Nutrition to Grow On

I know one of the things we, as mothers, think about all day long is food. Making and cleaning up at least 3 meals a day is a lot of work. Not to mention if you're still in the bottle or baby food stage, you have to fix a few extra meals for yourself. Here are some tips to keeping your kids healthy:

Nutrition to Grow on by Parents.com

In-Laws

This was an interesting article I found on LDS Women.

My in-laws hate me and the feeling is mutual. How do I handle the situation without alienating my husband or making him feel torn? We’ve been dealing with it for a couple years & it’s HARD. Any advice?

A: In-law relationships are particularly tricky because you’re competing for the same man’s attention — your husband/their son. I wish I had a bit more information about your relationship history with them like: When did the relationship become so negative? Did you have a time where you did get along? How do you handle your emotions about this? Are they intentionally mean to you? If you’d like to write back with more details I’d be happy to respond again.

If the 3 most important people in his life don’t like each other he will feel torn about it.

So here’s what you can do:

1) Go to counseling to work through your own emotions about your in-laws, explore why you are so stuck in the negative emotions, find ways to become more emotionally neutral about this relationship, and work on what you can do to improve the relationship.

2) Limit the complaints that you share with your husband about his parents. This will help him have some relief from feeling “in the middle”. Chronic complaining about his parents will likely wear on your hubby and end up negatively impact your marriage.

3) Come up with a cue word with your husband so you can gently signal him when you really need him to step in and take a stand for you to his parents.

4) Decide what kind of daughter-in-law you want to be and then become her no matter how they are behaving. Taking charge of your own behavior feels better than reacting based on their behavior.

Remember that you chose your husband and by doing so you chose his family. Do your best to let the little annoyances slide, pick your battles, and do your best.

Take good care of you and yours!

Julie Hanks, LCSW

The Selfless Service of Women

This is a great talk about the amazing women in the world. It's worth the read.

Women Are Incredible!

Nightmares and Night Terrors

Sara had her first nightmare last night. She woke up screaming. I ran in to see what was the matter and she said, "The monkeys scare me." We went to the zoo earlier that day, so I guess her dream was related to that. It was easy to console her, but she had a really hard time falling back asleep. I didn't want to just leave her in her bed to cry after having a nightmare, but I also couldn't hold her back to sleep. She finally calmed down enough for me to put her back in bed about a half hour later.

I was reading online about what a nightmare is and what causes them. The article also talks about night terrors. I have a few friends whose kids get night terrors. They sound really scary and awful. My sister-in-law's little girl has night terrors triggered by a full bladder and while discussing it with another friend, her daughter is the same way.

This is the article I found about nightmares and night terrors. It was really interesting and helpful to read. Anyone else have experience with either of these and how to deal?