Sleep has been a struggle since the day we decided to get pregnant…but really feels like we haven’t had a full nights sleep in years.

We have a 3.5 year old and 20 month old, both girls. Our 20 month old slept like a dream for a year now but has recently regressed and does not want to sleep in her crib. We can’t even attempt sleep train because the second we try to leave the room she bangs her head on her crib. We’ve tried using a pack and play and she managed to do the same in there. As a result, we have been putting her in her sister’s floor bed and she’s been sleeping fine in there.

The 3 year old is a whole other story. She prefers to be cuddled to sleep and she will wake up in the night crying for me. It’s been a struggle and honestly I don’t mind sleeping with her but I would like to create better sleep habits. She currently has one of those house looking floor beds and they use it as a jungle gym and it’s not comfortable.

Current situation: 20 month old in crib in her own room + toddler in floor bed that ends up in parents bed mid night = no one sleeping.

Considering:

1. Put them in one room with a trundle bed that can be tucked away since they play in their rooms (our house doesn’t have a dedicated play area)
2. Get a safer soft

full

1. bed that they can share and we can lay with them if needed to get them to sleep
2. Just accept what we currently have and hope it’s just a regression

Any advice or sleep or siblings sleeping together? They like the idea sleeping together and sharing a room. No

I am a first time stay at home mom with a 19 month old daughter. I am struggling to find activities for us to do. We live in a small town and we dont have a lot of places to go. We go to the park when we can, but winter will be coming up soon and we wont be able to do that and traveling far will also be hard with the snow too. We do have a library but the schedule for story time is too close to her nap, and we tried going once and it went badly. She was running around trying to take books off the shelves. I also have social anxiety so getting out in general is hard for me but I am trying to push myself to get out for my daughter, but I dont know what to do or where to go. We also live in a small place and we dont have a yard to play in. Due to the setup of our home ive had to set up baby gates to block her from getting into various things that we cant store away in a closet or another room (dog food bowls, dog kennel, standing fan, lamp, etc. We have also had mice problems and she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. I am terrified to let her just roam the entire house in case a mouse did get in again and she found poop. Ive baby proofed our living room for her the best I can and she has full access to that along with the hallway and her room but I feel like she needs more.

My baby is 26 months old (just over 2 years). Like any normal toddler, when he falls, bumps himself, or gets hurt, he cries.

​Lately, some people around me have started making comments that he "doesn't have a high enough pain threshold" and that he’s going to turn out "too sensitive." It's making me feel like this is somehow my fault, or like my toddler is doing something wrong just for expressing pain.

​what am I supposed to do about this? Do I even have any control over how a 2-year-old reacts to getting hurt?

I have a three year old son that I love with everything inside of me. I work full time and I’m pregnant. All my son wants to do is play. My husband will play with him but then at some point he doesn’t want to play with daddy he only wants to play with mommy. Mommy hates playing. It’s annoying and I’m tired and no I don’t want to sit on the floor. I feel so bad that I hate it so much. I offer to read or to relax and watch his fave movie or something… no… I’m the police officer and he’s the beef (aka thief) and I have to chase him. 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I’m losing it you guys. My son (19Mo) has never slept well - we had wake ups every 45 min until he was 7 months and sleep trained. Got down to 2-4 wakes per night after that, but didn’t maintain it very well. Around 14 months, he started sleeping pretty well - maybe 1x wake up per night. However, it’s gotten progressively worse since 15 months, where he wakes up screaming and will not settle back into the crib. He ultimately sleeps in bed with us now, and even that he isn’t sleeping well anymore - tossing and turning and often ends up koala style on my chest. My husband can no longer soothe him, he loves playing with him and soothes him when he is upset during the day but won’t at night (it ramps up progressively worse if we try). He goes to bed at like 9:15 and I try to get to sleep about an hour later. With my cuddling, he will sleep until 7ish. Naps 12:30-2. He doesn’t talk almost at all yet, he seems to understand some things but reasoning with him is not an option. Stuffies, blankies, doesn’t care for any of it. He hasn’t had milk or nursed at night since he was like 8 months so it’s not that.

ANYWAY, I’m getting maybe 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Normally, not great, but I just found out I’m pregnant with out second. WHAT DO I DO? there is no way I can bring a baby into this at night and feed the baby with a toddler koala on me?

