So my first and only just turned one in mid-February. Is he a toddler now? Am I now no longer at home in the Life With a Babe forum, but rather the Toddlers forum? If that's the case, it's kind of funny how that almost seems like more of a transition than the fact that I now have a one year old baby. 
Well, he thinks he's a toddler now anyway. It's as if something about that birthday party made him wake up the next morning and decide he's now going to DEMAND THINGS INSANELY rather than just relentlessly grasp for them, hit, kick, stomp his feet, push food away, and scream when he doesn't get his way. What happened to that skinny, little larva who needed his head supported and who, plaintively and without enthusiasm, used to just make a little waah that sounded like "It's an egg! It's an egg!" over and over again?
The only thing he's NOT doing is, well, toddling. People say, "does he walk yet?" Well, sure, he WALKS and RUNS all over the place. He just won't do it without his hands on something, like a wheely-thing or the wall, but I know that's not what they mean by WALKing. It's like he just lacks the confidence. We catch him standing there all by himself for a minute sometimes, until he realizes he's not holding on to anything and then boop! down he sits.
I guess that's where this becomes another "is this normal" post. I thought I had his babyness well in hand, then along came this curve ball. I don't know squat about just-turned-one year olds. I have very little toddler experience. So I was hoping you all could help me get a grasp on what I'm where we're at, and if it's as it should be.
- How much is a one-year-old supposed to be eating? I'm constantly baffled as to whether I'm feeding him enough.
- Still not walking *unassisted*, at 12.5 months. This kind of irks me.
- Suddenly wants nothing to do with diaper or clothing changing. Wriggles, twists, tries to crawl away, cries, lets it ruin his whole mood.
- Suddenly arching his back and becoming HYSTERICAL whenever we try to put him on the potty. He used to sit there and happily play with a toy for quite a few minutes while we waited for some pee and poop to come out. He still peed in diapers all the time, but I hadn't changed a poopy diaper in MONTHS! Now this.
- He just had FOUR teeth come in at once, for a total of eight. They're all in for weeks now, but since then he has never stopped constantly stuffing four fingers in each side of his mouth desperately and putting every single thing he can grab right in there. Almost no interest in most toys except to chew on them.
- Nary a word does he speak. Sometimes we think he's saying mama or dada, but it's still not clear whether he means us when he says it.
- I still cannot compel him to put the block in through the hole in the top of the bucket
- I have NEVER been able to get him into any kind of nap schedule. Does he need one? Or two? I don't know. And what works for two days is totally impossible on the third. NO rhyme or reason. I'm totally at my wits end with this one. And now, all the sudden, he SCREAMS bloody murder (sometimes for HOURS!) every single time we put him down in his crib, no matter how sleepy he may be.
- I just want to break down in tears when people ask me if he sleeps through the night. He'll go three days waking up ONCE in the middle of the night, then go back to waking me up EVERY SINGLE HOUR. Sometimes he goes back down, most times he's hysterical until I just have to leave the room before I wring his neck.
These last two are the worst concerns I have. I don't believe in CIO or Ferberizing, but I wonder how what I wind up doing is any different, or what else I can possibly do. No matter what either my husband or I do, he'll stand in his crib screaming hysterically until he has exhausted himself. Sometimes he can keep this up for hours before he pipes down at all. If anything, it seems like us being in there prolongs it. Just lately, we've just given up and finally left the room, closed the door and left him to it. By this time we're exhausted and it's past our bedtimes too. There doesn't seem to be ANYTHING we can do. Going back in there just gets him started at square one all over again. And he wakes up again half an hour later, crying!
We wind up just sitting outside his door, feeling totally helpless and feeling guilty because we're basically letting him cry it out. We go back in every so often or if he gets really, REALLY hysterical, lay him back down, pat him, sing... but this doesn't calm him for a second a lot of the time.
It had gotten better! Now it's worse again. We've tried everything.
I'm not cut out for having a toddler.
Well, he thinks he's a toddler now anyway. It's as if something about that birthday party made him wake up the next morning and decide he's now going to DEMAND THINGS INSANELY rather than just relentlessly grasp for them, hit, kick, stomp his feet, push food away, and scream when he doesn't get his way. What happened to that skinny, little larva who needed his head supported and who, plaintively and without enthusiasm, used to just make a little waah that sounded like "It's an egg! It's an egg!" over and over again?
