get to do hair on every single day. One of my favorite ways to play as a child has been able to become my reality in motherhood!

I am a person who really likes variety in many aspects of my life, and a hairstyle is one of those. I like to do many different styles on my girls and myself. We take photos of what we do so we can visually look through the options when choosing what to do that day. I often post our hair on Instagram. You can find photos on my feed and in my stories. I also have a story highlight called "Hair Tips" where you can see past stories of hairstyles we have done. You can also follow my hashtag #cbwmhairideas

In this post, I have over 70 different hair styles for you to look at and get ideas for doing your daughter's hair. I have written on my must-have products for doing girls hair. Having a good detangling brush, tools, and elastics really make the whole process much smoother. Read my post on Must-Have Products for Doing Your Daughters Hair here.

Moms- Finding Time To Grieve After The Death Of A Loved One

Moms- Finding Time To Grieve After The Death Of A Loved One. How mothers can find the time and space to grieve after the loss of a loved one.

When a loved one dies, grief can rear its ugly head at unexpected times. When you are a mom, it can be difficult to find the time to properly grieve. It can be difficult to give yourself the space that you need to mourn.

After all, your toddler and/or baby is demanding your undivided attention. Your needs as a mom often take a backseat. This can unfortunately also include your time to grieve. It is so important, however, to allow yourself the space to grieve and heal properly.

The only way to move through grief is to allow yourself to actually grieve. It takes time. Time isn't something moms have plentiful forms of. After losing my daughter, however, I had to find time to make the time.

Grief also comes in waves- unexpected at times. Things trigger emotions that otherwise wouldn't have, and it can consume you in the blink of an eye. There's no right way to grieve. There's no normal way to grieve.

There are, however, some things that can help as you navigate the waters. And, there are ways you can find the time and space that you need for you.

From Learning Time to Homeschooling: A Seamless Transition

From Learning Time to Homeschooling:  A Seamless Transition. How doing learning activities in preschool years helps you prepare for homeschool during school years. 

I first learned about the Babywise version of Learning Time right here on Val’s blog.  I was happy to find something new to incorporate into my son’s daily routine as he was getting older.  As a former teacher turned stay-at-home mom, I knew then that learning time would be an important (and hopefully fun) part of our day.  

When my son was an infant and pre-toddler, I can remember carefully choosing toys that would promote his development.  I remember carefully choosing board books to show him about current holidays or places we had visited like the farm or beach.  I remember slicing holes in the top of a container and showing him how to put pom-poms through the hole.  DIY fine motor work at it’s finest!  

I think I started “official” learning time with my son when he was about 20 months old, right after my daughter was born.  During her morning nap, I presented my son with a new lesson and then afterwards we would head outside to play.  During learning time, I taught my son about colors, shapes, letters and numbers.  We did puzzles, made crafts based on the current season or holiday and experimented with various types of art materials.  I followed his interests and together we both learned a lot about topics like outer space, dinosaurs and sharks.  We both really loved this focused time of day.  As any parent knows, children are innately curious.  Meeting his natural desire to learn was a joyful experience for both of us. 

McKenna Preteen Summary: 9.25 Years Old

This is a preteen summary for McKenna from 9-9.25 years old. Information on a nine year old girl. Eating habits, sleep habits, and anxiety for a preteen girl.

EATING

Eating is great! It seems like every child has at least one thing that is just a non-issue in life, and for McKenna, the number one is definitely food. She eats well. She likes everything I make. She isn't picky at all. Her natural desire is to eat healthy foods over junk or sweets. 

SLEEP

Sleep is good. McKenna did have a couple of nights during this time period where she got out of bed after being put to bed because she was worrying about something. This was definitely odd for her. I would have said sleep is another one of those things that we just don't have to worry about with her, but she did have these nights of getting up after bedtime. That has since ended, but it was a thing for a bit. 

Something we did for sleep was get her a basic timer so she wouldn't stay up too late reading. She gets so into books that she blocks the world out, so we would tell her what time to stop reading and go to bed, but she didn't look at the clock until that time was long past. So we got a timer and just set it so she knows for sure what time is time to put the book down. 

7 Chores Your Six Year Old Can Do

Chores Your Six Year Old Can Do. A list of chore ideas that your child can learn to do when your child is six years old. 