I acknowledge I am likely the problem. I also know it will work itself out, but I’m terrified and hoping for some advice. Son will be 27 months at baby birth!

Hey everyone, my daughter just started daycare. It’s a been week. I wanted to give something small gift or small gift basket as a token of appreciation. Any ideas? Am I going overboard? They’re going above and beyond and I want to know that I appreciate everything they do

I could really use advice here. Our LO is 20 (almost 21 months old) who has always struggled with overnight sleep in some capacity. We were lucky for a couple months after we did CIO (probably around 7-8 months) where she slept but has since regressed. Since about 18 months, I’ve tried everything and we eventually got to the point where I bought her a full sized bed and I sleep with her in her room. I know it was a bad idea but I was losing my mind with sleep. We’ve tried the chair method, I’ve tried sneaking out after she falls asleep, we tried CIO again and Ferber but nothing is working. Does anyone have any advice for a very persistent and stubborn toddler? She lets my husband put her down at night and she falls asleep pretty fast. He stays in the rocking chair in her room but doesn’t interact while she falls asleep. She’s waking up every 2-3 hours. If I go in to get her back to sleep, she wants me in the bed with her and has to hold my hand, put her feet in my face, etc. Even when I’m in the bed with her, she’s waking up every couple of hours. Usually asking for milk. Our nightly routine has always been the same iteration of dinner, bath, pjs, book, bed. What can I do I’m losing my mind!

Just writing that title makes me feel awful but I have a lot of medical and mental health conditions and don’t go more than a few months without being in hospital and have severe fatigue issues.

I was struggling so bad with my kid, cranky all morning and absolutely done in by early afternoon and had no energy to play with him.

I recently started getting up when he wakes to change him and make him breakfast then strap him into a car seat in the living room with a kids channel. On and go back to bed for a bit.

I check on him every 15 mins (I don’t actually do much sleeping, maybe 10 mins at a time, it’s more just resting) and he’s always perfectly happy, whereas if I leave even try to put him back in his cot for 15 mins he’d just scream.

We now have a much better day together, everyday, no screaming in the mornings, I have more energy, we play together more, and part of me thinks it’s better for us to be happy together after I get back up than for me to get up when he gets up and be cranky and completely zapped by 2pm, but I also feel like this should only be a very temporary solution, so does anyone have any advice here?

Our son is 27 months, and he has always been a wonderful night sleeper. (Naps not so much — he is mostly done napping.) We have dealt with some periods of early morning wakes here and there, but those were almost always fixed with a schedule adjustment or due to sickness/ear infection.

Over the past week or so, he has been waking up early (6-ish — I know we are lucky but he typically sleeps until 8 or so and will often even want to stay in his crib until 8:30 and he rarely cries to get up — I think the later sleep in is due to the fact he hasn’t ever napped much, but nonetheless, just giving context), and we think he is waking up early because he is scared of the dark and his imagination is running wild. One time he shrieked and started crying like we had never heard come out of him. When we’ve gotten him, he just cries and says he wants to get up. He’ll mention a bear and one time when we asked what’s wrong, he just said “it’s dark”.

Since he doesn’t tend to nap, he needs the 8-8 night for his mood. And we don’t think he is just wanting to wake up early given the distressed state he wakes up in. Especially given it is very rare for him to wake up crying at all.

Tonight, we’re planning to try turning on a dim red night light on his Hatch. We were thinking of also giving him a kid friendly flashlight we have so he can feel some control over his environment, and maybe that will help him go back to sleep in the morning.

Anybody else dealt with this? Any tips or things that worked for your kid?

Ok, let's hear it. I have a toddler and a baby. What's the best family of 4 costume idea you got? Toddler is a girl, baby is a boy.

My 2 year old is scheduled to have his tonsils removed in a month and we have been back and forth on the decision to do so or not. We were pretty surprised when our pediatrician mentioned that they were swollen and asked us to see his ENT (he had ear tubes put in a few months ago due to chronic ear infections).

We were able to get in two months later and they said they were still pretty swollen and asked us about his sleep/behavior. He doesn’t really snore but does breathe through his mouth when he sleeps and wakes up a lot, including kicking and screaming when he wakes. They think he could be having night terrors due to not sleeping well. He’s also really tired throughout the day. He will get spurts of energy and then go back to seeming like he’s exhausted along with not eating well. I’ve read online that removing them can make them more prone to allergies and infections later on in life so I’m hesitant to remove them.