The only thing he's NOT doing is, well, toddling. People say, "does he walk yet?" Well, sure, he WALKS and RUNS all over the place. He just won't do it without his hands on something, like a wheely-thing or the wall, but I know that's not what they mean by WALKing. It's like he just lacks the confidence. We catch him standing there all by himself for a minute sometimes, until he realizes he's not holding on to anything and then boop! down he sits.
I guess that's where this becomes another "is this normal" post. I thought I had his babyness well in hand, then along came this curve ball. I don't know squat about just-turned-one year olds. I have very little toddler experience. So I was hoping you all could help me get a grasp on what I'm where we're at, and if it's as it should be.
- How much is a one-year-old supposed to be eating? I'm constantly baffled as to whether I'm feeding him enough.
- Still not walking *unassisted*, at 12.5 months. This kind of irks me.
- Suddenly wants nothing to do with diaper or clothing changing. Wriggles, twists, tries to crawl away, cries, lets it ruin his whole mood.
- Suddenly arching his back and becoming HYSTERICAL whenever we try to put him on the potty. He used to sit there and happily play with a toy for quite a few minutes while we waited for some pee and poop to come out. He still peed in diapers all the time, but I hadn't changed a poopy diaper in MONTHS! Now this.
- He just had FOUR teeth come in at once, for a total of eight. They're all in for weeks now, but since then he has never stopped constantly stuffing four fingers in each side of his mouth desperately and putting every single thing he can grab right in there. Almost no interest in most toys except to chew on them.
- Nary a word does he speak. Sometimes we think he's saying mama or dada, but it's still not clear whether he means us when he says it.
- I still cannot compel him to put the block in through the hole in the top of the bucket
- I have NEVER been able to get him into any kind of nap schedule. Does he need one? Or two? I don't know. And what works for two days is totally impossible on the third. NO rhyme or reason. I'm totally at my wits end with this one. And now, all the sudden, he SCREAMS bloody murder (sometimes for HOURS!) every single time we put him down in his crib, no matter how sleepy he may be.
- I just want to break down in tears when people ask me if he sleeps through the night. He'll go three days waking up ONCE in the middle of the night, then go back to waking me up EVERY SINGLE HOUR. Sometimes he goes back down, most times he's hysterical until I just have to leave the room before I wring his neck.
These last two are the worst concerns I have. I don't believe in CIO or Ferberizing, but I wonder how what I wind up doing is any different, or what else I can possibly do. No matter what either my husband or I do, he'll stand in his crib screaming hysterically until he has exhausted himself. Sometimes he can keep this up for hours before he pipes down at all. If anything, it seems like us being in there prolongs it. Just lately, we've just given up and finally left the room, closed the door and left him to it. By this time we're exhausted and it's past our bedtimes too. There doesn't seem to be ANYTHING we can do. Going back in there just gets him started at square one all over again. And he wakes up again half an hour later, crying!
We wind up just sitting outside his door, feeling totally helpless and feeling guilty because we're basically letting him cry it out. We go back in every so often or if he gets really, REALLY hysterical, lay him back down, pat him, sing... but this doesn't calm him for a second a lot of the time.
It had gotten better! Now it's worse again. We've tried everything.
I'm not cut out for having a toddler.
. But he does not go 12 hours uninterrupted, and he's 30 months old. At 12 months, it all depended on how his teeth were doing.
Don't worry about walking, it'll come in time (when is it that drs get worried? Something like 17 months?) DD is now 15 months and has just figured out her shape sorters, before she far preferred dumping everything on the floor and kicking them around. For diaper changes, DD became wiggly like that right around CHristmas time (when she also started pooing allllllll the time, making it very important that she stay still). I was a bad mommy can gave her a candy cane to suck on, ONLY for diaper changes. Kept her still, at least (and made me move fast because I felt so guilty). Really, you're doing great. I'm finding this toddler phase so hard, it's when I REALLY wished I'd looked up a few decent parenting books so someone could tell me what the heck I'm supposed to be doing. FOllow your instincts, try to have fun, and try not to play the comparison game. And sorry for the run on paragraph, myu enter key is busted.
