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Toilet Training - Sticking to Parental Instincts

5/10/2018

21 Comments

 
Little Bear toddler toilet potty training

Advice I was told, listened to, then ignored whilst potty training Little Bear, and was all the happier for it: 

  • Toilet training your child before they’re 2 (*if you live in the 1950s maybe*) 
  • ‘Stay consistent’ - don’t start using pants and then go back to nappies (feels cruel) 
  • Ignore your child when they get upset about the experience of wetting themselves 
  • Give your child a treat every time they use the potty (backfired) 
  • ‘Stay consistent’ - don’t use toilets/potties and a nappy at the same time (why?)
  • Wake your child up in the middle of the night (*insane*) when they ‘make the switch’ so they don’t pee in their sleep 

January this year, I started looking at toilet training Little Bear. I felt under a lot of pressure to make this work, and was slightly terrified about the idea of having to clean poo off the sofa and mop up endless puddles of wee, especially after becoming a nappy changing pro after the last 2 years.  

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Literacy and music (guest post)

6/12/2017

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I don't normally do guest posts, but when Charles Carpenter, host of the Healing Sounds blog got in touch wanting to talk about the educative power of music, I was intrigued. And I think his message is worth sharing.

Watching Little Bear's eyes get transfixed as someone plays a piano, or better still seeing his determination to play the thing himself after has always made me particularly proud.

​Charles' post has prompted me to start looking for more musical opportunities for my little troll...

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7 Tips for Flying with a Baby

5/2/2017

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Baby in airport flying little bear shared parental leave dad with baby
​Little Bear has family and friends in Sweden, Germany, the Philippines and even more exotic places like ‘the north of England’. Having such a far flung crew, he’s no stranger to flying. Flying with any little bear can be as easy as a cool breeze or as turbulent and stressful as being caught in a hurricane. Getting ready for the ninth flight with Little Bear, we feel we might almost have it down. The first time we took him with us on a big trip was to the Black Forest when he was 3 months old. It was so easy, we decided that he was a great traveller, and would always just fall asleep in Pappa’s arms the whole flight and get excited about travelling on the train… Turns out, not the case as we found out on the way to Sweden. Here are some things we’ve learnt about travelling with a baby the hard way. Hope you find some of them useful, and please feel free to add yours as comments:

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Caring for a sick baby

3/10/2016

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Sick baby sad face parental leave dad
What a week that was. One tiny little germ causing so many problems. The first few weeks with a newborn are probably the toughest because it's all so different from what you've done before, and so exhausting. For similar reasons, caring for a sick baby is almost as tough. I jotted down a few notes for myself for when another terrible baby-bug inflicts my family again [Please add your own tips as comments!]:
Note 1: ​Don't assume that terrible smell is a broken sewage main. It will only lose you valuable time to change the smelliest nappy you have every come across in your life. People around you will start looking awkward and moving away. If your sick baby looks happy, you are likely to see a brown mark spreading across their baby-grow

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7 Tips for Day Trips

26/8/2016

25 Comments

 
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Despite the name 'stay-at-home-parent', staying at home too long doesn't really work with an active baby. Little Bear loves his play-mat and ball-bit, but most days he (and Pappa) get a little bored  and need to break free.

But lets not kid ourselves, we don't just grab keys and wallet and run for the next bus like we did pre-baby... No.
We grab milk, nappies, dummies, blanket, keys, pushchair, toys, and baby. Then we look for our shoes whilst baby wriggles out of the pushchair. We clip baby in properly following a lot of protest about the shoulder straps, then get ready to get out the front door,  before a loud noise comes from the baby's nappy... We unclip baby from pushchair, missing the second bus you'd planned to get, run upstairs to change his nappy. Finish changing the baby, chuck the baby-carrier (almost forgot) under the pushchair and the baby in the pushchair. On the way to the bus, realise you forgot your wallet, etc, etc.
But despite the stress, it's worth it. Little Bear loves a good day trip. Whether it's visiting other babies and their mums (only met 1 other dad so far!), swimming, or trying something a little more adventurous like a baby-concert, another city or a museum, it's great for parent and baby to get out. But the tough stuff in a day trip doesn't stop when you finally get out the door (with your wallet).
 
