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The Pit Parenting Thread

RJ had a tight friend named Harv back in the day. Guy was a baller. As for sleep put lil Harv in the car seat and drive around the neighborhood until he konks out. Not the ideal solution but maybe it will give you some sanity. Good luck! My kids are 5, 7 and 9.
 
Every time our daughter starts doing something new/challenging, I keep telling my wife "it's just a phase, give it a few days and it will change." So far, I've been right, but I think these phases are going to start lasting longer.

Yeah, I have heard many times "whatever they are doing, good or bad, it's just a phase"
 
Potty training sucks. I've had it relatively easy so far, I think. Started just before the boy turned 3, thinking I couldn't take it anymore, and he took to it like a champ. Not a single accident, #1 or #2 for around a month and all of a sudden he has gotten gun shy about taking dumps and will hold it in unless he has something to distract him. Then, when he gets distracted by something, he'll let it fly. Like, say, when he was playing with the train table at Toys R Us. I think I still have PTSD from that. FTR, we used M&Ms as incentive for #1s and ice cream for #2s. He was a fan of that.

I'm a SAHD with a 4-month old as well, so these last few months have been a bit rough with the 3 year old adjusting to his brother, potty training, and trying to juggle both schedules and still having time to do fun stuff.

ETA: Harvey really is a BOSS name. Well done.
 
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"Baby Wise" and "Bringing up Bebe" are both good resources. "Baby Wise" suggests a routine of allowing natural light to help regulate circadian rhythm (adjust blinds at certain times if the day; take stroller walks at certain times). "Bringing up Bebe" stresses observing your baby as it first starts to wake/cry and see if it will self-soothe and resume sleep. Rushing in too soon often interrupts the process. Also putting the baby down to sleep before it gets overtired is important for restful sleep.
 
CIO methods ARE NOT RECOMMENDED for babies younger than 4-6 months. I know it's a highly inflammatory topic, but even the biggest proponents of it, would never tell you to ignore the cries of a 2 week old baby..

You know what else is NOT RECOMMENDED? Coddling your kind until they're school age and can't sleep on their own.
 
Just saw this thread. My son is 4 months old now. Sleeping through the night; he usually goes to sleep around 9 and wake up around 5:30 (which according to my parents, is how I was).

He likes to puke when Wake basketball is on TV; quick learner I suppose.
 
That sounds like heaven right now.
It is. I don't think we did anything special to make it happen, just kept him on his schedule and made sure he didn't sleep too much during the day.
 
Reiterate what everyone says about treats for potty training. Candy, icees, play time, etc. were used as a way to get him to use the bathroom more often. Also, my son was really big into superheroes when he was training (still is) - so we let him go to the store and pick out his underwear - he chose Batman, Superman and Avengers underpants, and since he chose them, he liked them and wanted to pick them out and wear them. We instituted a policy that if he had an accident in the the underpants, we would throw them away - he lost about 5 pairs, that was it. Also, while somewhat disgusting, we put 2 kiddie toilets around the house in places that he likes to play so he wouldn't have to go far to be near a potty - while that helped, he still prefers to use the kiddie potties, and that is kind of a pain to clean.
 
sleeping has also been a challenge since christmas. i'm not even convinced she's truly waking up, more like she's in some sort of semi-conscious stage where she wants to fuss, get out of the bed, and go turn on the lights. she's mumble some incoherent stuff and we'll have to calm her down and get her back in the bed. been happening 2-3 times a night for the last two weeks.

i'm hoping it's just a phase and she'll get back to normal on her own because she was a bomb-ass sleeper for the majority of the last 2.5 years.

Sounds like she might be trying to get some attention. How is she doing with the news of Rambo? I would guess you can expect some acting out soon with the knowledge that she will no longer be "the baby".
 
We went with a pacifier and one of those velcro swaddle things last night and it worked well. I know the main downside to pacifier this early is interfering with breastfeeding, but any other concerns? Also, pacifier or binky?
 
