September 2014 - Toddlers & Tantrums!

[lilone1234]

Babies are now toddlers at 18 months +, growing and learning new things all the time!

FATE, I know someone who found out they were pregnant when they went into labour whilst trampolining! They were full term. Having now been through a pregnancy, I have no idea how they didn't know!

Daytona, you have two gorgeous little ones there, congrats!

For potty training, we have had the potty in the bathroom for a while now, and DD has been making a game of sitting on it whenever I go to the loo, even though she's fully dressed! She then wipes and flushes the toilet. Great fun! A few weeks ago we noticed that sometimes her nappy would be dry 1-2 hours after changing it, so started putting her on the potty first thing in the morning and just before bed. It was just random chance when she did something, but very exciting nonetheless. Then last week, she seemed to work out that some of the big girls in her new room at nursery wear knickers, and she announced that she wanted to wear knickers too. So we tried it and so far it is going ok. I guess that's not really advice, but we've just kind of worked it out as we go. In terms of advice, LOTS of knickers, leggings, short tops, potty downstairs and flushable wipes for starters! DD normally wears tunic/dress type things, but that's not so great with emergency sitting on potty! For the first two days we pretty much stayed at home and rolled up the big rug in the lounge. Lots of gold star stickers and about DDs body weight in diluted apple juice so she would have to wee lots! Give her plenty of practice

She's still in a sleeping bag with the sides on. She moves about loads so I could imagine changing either yet. We are not planning another, so no need to move her into a bed.

She said no to having her milk in a bottle tonight. She wanted it in a coffee cup! But she had it in one of her cups in the end.

Potty training we are waiting till next year to try as he will tell us he has done a poo but not that he needs one, he asks to go to toilet for a pee. So until he able to say he needs a poop we not trying as feel he is not ready.

He never slept in a cot we co slept as he was a flipping nightmare from day1he never slept well and still doesn't, so between him and new baby it's back to zero sleep at night

His toddler bed is in our room but he is always in with us by 11 pm manages fine with duvets though not sleeping bags

No I don't get any help it's just me and the boys plus two dogs. I'm used to it, husband went away when first was only 3 days old for a month that was hard being stuck with a non sleeping screaming colicky first baby on your own, I kinda wondered at the time Jesus what have I done this is hell, but I lived to tell the tale and I'm back doing it once again .

Being pregnant with a toddler is so crap, I had the worst morning sickness and would be throwing up with a toddler crawling up my back trying to see what was going on as had to look after him alone although t of the time, also my SPD kicked in at 8 weeks so that was pretty crap too

I'm glad it's over

Daytona - certainly sounds like you've got your hands full there, but what lovely boys!

Lilly - I empathise! I'm 12 weeks tmrw and still feeling pretty icky though it's getting better now. Such hard work with toddler in tow!

Sleeping bags have become an issue here, she refuses to wear them now but too wiggly for blankets/quilts and she just seems to like having her feet out but don't understand how she can't be feeling a bit cold now! She wears a vest under PJs but I want to get hold of some fleecy onesies to use now as its getting colder. Anyone seen any?

Not started potty training yet but will be giving it a go in next couple of weeks. Think it's me that needs to mentally prepare!

Not taking cot sides off until we absolutely have to, I know it will be the start of lots of bedtime drama!

We are struggling with jet lag at the mo. Last couple of night since we have been back DD has been up from
11pm til after 1am which has meant a late wake up and no nap! Fingers crossed for a better night tonight!

Hello all!

We are no where near potty training, we have had one kicking around for the last couple of months but he doesn't care, if I put him on it he freaks out so I try ever so often to see if anything as changed!

Ugh pregnant and a toddler, yup still don't want to do that

day I salute you

E is still in a bag, as he can climb out if not in it! And he is a wiggle monster too so don't think the sides or bag will come off anytime soon!

E has finally started naming things in books! Tonight we had "that's a hat" and "that's a ball" which was all very sweet and lovely then he had an epic tantrum going to bed and that was shite great fun

Eating slowly slowly slowly improving! The boy who won't pick up most kinds if meat will eat squid! I mean really wtf!!

But he is soo cute so yay!!

Hi all,

Just need a bit of hand holding. I totally lost my shit at DD this morning. It's the first time and I feel just awful.

She'd been up since 4am as she had a nightmare, so we were both tired and grumpy, and she was just being awful. Creating a mess and refusing to tidy it up, demanding treats that I'd said she could only have if she tidies, just generally messing about and being grumpy. It all exploded when she did a wee on the potty, and was then messing about getting her knickers and leggings on, nearly kicked the full potty over, I told her to be careful, she did it again and the piss went every where (we were in the lounge), and I lost it. I didn't shout at the top of my voice, but I was clearly angry and it clearly freaked her out and she got really upset. I gave her cuddles, apologised for shouting, but reiterated that she needs to listen to mummy and be careful when she is told. She then went to get a wet wipe to clean up the spilt wee, and I felt awful .

