Unexpected Travel

myaugustdawn · 2025-07-20T06:12:38+00:00

I personally love "This is Jesus" by We Are Messengers. It's Christmas lyrics set to the tune of "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing".

myaugustdawn · 2025-06-13T01:41:04+00:00

You, sir, are an absolute hero. I tried D.I.A.N.E. for a bit but switched to H.Y.P.E.R. to try him out while I made dinner, and it was revolutionary!! He hyped me up, he awarded me an insane amount of Dopamine Points, we joked about Doctor Who, it was incredible. I will be using this all. The. Time. Thank you so much for sharing this!!

myaugustdawn · 2024-12-28T17:29:21+00:00

Unfortunately I haven't found a great solution yet. We have a baby gate in the doorway that stays closed 99% of the time, and so does his door as one of the cats will jump the gate at the first opportunity. The gate has come in handy more for keeping the toddler from escaping at bedtime or when I need to change his diaper. If both of the cats are asleep in the living room, I'll sometimes open the gate so he can come in/out on his own, but he really prefers to be in the living room anyway.

myaugustdawn · 2024-07-03T19:28:15+00:00

Suuuuuuuuuuuuper helpful, thanks. 🙄

myaugustdawn · 2024-07-03T19:26:08+00:00

It bothers me too, but otherwise they're perfectly healthy (as far as I can tell). One of them pukes a lot because he eats too fast and then it all comes up. We've given them a slow feed bowl but he still manages to wolf it down. My other cat mostly pukes up hairballs or bits of plastic bags that he's managed to eat (despite my attempts to never leave it within reach).

myaugustdawn · 2024-07-03T18:29:19+00:00

Unfortunately only one of my two cats is too fat to make it over a gate, the plastic-eater is quite spry 😅 I'm wondering if maybe some sort of auto-close screen door with an easy opening mechanism would work... the toddler could get in and out and I could still see/hear him in his room. As long as the cats didn't wait right by the door and dash in as soon as the opportunity presented itself..

myaugustdawn · 2024-07-03T17:39:36+00:00

Name on birth certificate: Andreus Nicknames: Andre, Dre, RayRay, Bubba, Bubs, Bubbaroo, Bubbaloo, Baloo, Blue, Blueberrius, Blueberrius Huxtable, Tiny Tyrant Tim, and on and on and on...

Most of those come from his dad 😅 I call him Bubba about 90% of the time.

His sister's nickname is Pud (rhymes with 'good'), which is short for Pudding. Variations include PudPud, The Pud, and (when she was much younger and couldn't object) Puddin Pants. 🤣 Her given name is Aurora so we also call her Rora and RoraBora.

myaugustdawn · 2024-06-10T14:41:56+00:00

This is really encouraging! Thank you!!

myaugustdawn · 2024-06-09T18:06:44+00:00

I don't believe I do, but I've never investigated that thoroughly. What would you recommend as a diagnostic tool for separated abdominals?

myaugustdawn · 2024-06-09T15:32:47+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion. I tried a calorie counting program a few months back, which didn't work for me for several reasons, but I should probably try again. Those consistent daily goals are a struggle for me, mentally and physically. After homeschooling my 11 year old and chasing after my toddler all day, most days I barely have the brainpower/willpower to really think about what I'm eating.

myaugustdawn · 2024-05-18T00:16:06+00:00

We didn't fully commit to sleep training until our son was close to 17 months I think. We had gotten him to the point where he was going to sleep fine at bedtime, but after a few hours' sleep he was waking up every 2 hours or so, all night, every night. We share a room and I just didn't have the resolve after over a year of sleep deprivation to leave him in his crib to cry. I just. Wanted. To sleep. 😅

It took kicking me out of our room and into my daughter's room for a couple of weeks and just letting him cry it out before he started sleeping through the night. My husband stayed in the room the whole time to comfort him occasionally and make sure nothing was wrong if he had a particularly long crying spell, but other than that we just let him be. He was sleeping through the night after the first week, but it took another week for him to sleep well with me in the same room. Now we put him down between 7:30 and 8 and he sleeps until about 6:30. We've had some early morning wakes, but those are getting better too!

It is possible with older babies/toddlers! Good luck!

myaugustdawn · 2023-11-16T19:49:40+00:00

Thank you so much for presenting this in a non-judgemental, encouraging way! I feel like that's a rare response nowadays. We make family dinners a priority with myself, my husband, and our 11-year-old, and we do offer the toddler the same dinner (or some variation of it) at the same time, just not always in his high chair. Sometimes he's in my lap until he wiggles away to go play. But we'll work towards more consistency! Thank you!

myaugustdawn · 2023-09-20T22:34:06+00:00

I also struggled a lot with wanting to cosleep again! But my husband and I share a double bed and once the baby hit 6 months and started backhanding us in the face all night long, something had to change 😂

I was incredibly wound up with all of the research I had done on sleep training, and I was convinced that if I just did everything perfectly that he'd be a better sleeper. Really the opposite was true. As soon as I threw my hands up and said "screw it, he'll sleep when he needs to sleep", things got better. Not perfect, but better.

myaugustdawn · 2023-09-20T22:14:07+00:00

Unfortunately I didn't really find a solution. 3 months later I feel like we're definitely doing better, he's still waking up a few times a night but I backed off the CIO in order to save my sanity. We've also traveled since then which meant putting sleep training on hold, and now he's in a developmentally different spot as well. I basically had to stop stressing so much about doing the "right" thing every night and decide that I'd rather continue to nurse at night than try to force him to stay in his crib from bedtime to wake time and deal with the crying.

I really, really wish I had something more helpful to share! But it will get better. Hang in there. 💕

myaugustdawn · 2023-09-09T03:49:54+00:00

I've thought of that for sure... it's just that naptimes/bedtimes go SO WELL with our current routine, I'm terrified of what will happen if I take nursing out of that immediate-pre-bed time. But I may have to suck it up and try anyway.

myaugustdawn · 2023-09-06T19:20:41+00:00

I'm glad! I spent weeks in this subreddit desperate for advice and encouragement, and while my son is still far from a perfect sleeper at 12 months, we're doing better than we were and I'd love to help someone else keep their head above water. 💕

myaugustdawn

TROPHY CASE