So today and yesterday I got eight ounces of milk. It is not my normal, but I'll take what I can get. I have been thinking a lot about weaning anyway, but I feel so conflicted about it.
I feel conflicted about many things with parenting: co-sleeping, schedules, food choices, discipline, etc. There is conflicting authority on every topic. As a result, what *feels right* takes over and you throw out the rest. The problem is, I never feel like I am a card-carrying member of whatever technique we end up using. Aside from the fact that crying it out just wasn't going to happen in our house, I still don't feel like boasting about the choices we make. And I don't think that this is a crisis of confidence.
One thing is bothering me though... we are navigating off the map so to speak. All of our parenting books abruptly end at the end of one year. It is as though we're supposed to have it figured out by now. There's "Baby's First Year" and then all of a sudden you have a toddler.
June has started throwing tantrums as of last week. She has two different methods of throwing herself down on the ground and banging her head. It is horrifying. She has done it the last two days in a row when Adam has left the house for work. I did a google search on it and apparently head banging is pretty normal and goes away by age 3 (in prolonged cases) but often just goes away when the child learns other ways of expressing him or herself.
If it makes you feel even a little bit better last week my 6 year old, in response to being told he needed to go to bed, held up a (butter) knife to his neck and told me he was going to kill himself. I am still so horrified by that little incident that I will probably never give parenting advice again.
ReplyDeleteWow!!! How did you handle that one?
ReplyDeleteMy little guy has started to be a little more animated with his temper as well. I don't know what happened to my sweet baby at those moments... While I have no advice, I hope it helps to know that I'm rowing that boat right along with you!
ReplyDeleteYea, I'm transitioning to Google as my main source of info now that my books have ended abruptly. I'm also in an online group for moms of babies born the same month, so that's a helpful sounding board. The tantrums are horrible though :(
ReplyDeleteHead-banging seems more potentially dangerous than breath-holding--which the baby's body will solve for you.
ReplyDeleteI don't know.
My mom would have said to let the kid knock themselves out and go get a snack for yourself....but I'm not 100% on Mom's techniques.
I think I'd probably have picked up the child and put her in the crib, for safety, for isolation....but really, isn't that tantamount to letting a kid "cry it out"? I'm pretty opposed to that too, but not as much in toddlers, I guess....
Oh the head banging is over, thankfully. We just tried not to give her special attention for it and maybe that worked.
ReplyDelete