Natalie Gross 0:12
Long before babies can talk, they're cooing, crying and finding other ways to communicate what they need. Do all babies communicate the same way? How can we as parents use everyday communication experiences to bond and how much does the way we communicate with our babies impact them later in life? These answers and more on this episode of Newbies.

Welcome to Newbies, everyone. Newbies is your online on the go support group guiding new moms through their baby's first year. I'm Natalie Gross. I have a four year old boy and a baby girl. And we've got a great show today talking about building a bond with your baby through communication. Now if you haven't already, be sure to visit our website at newmommymedia.com And subscribe to our weekly newsletter that'll keep you updated on all of the episodes we release across all of our podcast each week. Another great way to stay updated is to hit that subscribe button in your podcast app wherever you're listening right now. And if you're looking for a way to get even more involved with our show, then you can check out our totally free membership club called Mighty Moms. That's where we chat more about the topics discussed here on the show. You'll learn about our recordings in advance and maybe you want to come on and share your own motherhood experiences and join us live. Today on the podcast I am going to be talking with our featured expert Michelle Mintz of baby blooming moments. She'll be joining us a little bit later in the episode for her take but first I want to introduce our mama with us today. So Catherine, please tell us a little bit about you, your family where you're located and anything else you want to share.

Catherine Jalowiec 2:13
Sure. I'm Catherine, I'm a mom of three. My oldest is nine. He's my boy. I have my middle daughter who's seven and my baby girl who is 10 months. We are a military family. We have moved five times in 10 years and we're currently living in El Paso, Texas.

Natalie Gross 2:30
Okay, great. Well, I'm so excited to talk with you and get to know more about you and your family a little bit later on in the show. But we're gonna take a quick break, and then bring on our expert for today Michelle Mintz, so stay tuned.

Today on Newbies, we're digging into how babies communicate and how you can communicate back to help foster a deep connection and bond. I have on Michelle Mintz, an expert in early development and an advisor for Gerber. Michelle coaches families including moms, dads, siblings, grandparents, and nannies and how to continuously enrich their child's formative years through everyday experiences. Michelle, welcome to Newbies.

Michelle Mintz 3:08
Thank you. I'm very happy to be here.

Natalie Gross 3:11
Awesome. So what are some ways that our babies communicate with us? Besides crying? I feel like that's the obvious one before they can talk.

Speaker 3 3:19
Absolutely. Well, yes, that first communication. We listen for that cry, right when they're born. And we listen. And we hope for that cry. And so that communication is great. And we say, Oh, great. That's what we excited about. And then that cry becomes communicating other things as the child continues to grow. And as children grow, they communicate differently. And it's important to realize how children are communicating to you so that you know how to properly respond and communicate back to them. So as children grow as babies grow, first they cry, and they can cry for many reasons. And then we start to hear some sounds from them, just individual vowel sounds. And then we might start to hear some cooing and some babbling. But but good that by Dugu, and then we might hear some real syllables, Mama, Mama Mama dead, dead, dead dead. And so they're trying to get their words out. But let's not forget that communication is verbal, but it's also very much nonverbal. And so when children can't yet speak in words, we have to remember to watch their nonverbal communications. And what I mean by that. First and foremost is eye contact. Is your child, baby infant, two year old 19 year old, giving you eye contact when you're speaking with them, because that's a very, very important part of having conversations and being socially appropriate is that we give each other eye contact. So increasing eye contact is one of my great strategies that I use For baby blooming moments, because we want to be able to do that, so that we know that somebody's listening and paying attention. We communicate non verbally a lot with our facial expressions. And so understanding what a happy face looks like, versus a sad face versus a face that's kind of angry, so that we know what those emotions are body language, is our face turned away, are we pulling back indicating maybe we're rejecting that we don't want it? Are we leaning forward or pointing to something, which indicates that we're interested, and we're communicating that we want to know more. So pointing and gesturing with our body is also communication, head nods and shakes when we nod yes, and we nod No, and we shrug with our shoulders. That's all nonverbal communication. And honestly, we actually listen to nonverbal communication, almost more than we do. The words that are used, if somebody has a face that they don't like something, but their words are saying they love it, you're really going to believe their facial expression more. So we watch his children communicate. And then they start to put sounds verbally together, we also want to hear them verbally. So this sounds become syllables. And they become words, single words and words that get put together to form sentences. So we want to think of communication as verbal and nonverbal, and watch is that babies and children grow as to what their communication is, and how you're communicating back to them.

