Keeping the Connection

Emerald27

What do you do each day to promote connectedness between you and your kids?

Besides nursing and bedsharing, I love to involve DS in cooking. DS and I play hide and seek, too. I crawl around with him and hide behind furniture and walls, and he crawls after to find me. He giggles and just has so much fun! We also play with his megabloks and other toys.

What I would like to do more of is wearing DS. Still looking for the perfect carrier.

This is kind of a GTKY, AP style, post!

twocents6708

DD was having a hard time on the car ride home from daycare each day. She would cry and hold onto me as soon as I tried to put her in the carseat and cry all the way home. Now I hold and cuddle her, walk around daycare for a bit, and sing some songs for about 510 mins before getting to the car. Amazing what a little bit of time can do because it sure helped. DH and I also make sure to spend some time playing with her and reading before starting dinner at night.

Emerald27

twocents6708:

DD was having a hard time on the car ride home from daycare each day. She would cry and hold onto me as soon as I tried to put her in the carseat and cry all the way home. Now I hold and cuddle her, walk around daycare for a bit, and sing some songs for about 510 mins before getting to the car. Amazing what a little bit of time can do because it sure helped. DH and I also make sure to spend some time playing with her and reading before starting dinner at night.

That sounds a lot like DS! I'm a SAHM so he doesn't go to daycare, but whenever we are out and about running errands or visiting friends and he hasn't had a lot of cuddle time or direct attention, he puts up a huge fight about going into his car seat. But if I cuddle him in the back seat and nurse him for a bit, maybe play with a toy or two, he minds the trip home much less! I'm sure it's the same thing as with your LO. They need to reconnect before the brief separation in the car!

ETA: mobile bumping and autocorrect are not my friends

Mistifier

Nursing and bedsharing are the steadies, and I try wearing him around the house but now that he's bigger and grabbing everything it's a bit more difficult. As you mentioned, I'll play with him, read to him, and cuddle him when he lets me!

Still free to be me

I really try to stop what I'm doing and read stories to my 3 year old when she asks, even when I feel like I'm "too busy."  We also do "projects" together and she helps in the kitchen.

Breastfeeding and bedsharing are great with my baby.  I am also getting a lot of connection through the babywearing that we do...I wear DD2 for up to five hours in a day, two or three days each week and for about an hour the other days.  It's been great.  She also loves it when I sit and read to DD1.  The three of us snuggle and cuddle on the couch with a bunch of stories, including ones that I had growing up.  I love the nostalic aspect of it.

Emerald27

Still free to be me:

I really try to stop what I'm doing and read stories to my 3 year old when she asks, even when I feel like I'm "too busy."nbsp; We also do "projects" together and she helps in the kitchen.
Breastfeeding and bedsharing are great with my baby.nbsp; I am also getting a lot of connection through the babywearing that we do...I wear DD2 for up to five hours in a day, two or three days each week and for about an hour the other days.nbsp; It's been great.nbsp; She also loves it when I sit and read to DD1.nbsp; The three of us snuggle and cuddle on the couch with a bunch of stories, including ones that I had growing up.nbsp; I love the nostalic aspect of it.

We really need to work on reading more to DS! We have a lot of great books, ones we loved when we were little! He just has so much energy and doesn't want to stay still for a story...even a really short one with a cool puppet or nifty pictures! The only book he likes is full of huge pictures of animals that he points to, but it isn't a story per se.

Maybe when he is a little older we can work more reading into our routine. What a great way to connect with your kids!

ashleylchapman@hotmail.com

Every morning after we get up I lay her down on a blanket on the floor and eat my cereal beside her while we have our morning chat.  I also make sure anytime she is babbling I also answer back with either more babble or actual English lol- it's funny that the more I keep answering her noises the longer she continues to babble....I guess she thinks I know her language! Hehe.  I also wear her A LOT. Most naps I get her to fall asleep on me and then just let her have her whole nap on me while I bounce in our ikea bouncy chair and read this board!

RioG1978

I haven't thought much about it... I'm a FTM, and AP'ing just feels so natural to me (I don't practice everything, I go with what feels instinctually right) so it's hard to think that there are parents out there who do things any differently.

 I'm in Canada and get a year off for mat leave.  My DD is 6 months old, so we're halfway done.  She's my little shadow.  We do everything together.  I think we're very connected, and attribute it to lots of eye contact and "conversations".   I sing to her all the time, which she loves (her favourite song is one I made up!).  We run together, hike together, walk... she's my little buddy. 

We also bed share part of the night (she starts out in her crib) and nurses whenever she needs (day/night).  I wear her when we both feel like it. 

My hope is that she will grow to be very confident and secure, making it easier for her to be in daycare until we get pregnant again.

KateLouise

We have a night time routine where we read books and then snuggle in bed and talk about our day. When she was little it was me telling her about what we'd done and what I'd enjoyed. Now we both talk about it. It's a nice way to reflect on the positives of the day and sometimes I find out about something that's bothering her. Even something simple like one day she gave DH one of her sweets and he didn't eat it and instead gave it to me, and that had stayed with her.

With DD2 we go around the house together looking at things and talking about them.

I always try and sit down and eat meals with the girls.

Now that DD2 is real mobile we all spend a lot of time crawling around together playing chase.