Tonight I sat myself down, after a good mental reprimand about how long it has been since I have posted anything, and found this tucked away in my drafts. I wrote this maybe 9 months ago and as I read it I thought to myself (schizophrenic much?) "Hey this is pretty good advice and I actually still agree with myself!" Not always the case...have you ever looked back on, say, middle school journals? Precisely. So with that all said here is my easy-way-out-first-blog-of-my-new-resolution-to-blog. Enjoy:
When I was pregnant, let us just say I was crazy. I'm not talking biting everyone's head off, flipping out or breaking down all the time...in fact, the only time I really remember loosing it Broadway-style was in a fabric store (who knew baby bedding was that terrorizing). Perhaps I should say that I was crazy ABOUT something, and the something was research. The amount of time I did this (ahem, 9 months- 8+ hrs a day) left me with alot of two things:
1) Knowledge about ANYTHING baby.
2) Knowledge that some moms thrive on being crazy, and in the first sense above, if you catch my drift.
I'm sure that I am not the only one who has met or at least heard of the "Angry Mother": Angry about diapers, about where to give birth, about baby food, about attachment parenting, about circumsision, about bleh-everything? I am so confident that you know what I mean that I won't say any more about them. In fact if you have ever been pregnant, one of them might have been you, or angry at you. After having Oliver I realized that the "Angry Mother" just didn't have any place whatsoever in our family and the way I wanted to be a mama.
Who cares? Well I suppose that I feel like just saying that there are alternatives to being a neglegent or over protective mama. Maybe it's "Happy Mother" Parenting. So somewhere out there, in a baby- obsessed and nervous reck of a brain, one little person (probably me) might feel better if they know the advice I would give myself next time and reminders of what worked:
1) Calm down- just b/c you missed a prenatal vitamin doesnt mean a thing. Paige, you'll do better tomorrow and for Heaven's sake women went without them for 1,000's of years!
2) We plan plans- we dont plan results
3) Breastfeeding really is worth it- period. But try not to grit your teeth as much this time.
4) Walking every day was the ONLY reason I didnt weigh like 500lbs.
5) I wore Oliver practically all day long until he got too heavy, and have always slathered on the affection thick- we think this is why he has NEVER been needy and has no problem being away from us.
6) Happiest Baby on the Block is pretty much how we survived
7) Who cares if he doesn't sleep through the night- eventually he will. mean while just be happy you have a baby to wake you up.
8) When you're up at 1, 3, 5 am struggling with breastfeeding and falling asleep just think of all the millions of amazing womean who are all over the planet doing the exact thing at that exact moment- beautiful!
9) The Lord gave that baby to you and only you- you are given stewardship over him and with the Lord every thing really will be wonderful. No matter what the details are, if that's what you want it will happen.
Sigh. I feel like this is as good a place as any to start, considering I am pregnant again with another little bouncing boy. In fact I feel like this post was just what I needed to read right now, so here's to the future of blogging about pomegranates.
1 comment:
Great post. I totally agree. When we started trying to conceive I became researchzilla, and since it took us quite some time to become pregnant, I became the worlds living expert on everyone else's opinions on pregnancy, childbirth and mothering. I'm so happy to hear I'm not alone in the sentiment that "happy mothering" is the way to go! You give good advice. Thanks for the cheerful approach. Oh, and happy blogging!
Post a Comment