Understanding Kids

It's exasperating when your kid pings awake in the middle of the night and is not at all interested in falling back to sleep.

You can read more about how biphasic sleep was how most humans used to sleep at https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep.

As for what you can do about it? When it happens, you're very unlikely to be able to force your kid back to sleep so instead find a safe space and activity for them to occupy themselves with (if possible with minimal input from you since you're not biphasic!) and then bring them back into their usual sleep location with their usual sleep associations as soon as you notice they're running out of steam. For most families, it only last a few nights and then just disappears.

If you are struggling with regular occurrences, you can give me a shout for further support. (Link in bio)

Although the 4T and 5T courses have been running on 6-week cycles throughout lockdown, it's been nearly a year since I last ran the Understanding Toddlers course! I sort of assumed people didn't want to spend Wednesday evenings hanging out on yet another Zoom call. However, the fact that 5 people sneaked in a booking for the course before I'd even evented it suggests that I may be wrong in that assumption.

So, if you too would like the chance to vent about the frustrations of looking after a small human and are curious to learn more about what drives their behaviour (and what you can do to help manage it (or your expectations)), then head over to https://www.understandingkids.co.uk/toddlers and find out more about the course.

Lindsay

While at the Sheffield Early Years Conference this week I watched a presentation about the Free app/website 50 Things To Do Before You're 5. It's been localised to Sheffield and a handful of other areas but can be used even if you're not in those areas. https://sheffield.50thingstodo.org/app/os #!/whats-it-all-about

In addition to the 50 ideas themselves, there is also information about how carry out each activity, website recommendations, information on child development, book recommendations, SEN adaptations etc.

Well worth a download even if you have slightly older children. Hopefully the localisation and age range can be extended in the future. The team behind the app are very interested in getting parental feedback so have a play with it over the summer and we'll then invite them in the Understanding Kids Facebook group for a discussion on how we got on with it.

Lindsay

Durham's Infant Sleep Conference is on again this April. Only £25 early bird rate and I'm happy to car share from Sheffield.

At 4th Trimester right now: all about the parenting brain, with Lindsay.

Your ability to bond with your baby is NOT based on...

💥your gender
💥how “maternal” you feel
💥how you gave birth (or even IF you gave birth)
💥the first 90mins after your baby was born
💥how you feed your baby
💥where your baby sleeps
💥whether you use slings or not