Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion off topic...do you ever wish this or is it just me

We used a Baby Bjorn from 3 weeks on and Mr W was facing forward at 3 mos. He had to have his nightly walk or he would NOT go to sleep. We got to where we would transition from the walk to his crib and that worked great.

Currently he needs 1-2 hours outside a day or he drives everyone nuts - rain or shine, cold or warm. We do a nightly walk and Mr W checks things out and listens to us talk.

I fixed your post.

My DW and her friends talk about this. It amazing to me how few fathers are involved with their kids and appreciate their SAHM wives.

Reading this reminded me of something that did work and allowed me to take a break: the johnny jump up.

is that like the jolly jumper?

A DW's friend got her BS, MS, and PHD after she became a single mom with FOUR kids. Of course, she lived a few minutes from work, elem school, and college!!

Reading all of this is really bringing back memories of how intense my DD really was... I think I have suppressed a lot of it! But reading the posts about slings and trying the playpen and bouncy chair and on and on I am coming back to a reality check about my DD as an infant. I could have wrote oneisenough's post verbatim. I remember commenting at one point that having babies on the whole really not that expensive especially if you breastfeed, but when you start adding in going to the baby store every few weeks and buying yet another contraption in hopes to appease the little monster to give you some sort of freedom even if it is for only 20 minutes... than the costs went through the roof. Okay we did not buy the vibrating playpen at first but we eventually bought a vibrating attachment in hopes to keep her occupied. Yea worked for a few uses. The bouncy chair was always out in hopes that she would like it. We played the game of move baby to next activity and see if that keeps her attention... never did. And the sling...worked for two days and I could at least go to the kitchen with her in it and have my arms free but than that was useless. It got to the point that I even wondered why we had a crib. My only savior was the swing and I felt like such a bad mother because that is the only place I could get her to sleep at night. But desperate times called for desperate methods. She spent her first 4 months in a swing to sleep. We used it so much that we had to buy a second one.

But we got past the hurdle and time heals all for me anyway because I really have forgotten A LOT of that. We even thought we had a child that was more normal in the sleeping department now, but I have come to discover that that is not true. She goes to bed with no problems but she still does not sleep through the whole night. I learned that on many of my trips with her. She will usually wake up around 3 am or 4 am and play quietly in her bed for an hour or two and finally go back to sleep until 7 or 8 if we are lucky... but she will never yell to get up rather play until we finally go in and get her. I have to say the whole imaginary play really works on our behalf. So she still doesn't sleep that much but is independent enough to allow us ours.

It's a contraption that you secure to the door frame and the baby "stands" supported by a seat. The baby can bounce, spin and jump. Looks like there's a few different names and styles including the Bungee Baby Bouncer.

http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Class...y-products&qid=1232403277&sr=8-1

Thank you! We will go back and I the way I look at it is that it was pretty much like an unstructured, paly-centered preschool but with a lot of adults there too. There was play time, snack time and circle time. So it would be great if she started to warm up to that environment because it could not only be fun for her, but it could be an nice introduction to preschool.

We have a stack of "car toys" he only sees when he is in the car. They are parceled out from the front seat to his hands as he gets bored with each one.

There are times on longer trips when he will scream to be let out of the car seat and NOTHING will stop him. His limit is an hour if no one is with him and three hours if its just one of us.

Its exhausting to entertain him and neither of us can do it for more than a couple of hours.

ok gotcha! In Canada we call it a Jolly Jumper. I for sure thought dd would like that...it looked like so much fun! Whenever we would put her in there she always just hung there limp, looking around with a ver unimpressed look on her face...then the wailing would begin! I had hoped she would jump for hours and hours and be so tired that she would sleep all night long! lol maybe i get my hopes up a little too much!