Natalie Gross 6:43
Yeah, that's great. Some great pointers in there. Do babies generally communicate the same way? I mean, I know adults have different communication styles. But at what point does that really start to develop?

Michelle Mintz 6:53
You start to see a little bit of your baby's own personality and ways coming out. Usually, with like, around the like eight to 12 month mark, around 12 months old, we start to think babies should have anywhere from about one to five verbal words. So that's when people usually start thinking about talking and communicating. But that's where I want to say communication actually happens well before actual verbal words come, but when you start to see words in their in their ability to imitate words, and their own facial expressions, and body language, we tend to see that, like I said, around eight or nine to 12 months, that their own personality comes out, and you start to see their different styles. And very much their style is going to depend on the type of home environment that they're in. So if they're in a very loud environment where people speak with loud voices, and they talk from one room to another, and there's just a lot of high energy, then they might develop that kind of high energy to if it's kind of a lower key house hold, not much talking going on maybe not much language, we might have a child that is more subdued, and maybe not having building up as much vocabulary. So we want to make sure that we are speaking to them and having your own style. But during these early formative years, which are Birth to Three, we want to make sure that we're giving the most enriching experiences to our babies, because that's when neurons in the brain are still forming. So we want to make sure that we're giving them what we can so that we can see them develop into their own styles.

Natalie Gross 8:45
I'm fascinated by this. So I you started touching on this, but how might the way we communicate with our baby influence, you know, our child's communication styles later on in life, and even if we're just talking about when they get into toddlerhood, you mentioned that like zero to three, right? So when they're having so many feelings, and they're trying to communicate and that that's coming out in tantrums, right, so, talk to me about that.

Michelle Mintz 9:07
Yes. Okay. So that's what I was saying is that how we communicate with our babies and toddlers, influences how our children are going to communicate later in life. So the style of home that we have, okay, so I see that when there's lots of language in the house, then and lots of communication, even non verbally and there's lots of eye contact, and socialness going on in the household, then I tend to see that children feel safer, they feel more connected to their grown up or their caregiver. And so then they're able to feel like they can communicate their feelings and their thoughts more freely, so they're safer at home and there tends to be less tantrums be because they find that they've learned other ways to be able to get out what it is that they want to say. And around one to two years old is when we really develop our vocabulary, and learning how to put words together to form sentences. So during that year, how you speak with your baby is going to be very important as to how they imitate back. So you want to make sure here's a strategy I'm going to give right away for free, is that we want to label or name items constantly. So and we want to label them just with a single word. So if you're out and about and you see a dog, they point to the dog and say, Doc, because your child is paying attention to you at that moment the most. So you want them to hear that word. If you say, Oh, look, there's a dog over there, they're going to hear too many words, and they're not going to know that that is called a dog. While we're trying to teach them the verbal vocabulary. In order to verbally communicate, you have to know words and be able to say them. So that's the very first thing is naming nouns naming the items that you're touching and playing with them. So as I said, as we communicate more with them, and talk to them, explain to them, No, don't touch that, because you could get hurt, not just No, don't touch it, but giving them reasons at their level, then they absorb it, they they receptively understand it, and they feel a connection and safety. And how I see that helping later in life is then when the children go off to daycare or preschool, they feel safe with their grown up. So there's less separation anxiety, because they know their grown up is coming back, they feel they trust their grown up. And so I work in a preschool and I see the children who have difficulty separating are the ones that don't get that connection and bonding and attachment in the home. And for whatever reasons there are. And there's numerous reasons that may happen. It might be circumstances, financial circumstances, lower socioeconomic status tends to have lower knowledge about how important it is to be able to speak with our children. And that's why I'm trying to get the word out a lot. And even people who have in the higher economic status, who are able to afford babysitters, and nannies and whatnot. We want those nannies. We want those caregivers, we want the grandparents, we want anybody who's spending time with the children, to really enrich those years, know how to communicate, label items, water dog, airplane, because then we have a child who feels more connected, more bonded and safe. And in this world, that's definitely what we need.

Natalie Gross 13:08
Yeah, I know we've you've definitely already touched on this and what you've been saying. But in your work, I love how you talk about. It's not just what you do with your baby, but it's how you do it right. And we talked about those like nonverbal things as well in the eye contact, can you give us some more examples about how we as parents can be thinking through those kind of like everyday interactions and experiences when it comes to this topic of like building a bond through that communication?

