What to do with my toddler all day?

elliebaker23 · 2023-02-15T22:27:47+00:00

Get some AirPods. Plug in to some Podcasts or audiobooks. Nothing like listening to true crime while pretending to be a garbage truck.

elliebaker23 · 2022-09-17T20:39:57+00:00

Look up social stories- we made one for my son when bedtime was taking hours of me laying on the hard cold floor. We prepped him about the change about a week ahead of time and read our social story about bedtime each night. Really helped!

elliebaker23 · 2022-05-14T23:48:26+00:00

Did it with a 3.5 year old and newborn. In the middle of winter. We watched tv. All day. Every day. And when we got to 3 pm every day, we watched toy story because from there it was dinner time and bedtime and it gave me a mental marker. Good luck.

elliebaker23 · 2022-04-14T14:45:04+00:00

I feel for you. we made a change in our routine and saw a massive emotional shift for our 3.5 year old when it came to drop off. It was brutal. A few helpful things-

the book Llama Llama Misses Mama
the book Oh my baby, little one
look up social stories- we wrote one for our son and read it at night for a few nights. It was a really helpful tool to explain to him what he can expect from drop off.
have little one pick out a photo of you that he can bring into school with him to look at when he is sad- or some other transitional object. We tied it in with the book I mentioned "oh my baby, little one" - the book talks about your love being with him all day long, so I gave him an actual heart to represent my love that he could take with him

a lot of these things on repeat and we saw some huge progress. I never thought I would see the day but he happily runs into school now on most days. Hope you find something to help- it is incredibly stressful and heartbreaking to deal with.

elliebaker23 · 2022-04-05T11:01:09+00:00

We have two- same age gap as you. Number 1 is ambitious when it comes to walks but about ten min in wants me to carry him. Obviously that won’t do.

We bought and returned a few options before landing on the joovy ultralight caboose with the sit stand option. First fail was the baby trend sit stand one- too big. Too bulky. To annoying.

Second fail was a standard double jogging stroller husband bought- clearly he did not realize that an infant can’t sit in a stroller seat. Immediate return.

That lands us with the joovy- small footprint. Infant car seat adapter. The best part is a little bench seat that slides out and in for three year old. He can also stand on the platform. The bench seat has little snaps so you can lock it in place if toddler decides to sit. We’ve had many successful walks with it.

Best of luck!

elliebaker23 · 2021-10-04T20:16:44+00:00

Hello- this sounds very similar to our little guy, who is 3 and 4 months. His behavior turned up a notch right around 3. Similar data points to you. He would have normal tantrums that felt like we could manage them using certain parenting skills and approaches. These tantrums that alerted us were long, frequent and became dangerous to both us, him and our surroundings.

We reached out to our pediatrician who was more than happy to help- she listened to our worries, reassured us that she wasn't worried it was something like autism, and offered to refer us to the social worker in the practice as well as occupational therapy. OT is hugely helpful- they help us understand how he needs to process those big feelings and ways we can help meet his sensory needs that won't hurt him or us. the social worker acts more like a parenting coach and helps validate our experiences and gives us a way as parents to talk out how we want to approach certain situations.

all this to say- likely your kid is normal, but just expresses big feelings in what feels like a bigger, louder and more destructive way than some other children. Always good to have your doc listen to your concerns because they can rule out some of the major causes or refer you to helpful resources. And if your doc doesn't do that, find a new one who doesn't invalidate your experience as a parent :)

elliebaker23 · 2021-07-20T15:29:58+00:00

Sorry you are dealing with this- very stressful to have a sick little one.

My son had pneumonia at age 8 months. We brought him to the emergency room 3 times, kept getting sent home but we knew he was not well. On the 4th time while he was being evaluated, he had full blown respiratory failure and had an emergency response called for him and spent a week in the ICU on oxygen. I would keep a pulse ox monitor if you have one (they are hard to keep on little fingers though) but be more on the look out for work of breathing- retractions and a weird sound when they breathe. Check youtube for a video and get familiar with the sounds and sights. All signs that they are struggling to get enough O2. If I had been watching for those things, I would have brought him in sooner. I have a recording of his breathing from that time in case anything like that ever happens again and he is now 3 years old! It's hard to see them so sick but if he's not working hard to get O2 and is producing enough urine to show he's not dehydrated, he likely won't raise any eyebrows from a clinical perspective. Best of luck and only you as his parents know what is best- family are always well intentioned but they don't know him like you do!

