Before I had my son I had a plan. I had a birth plan and a parenting plan. I planned on working part time from home while my child slept peacefully at nap time and planned to spend quality time with my husband at night after putting him to bed easily at 8pm. Yeeeeeah, I'm funny right?!? Let's all just laugh at me for a minute....
Okay, that's enough now. Moving on...
I read A LOT while I was pregnant. I was SO excited to be having this baby, I waited a long time! I wanted to do everything right and perfect. I already knew I wanted to breastfeed, I wanted to sleep train him at 8 weeks, I wanted an epidural during his birth, I was never going to co-sleep/bed share. Basically, I was going to have a perfect delivery and a perfect child. And let me tell you right now that while yes, my child is perfect(every child is to his mother, am I right?) and yes I breastfeed, EVERYTHING and I honestly, hysterically, unbelievably ridiculously mean EVERYTHING else was a joke. My kid showed me. I was soooooo worried about having to come home with this little baby and actually have to keep him alive. I couldn't believe the doctors and nurses would just let me walk out of that hospital with this kid! Don't they know I have NO CLUE what I'm doing? I was so worried, in fact, that I thought I needed all of these things figured out before he even arrived. But alas, we have both survived and I have thrown all my plans away like stinky trash. I've adapted to no sleep and I have learned over the last 5 months how to be a mom. And guess what, most of it came instinctually. My views on parenting have changed completely. My precious epidural wore off so I ended up doing a natural birth for the parts that really counted. I co-slept out of necessity but grew to love it(I have since transitioned to the crib, but still bring him to bed sometimes). I feed on demand. I went from babywise to attachment style. And I've never looked back. I didn't really have a choice in the matter anyway. Baby D runs the show around here.
Some of the things I have decided to do with beebee I am really proud of but in some areas I feel like a total failure so I can be kind of insecure about my parenting choices around more seasoned moms. I appreciate anyone's advice but a lot of things people offer me, just don't sit so well. So I don't do it. I do only what feels right for my child.
I guess more later since I am falling asleep at the keys and I'm fairly certain this post is incredibly boring. Little beebee is asleep which is pretty rare so I need to take advantage and get some sleep myself.
goodnight world....
The thing about more seasoned moms is that one time, they were a first time mom too, trying to figure out what worked best for them and their child. You can read and listen to all the advice that you want, but that doesn't mean that any of it will work for you. Momma knows best. You'll get it, don't worry, and NEVER EVER feel like a failure. I forbid it! Oh, and right about the time you get into a nice smooth routine with beebee D, his brother or sister will come along and most likely be the complete opposite. Then you get to start over trying everything under the sun again! Except at that point, you've done this before so it's somehow not nearly as stressful as the first time around. :-)
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