kudzia.megan

Yes, hear hear! I also hear a lot about not sending kids to timeout because they need your help to regulate, but I find if I’m still around my oldest escalates, and what he wants is attention (even yelling) from me. If he goes to his room for a few minutes, it interrupts that cycle and it takes away the attention he wants for the behavior (or at least teaches that if he wants attention, doing those behaviors aren’t a good way to get it). But I am sure there are many kids like yours too, who need you to still be there at least in part! This stuff is so hard.

I would say that 0 – 1 and 1 – 2 were differently hard for me. Overall I do think the first one was hardest because I just had so little frame of reference for everything. The 1 – 2 transition also for me was combined with transitioning from working mom to SAHM and that was also a big shift that was tough on my toddler as well as me. For what it’s worth, I am now pp with #3 and that is actually feeling way easier – we have made the decisions, we already have parenting skills from the first two, we have a frame of reference for what to expect, and best of all kid 1 and kid 2 can entertain each other somewhat while I am busy with kid 3, which makes a huge difference! I will also say the first 6 months to a year of two kids is very hard, but around 1 it starts getting way easier (in my experience). Good luck with your decision, this is hard!

Re: prenatal vitamins, this is absolutely anecdotal as far as I know, BUT. I have struggled in all my pregnancies with horrendous restless leg/restless everything that most of the usual recommendations have not helped. However, I have since heard that both iron and magnesium deficiencies can contribute to it and/or to muscle spasms. I am anemic during this pregnancy and I am currently supplementing both with iron and magnesium and it really helps – like, I can actually sleep many more nights than in my first pregnancy! I think there may be some studies that support iron and magnesium for muscle cramps, but I am not sure. I just wanted to mention it in case anyone else out there is suffering and it helps, since as noted in the post, it is unlikely to hurt (although as always, checking with one’s provider is a good idea).