It Takes a Village...

One of the most surprising things about being a mother, for me, was how much I didn't know and that it didn't just come naturally for me. Over the past year I have been given invaluable advice and ideas from other moms, including my own, that I thought I would share.

1.) "Once your child is a few weeks old, you can stop changing his diaper in the middle of the night. This will avoid having to turn on lights and then the baby thinks it's playtime. If he cries go in and feed him with the lights off and put him right back to bed. Eventually this will help him sleep through the night."

2.) Babies LOVE to sleep. My doctor told me that when a baby is just 0-4 month's old, they get tired after just one hour. Once that hour hits, start preparing your baby for a nap, even if it's just for 30 minutes, they need it! I had no idea! I remember the first couple months I tried to keep Caiden awake for as long as possible so that it would help him sleep through the night. Once I followed my doctor's advice and allowed him to take 4 or more naps during the day, he started sleeping better through the night. At 4 month's Caiden was sleeping 7:30pm - 6:00am every night and we were finally able to get some SLEEP! Even now if Caiden gets home from daycare at 5:30 and he seems tired, we'll lay him down for an hour nap and he'll go back to sleep at 7:30 for the night. This was probably the best advice I received as a very new and even more tired mother.

3.) "When your child is in their high chair, it's not play time. No making silly faces or playing with toys."

5.) "Praise your child 10 times more than you correct them. It's easy to see what they do wrong but you have to pay extra attention when they do something right. And if you praise them publicly or in front of others, it multiplies that praise."

6.) "What a child wants is for his mother or father's eyes to light up when he walks into a room." (This one is my favorite :)