Michelle Mintz 13:31
Yeah, I'm so glad that you asked me because it really doesn't take any extra time in your day. And so the time is so precious. To moms and people who have kids were just always on the run and rush so that I'm these strategies and what you learn from Baby blooming moments and what I'm giving you today, you just implement them into what you're already doing. So, you're already diapering. diapering is a fabulous way to get face to face and eye contact interaction. You've got that baby down there, a lot of kids, you know, eventually don't like diapering. And you know, we'll make it a challenging situation. So let's make it a fun time. So you're face to face there. So let's sing a song about diapering make it up. And the way I want you to sing the song is slowly and maybe pause before the last word, we're changing your diet bird died or died for Okay, and you've got that eye contact. You've got that little pause. We're changing you're and then that anticipation. You get that smile, I can't even see it. I can feel it. And you get them like waiting for you and diaper and you get that giggle. And then that time becomes fun, engaging. And by making that connection. You've actually made a neural connection in the brain that has helped their brain Train develop. And so while you're already feeding, feeding, we feed it all the time, whether it's nursing bottle or feeding with the spoon. So take that bottle, and don't just put the bottle into the baby's mouth, bring it up by your eyes, so that you get that eye contact. That's another strategy everybody, one of my favorite favorite ones, because you can use it with infants, babies, toddlers, and then your teenager who won't look at you and you hold their cell phone up by your eyes, you get instant eye contact, it's magic. So what we want is that eye contact. So you bring that bottle, you bring that car that they want, you bring that book up there by your eyes, and you have that moment of engagement and enrichment, where you smile and use it, you want more bottle, and then you give them the bottle or the car or the book. And what you've done is you've you know, maybe those a buck for a bottle, and you've had more of a great enriching moment, than just giving them the bottle, you've done so much more to connect with them yourself bonding wise, and you've done something for their brain connections, they now feel safer. So you've accomplished so much in that one little interaction, and you got the diaper changed without having which was the whole point in the end, okay. Let's not forget what it is. So taking your everyday routines that can become monotonous for both mom or caregiver, and baby. And we're turning these everyday experiences into a brighter beginning, it's a brighter start to do something in a different way than what you're already doing. And so it's not just what you are doing, you might already be talking to them. You're already feeding, you're already bathing, you're already singing, maybe hopefully. But if you're not, if you are, it's how you're doing it, sing slower. pause before that last word, especially like Twinkle, twinkle, little star or a song you sing very frequently, with your one to two year old, Twinkle, twinkle, little, if you pause and give them a look, you all can't see me. But my look on my face is of anticipation with my eyebrows up like it's their turn. And they might say depending on what level they're at, they might say, Ah, okay, so they filled in the blank. Or they might say star because they're at two, and they can fill it in. I've had parents who say, I had no idea that they could even fill in the words that they knew that that's because they haven't been given the chance to. So it's not what you're doing. It's not just what you're doing. It's how you're doing it. That's going to make the biggest impact in their life.

Natalie Gross 18:01
Oh, I love that. I'm excited to try some of those strategies with my baby. Thanks so much, Michelle, for sharing this information. We're gonna bring Catherine back on and continue our discussion and how we can get siblings involved after another quick break.

Welcome back, everyone. Catherine, I want to give you the first word. Any thoughts on what we've just heard from Michelle?

Catherine Jalowiec 18:26
Yes, I do think that I know personally, I have implemented quite a bit of what Michelle says that I've noticed more with, unfortunately, with our last baby. Because I know with watching my middle child and my older child, my older child chose to speak for my middle child. And so that's what we're trying to avoid with the baby is having them speak for her. So we are really trying to make sure that we're you know, labeling everything, like Michelle said, you know, every time we give her her body, we're like, do you want your bottle and then she gets all excited and reaches for it. And so we're really trying to create that positive awareness of words with her even at, you know, 10 months old, and we've noticed she's starting to babble. She hasn't really said any words yet. But we're labeling you know, do you want to be picked up? Do you want mama? Do you want dada? Do you want the ball? So we're definitely trying to create those word associations with her already.

Michelle Mintz 19:19
So I love that Catherine. What I would say is an A here that you're labeling. But wow, what I hear you saying is do you want the bottle? Do you want mama? Okay, so you're over emphasizing the word that you're trying to emphasize. And you're labeling it but you're still using other words before it so I would just hold up and I'd say bottle or bottle and I and point to you and go mama so that other words the do you want are those other words, those aren't getting in the way of her hearing her or him I think the exact word of what it is that you're trying Under level, so I just want to make sure to get that point in if I could,

Catherine Jalowiec 20:02
I'm actually an elementary school teacher. So that is the breaking out of being in my classroom versus being at home for me, because I, you know, I teach seven year olds on the daily when I'm not home with them. So that's definitely the shift from teacher brain to mom brain.