Having a child who helps with the household chores is invaluable. Every person in the house contributes to the mess, so having everyone contribute to the clean-up helps off-load the parents. Many hands make light work! Beyond easing burdens upon parents, chores help teach responsibility and life skills. Children learn not only how to care for a home so they are prepared to care for their own someday, but they learn the value in hard work and a job well done. If they are expected to be responsible in one thing, they can be responsible for other things in life.

It is important to keep chores age-appropriate. If a child is expected to care for something beyond her capability, it can lead to frustration. If she is expected to care for too few things or items that are too easy, he is losing the opportunity to grow and expand. 

Babywise Mom Reader Favorites Day 2018

Babywise Mom Reader Favorites Day. Favorite baby products, favorite baby toys, favorite toys for kids, and favorite books. 

When I am looking for recommendations, I love to look for advice from like-minded moms. One of my favorite things is knowing what other people have as favorite things. 

Below are the reader favorites posts for you to visit today. Follow the link and comment on the post with your favorites in that category. I will add your comments to the body of the post. Is there a category you would love to see? Go ahead and leave a comment letting me know what category you would like to see included. 

Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Reader Blog Day

Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Reader Blog Day. Share your blog day. 

Today is the day to share your blogs with everyone. These can be any blog that you would like to share.

Please look through the lists of categories below, choose the one that best fits your blog, follow the link, and comment on that post to share your blog. Please share your blog on only one link--choose the best one for your blog. If you don't see a category that fits your blog, go to "Misc." If/when I get enough similar blogs on that post, I will create a new category. If your blog is listed in one category but it actually fits a different category now, go ahead and list it with the better category.

Babywise Mom Parenting Hack Day

Babywise Mom Parenting Hack Day. Share your best parenting hacks for your Babywise baby.

Today is our first-ever Babywise Mom Parenting Hack Day. 

Today, share you hacks you have found to make parenting easier. Any hack is great. I would love to hear any Babywise hacks you have found to make your Babywise Mom life easier. Found  a way to keep track of the schedule? Found a way to to make traveling with a Babywise baby easier. Found a way to get your Babywise baby to sleep on the go? Do you have great tips for making sure you stay in the parenting funnel? These can be things you do or things you have purchased or made. 

Reader Sample Schedules Day 2018

Reader Sample Schedules Day 2018. Share your child's sample schedule so you can help other parents out. 

Welcome to sample schedules day! Today is the day for you to share your schedule. If everyone shares just the current schedule of one child, we can grow our resources significantly! These posts are referenced frequently so I know they are helpful to other parents out there. 

Here is what you do. Click on the link to the post you want to add a sample schedule to. If your child is 9, then you will click on the link for 9, 10, 11, and 12 year olds. Then add a comment with your sample schedule. Then future parents can come look at these sample schedules to get ideas for their babies and children! 

Remember, if you do not want to comment on the blog for whatever reason, you can head to your favorite social media platform and comment there. See yesterday's posts for direct links. 

There are some posts that definitely could use some attention--anyone with older children! You might be less consistent each day, but even just filling in the basic info of when sleeping is taking place can be helpful. Another is the Summer Schedules post--if you have a summer routine that works for you, go over and fill that in. 

• Reader Sample Schedules 0-12 Months Old

• Reader Sample Schedules: 12-24 Months Old

• Reader Sample Schedules: 2, 3, and 4 Year Olds
• Reader Sample Schedules: 5, 6, 7, and 8 year olds
• Reader Sample Schedules: 9, 10, 11, and 12 year olds (Preteens)

• Reader Sample Tandem Schedules (Two children)

• Reader Sample Schedules--3 Children or more

• Sample Summer Schedules

NOTE: I am turning comments OFF of this post. I want to make sure you add your schedule to the appropriate post and not this one.

Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Reader Week 2018

Chronicles of a Babywise Mom Reader Week 2018. Connect with other Babywise Moms.

July is a different month here on the blog. We do a big BFBN week, a success story week, and a reader week. What is a reader week you may ask? Well, you are in it. It has arrived.

This is my eighth year doing a reader week in July on this blog. This is the week we focus on the readers of the blog. I love to help readers connect and to help each other out. This is a week when you all get to contribute to making this blog a valuable resource. 