Having learnt a few lessons the hard way, I was wondering what a parent needs to think about before they head out with the baby for a day trip. So here would be 7 tips I wish I could have given myself before I started parental leave:

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Advice: the good, bad and confusing

19/8/2016

20 Comments

 
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​One thing we don't lack when bringing up a baby is advice. It's difficult to turn anywhere with a baby in-hand without getting told the best way to do something. From nappy-rashes to vaccinations, from crawling to sleeping to feeding to washing to soothing. This is reassuring and daunting; helpful and confusing; kind and irritating.

​Of course, deep-down we know that even if we ignored all the advice and just gave our baby love and support, the chances are they would still, like so many generations before us, turn out just fine. Equally we might follow the advice and produce the next Hitler (but at least it wouldn't be our fault). Still, we'll carry on looking for the advice, and we'll carry on getting it!

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warning for expectant parents

30/6/2016

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Dad father holding newborn baby bonding with son
The hyperactivity and giggling of Little Bear is great now, but we shouldn’t forget what it was like at the beginning. I think there’s no real warning about the first few weeks of being a parent! Durex might get a sales bump if the NHS gave more honest advice on this. The first few weeks we were in shell-shock, with a quick nostalgia for the good old days where we had so much more freedom, and regular sleeping patterns and meal times. Don’t get me wrong, the first day or so you’re on a high like no other (partly supported by being awake for three days solid and sneaking some hits from the gas & air in the delivery suite).
But it starts getting really tough really quickly. Both getting up a dozen or so times every night to feed our wide-eyed (not yet so charming) little troll. As a warning to those who are expecting, there isn’t really anything in life that will prepare you for these first few weeks, especially if your little guy or gal has trouble with breastfeeding (ours had ‘tongue-tie’ which wasn’t diagnosed until we insisted the midwives double checked). We discovered pushy and paranoid parenting fueled by grumpy sleep deprivation was essential to helping your baby...

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Little Legs

25/6/2016

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Something Little Bear has done since before he was born is kick. He kicked like crazy in the womb, keeping his mum up at night. He kicked the day he was born (and did little else). When eating, at least 1 little leg is waving around. When he lies on his back to play, he's kicking. If you want to make him giggle, just shake his legs around.

He'll kick you in the stomach (or the eye as happened this morning) if you lean over him, and role over and push his body forward with yet more kicks. Trying to get him to take a nap is essentially a struggle to stop him kicking for long enough for him fall asleep. And we shouldn't go into the dangers of changing a nappy...
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So if you're expecting and the baby's kicking a lot, be aware he might carry on when he's out...

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Baby not broken, back about to be

17/6/2016

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​The baby is still in one piece following a week of dad in charge. Hooray! It's been a pretty active week as well, despite promising myself I'd take it easy. We've met friends, been to the cinema, library, baby group and a weaning class, and finished with visiting Heaver Castle somewhere in 'the country' (outside of London). Although this outburst of daily effort may have cost me my back.

To future dads, get your back in shape before the baby arrives. You'll need it in shape more than ever before, but you'll have less time than before to ever get it into shape.

​Thinking Little Bear would do well to get exposed to some culture, my sister and I took him to Heaver Castle, where Anne Boleyn grew up. Forced to leave the pushchair outside, I strapped him to my chest in the baby-carrier. Moments after entering this ten century old house, he fell asleep. Apparently not a history lover...  But he did love the baby-carrier...

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    I'm Dave, dad of Little Bear. Also known as 'Pappa' to the little man as we try and bring out his Swedish roots

    My wife and I are sharing the troubles and joys of bringing up Little Bear equally. This is about my half of the time being responsible for not breaking the baby

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  • Home
  • Becoming a Nordic Dad
  • Raising Little Bear
    • Latest posts
    • Little Personalities
    • Dads are parents too
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