Natalie Gross 20:18
Well, you have multiple children, do you feel like your babies have communicated differently? And if so has that stayed consistent? As I've gotten older? And Michelle, I'd love for you to answer this one too, from your own experiences.

Catherine Jalowiec 20:29
I do think they've all communicated differently. John is my neurodivergent child, he has ADHD. He's my oldest. And he's we used to kind of refer to him as our little cannon, when he would talk. He was just rapid fire, go go go from the get go. And Mackenzie, my middle. She analyzes everything and wants to like, understand why things work the way they work. And that's just how her brain is. But that's how they've been, since they really started communicating, she was always my more reserved one who thought everything over before she would speak and John was just tells you, whatever is on his mind, at that given moment, if you're talking to him, If you give him the floor, he will give you an entire recitation of Greek myth, because he's obsessed with them, or ancient Egypt. So he's, you know, he has no filter we say sometimes.

Michelle Mintz 21:20
He's impulsive. That's the word I would use. Right?

Catherine Jalowiec 21:23
Yes. And my middle is my reserved, you know, she thinks her thoughts through. So it'll be very interesting to see how baby girl does when she's speaking because personality wise, she's loud, like John, but like, behavior wise, she's cuddly like Mackenzie, so it'll be very interesting to see what her true personality is, you know, in a little bit. Great.

Natalie Gross 21:47
Yeah, Michelle, any thoughts there with your own experiences?

Michelle Mintz 21:49
You know what, I actually don't have multiple. So I just have I have my one. So I can't really answer questions on the differences of my own children. But I've been a speech and language pathologist for over 25 years, specializing in the birth to five population. And that's what led me to starting baby blooming moments, I found that my strategies that I work for the children that have delays are really important for all parents of all babies Birth to Three. And so that's why I want to share with everybody how to increase the tension and vocabulary. So through my experiences of working as a speech pathologist with different children, there are definitely different communication styles different. Some times children come to Me and there's there's not a diagnosis such as autism, or ADHD, or some medical reason, or even behavioral reasons that they would have a delay. It's just simply that they needed a different pathway, they needed the parents to be using strategies. And speaking in this different way, which is slower, often, with more emphasis, not so many words, in a sentence, not too fast. As adults, we talk very fast, this is how I would usually talk to you. And this is how children hear us talking. And so they want to talk this fast, and they can't. And so they try to and that's where a lot of difficulties come in. So a lot of it depends on not all of it. As you see with Katherine's children, they're all being growing up in the same household with the same parents, but they are, you know, different styles and different ways. And like you said, watching how baby girl is going to have a little bit of each one of them. So everybody's different. But a lot of the influence comes from, you know, it's a nature versus nurture. It's definitely both but so I so much believe in in the nurturing, and how in the time that is spent, and what happens in these early years, that's gonna make the biggest difference.

Natalie Gross 23:50
Well, I love that you coach families on interactions with siblings as well. I have a four year old who's totally in love with babies so much. A little bit to the extreme sometimes, and I know not all family. I know not all family dynamics are like that, though. And a lot of older siblings struggle with jealousy when the new baby comes, things like that. So what's your advice for fostering that bond through communication with siblings and teaching your older kids how to communicate, you know, with all these methods we've talked about with the baby?

Michelle Mintz 24:17
Thanks for asking. Yeah, that's great. So definitely preparing sibling one for baby two coming in, in enough time, but not too soon. Sometimes parents make that mistake of telling the older sibling that they're going to have a younger one way way too soon. And then there's just too much anxiety and worry and talk about it. So you really want to wait till I think you should be waiting till you know maybe six, seven months or something like that, or you know when they have to be more careful with your tummy. And then when that baby comes, oftentimes what we have that older sibling becomes the go getter. Oh, go get mommy the diaper. Oh, be babies little helper and go get the bottle. So they become the helper and the go getter. And now tell parents tried to have the older one connect with the baby. And that's not really making a connection. That's just being a helper. And so what we want to do is help them on a deeper level. So for example, and you're like a three, four year, four year old, how young is your little one?

Natalie Gross 25:19
She's eight months.

