17: Safety Tips

1.  Ear/Bath/Food Thermometer This thermometer has worked great for us!  I like how it's all in one.This safety tip is specifically for the bath and food temperature.  Greater than 100 degrees fahrenheit is too hot.  Another way to test food temperature is with your lip and not your tongue or finger which, at least for my husband and I, can tolerate hotter temps.

2.  Pool Noodle Door Stop This is such a great idea! We tried it and it works pretty well.  I would recommend using the thicker pool noodles as opposed to the skinny ones.  The skinny ones tend to pop off.

3.  Safety Harness  Ok.  I promise you'll get dirty looks for this one.  But I swear by it! Right now I'm 8 months pregnant.  I was instructed by my OB, due to some issues, that I was not to be lifting heavy objects.  My daughter pitched fits and kicked my belly and flailed all around when I would try to get her in a shopping cart.  On several occasions, McKayla has bolted in Target and the grocery store and there my pregnant ass was, running after her with my cart containing my wallet and keys and cell phone, and frantically telling her to stop without yelling like a crazy woman.  This is as stressful as it sounds and it's making my blood pressure go up just remembering it.  Back to the safety side of it, I use it not as a leash but as a fail-safe for when she gets a wild hair to jerk her hand away from me and bolt in a busy parking lot.  I have seen, on two separate occasions, of little toddlers take off running in the parking lot straight to the store.  I just heard of another event from a friend off of Facebook who almost ran over a child who did this.  I treat McKayla as if she is not wearing it all.  I make her hold my hand in unsafe conditions like walking through the parking lot, or down the wine isle in Target.  It provides her freedom to walk next to me instead of being restrained in yet another seat belt.  When she acts up, I threaten to put her in the cart and that usually corrects her behavior.  If it doesn't, she gets put in the cart.  Now she will even request to get in the cart!  I will take all the eye daggers in the world if that means it might save my daughter's life.

16: Sleeping Tips

I've read and heard a lot of tips and advice to get a baby sleeping.  Some scared me.  Some I tried and failed at. Some actually worked for me.  Getting a baby to sleep, particularly through the night seems to be a touchy subject with many moms.  I'm sharing what I've learned and what finally worked for me.

• Noise: I used to think when I was getting McKayla down for a nap or down for the night that it had to be quite in the house.  I soon learned that any noise could potentially wake her.  Then I realized that noise was ok.  I would leave the t.v. or radio on.  I would talk in a regular voice and not whisper.  She would still sleep.  So when some random noise would occur that would have normally startled her awake had it been silent, like the dogs suddenly bolting through the doggy door to get a squirrel, she was now sleeping through.  I'm not saying to blare your music, but don't walk on eggshells in dead silence.  I really believe that hearing this normal background noise is comforting to baby as reassurance that you're still there.  During the day, she napped downstairs with/around me, but at night I would put her in our quiet bedroom.  To prevent the dead silence, I used a sound machine to help.  That way when my husband and I would come up to bed, our creeky door, sloshing toilet, mechanical toothbrushes, and loud sheets wouldn't wake her.  She is 23 months now and I still use the sound machine, mainly on white noise, for her naps and bedtime.  But instead of having it on all night, I'm utilizing the built in timer to go off in 90 minutes for two reasons. One, she broke the plug-in adapter and I have to use batteries which would need to be replaced every 2-3 days.  Two, a wise woman told me that kids were losing their hearing from sound machines.  I honestly don't believe the volume that I have her sound machine set to would do such a thing, but it's still in the back of my mind.  Will actually have to research that for verification.  Another thought on sound machines is I've been told by my brother, Zack, that the best sleep actually comes from complete silence and complete darkness.  We just don't have those kinds of variables available in our household to satisfy these conditions, so I'm sticking with have a little noise so as not to startle. (Another reason why I have sound machine set to timer....another thing in the back of my mind.)
• Napping as a baby was usually never a problem with McKayla.  It started to be when I was trying to get her to nap in her crib when she was older and more aware of what was going on.  Some days she would just lay down and sleep, but those days were fading.  I tried some non-cry-it-out methods, but they just made her worse and she just wouldn't nap at all.  What worked best for me was her crying it out to get her to nap and sleep at bedtime (I would still get up with her to nurse and change her diaper whenever she'd wake at night).  Nearly a year ago now, we moved to another state and a month or so after settling in, she started to stop napping again.  And I folded.  I would let her nurse to sleep on my lap and either I would watch t.v. or nap with her till she woke.  But I was stuck there.  I had to make sure I had enough to drink or snack on and I couldn't repsosition and I coudn't pee.  I was still nursing and changing her diaper 1-2 times during the night every night.  A few months later, I found out I was pregnant.  After visiting McKayla's  clinic for her routine appointments, her pediatrician was the one to tell me that for my and the new baby's health that I needed to get McKayla sleeping through the night and napping on her own.  Which meant getting her off of nursing (I was trying to nurse her till she was two) and letting her cry it out.  She promised McKayla would be sleeping through the night within three days.  At a year and a half, I stopped nursing McKayla and attempted letting her cry it out....again.  It worked.  In the estimated time, three days later, McKayla was sleeping through the night.  It was such a relief. I was finally getting a full night's sleep and so was she.  I was able to decide during her nap if I wanted to clean or work on a project or nap myself, in the position I chose.  (I still kind of wish I could have nursed her till two, but when I got pregnant, nursing became so painful.  Plus she was biting....and laughing about it....then biting harder to my screams and pleas to let go.  It was an easy out for me once I was advised to stop.)  Something else that has been working for McKayla these days, mainly for her naps is music.  The type of video monitor I have has a lullaby option  and I'll turn this on if she's fighting a nap and she'll be asleep within five minutes.  Again, this is what worked for me.  I know many parents who have had circumstances work differently for them and they don't use the cry-it-out method.  Best of luck in which ever path you take.
• I just discovered a blog that changed my life!  It had my two-month-old son sleeping through the night! http://pinterest.com/pin/371898881703125940/

