Tummy time is important for your baby. So what is it? In a nut shell, it is laying your baby down on a mat or blanket on the floor on their stomach. Not only does it give he/she time off their back, it helps them strengthen their muscles. By having to raise their head and move their body in a different way they are learning to use other muscles in the body. Your baby may not like tummy time at first, so start out slow. Only leave them on their stomach to begin with for a couple minutes, because if they don’t like it they are more than likely going to be crying soon after laying them down. Start out doing this about two or three times a day. Give them a chance to experience it more than once a day so you can increase the time on their stomach sooner. I would suggest beginning this at around four months old.
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My son just turned six months old and he is really teething. At his last doctors visit his pediatrician said his gums were really swollen, which means before long he should have a tooth coming through. Every baby is different and they teeth at different times. Teething usually begins somewhere between 3 months old and six months old. A good thing to look for if you think your baby may be beginning to teeth is massive drooling and chewing on everything. Any thing the baby comes in contact with goes straight into the mouth, because they are wanting some relief for their gums. They probably will keep putting their fingers in their mouth, as well. This has become a constant with my son. Some babies get pretty fussy right before a tooth is getting ready to break the skin. It may be difficult for the baby to take a bottle because of the pain and the swelling that occurs. Another tell, tell sign that your baby is teething is very loose stools. You can just tell a difference in their diapers.
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This activity is very fun but can get pretty messy. It would be a good activity to do outside this summer, while the children have their bathing suits on.
Materials: All you need is a can of shaving cream and a table that can be wiped down or hosed off.
Have the children gather around the table and give each a decent amount of room. This may require the children taking turns, which is a good lesson to learn. Spray the shaving cream on the table and allow the children to “paint” on the table itself. The children could make shapes, designs, whatever they feel like making, even if it’s just swirls, with their fingers and hands. Let the children play for a reasonable amount of time, say ten minutes.
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This activity has kids thinking, “How did that do that?” All it entails is children coloring over objects making them appear on paper.
Materials Needed: Crayons (large ones work best), Assorted paper
Take various objects such as money, paper clips, flat pieces of wood, or something else you think would be interesting to your child.
Place them under the paper.
Have the child color over the objects and the design appears on the paper.
This is a fun quick activity that your children can do and it’s not messy. Young children are amazed when they see the object appear and they feel like they have accomplished something.
After a woman has a baby her body, obviously goes through many changes, but her emotions and how she feels may go through changes, as well. After I had my son I noticed that I started having feelings of sadness, mood swings, and I was crying a lot. I didn’t want to stay home by myself. At first I thought it may be just the “baby blues”, but my husband was concerned it was turning into postpartum depression. He supported me during this time by letting me express how I was feeling even though I didn’t understand why I was feeling this way. I had just given birth to the most precious baby in the whole world so why was I feeling like this. That was the most frustrating part. Even though I didn’t have the first thought of hurting my son, I found myself asking my husband what to do even though deep down if I would have been thinking clearly I knew how.
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One thing young children like to do is pretend. Most kids would rather play in the big box you have setting in the garage over their toys. Well, if you have a box around the house you can set up a “camp site” and your child can pretend they are camping.
Here are a few of the props your child can use:
Box, 2 red towels, 2 sticks, Cotton Balls, Compass, Sleeping bag, a piece of cardboard with flames drawn on it, (include something your child wants to take camping with them)
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The following link takes you to the information about the recall. It’s the Eddie Bauer Play Yard, which happens to be the one I own. The article talks about the bassinet leaning to one side even with the security straps on. We did notice this problem and I ended up adding blankets under the sheet to make it even. If you own this, please read the recall information.
http://www.babynews.com/index.php/2009/05/14/eddie-bauer-play-yards-with-rocking-bassinets-recalled-by-dorel-juvenile-group-due-to-suffocation-hazard/#more-285
Every mother is a working mother, whether it be in and out of the home or just in the home. I wonder if it’s easier to have a set routine if you are a stay-at -home mom, or since life can get so hectic working out of the home is it essential to have that routine down. Either way having a set routine is difficult to figure out. I am trying to get on a regular schedule so my son can begin to learn what to expect as the day goes on. For now I am a stay-at-home mom but I will be having to work part-time soon so I am trying to get him on a schedule that works for him now. But once I return to work somewhere I don’t want his routine messed up. I know children adjust better than we think they do, so I really don’t know what I am worried about. I think it’s more of the fact that I have been fortunate enough to spend all six months of his life with him and I am a little uncomfortable leaving him for long periods of time. My frets are probably just apart of what I call “first time mom syndrome”.
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When you first bring your baby home from the hospital you sit in the back seat with them and watch over them. They normally sleep the whole way home, so you are on edge for no reason. You worry about if they are in their seat correctly, if they will cry the whole way home, different things cross your mind. For the first few weeks, or maybe even months, you sit in the back with your baby, just so you can keep an eye on them. Well, have you ever wondered if this is why when you finally move back to the front seat your baby cries the whole time they are in the car? I experienced this for about two months. My son was fine in his car seat when he was first born and even up to about three months old. But, then after four months he just cried every time we went somewhere and I was sitting in the front seat again, instead of in the back with him. He got used to seeing my face and me talking to him on car rides that when I started sitting in the front seat again he got upset. He would sometimes literally cry until (a) we got to where we were going or (b) I got in the backseat with him.
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Do you have old magazines around the house? If so, before you throw them out let your child(ren) have a little fun with them. Gather the children around the kitchen table and let them make a collage out of the old magazines. This is an easy activity and children love it because glue is involved.
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