Michelle Mintz 25:21
Oh okay, perfect, perfect example. Okay. So um, because your four year old is old enough to be able to understand this concept of eye contact, and holding something by his eye. And so what he would do if it's hold his car, hold whatever he that he wants to show her and think, Oh, you can teach her that this is a car. And so hold, you know, hold it and show him how you hold it by your eyes and have him hold it and see what you do as you practice. So what you do is you hold the object away from your body, nobody can see me right now, but away from your eyes. And you watch how that baby your eight, your daughter will look at the object over on the side. And then you bring that object over to your eyes. And you watch that eye gaze, follow you over to your eyes, and you will get that lock in. And then you get that smile and you and then tell him to tell her to car and smile. And then point out how she laughed or she giggled or she reached for it. Oh, look at she likes that when you do that you made her smile, because you showed her you know, and then they get a reaction from the baby, that they made the baby smile. They help the baby talk. They you know, the baby said Ma when I said Ma and it makes them feel very good in a very different kind of bonding and attaching way than just going to get things and being the helper.

Natalie Gross 26:49
That's a really good point. Catherine did any of that resonate with you?

Catherine Jalowiec 26:52
Yes. And we tried to make that point of that they weren't just the helper like that they wanted to be involved. And so my middle child, since the baby was born, has been obsessed with reading books to her and making sure that they're spending time and so if she noticed that I didn't get a book out at bed, she's like, Mom, we got to get the book out. We have to reach out. And she will be like, I'll be you know putting laundry away or something in the baby's room before bed. And she's like, I'll read the book, Mom, I want to read the book. And she'll sit there with her and read whatever the book is at night because that's their a little moment of togetherness, because they're gone at school all day. So that's her little moment.

Michelle Mintz 27:35
I just have that picture. And and you call it a moment. And that's what it is right baby blooming moments, we catch these moments in life. And that's what it is all about is catching those moments, letting her have that special connected moment with her. And I'm wondering, how does baby respond?

Catherine Jalowiec 27:53
She absolutely adores my daughter. She adores both of her siblings, but my daughter sees the book and you can hear the baby. She's right here. Yeah, she will COO and scream and get all excited. And then she'll like kind of snuggle into my older daughter and just sit there and let her read the book.

Michelle Mintz 28:08
I hope you have videos of that. Because that's just precious. Precious. Yeah, that's what we that is that's what you want. I would like not take that away for anything. And almost like, if that's her time, like and they both love that. And you can be okay with like not reading the book, even if you don't have to do laundry, like, you know, let that be their routine. If you know if one night she doesn't want to. But I just think that's so beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

Catherine Jalowiec 28:35
You're welcome. My son has his other moments with her. He's the one that likes to get riled up, you know, because he's a bully. And so she has these toys in her bedroom. And that's his time with her Hilger I want to play with her with her toys. And so they'll go up to her little Toy Bin and he'll pull out toys, and he'll chase her around the room or build blocks with her. And that's his moment with her. And they've kind of fell into this pattern of McKenzie is the one that likes to read her. And John is the one that likes to play with her. And that's just, I let them do it. Because I know that's their moment with her where they get to feel connected with her after not seeing her all day. And I think that's really, really important.

Michelle Mintz 29:11
And it's so reflects their personalities, right? I mean, you described him as he's rapid fire, he's impulsive. He's go go go. So what he wants to do, and you're talking about, and then this whole thing, topic started with different communication styles, which relates to personality styles. And so it's coming like first full circle Thank you Catherine with a not even knowing it, but then that's his personality style and his communication style. So that's how he's communicating with her. And that's how she's going to communicate back with him. She's going to be wild. She's going to know it's a play, she's going to know that we're gonna play tag and we're gonna do things like that. And then your daughter who's the reserved and she thinks things through and she likes her books and he likes her quiet. That's how they're communicating and Having your reading the words to the you know, to her, I've got reading strategies that are so great that help enrich the reading. And so she would be old enough to be able to do those reading strategies where she would even get more connections with your daughter. And so I just think that's so fabulous, and how it just is so reflective of their personalities to a tee.

Natalie Gross 30:23
I love that we're talking about this, because I've thought so much about how you, you know, we talked about nature versus nurture, right. And so same parents, but my daughter is going to have like, her life is just so different from the very fact of having her older brother in it, who just like is obsessed with her and he walks into a room and she just squeals you know, and it's just so cute to see that little bond, when they're just so young. And I hope that continues. And I'm kind of tearing up as we're talking because all of these beautiful moments.

