Ages & Stages

My son is almost 14 months old, and he's finally sleeping through the night (11 hours) and taking 2 one-hour naps a day! Our road was a long one, fraught with uncertainty, guilt and exhaustion but looking back on it I don't have any regrets and I really don't think I made too many mistakes. Maybe that's just my optimistic predesposition, but I know my son and through it all I did what was best for him. Here's our sleep story. I hope my personal experience can encourage someone else because I believe the biggest mistake I made was to second guess myself. Before he was born, I read Babywise and I knew that's what I wanted for my child. I wholeheartedly agreed...

Do you ever have days where you feel like all you do is reprimand everyone in your house? Last weekend I had one of those days. I felt like all I did was chase after everyone and say things like "Stop jumping on the couch!" "Don't hug the toilet!" "We aren't having any more chocolate milk!" At the end of the day my husband looked at me with exhaustion in his eyes- nobody was having fun. As I laid my head down that night I wondered why the day had felt so brutal. Was it a phase we are in? Was the kiddo particularly fiesty? Were we experiencing a little cabin fever? And then it hit me. Sure, the kiddo was probably...

The other day my husband and I were at lunch with my son, who happened to be sleeping, so we had a chance to actually speak uninterrupted. We chatted for a few minutes about everyday things, and then he looked at me and asked, “What do you want to do differently with this baby?” We are expecting our second child in December. Our kids will be 23 months apart, and our experiences with our son as a newborn are still fairly fresh in our minds. This time, when we bring our newborn home, we won’t be first-time parents, and we will at least be more confident that we know what we’re doing. We have learned many lessons from our son,...

Congratulations on your new bundle of joy, and welcome to parenthood! Welcome to the world of baby smells (the good and the bad), baby snuggles, smiles, and sleepless nights. You will never be the same. It can be exciting and fulfilling, while being challenging and downright frightening at times. Newborns are special and depend on you for everything – you went from caring for yourself to caring for another person 365/24/7! To ease some of your new parental worries, here are some answers to frequently asked newborn questions…after all, knowledge is power. Newborn Feeding Feeding a newborn is one of the most common discussions I have with new parents. Breast milk is obviously best for newborns; however, not every mother chooses...

“Mama? What’s college?” she asked a few months ago as we passed LSU on the interstate after I pointed out where I went to college. I explained in seven-year-old terms that college is where people go to learn how to do their jobs. I went to learn to be a teacher, and her daddy learned to be a nurse. That satisfied her, and I quickly forgot the exchange. Simple things haven’t always come easy to my girl. She hit most major milestones on the late end of the normal range. Her speech wasn’t clear to most people until well into her third year of life. When we expressed concern, it was dismissed time and again, because she sat on the...