15: Where To Get Baby Gear

Sure, there's always Target and Amazon but here are a few places to get things for free or on the cheap.

• Freecycle.org is a nifty website I was told about where you can post or see posts of stuff to get rid of or to pick up.  It's free and green.  Check out the website for more details.  I have not actually used this yet, but certainly intend to.  I was told you can get great quality baby gear for FREE!
• Thrift stores, Goodwill, Salvation Army, and consignment shops are excellent sources to find baby gear for great prices.  
• Always accept hand-me-downs.  I have clothes for McKayla till she's 5 years old! And many of her baby gear are from friends and family.
• Ebay and Craigslist are great sources too.  I've heard of moms getting bags of baby clothes for a fraction of the original costs.

Please always stay safe considering these options.  Use your best judgement if visiting people's homes and accepting used baby items.  Check out Parents.com for tips on buying used baby essentials.

Most of these clothes were  hand-me-downs.

14: Spit Up

While my daughter was still nursing, she would spit up all the time throughout the day.  I don't know the cause, although, after talking with my friend Allison, she has a theory that her drinking coffee was the cause for her baby spitting up.  Not sure if it was the caffeine or what, but if she didn't drink it, he wouldn't spit up.  I'll have to remember that when my son arrives (BTW, I'm eight months pregnant!  Yay!).  Anyways, an easy, simple solution to preventing having to change her every ten minutes was keeping a soft, absorbent bib on her all the time with the exception of sleeping.  At those ages, she was always with me so I could keep an eye on the bib getting uncomfortable, turning, flipping or pulling.  When she spit up, it would go on the bib and when it needed it, I would change it.  It was so much easier than having to change her whole outfit.

13: It's Never to Early to Learn

It is so easy to expose your baby to learning.  Here are a few ways how that worked for my little McKayla.

• Counting her outfit buttons during diaper changes.  After I would count out loud, I would then show her my fingers and count to that number again.  Can you believe that I've gotten up to 12!
• Count the stairs as you climb them.
• At bottom of stairs, tell her/him we are going to go UP the STAIRS.  Vice verse with going down.
• Read to your baby.  Most of the time the books I read captured her attention.  Choose ones with short paragraphs or one liners a page and with bright, fun pictures.
• Present flash cards.  I used to do them once a day with her and it held her attention pretty good.  If she got bored, we just stopped doing them.  
• Start your baby on "Your Baby Can Read!" DVD's. I started McKayla on the set when she was around a month old.  I called it "going to school."  She would get so excited when I'd say that.  To this day, she's 19 months now, she "goes to school" every morning.  I have since expanded her selection.  She loves the Baby Einstein videos which you can easily find on YouTube or you can purchase the DVD's.  Just recently she's really gotten into "Wild Animal Baby Explorers." She even requests to watch it by saying "babies!" I like to limit how long she's in front of the TV and let her go for about 45 minutes, which is how long some of the shows are.  Added benefit: I get 45 minutes to clean!  UPDATE: My daughter is now 23 months old so I want to add a couple of new things.  We were introduced to Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood by my friend Zoë D..  She loves this show and so do I.  Great learning tool!
  