Michelle Mintz 30:50
They aren't there are beautiful moments. And you know what you say the hope that continues if you foster it, and you continue to enrich it. And that's why we're saying to Catherine is like, you know, it's hard. But like if John wanted to come in and do book reading, I like that idea. But that's your daughter's Mackenzie's thing. And so I kind of want to keep it like that. So it would be up to you to go you know what, that's Mackenzie's plan with baby, your plan is play. But if you want a different plan, maybe instead of playing, you can do a book at that time. But don't take Mackenzie's time of moment of her plan of book reading. So I like to use that word plan, everybody in the house can have a different plan, because then they might not get you know, so upset that like, Oh, I didn't get that cookie. That's not your plan, which is obviously like everybody needs a cookie when there's cookies, but like I'm making extreme like, you know, that's not your plan. It's he did really good listening. And so his plan is he's going to in this not bribery. sticker, let's get a sticker. I don't like cookies, okay? A sticker, okay, when you know, if you do good listening next time, then you know, you get a sticker. So fostering that it goes back to you enriching that, making sure that those moments happen and letting them so if you see them together in the bedroom, Natalie, and you were gonna go in there because you were gonna put laundry away or something, maybe you don't go in because they're having such a great moment. And just by you going in with just interrupted even though you may not say anything to them. So you just leave that laundry for, you know, the extra 10 minutes until that moment or whatever, one minute, until that moment is done, but so that you're aware of continuingly enriching and fostering that relationship together.

Natalie Gross 32:37
Yeah, those are such great ideas. Well, ladies, as we wrap up any other tips for how to use everyday experiences to foster a bond with your babies, and you know, just kind of talking about that nonverbal as well as verbal communication, any other tips?

Catherine Jalowiec 32:52
I think the biggest thing, and I think that's why Mackenzie is the way she is with wanting to read her is, we've always made it a point to read to our kids since they were born. And just even if it's, you know, our days can get so hectic, especially with multiple children, that that's those quiet moments that you can just really sit there and reflect with your child on the day. And you just get those those quiet, peaceful moments with them. And I think that's so so important. Because I see it with my two, when they're overwhelmed. They'll go and sit quietly and read a book or color a picture. And they you can tell that they've learned from us making sure we fit those quiet moments in amongst the chaos of, you know, school and extracurriculars and everything. And so they've kind of created this own coping mechanism for themselves, but they're able to then turn around and help you know, their baby sister and read and play and have those moments. And I think that that is just kind of now ingrained in them. And I just think that's so so important that they have these routines that they can set for themselves. I think

Michelle Mintz 33:55
That's so fabulous. And definitely it's ingrained in them because of what you've modeled for them. That's about the only way that they're going to know and it's ingrained in them. And what you're describing to me that I hear is, which is so important is that they're learning how to do self care. And they're learning how to be mindful about what is going on in their body, and that their body and about their own body so that somebody else doesn't have to say, hey, you know what, it looks like you needed a little break or a little calming down. They are becoming own their own self aware to know that they need to moderate that and learning that. I'm just learning that at 50 something right so and mindfulness and all this is such a big important topic right now. So I just wanted to point out that that is what I see happening. And I think that that's so beautiful, that it is becoming an internal part of themselves because it is such a needed coping mechanism to deal again with this world that we're in right now. To know I need to take care of myself. Oh, so I think that that's really beautiful, Catherine. On that note, you talked about having that routine. And that's really what I was going to share, as far as nonverbal and verbal communications are, is having routines, you can have a morning routine, you can have an evening routine. And routine means that it is in the same order, you know, each day so that there is anticipation I know, eating breakfast than brushing teeth and getting backpacks and go, always in the same order, things can run more smoothly, and therefore communication is more smooth and you run into less hiccups less behaviors, less defiance and tantrums. So establishing routines and getting that bedtime, so that making sure that book gets in because that are not like up. I'm sorry, we don't have time for that tonight. That is a very important connecting piece of the day and what's happening. So that's why I want to kind of combine that all together.

Natalie Gross 35:57
Great ideas. Well, thank you so much to both of you, Michelle and Catherine for joining me on newbies today. Listeners, you can find out more about Michelle at babybloomingmoments.com. Also check out newmommymedia.com where we have all of our podcasts episodes, plus videos and more.

That wraps up our show for today. We appreciate you listening to Newbies. Don't forget to check out our sister shows Preggie Pals for expecting parents, Parent Savers for moms and dads with toddlers, the Boob Group for moms who get breast milk to their babies, and Twin Talks for parents of multiples. Thanks for listening to Newbies, your go to source for new moms and new babies.

Disclaimer 36:49
New mommy media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts will such information and materials are believed to be accurate. It is not intended to replace or substitute for professional medical advice or care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating healthcare problem or disease or prescribing any medication. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health, or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.