Now that Finley is 2.5 years old and I’m 6.5 months pregnant with a baby girl, I was thinking about all the advice I had gotten and so many trials and errors and wanted to make a list of the top 5 things I get asked the most! I hope this helps you as they have SO helped us!
- 1) SLEEP TRAIN: If you want to have any freedom and sanity at all you need to do some sort of sleep training. This is what we did, but it isn’t for everyone. That being said, Finley is an amazing sleeper and I get every single night to myself to spend any way I want too.
- 2) VEGGIES FIRST: Most of the articles you read say when you start baby food start with cereal and then add in fruits and veggies. I skipped the cereal all together-I never did it until Finley could actually eat real oatmeal. I also started ONLY with veggies. For probably a good month I never did fruit until we got a good system down with veggies. I still think this is why Finley loves veggies and has always eaten them.
- 3) FEED THEM WITH YOU EAT: This goes a little bit with the above one. I do not cook food separate for Finley. Just because he’s a toddler doesn’t mean he needs to eat frozen fish sticks. If we have salmon and sweet potatoes, that’s what he eats. He is expected to try everything but we never force him to eat it. That’s something I’ve struggled with, but is a huge waste of time and energy. If he really does not like something, or something is too spicy etc. I will make him a sandwich but 85% of the time he eats what I cook and what we order when we are out. SO much easier for you and healthier. Remember: they ONLY know what you do and what you show them.
- 4) WAKE UP CLOCK: I started using this clock when Finley was about 1.5 years, maybe earlier. Now, Finley is a good sleeper and actually stays in his bed even when he wakes up and takes some time until he’s “ready” to get up. But, we started with this clock and now he knows I will not come in to get him out of bed until the light goes on. He’s in a toddler bed and still does not get out. You will have to work up to it and start a little early and keep pushing the time back but this is so amazing! That way you know no matter what really, your child will get up at X time.
- 5) COUNTDOWN: This is something I’ve been doing with Finley for awhile, but my Dad just told me to actually use a timer and it is working so well. I think it’s actually cutting down on the meltdowns that everyone talks about toddlers having. Example: “Finley, in 5 minutes we’re going to leave and go home” Or “Finley in 5 minutes I’m going to turn your show off and we’re going to eat.” I just started doing this awhile ago because it came natural for me, and works really well! I usually do 5 minutes, and then 1 minute, and then tell him it’s time. My dad actually just told me if I feel like it’s going to be REALLY hard, to actually start the timer on my phone and tell him when that goes off then time is up. I’ve only done this once, but it also worked really well!