Quick tips - things we have done since birth

There are a few things we did with Matilda right from day one that are now appearing to be really handy - I have no evidence these work (other than what I see at home) and maybe it's all just part of normal development but here's my first few tips for things to do from day one.

Play music for bed time
Even in the hospital we has the iPod and a speaker. Each time we put Matilda down we popped on some soothing music. It doesn't have to be special 'baby sleeping' music just something we would like to sleep to - actually much of it was what we put on every night for ourselves (including while I was pregnant).

Now whenever Matilda goes to bed we put the music on, it seems to help her know it's bed time and we have very few issues with her nodding off. Of course if she is upset we cuddle and calm her, even nurse her to sleep on upset nights but most of the time bedtime is calm and happy for all of us.

For the record our favourites, for this purpose, are Olivia Newton John's Grace and Gratitude; Miten and Deva Premal's Songs for the Inner Lover (this one has our wedding waltz on it... awww) and the Music for Dreaming Cd's. There are a few others, like the U2 Rockabye Baby which are also great.

Count the buttons on their clothes
I have no idea why we started this one, but ever since she was born we would count the press studs as we did up her clothing. I think we thought it was a good way to introduce counting and let her know what we were doing - it soon became a habit, even Nana did it.

Who knows if it will have any effect on her counting ability but what it has done is provide a way to calm the ever active eight month old when she fights getting dressed.

I'm told they all go through a stage where they hate getting dressed / undressed, so when Matilda is really protesting I go back to counting those press studs. She seems to remember that it means it's almost over and, if I am quick enough, we get dressed without too much fuss.

I figure there's no harm in it and if it helps later on all the better!

Tell them which arm / leg is going into their clothes
Again, something else we did without thinking about it other than maybe considering it was good for her to know what was happening. Whenever we dressed her we would say "right arm in, pull it through" etc etc (We even had a silly little song for it).

Now I have no idea if she knows her left and right, or I'd this is normal or not but when we dress her now she will pull her arms though the clothing without thinking about it. It makes dressing her so easy!

So that's my tips for this morning. I hope everyone is having a great day!