  My daughter watching Baby Einstein 
• Start teaching your baby right and left.  When putting on socks, shoes, shirts, pants, seatbelt.  I know many adults who are not very good at knowing right or left so I think the earlier and more they hear it as babies, the better the chance they'll have it correct in their head as children and adults.  In fact, when I did test the theory on McKayla at 18 months, she did so correctly.  I asked her to give me her right foot to put her sock on and that's the foot she gave me.  Now I know that she had a 50/50 chance of getting right and that maybe she just got lucky.....BUT.....what if she just knew!
• Tell her/him the color of the garment you're putting on them.  I've heard that children don't understand the concept of colors until much older, but still, what could it hurt?
• Speak another language.  Are you bilingual?  Is your spouse?  If so, teach them the other language from the start.  Click here to read more on the subject.  
• Talk to your baby all the time.  Tell him/her what you are doing whether you're cleaning or giving them a bath.  They're learning with every word you tell them.
• Teach your baby manners.  As soon as they seem to get the concept of "give me something" they should also be provided with the know-how to be polite.  McKayla was able to say (in the best of her ability) and properly use the word "please" just after a year old.  She has even waved thank you to a car in the parking lot who had let us pass by because she saw me do it.  She was around 14 months old.  Show your child how to use please, thank you, God bless you, and excuse me.  The world will thank you for it.  
• Encourage your child to help you clean up his/her toys at the end of the day.  My friend Rachel S. gave this advice to me and said that if you show them young, once they're old enough to understand how to do it themselves, it becomes automatic.  It worked for her daughter.  
• I used to be so opposed to a child/baby using an iPad/iPhone.  I don't know why because it's a great learning tool.  There are a ton of apps that are free for babies to use.  Read this post about how to lock your iPhone so the child can't leave the app by accident.
• Start your baby on checking for traffic in parking lots.  In the past two months, two toddlers older than my daughter of 23 months, have took off running through the parking lot, across the lane, all the way to the storefront.  Ever since my daughter seemed to slightly understand what I was saying or even was able to look in the direction I pointed to, I have been repeating to her to check for traffic.  When I'm carrying her, pushing her in a cart or stroller, or having her walk with me with her hand in mine, I have her stop, tell her she's about to cross the road and to check for traffic.  She points one way and looks (I tell her look left/right as she looks), she points the other way and looks and sometimes, on her own, she has pointed behind her and at extra awkward lanes.  People, she is not even two years old.  All it takes is taking the time to protect your child.  As she gets older, she will be able to do this without prompting and struggling with me to get her to do it. 
• Have your toddler help with caring for your pets.  Please keep safety in mind first.  Don't involve your baby if you have a food aggressive dog.  And also make sure baby can't find their way into a fish tank.  McKayla has been helping me feed the fish and the dogs for several months now.  We've worked up to these tasks in steps, but currently, for the dogs, she grabs both of their empty bowls, takes them to the laundry room where I store the food, and sets them up on the hamper.  I fill the bowls and she'll carry one, I'll carry the other.  She'll place both of them on their rug where they're fed and tell them "babies," short for "good babies" (their release from sitting to eat their food).  She's able to do this with my dogs because they are calm and trained to wait to eat their food.  This may not work for everyone depending on the temperament of your dogs.  Use your best judgement; maybe baby can only help with some steps and not all.  As McKayla gets a steadier hand, I'll teach her how to fill the bowls, but right now that causes a mess.  As for the fish, I have three betas in small little tanks that are always out of her reach or behind closed doors. (which will need toddler proofing soon).  I have one on my bathroom counter she can reach and I will place the fish pellets in the palm of her hand and she'll drop them, one-by-one, into his tank.  She thoroughly enjoys feeding both the dogs and the fish.  When I do anything else, like fill the water bowl for the dogs, or change the fish water, I let her observe until she's older, but helping me feed and observing what goes in to having a pet teaches her how to care for lives that are dependent on us.  Another plus is that one day, she'll be able to help me do these tasks down later down the road when there is another baby to take care of.