However, she then continued to refuse to tidy the toys but insisted on her treat, and when I said no and we had to leave, she went into meltdown, so I just bundled her into the pushchair in hysterics and walked to nursery with her in full meltdown and me ignoring her, hoping noone calls social services on me.

Just before we got to nursery she suddenly calmed down and was sweet as anything! We had cuddles and she seemed fine, but I've been thinking about it all day, and I just feel like the shittiest mum on the planet. I knew she was tired and grumpy, but she was just being a nightmare, and I was also tired and grumpy and didn't handle anything well.

Not really sure why I'm posting this. Just been on the verge of tears all day and needed to get it out of my system.

Oh team that's really nothing to worry about! It's what most of my days are like. Unfortunately we both have my short temper! I think the thing to remember is that although she may have seemed quite upset, she will have already forgotten about it. It won't have any sort of lasting effect on her, don't beat yourself up!

She hasn't forgotten about it. Dh and I both picked her up from nursery and one of the first thing she said was... Daddy, I naughty today cos I not tidying

I feel like shit, but I appreciate the reassurance. Thank you. I think I'm tired and having some crap at work, minor irritations at dh, and it's all just built up.

As team, we all have days like that. Don't beat yourself up about it.

DD is out of normal routine at the moment and the other day she had only 90m nap rather than her usual 3h. It got to 4.30pm, just when I'm cooking dinner, and the whining begins. I have zero tolerance or patience for whining and whinging. I had one of those "That's it! I've had enough!" moments and at 4.30 decided to insist she got in her sleeping bag (wrestled her into it) and went in her cot until she decided to stop whining. She just screamed until I fetched her back down. By that point though I was calmer and she was subdued.

Oh I hate it when I end up shouting at E, but that kid is so frigging annoying sometime's. He still really hasn't got great language so has a tantrum at least once a day! And often throws his food, most of the time I let it wash over me but ever so often I shout!

He won't remember long term what a shit he is being these troubling times!

team I would just move on! And try and forget about it!

We'll be using sleeping bags until she grows out of the 18-36m ones, so somewhere around 3 years old. I wont move her into a new until she is out of sleeping bags so the earliest would be next September. May well be after that. There's already a single bed in her room, but I see no reason to rush her out of the cot.

Team, I would say that won't be the last day like that, to be honest. They really do try your patience at this age especially when they decide they want something and that's it. We took M in the car yesterday as we had to get some things done and she was in hysterics because she wanted a toy her cousin had had in my Mum's house. It went on and on and on until she wore herself out and fell asleep. I tried everything from sweet talking her to giving her a massive telling off but that just made her worse.

M still uses sleeping bags, she finds it hard to sleep without one but is growing out of the ones we have now. I'll have to get some bigger ones ASAP.

No intentions of potty training yet but when we do I will do the same as I did with the older kids. Cover a box in fun wrapping paper and fill it with treats, just small bags of sweets, small toys, crayons etc and if they do so many pee's in the toilet (I think we went for 3) then they could blindly reach in and pull out a treat and also the same for each poo.

Aw Team that sounds awful. They can be quite trying at this age can't they. I hope she is ok now.

A is getting frustrated at not being able to communicate with us. His language is improving but not enough at this stage and when he wants something he will point randomly and get more frustrated with each guess. It's not fun if I can't work it out before the tantrum!

No sleeping bags here, he takes a blanket to bed but half the time that is at the other end of the cot from him! He is quite a warm toddler though and his room is warm. I will probably start using the bags again once it gets cold at night.

MissMoo thats a great idea for the potty training. We haven't started yet. The potty is out but he just ignores it . Nursery have said he sits on the toilet there, and lets them know if his nappy needs changing. But he doesn't do that at home, and when I try and change him he runs away

Oh Team please don't beat yourself up about that. I don't think there can be a single parent out there that can say they have never lost their temper with their kids. It sounds like stuff had been getting on top of you, and you were probably exhausted from being up from 4am.

Cumbrian I'm quite relieved I'm the only one with a toddler who isn't really talking yet. Most of DD's peer group seem to have progressed onto short sentences by now, but we're still on single words. So e.g saying 'daddy' 'dog' 'ball' etc. I think she understands quite a lot though.

