As previously stated, grandparents will hear an uh-oh or two on more than one occasion. One of those occasions is when something is broken. Your two first impulses may be to feel anger, as well as relief. After all, the item broken may be a prized possession of yours. With that in mind, you may also feel relief, as broken items, especially glass, pose injury risks. Depending on the age of your grandchild, you may want to have them assist you with the cleanup process, even if they simply hold the dustpan. Helping to clean up an uh-oh mess will help your grandchild understand cause, effect, and consequences.

Another one of the many instances in which you may hear an uh-oh or two is with spilt food and drinks. No matter what mess is created, it is important to remember that newborns, infants, and toddlers will have difficulty controlling their food, especially when first learning to feed themselves. You can take steps to help your grandchild eat and drink the proper way, although discipline isn’t always advised. When an uh-oh occurs, it may be best to simply clean up the mess, give your grandchild a bath, and a new change of clothes.

Although the uh-oh’s are a normal part of childhood, is it important to remember that you, as a grandparent, can take steps to reduce the number of uh-oh’s you hear. Many uh-oh instances are preventable ones. For example, be sure to remove all breakable items, including glass, from your home, and so forth. Taking steps to reduce or completely eliminate accidents in your home will not only help to calm your nerves, but it will also help to keep your grandchild happy, safe, and healthy.

As a reminder, hearing uh-oh can result in anger and frustration. No matter how much you love your grandchild, these feelings are normal, especially as first impulses. Should you experience these emotions, it is important to take a step back and reexamine the situation. As a grandparent, it is important to remember that accidents do happen. Newborns, infants, and toddlers often have a difficult time controlling their actions; therefore, your role as a grandparent should involve offering support and encouragement, no matter what the uh-oh.

Surviving a baby with colic truly deserves an award of some sort. The relentless screaming can really drive you to the edge.

Unfortunately for the parents of a colic baby, most of the focus of surviving is usually geared towards how to relieve the suffering for your baby. But, what about your suffering?

Here are 10 tips on HOW to keep your sanity while enduring a fit of colic.

1. Buy a baby monitor with lights that indicate the level of noise coming from your baby. Take this monitor with you everywhere, put it on mute and get as far away from the screaming as possible. Physically check on your baby every now and then to make sure everything is alright. When the levels on the lights stop dancing, chances are your baby has calmed down.

2. Put on headphones. Listen to music. Keep the above monitor with you to determine when baby has calmed down.

3. Take a shower. The warm water will relax you, and the noise will drown out the ear-piercing crying.

4. Go for a walk. Exercise is great for alleviating tension and the motion might settle the baby down.

5. If possible, find a sitter and leave. Go shopping, run errands, go work out, go for a walk. Get some distance between you and the baby. Don’t leave the baby unattended. Make sure you have a sitter first!

6. Call friends or family on the telephone. Don’t bottle up your frustration. Let it out. Complain to your hearts content. Your friends and family will understand and you will feel better.

7. Do something therapeutic with your hands. Paint your fingernails, color in a coloring book, do some housework. Anything that diverts your attention away from the crying and towards something constructive.

8. Vacuum. The vacuum cleaner will drown out the screams coming from the baby. Also, the frequency of white noise output by a vacuum is particularly effective in calming a colicky baby.

9. Surf the internet. Look up ways to calm a colic baby!

10. Keep telling yourself the colic will eventually go away. Take it day by day and know there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. Colic does not last forever!

Remember, you are not an incompetent parent if you’ve done everything possible to relieve your baby’s colic and you need to step away from the situation for a while. This simply makes you human.

About the Author
Cherie is the webmaster of www.colic-baby-bootcamp.com and specializes in teaching parents methods for handling a baby with colic. Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cherie_Stirewalt.

When your baby is a newborn he probably doesn’t do much besides sleep. He awakens periodically to eat or get his diaper changed, but for the most part is awake very little and doesn’t interact much. This period can last generally from 2 weeks to one month of age.

Eventually the babymoon period will come to an end. Parents will still be in love with their babies, and the babies will bring a lot of love and laughter to the home, however, the baby may also bring tears. A quick way to bring an end to the babymoon period is with the appearance of colic in a baby. Even some babies who do not have colic may be gassy or just fussy, making it increasingly harder to get things done, and causing some frustration in parents because they can’t figure out what is wrong with their baby.

The babymoon is also referred too as a last little vacation for mom and dad before the baby comes or a time when new parents can break away from the baby for a short time, either for dinner, or a night at a hotel, just for themselves. It is important that new parents have this time together in order to focus on each other. It is too easy for new parents to lose focus of their relationship and not give time to improve on it.

Whenever your babymoon period starts and ends enjoy it. It won’t last forever, and in many cases it won’t last long enough. Soon the reality of a new baby will hit both mom and dad, along with the sleepless nights, and long tiring days.

From all the studies conducted in this field the benefits of introducing your baby to sign language are vast.

Baby sign language
Can empower your baby to communicate with those around them before they are able to speak.  This means that your baby may be able to communicate what they want when they want it. It may also enable them to initiate a conversation about topics that interest them. Furthermore it bridges the gap between no language and spoken language.

Can reduce frustration for both you and your baby.
Sign language may allow your baby to tell you what they want, what’s wrong or what hurts. Therefore your baby may experience less frustration, tantrums and crying. If your baby is able to communicate their basic needs to you, it means you do not have to try and interpret their cries. Sign language can help reduce those tear-filled frustrated moments.

Can enrich the parent-child relationship.
By introducing baby sign language into your home, you are enhancing the bond with your baby. The nature of Baby sign communication leads you and your baby towards responding to each other in turn and this is a really valuable skill. Signing involves daily interactions with your baby that will eventually lead to a two-way conversation.

Can provide an insight into your baby’s mind and who they really are.
Baby sign language allows your baby to initiate a conversation with you about what they are interested in. It allows you to see what they are thinking, what they are interested in and what the world looks like from their view. All this before your baby can talk!

Can stimulate intellectual development and improve memory.
Children are fascinated with sign language and often pay greater attention to what is being taught when it is involved. It has also been shown that when children learn a word in conjunction with the sign, they are more likely to remember the meaning of the word.

Can accelerate the speech process.
Research has shown that children who use sign language may acquire spoken language faster than non-signing children.

Can enhance a baby’s confidence, self-esteem and self-expression.
Due to a baby’s ability to communicate their needs, wants and interests through signing, a baby may become more confident.

Baby sign language can stimulate brain development and potentially increase your baby’s I.Q.
Teaching sign language can stimulate your baby’s brain development. Research has illustrated that signing babies achieve higher scores on future I.Q. tests (up to 12 I.Q. points higher) than children who learn to speak in the traditional manner.

Signing can stimulate brain development as when learning sign language you use both the right and left hemisphere of the brain compared to learning a spoken language, which only uses the brain’s left hemisphere. This use of both hemispheres results in the brain building more synapses.

Children who keep up sign language are effectively bilingual.
By introducing your baby to signs from Australian Baby Hands, you are introducing your baby to a second language. Brain research suggests that language skills are acquired best in the first years of a baby’s life. Also, by introducing Auslan to your baby and continuing to use this wonderful language after they can speak, you are giving your child the gift to communicate with the Australian deaf and hard of hearing community in sign language.

About the Author:
Jackie Durnin is the Author of “Australian Baby Hands”, the first book to use Auslan, Australian Sign Language to communicate with your baby. Australian Baby Hands is currently being implemented by parents and Childcare centres around Australia. For more details go to www.australianbabyhands.com where you can register for your “FREE” alphabet chart. For further information info@australianbabyhands.com.