Comments for The Daddy Dispatch

Comment on Sleep stuff by angus

angus — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:52:36 +0000

My best advice: just put up with this for at least 3 or 4 more years, then – and only then – consider doing this all again. PS Congrats on transferring a sleeper as long as you did!

Comment on Sleep stuff by Lorna

Lorna — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:07:23 +0000

Try changing something in her environment. A new lovie, change the lighting, new cribside toy. My daughter used to have one of those toy fish tanks strapped to the side of the crib. When your daughter wakes up screaming, associate that toy with your entrance to her space. Hopefully she will start using the toy for comfort. Kids have to be able to put themselves to sleep. You can’t be the answer every time.

For the car dilemma. Keep a good book in there. That’s your chance to relax while she finishes her nap in the car. It’s a luxury you can’t do with 2 kids.

Comment on Sleep stuff by Liz

Liz — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:24:11 +0000

My oldest used to have night terrors. He would start screaming his head off and nothing we could do would stop it. He looked like he was awake, had his eyes open, but didn’t really respond to my husband or me. Our pediatrician told us to splash him in the face with cold water to fully wake him and once we did this we could calm him down and put him back to sleep. Luckily for us, this stage was short lived. I have no solution for the car seat/crib transfer problem. Neither of our boys would do this either. Good luck!

Comment on WAH absurdity by angus

angus — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:10:01 +0000

On a related note, cell phones can be used as serviceable baby monitors (receiver on mute). Unlimited distances!

Comment on Yea for Mr. 7 by angus

angus — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:53:58 +0000

Great video! Our 5 year old loves it. It helps that Marc is her uncle. But we hear that it’s been very well received. It can be bought as DVD or downloaded.

Comment on WAH absurdity by Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:51:06 +0000

I do this ALL the time. Sometimes I do it to clue the babysitter in on what Gabi is saying, and also to make a quick getaway…or a bathroom break!

Comment on In the news again by Liz

Liz — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:45:46 +0000

I am a parent and I agree it is wrong to segregate families on planes. But I disagree always blaming the behavior of the child on the parents. Sure, I wish the kid who repeatedly kicked the back of my seat from Chicago to Charlotte despite my repeated nasty looks and polite comments got more discipline from his mom, but what about the screaming 6 month old?

I travel 2 or 3 times a year with my kids (boys ages 7, 4 and on the way) and always am prepared with snacks, toys, books and lately my favorite travel companion for kids–the ipod touch; but those infants can’t be controlled by anyone. I have spent long flights walking up and down the aisle softly singing to an infant and have had to change diapers and/or supervise potty training children half in and half out of the tiny airplane bathroom. I have had a potty training child scream repeatedly that he needs to go to the bathroom when we were landing and the flight attendant refused to let us out of our seats. He didn’t make it. (a bit of advice–consider pull-ups for flights….)

So while I sympathize with and envy kid-free travelers and don’t think segregation is right, I also don’t feel I deserve all the blame for the misadventures of my children.

Liz

Comment on Torture by Hollee

Hollee — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 01:51:20 +0000

Try telling her to squeeze her eyes closed and then drop them in the corners. When she opens, the medicine goes in. Hope this clears up soon!

Comment on We have a floater by Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:07:02 +0000

We have had several rather unpleasant tub poop situations, unfortunately when Gabi was younger and the poop was, shall we say, much looser than it is these days. In any event, I actually didn’t throw her toys away, but took the job seriously and made sure to sanitize the tub and toys. It was definitely gross, but not on my high fear list. That list is reserved for choking and someone snatching her.

Comment on Learning to talk by Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:03:05 +0000

We did sign language with Gabi starting at around 5-6 months (a class for 10 weeks with some other neighborhood babies), and by 11 months she was signing back to us. I used to sing and sign, and every time I used a word I would not only speak the word, but use the sign. At the time, my mom was watching Gabi while I was working. My mom, who is deaf, really got into it (she had no prior sign language experience, as she was brought up reading lips). Up until recently, Gabi was still using the signs (with the words) to communicate certain words, and in May when we were visiting my mom, she was using the signs quite frequently – probably because she picked up on the fact that my mom was having difficulty hearing/understanding her words but knew that she understood the signs. I loved the signing and plan to use it with our next baby for sure. It was great to communicate with her before she could speak, and eliminated a lot of frustration on all of our parts.

As for talking, Gabi is a total chatterbox. She had no delays in speech, which is a common misconception in teaching baby sign language.