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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
** kiwichampagne **
I saw in the poll you said you liked Happiest Baby on the Block. Tell me more! I've been thinking of buying it....
Re: ** kiwichampagne **
I LOVED it. It was a huge help at the beginning when we just had no clue what we were doing. After reading it, it struck us as pretty common sense but not stuff we neccesarily would have thought of on our own. It was primarily ways of calming a fussy baby using the 5 S's: swaddling, shaking, singing, sucking, & shushing. It worked miracles but we were able to start mostly phasing those techniques out by about 4-5 months .... the end of the "4th trimester" ... going on the theory that babies aren't completely ready to be out of the womb and thusly need it to be recreated on the outside so you wrap them tight, move them gently (because they are used to being sloshed around), and make loud noises like shushing and singing (because they are used to hearing the water sloshing around them). Every now and then we still utilize the techniques when she gets really fussy (usually late at night when shes overtired but won't go to sleep.)
Since your little one is already 4 months I don't know if it will be as huge of a help. Maybe borrow from the library or friend first to see if it's worth it. Or you can always ask me for more info. There is also a 2nd book "Happiest Toddler on the Block." We haven't gotten around to purchasing that one yet but I've heard good things about it too.
Hm, so I'm probably too late for it. I'll definitely keep Happiest Toddler on the Block in mind.
I guess I need more of a sleep training book. Did you use any? I don't know if I'm down with Ferber, I don't think I can physically make myself do it haha. I've heard mixed things on No Cry Sleep Solution.
We never used a sleep training book. We just did what felt like the natural progression to us. However, what we did sounds pretty similar to what I've heard about Ferber since then.
1) We started out rocking her to sleep in the glider or she would fall asleep eating her last meal. 2) Then around 4-5 months we started putting her down when she was *almost* asleep but not quite. We would lay a hand on her back and rock her while she was laying in her bed already. 3) After a few weeks we laid her in her bed and held her hand (well she held a finger) until she fell asleep but didn't rock her. 4) Then we laid her down gave her kisses, turned on the Sleep Sheep and walked out when she was very close to sleep already. Some days she just drifted off (loved those days!) but other days she would whimper a bit and we would leave her be because that only lasted a minute or 2. One the days she really cried we would go in to check on her/ tummy rock or let her hold our finger. We let the time go a little longer each time. 5) After about a week (she was about 6 months at that point) she just puts herself to sleep and sleeps about 11 hours a night. (This still proves true about 90-95% of the time as long as she isn't breaking a tooth or sick.)
It was hard when she cried but I busied myself with doing dishes or something that I couldn't stop immeadiately and it never lasted for more than 5-10 minutes. We found that sometimes the whimper that sounded like a cry was just her talking in her sleep.
ETA: While it was hard to hear her cry, I could never let her scream for more than a minute or 2 (however long it took to get to her). We also set a nighttime routine. She goes to bed with a full tummy, wears a sleepsack, close the shades, turn on her sleep sheep, leave her binky in the crib but don't give it to her (there if she chooses to grab it .. sometimes she does/ sometimes she doesn't .. she only uses it to sleep these days). Since about 3 or 4 months when she woke in the middle of the night all she needed to calm her was finding her binky again (except breaking the 1st tooth & when she had a cold).
We buy finger foods, yogurt, and cottage cheese but make everything else. It really is pretty easy. It takes more time than it would to just buy food at the store but it isn't nearly as complicated or time consuming as we originally thought. My SIL loaned us their Beaba Babycook and we have 2 covered ice cube trays.
1) It takes about 5-10 minutes to peel/dice the food.
2) Steam it. (The Babycook has a timer and turns off as soon as the time is up so you can walk away to do something else while it steams or prep a second food to cook.)
3) Strain it.
4) Puree the food until it reaches the consistency you want. (Adding a little extra water helps if you want it REALLY fine. Now that she is getting older we are playing with the textures a little bit and leaving the food chunkier.)
5) Divide into trays and freeze overnight. In the morning we pop them out and place in a labeled freezer bag.
To fill each tray takes about 20-30 minutes total but only about 15 minutes of work time (the rest is waiting for the steaming. If we do 2 trays it can take longer but we prep the 2nd food while the 1st is steaming).
Sometimes its even less time because we can steam her veggies/bake her meat when we cook our dinner and just take hers out before we add in our seasonings. Then the only extra time is the time it takes to blend her food.
When we first started she only got 1 or 2 cubes per day so we would cook once every 2-3 weeks. Now she gets 4-6 cubes a day so we cook once or twice a week and have a collection of at least 8 different foods in the freezer at any given time so she can have some variety with her meals in addition to the yogurt and cottage cheese.
Wow! So much info! Thanks!
DS is going to bed pretty well right now, and he has a slumber bear that I think definitely helps him sleep. We can get him to go down "awake but drowsy" but usually he wakes up in about a half an hour and screams until we calm him down. Sometimes he does this a couple of times within the first hour or 2 of going to bed and sometimes not at all. I'm not sure if he should be self-soothing at all by this point, but we aren't really giving him the chance because one of us always runs right in when we hear him.
I have a steamer already, but those babycooks look so cool. Would you have spend the money on it if it wasn't gifted to you? I think they're $150 everywhere I've looked. DS has milk and soy allergies. His GI had us try rice cereal this week, and he looks like he might be reacting to it as well
So when it comes time to start feeding him, I want to always know EXACTLY what I'm giving to him.
I love the babycook. I don't know that we would have purchased it on our own but it certainly does make life easier. If we have to return it/ wind up needing one again I may look into one of the cheaper versions 1st to see how the reviews are.
a steamer and food processor would work perfectly too .