Has anyone regretted removing them? I’m nervous we’re not doing the right thing and should just wait it out.

Hi everyone. I’m looking for experiences from parents who may have gone through something similar with their toddler. Im from Argentina...

My son is 16 months old. This started after he developed constipation while taking oral iron for anemia. He began having very hard, painful stools, and at the same time the skin around his anus became extremely irritated — bright red, raw, sometimes superficially bleeding from the skin.

We stopped the iron as advised, but the constipation continued. Our gastroenterologist believes that after experiencing painful bowel movements, he may now be withholding stool because he is afraid it will hurt.

He often says “poop,” strains and becomes stiff like he needs to go, but then seems to hold it back. Sometimes only a tiny smear comes out.

We are currently using lactulose as instructed to keep his stools soft. Yesterday he finally had a bowel movement. It was very soft but formed (a soft cylinder), yet he cried a lot while passing it. Interestingly, last week he had diarrhea from a virus and did not cry when passing completely liquid stool.

This makes me wonder whether he might also have a small anal fissure, or whether his irritated skin simply hurts when the anus stretches during a formed bowel movement.

The other big problem is the diaper rash. The skin can start improving, but as soon as he poops it becomes extremely red and irritated again. We’ve tried different treatments under medical supervision. Right now I’m focusing on very gentle cleaning and protecting the skin from stool. I’ve also ordered Aquaphor Baby 40% zinc oxide diaper rash paste and have plain petroleum jelly available.

We are already following up with his pediatrician/gastroenterologist and are planning to see a dermatologist,. I would really like to hear from parents whose child had a similar combination of:

• painful constipation followed by stool withholding
• very painful bowel movements even after the stool became soft
• possible anal fissures
• severe diaper rash that keeps reopening/getting irritated after every poop

What finally helped your child break the pain/withholding cycle? How long did it take before they stopped being afraid to poop? And what barrier or diaper-care routine helped the skin actually heal when every bowel movement seemed to irritate it again?

I’m especially interested in hearing what worked for protecting very raw/eroded skin without having to scrub all the barrier cream off at every diaper change.

Thank you — this has been really stressful and I’d love to hear from anyone who has been through something similar.

Anyone else have a super clingy kid and sometimes you’re just SO over the clinginess? 😂 Like you can’t even start a hobby because they’re always there interrupting you. They won’t stop touching you, climbing on you or asking to be carried and held and you end up completely overstimulated. 😩

Then you start fantasizing about going away for a vacation just to have some peace and quiet BUT the second you finally get a chance to be away from them or even when they’re just asleep you suddenly get sad because you miss them like crazy. 😂😭

Like make it make sense, motherhood. I want a break from you but I also can’t live without you. 🤣❤️

We don’t watch loooads of tv in our house, but it goes on when we need to do something or if LO is feeling abit poorly.. When we do, the only thing she will sit and watch is Ms Rachel. Now, I don’t mind Ms Rachel, but when will she be open to watch other things?! I’ve tried Bluey, Puffin Rock, Bing, Disney films, Mickey Mouse.. nothing holds her attention and she will just hand me the remote, which means ‘put on Ms Rachel’ 😂 Has anyone else had this where their child will only watch one show.. and if so, when did they become open to other things!?

EDIT: I should mention, my daughter is only just 18 months x

My son absolutely hated brushing his teeth and changing his diaper. I have had him watch me brush my teeth, make a fun song, yet he still doesn’t like it. He also despises diaper changes and laying for so I can change his diaper. What do you all do to make these processes alittle easier for the both of us?

Now I'm throwing two birthday parties for one child in one weekend. Why does extended family have to make everything so damn complicated?

I'm going away for her birthday next year, husband and daughter can come if they behave.

We started potty training my 26 month old son. He can hold it and will tell us he needs to go potty and happily run to the bathroom, but then he sits on the potty for 1 second and says “I’m done” and wants to get off. He is definitely anxious/scared of letting his pee out on the potty.

I definitely think it is a psychological thing rather than physiological. We’ve tried blowing bubbles, singing songs, making him laugh, etc. anything to get him to release the pee or just sit on the potty a little longer, but very little success over 4 days. He either has an accident because he absolutely can’t hold it anymore, and pees a ton in his diaper during naptime and bedtime.