My posts are helpful to you all, yes, but so are your comments and contributions. It is one thing to see one mom (me) doing Babywise, but quite another to see how many moms do it. Something I love about reader week is that it adds a myriad of experiences to the mix. I haven't experienced 

every parenting issue that can come up and I consistently learn new things from readers. For example, I never knew about a tongue tie until a reader told me about it. There is great value to working together and collaborating. That is why I continue to host this week year after year.

I so appreciate you readers and all you do to contribute to this blog! Even your questions you ask me contribute because it helps me know what your common concerns are and what information will be most helpful to you. 

Here is the plan for the week:

How To Maintain a Sleep Schedule Amid School Disruptions

How To Maintain a Sleep Schedule Amid School Disruptions. How to ensure your baby or toddler still gets the naps needed while balancing a school schedule.

You don't know what you have until it is gone. This phrase is true for many aspects of parenting, and one of those is the nicety of the lack of disruptions in life. Yes, it can get boring to be home all day every day with little variation to the schedule. The major perk of that, though, is that your schedule is your own. You get to set it. You get to work around baby's nuances and personality quirks. You fit your family as neatly as possible into the schedule that is the most natural fit for everyone.

Then school starts for your oldest or maybe you enroll your child in something like dance class. Suddenly, you don't get to just set the schedule. You have to work around an outside force on your schedule. Even if things are perfect right now, you might find yourself face to face with having to drive your child to school or practice right in the middle of nap time for your baby.

How can you ever maintain a solid sleep schedule with all of the disruptions going on? Can it even be done? Is it worth trying?

The answer is yes. Yes you can and yes it is worth it. Here are some tips to make it possible. Use the tips that work for you. You won't be able to use every tip, so pick and choose which make sense for you.

4 Powerful Things To Know Before You Exclusively Pump

4 Powerful Things To Know About Breast Milk Before You Exclusively Pump. The facts are not cut and dry. There are factors you need to consider before deciding to pump instead of formula feed.

There is this huge push nowadays that "breast is best". So much so, that when breastfeeding isn't working out easily, many mothers are taking to full time pumping, freezing, and using this breast milk storage for their baby.

Our bodies are pretty amazing. Did you know that your body receives signals from your baby's saliva, and in turn makes changes to the composition of your breast milk? Your breast milk also changes throughout one feeding, throughout the day, and has different composition from month to month.

With all of this in mind, it made me think: 

What if pumping isn't as ideal as we think? 

How careful do we need to be with it? 

Should a 6 month old baby, be given pumped milk from when he or she was 3 months old? 

For moms that are breastfeeding, and then pumping to gain freezer storage for those moments in need... is that really the best option? 

When is the ideal time to pump? 

Is after a feeding ok? 

As far as I can tell, there really hasn't been much research done in this area. I personally think there needs to be, however.

Since, as a society, we are pushing breast milk as the "best" option, many moms are feeling guilted into pumping and storing milk, when they otherwise may have just used formula.

Formula has been highly researched and we know it is a safe, good alternative. In fact, it has some advantages such as being enriched and fortified with iron. Pumping, storing, and feeding is most likely also safe- but what if it isn't as straightforward as we think?

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Doing a Dreamfeed

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Doing a Dreamfeed. This post discusses the good things about doing a dreamfeed for longer night sleep from baby as well as the drawbacks of doing a dreamfeed.

The Dreamfeed is a powerful tool to help your baby sleep a longer stretch through your night sleep. This allows baby to get the feedings she needs while allowing you the longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep possible. 

Sleep has many powerful, known benefits. Sleep helps you heal (a benefit after delivering a baby) and helps you think through things better (a benefit for a mother caring for children). Helping your baby sleep well through the night helps your baby, but it also helps you as the mother, which in turn, helps your baby. 

The Dreamfeed can be a handy tool. Sometimes it works beautifully and sometimes it is a big flop. Here are some tips, comments, and advice from Babywise moms on the topic of the Dreamfeed. In making these comments, moms were pondering if they would use the dreamfeed for their next child. 

You will notice not every mom loved the Dreamfeed. For some, it worked great for one child and not well for a different child. Some fully disliked it. Most, however, really loved the Dreamfeed and found great benefit from using it. Read more about the Dreamfeed here.