Potty training here was unsuccessful. I think realistically she just isn't ready. Not least with her language skills being behind, she can't tell us when she needs the potty yet. I think we might have to put it on the back burner' for a few months and pick it up again once we've got winter out of the way (and I've survived through the 'newborn' months again - can't believe I'm now due next month! )

So is there such a thing as a 25 month sleep regression. Cos this boy has stopped wanting to go to bed and it's not fun!

We had this for a few weeks just before his birthday, he fought sleep to the bitter end and I dreaded bedtime! It seems to have settled now (fingers crossed).

Language is coming on leaps and bounds here, the word of the day was 'delicious'. I don't know where he heard it but everything he ate was delicious!

Oh polka I hope it doesn't last that long. 5 days so far and it's getting tiring. He ended up falling asleep on dh two hours after his usual bedtime. And when I took him up he gripped with his legs as I was putting him down! Luckily didn't waken though!
Ah delicious is cute. A word of the day day was car. Everything was a car lol 😁

I'm sure it won't last that long for you, DS is a notoriously bad sleeper for us.

I love getting DS to repeat funny words, so cute!

DD has started with her very early waking again, so also having some sleep issues here. I'm not sure that it is a regression though. I think the problem is that it is dark when she wakes, so she's now thinking that whenever she wakes, it is getting up time! I've bought a Gro Clock to try to deal with this. Has anyone used one?

Sympathies to those having sleep issues though, it is a killer

Our current cuteness when not acting like a child possessed is that she is very into talking about "favourites" and she currently "loves" everything! I love this apple. I love this puzzle. I love my top. On and on!

Thanks all for the sympathy and advice. It's reassuring to hear other people describing similar experiences. Misery loves company!

I hope so Polka. When I got him up for nursery this morning he was so tired. Barely drank his milk which is very unusual.

Team fingers crossed the Gro clock works for you. I was looking at them in Aldi the other week, but ended up not getting one as A was always good at sleeping. I have heard good things about them though.

We have a gro clock but we havent tried to build an association yet. 5am is the normal in our house but we have reduced ourselves to lots of screen time in our bed so we can snooze!

I think there might just be a 25 month sleep regression. After finally learning to sleep through the night at 19 months (!), DD has started waking at night again. She isn't distressed at all. On the contrary she seems to wake at about 1am and 'sing / play' in her cot for an hour or two until she dozes back off again. God knows why! Thankfully as she's quite happy in her cot we just leave her to it and mute the baby monitor. [Bad parent alert!] I could understand more if she was napping a lot, but yesterday for example she only had a 20 minute nap in the whole day at nursery, awake for an hour in the night, and she was still up for the day today at 6.45. I don't know where she gets the energy from!

In recent achievements DD has recently started counting to 10. Considering she still barely talks that was a bit of a surprise!

We also had a really odd letter from DD's nursery yesterday. It literally just said that her keyworker had been dismissed with immediate effect and that she had a new temporary keyworker. It's made me a bit anxious as to what exactly it was that her keyworker did / was doing to warrant an immediate dismissal.

Can I ask if anyone has had the nasal flu vaccine yet? Am thinking of trying to see if I can get it for DD.

DD has had a few very early mornings recently , but otherwise is sleeping ok. I need to get the gro clock out and going. Is anyone working on shifting bedtime in anticipation of the clocks changing on the 30th? I want to try to start shifting back a little each night, but she's so shattered she's saying a 6pm that she wants to sleep on the couch.

Potty training seems to have taken a sudden step forwards. No accidents for three days now. Although I'll probably pick her up from nursery later to four sets of wet clothes!

KitKat - that is very odd. I guess it means either something major has just happened in their life, or there is some kind of disciplinary issue. Saying "dismissed" seems to suggest disciplinary though. Did you have any concerns about them?

Not had the flu vaccine, and I wasn't thinking of getting it. Maybe we should though?

DD seems to have developed a tomato allergy! Just as we got her fully onto dairy, something else crops up

The terrible twos are in full swing! 90% of the time she is so lovely, but the 10% of the time, of my goodness!!! Luckily I'm managing to stay calm and not lose my shit, but she's been quite testing.

Hello all!

E is in the throws of the terrible twos and as his language is so bad it feels so much worse as I don't know what is wrong and I can't seem to work it out

We need to sort out E''s flu jab too!

According to this: www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/Pages/child-flu-vaccine.aspx most of our kids won't be eligible for the flu spray on the NHS as it's only 2 year olds that were already 2 by 31 August 2016 are eligible. As my DD does not yet attend nursery I wouldn't have been too worried about her having it, though I need one this year being pregnant!

I put DD on naughty step for the first time yesterday, for hitting me. I struggle to stay calm with her a lot after days of what seems like nothing but one load of fuss after another. Sometimes I realise we are just shouting at each other, which isn't any good!

She did do her first wee on the potty a couple of days ago though!!