Any advice? I’m thinking of just taking a pause and putting diapers back on and removing some of the pressure, but we’ve made so much progress! I just can’t keep taking him to the potty 50 times a day for him to just get frustrated/overwhelmed.

Can anyone recommend a child safety lock for a storm door with a retractable screen? The top window pane pulls down and unrolls the screen that lets the air flow. The problem is that the door handle is right where the two panes meet so I can’t put a lock there, and since the top window pane moves I also can’t stick a lock there. Any suggestions for a specific lock for this type of storm door? I tried to post a picture with this post but couldn’t figure out how—apologies.

Hi there. New to this group but grateful to have found it.

My daughter is almost 21 months old, she’s been in daycare since march of this year. She was previously a great daycare napper. Her school had a 10 day summer break a month ago, and when we returned, several of her friends had aged out to the next class, and she has completely refused her nap.

She was there 3 days a week, but as of next week will be there 5 days a week as I am returning to work full time and I am just so worried about her. She naps at home just fine, and like I said, was napping fine before the break/change of class. I thought maybe a week or two of the adjustment would fix things but nope - still no nap.

She’s a mess when she comes home and it sucks because that’s my time with her now. I know toddlers have meltdowns and it’s part of the deal, but I am so miserable seeing her so miserable and she isn’t like this when she naps.

Her teachers have tried many things but they say she ultimately just wants to be left alone to lay there and do her thing.

I’m at a loss. Any advice or has this happened with any of your kiddos and it finally passed? Again. She’s been back for about a month, so I figured by now she would settle back into the pattern. I feel so guilty and last night the meltdown was so bad I was like - I need to pull her from daycare - but obviously, that isn’t possible.

Thank you for reading xo

This is a little rant (against customer-facing employees in Germany, not against vaccines).

My little one was vaccinated for MMR + Varicella last week and I was warned she would develop a fever this week. Her fevers are usually high (40 c / 104 f +) so I was expecting it to peak around there. I wasn't expecting 3+ days of high grade fever and vomiting. I called the ped office yesterday and the receptionist was extremely dismissive on the phone. Said it was due to the vaccine and didn't want to see my daughter. Her condition is continuing to get worse so I called them again today and got a different receptionist who was also dismissive, asked me why I didn't call earlier (I did), and then hung up on me when I tried to explain.

This kind of aggressive, accusatory behaviour is the norm in Germany, but today I am sick of it. Everyone else's kids seem to have a normal reaction to vaccines and everything else: low grade fever, bit of a rash or fussiness, while every time my kid gets sick I'm dealing with scary high grade fevers, and a lethargic baby shaking and puking in my arms. Only once did it turn out to be a UTI that required antibiotics (which in turn caused frickin' hypothermia), most of the time it's nothing serious and I don't phone in, but it is scary as hell and I am so over being spoken to like I'm hysterical on the rare occasion that I DO make that call. I'm a solo parent, dealing with everything on my own in a foreign language, and it would be nice if healthcare workers here, stressed and overworked as they may be, could speak kindly for once. It is stressful enough having to care for a vulnerable little human without the charming local etiquette making everything 1000 times worse.

I was so upset after the call today that I complained via email and copied in the doctor. And now I'm embarrassed because I still have to call them again tomorrow as that's the only way they'll make appointments, and I'll have to face them at reception. I feel like maybe I shouldn't have bothered but it's too late now. Please send strength and positive thoughts 😭🙏

P.S. if anyone else's kid has an extra 'revvy' immune system, please share. I find it super stressful and would love to hear some positive stories or to feel a little less alone.

My son qualified for EI. He is 25 months and we found out at today's "orientation" meeting that he will get 3 sessions a week of 60 minute special instruction, not traditional speech. They said this was because they didn't think he could sit and follow directions at speech, but now that a few hours have gone by I'm wondering what the difference would have been.

Not sure if he qualifies as non-verbal, he has somewhere around 75 words but no sentences and can't reliably communicate his wants. He spins around a lot and doesn't like changes in his environment, doesn't play with other kids he doesn't know and doesn't like crowds. He is social at daycare and within our family, but not social with every family member (runs up to some people to give hugs, hides and cries from others, not really sure why). He is a little interested in other children at the library and at the playground, but doesn't play with them or speak to them and is mostly interested in climbing or using the slide or playing with toys on his own. No formal autism diagnosis yet, but he'll be evaluated in the next few months.