We went with a pacifier and one of those velcro swaddle things last night and it worked well. I know the main downside to pacifier this early is interfering with breastfeeding, but any other concerns? Also, pacifier or binky?

I am pro-pacifier. I didn't see any downsides - but you will need to have it taken away by the 10-12 month mark, because it can interfere with their bite once the teeth start coming in. Also, certain daycares/schools will not allow them, so it will be an easier transition to napping at school if they aren't using it.
 
We went with a pacifier and one of those velcro swaddle things last night and it worked well. I know the main downside to pacifier this early is interfering with breastfeeding, but any other concerns? Also, pacifier or binky?

We started a paci on day 1 (which he now calls his "bappy"- and I avoided binky because I thought it sounded dumb, bappy is worse) due to some trouble with nursing, it never interfered for him. The ped has noticed it is starting to shape his palate/affect his teeth and recommends ditching it at 2.

E slept great from 2-4.5 months and then it went to hell. He sleeps pretty well now (though last night wasn't awesome) when he isn't teething (got this all out of the way early) or sick
 
Pacifiers are fine as long as there is no nipple confusion and doesn't interfere with teeth growth. Just don't be one of those weirdoes whose kids need them when they are 2 or 3 years old or are even able to talk.

My son was pretty well done with his at 6 or 8 months, I think.
 
Pacifiers are fine as long as there is no nipple confusion and doesn't interfere with teeth growth. Just don't be one of those weirdoes whose kids need them when they are 2 or 3 years old or are even able to talk.

My son was pretty well done with his at 6 or 8 months, I think.

We made a rule that he had to take the paci out to talk (I can think of few things that look as trashy as a kid talking with a paci hanging out of their mouth) and just wouldn't respond if he didn't. That worked. I'll be honest, I never wanted to give him a paci (was dead set against it until he was born and we clearly needed it) and I do not look forward to taking it away.
 
BJF started his first full week of daycare this week at the same daycare we've had LJF for the last 18 months. Yesterday went pretty well. The only problem is he only took a 20 minute nap all day. He doesn't fall asleep if there's fun to be had and they're too young for a specific group nap time.

The only other problem was that LJF's teacher brought him by to visit his little brother. Apparently they had fun and BJF cried when he left. It's amazing how close they've gotten in not even 6 months. Now BJF is starting to reach out for him and grab him to try to play with him.
 
A few days ago I was walking into a grocery store and a fat guy was walking out. When he was a few feet away my 4 year old said "Daddy, look at his big, big tummy!". I didn't say anything and just tried not to laugh as we passed him. What's the proper response in that situation?
 
We made a rule that he had to take the paci out to talk (I can think of few things that look as trashy as a kid talking with a paci hanging out of their mouth) and just wouldn't respond if he didn't. That worked. I'll be honest, I never wanted to give him a paci (was dead set against it until he was born and we clearly needed it) and I do not look forward to taking it away.

What worked for us on getting rid of the pacifier was to tell the girl that in a couple of days the tooth fairy was going to come and take her pacifiers to give them to another new baby that would need them. Then we threw them all away. When we got back from work/daycare later that day, we checked to see if the fairy had come and the pacifiers were all gone. She was amazed, so that worked pretty well.
 
A few days ago I was walking into a grocery store and a fat guy was walking out. When he was a few feet away my 4 year old said "Daddy, look at his big, big tummy!". I didn't say anything and just tried not to laugh as we passed him. What's the proper response in that situation?

"That's why we wait until after dinner to eat dessert."
 
Pacifier is much better than fingers. My kid was a finger sucker and there's not much way to take that away. We found it though: he got an abscess on one of the fingers he sucked so after it was lanced (ouch, poor baby) the finger was bandaged and then we wrapped his whole hand in an ace bandage. Gave him some tylenol for the first couple of nights (both for the finger pain and so he'd go to sleep) and he broke the habit in 2-3 days.
 
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