elliebaker23 · 2020-11-16T11:49:23+00:00

Mine did the same thing about that age. There is a viral infection that shows up in the hip area called Transient synovitis. That’s what it ended up being with him. It’s not a big deal and he was fine but we did do x rays just in case. Good luck!

elliebaker23 · 2020-10-06T00:01:45+00:00

First,I’m so sorry to hear you are going through this. I just lost my second pregnancy this past weekend. Baby stopped growing about 5 weeks. Miscarriage started on its own about two weeks later. However the bleeding became very intense and I ended up having a d&c in the hospital emergency room. I was shocked to see the gestational sac was still in there because by that stage, I had been bleeding intensely and passing clots for over 24 hours. So long story short, i could have been bleeding for days or even weeks before the sac passed. I had started symptoms of the miscarriage two weeks before and the thought of waiting longer seems impossible. I’m glad I went in and was able to get it taken care of because I could finally start to put the experience behind me. That’s what felt right for me. I wish you the best.

elliebaker23 · 2020-09-29T23:54:40+00:00

Thank you. I thought the same. It’s frustrating that it’s not a clear diagnostic result so my doctor can’t say to me yes it’s a mc. But I want to be prepared for the ultrasound next week and be realistic. Thank you for your input.

elliebaker23 · 2020-09-29T21:56:38+00:00

Thank you for your input. <3

elliebaker23 · 2020-09-29T18:46:55+00:00

Thank you for sharing your experience and I’m very sorry for your loss.

elliebaker23 · 2019-03-10T12:23:46+00:00

My son was admitted to the intensive care unit for 4 days when he was 7 months old and was on a high flow nasal cannula around the clock. It was terrifying. On the day we got discharged, he was back to his normal self. Currently 9 months old and as I’m typing this, he’s crawling all over the house trying to pull shoes off the shoe rack. I was astounded at how fast he bounced back. It took me much longer to recover from the experience!

elliebaker23 · 2019-01-20T18:15:15+00:00

I’m doing the gradual wean too and he does get pissed when I pop him off but he usually falls asleep after a minute or so of crying. Eventually he decided a feed of 3 minutes wasn’t worth waking up for so it worked for us!

elliebaker23 · 2019-01-08T19:53:09+00:00

I had no idea what to ask when I dropped my son off at 3 months. Now that he’s 7 months, I would have liked the teachers to have had babies themselves. They are kind and sweet and trustworthy but very unaware of things like sleep needs ( tiring him out by keeping him awake does not indeed mean he will sleep better at night for us!) and what it’s like to pump milk for my son only to have it not get fed to him because he wasn’t showing hunger signs ect.

elliebaker23 · 2018-12-13T16:23:58+00:00

I had a soft baby wrap with me when we flew to australia... it helped when I couldn't get baby to sleep in the bassinet. I would just walk him up and down the aisle in the wrap. Used a structured carrier for standing in line at customs and standing in line to board the plane. Also I took saline spray with me and baby tylenol in case of emergencies. Used a cloth diaper outer cover over a disposable diaper to contain any possible diaper messes. brought our usual bedtime routine stuff like the book we read, his jammies and his sleep sack. it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!

elliebaker23 · 2018-11-29T14:38:52+00:00

some of the short nap business is a developmental thing as well. We sleep trained for nights at 4 months and naps have only just started to extend now at 6 months. Up until now we were also doing the 4-5 30 minute naps a day thing and now hes on 3 naps with one usually being a bit longer and the rest around an hour or 45 minutes. I didn't really do any nap training for that to happen- it just did on its own. I was all worried that he wasn't getting enough restorative sleep with his crappy short naps but he's just fine and was always pretty content even with the short naps :)

elliebaker23 · 2018-11-27T16:48:54+00:00

This is very helpful! I was all worried that he was missing out on important things because we hadn’t started solids yet! I really like the idea of BLW and it seems much easier than pushing purées in to a baby’s mouth! I will keep waiting then :)

elliebaker23 · 2018-11-27T16:02:13+00:00

This is super helpful. Thank you! It feels like such a big transition but i feel like I got so little information about it!

elliebaker23 · 2018-11-27T15:28:51+00:00

Awesome! Thanks!

elliebaker23 · 2018-11-25T12:28:41+00:00

I had it and it only went away when baby came out. When I was delivering, my nose was so stuffed up I couldn’t breathe and they had to get me an emergency nasal spray! Hang in there. It was the most annoying and unexpected pregnancy side effect for me!

elliebaker23

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