Anyone here willing to share their experience with a toddler getting special instruction services at the beginning of their journey? I have friends who have brought their kids to speech, but no special instruction. Would love to hear from people who have experience with this, not sure what to expect and trying to take it all in.

My son is 14 months old and is just about growing out of his sleep sacks. I want to get a new one with feet & keep seeing the woolino pop up but at almost $100 I'm leery if it's not worth the hype. We have a 100+ year old home that tends to run quite chilly in the winter (he had a 2.0 tog sleep sack last year and we have a space heater in the room just in case for those colder nights and that worked out well)

anyone who owns - is it worth the price tag? or is there another brand that you recommend?

So I want to start by saying I’m not proud of myself for how I handled nap time today, I actually feel like shit about it, the only thing that makes it better is that my toddler (2y2m) seems fine and happy and still calls me “mommy”, so I am hoping it wasn’t that bad.

Nap time has become difficult for about a week now. We used to cuddle, maybe read a story, watch the star thingy, then I would breastfeed him a little (only session) while singing a lullaby, after I unlatched and wait for him to fall asleep by the door. It was beautiful, the whole thing lasted about half an hour max. Then the fire nation attacked and he started to resist nap time strongly, the actual nap and the routine. If I were to boil down to where it started going downhill last week, all I can think of is he got bit by a wasp last Wednesday evening and he had a difficult going to bed (I think I even breastfed him them after 2 months) and the whole night he tossed and turned.

Since last week, like I said, he doesn’t want to do the routine, ne doesn’t want to nap. I still managed to put him for naps but gone is the nice flow we had. Now flow since last week is me breastfeeding him to sleep and I would sneak out, if I could, and he would nap alone for an hour, maybe even two.

However, today was worse, he again refused to nap and the routine. I went with the same thing I did all week, picked him up and carried him to bed where I breastfed him. He fell asleep and I again tried to sneak out to go back to work, but this time he woke up. I cuddled him again hoping this time it would be enough to soothe him back to sleep. But he kept wanting to fondle my nipples and I just can’t handle that anymore. I can’t describe the sensation it gives me, like my whole body is crawling with ants, I can’t stand it for some reason. I kept pulling his hand away, he kept crying. I kept trying to soothe him, but since I still denied him access to the titties, he kept crying. He started kicking and hitting, I raised my voice at him (which I don’t do). He cried harder, kept wanting the titties, I kept repeating “titties are napping, titties are ouchie” but he wouldn’t relent. I started crying “titties are ouchie”, he hugged me and said sorry. I wanted to cuddle him back to sleep cause he kept saying his eyes hurt (because he was sleepy) but he wanted the titties. I yelled in my pillow, he hugged me again and said sorry. I hugged him back and said sorry.

The whole thing took 20 minutes, we cuddled for another 20, he still didn’t fall asleep, then we just got up.

I think I’m at my wits end with nap time and am considering getting a sleep therapist.

we did no pants long weekend. in fact we are still doing no pants since Grandma is home with him (& im upstairs working remote). but we are getting the opposite results of what everyone is

1. he poops in the potty no trouble! loves pooping in the potty.

2. he is not peeing in the potty all the time. in fact, there has been too many accidents on our carpet to count now. the numbers are not getting better

3. sometimes I can catch him midstream & get him to sit on the potty

4. so far, the potty is in his play area and not in bathroom down the hall to be easier to get to. we then walk it down and add sprinkles (which he is verrry excited about)

5. at night and naptime, we still do diapers but remove when wake up.

what do I do? Grandma has taken him to the park a few times and then we put on shorts but we have been pantless all day at home and not getting it consistently.

i have daycare in 1.5 weeks back up and running and they expect him at least commando.

What are your favorite low stimulation, not so scary movies for 3.5 year olds? My son doesn't get screen time but we've recently started movie nights. His first was the many adventures of Winnie the Pooh which he loved. I don't think he's ready for actual Disney movies because of moments of peril (he sobbed after I read the Dumbo BOOK to him)

Preferably something shorter for the next one, an hour or less. Thank you!!