Nanny to Mommy

I was going through my Facebook feed and I follow babycenter. They posted an interesting blog, so I thought I would share my views. :)

"I always knew that the moment I held my baby in my arms for the first time I’d feel love like never before. What I didn’t know was that with great love, comes paralyzing fear and massive guilt. Wasn’t quite prepared for that." - read more posted in Honor of BabyCenter's Guilt-Free Parenting Week. So here are the things I won't feel guilty about as a new mom:

1. Making Mistakes. (At least I'll try not to feel guilty.) This is my first baby so I'm going to make mistakes. Example: We took Sweet Pea to the park on Sunday. It was windy and sunny. We forgot a sun hat. I rocked her to sleep on the swing, making sure to cover her face, and then I put her in her stroller so the wind and sun would be off her. As they say, 'You live and learn.'

2. Breastfeeding. Sometimes I have to nurse in public. My baby doesn't take a bottle from me. And I am a terrible pumper (or it could be my pump). Why would she when mommy is so close by? She is also already developing a stranger anxiety with people she doesn't see often (I didn't know they developed it this early but apparently they do). So please explain to me what I'm suppose to do? I cover up and it's the most natural thing in the world. All mammals do it. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, don't look.

3. Passing her off to Daddy when he gets home from work. Two reasons this doesn’t bother me: One, being the only caregiver all night and day is tiring, and I am appropriately exhausted by the time someone else walks in the door, and two, I know daddy misses his baby time as much as Sweet Pea misses her daddy time. :]

4. Not Doing Housework. I won’t feel guilty about putting my baby before my housework. Some things are more important in life. She will only be this age once, the housework will still be there.

5. Letting her be a Kid. I will not feel guilty about her watching TV or eating out every once in a while when she gets older. I did when I was a kid and so did my husband and we are capable, functioning adults. I will raise my kid and not have the TV do it for me. I will not feel guilty about letting her get dirty and be a kid. Jumping in puddles is dirty and fun. And as I said before they are only this age once.

6. Co-sleeping. Nursing has been great for us so far but I was completely incapable of sitting up to nurse at 12, 2, 4, and 6 when she was a newborn. We figured out the side-lying nursing thing and haven’t looked back. Now she doesn't sleep in our bed the entire night like she did when she was a newborn but I enjoyed every minute of it when she did and I actually miss it now.

7. My Birth Story. Lastly, I was induced because of my blood pressure, I had an epidural because I'm a wuss. I only wanted my husband in there with me because no one was there when we created her. I love my birth story and no one is going to make me feel guilty or try to steal my joy about it one way or the other. And that is that.





So mommas or soon-to-bes, what are some things you refuse to feel guilty about?

This blog touched me. I cried when I read it. I don't even know the women who wrote this blog but a friend of mine posted her blog on Facebook and I had to tell people about it.

Please read the blog listed below. Beware it'll break your heart.

http://kandjstaats.blogspot.com/

They are raising money for them, here's the link to the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=153900798000716

These pictures were taken on 2/9/2011:



Her newest accomplishments are (maybe I should say so far):
1- Holding her head up:



2- Smiling:



3- Rolling over. She hasn't officially rolled over but the other day she was crying while I was in the bathroom and when I came out she had rolled over in her swing. So needless to stay we have to make sure we strap her in everywhere.

4- Sleeping through the night in her bassinet. She sleeps for two five hour stretches which makes me one happy momma! :)

Valentine's Day was this month and here she is all dressed up (Isn't she cute? :]):



Her 2 month check up was today (we are still behind from the ice storm). But we will be caught up by the next one. I got there early because I thought then maybe we could go back early, which we did. While we were waiting in the lobby, I had to feed her and these people sitting across from us were giving us dirty looks. I wanted to smack them. I'm feeding my baby. This is a very natural thing. Get over it. If it makes you fee uncomfortable move. There are two doctors in the practice and we saw the one we usually haven't been seeing. I didn't really care for him. She weighed 10.4 pounds (40%), 22 inches long (%25), and her head measured 40cm (%75). So she is a short, average weight baby with a big head. :) He said her spitting up wasn't reflux and he talked about the possibility of giving her food at four months....I don't know what to think about that. Well once the doctor left we waited for EVER! I poked my head out and then a nurse asked what we were waiting for, shots or to see the doctor. Then she apologized for the wait and came in. Baby girl had fallen asleep:



They had to wake her up so she could get an oral shot. And they had to give her FOUR SHOTS, two in each thigh. :C Poor baby girl cried like I have never heard. it broke my heart but I didn't cry this time! :) Which helped her get over it faster.

Don't forget to vote for us for this photo contest!:


That's it for the monthly update! :D

Inspired by this blog.

If I had a chance to leave a letter for my self. This is what it would say:

Dear Diana,
You may think you have all the answers but you don't. Listen to your parents and spend as much time as you can with them. You're daddy loves you and you love him but he won't be around forever. You have the best grandparents in the world enjoy them while they are still here. Don't rush into anything with a boy. You're about to meet the love of your life. No, you won't die alone. Listen to your daddy about boys and stay in school. It may not be fun but try your best, it's worth it. You're best friend loves you. Make sure you keep making time to spend together. And remember she's your best friend for a reason, that means you can tell her anything. So do. She won't judge you, she loves you. Keep going to see you momma every chance you get, she loves you and we'll miss you if don't make time to go see her. Your sister and your brother love you, they just have to figure out themselves before they can know how to show it. You may think you are so grown up right now and that you know everything about the world, but you don't. Life isn't about the internet or drama. Listen to others but don't let them take advantage you. You are your own person and you don't need people in your life who don't love you for you.

Life can be amazing if you just learn to not sweat the small stuff and don't let others steal your joy (and lesson you're still learning).

Sincerely,
Future Diana

Another good piece: Here

Ah the infamous poop story. I almost forgot about it and wanted to write it down while I still remembered.

This story took place on New Year's Eve. We were going out for the first time without SweetPea. Our friend was having a party, so we decided to bring SweetPea over early so everyone could meet her and then take her to my in-laws who live right down the street.

She hadn't been going poopie and although she was being breastfed and all the sites say it's normal for breastfed babies to not go for up to 5 days (as long as they have enough wet diapers), we were still concerned so we called the doctor. The doctor said that if she didn't seem uncomfortable that we shouldnt worried but if we were we could either stick a q-tip (with vaseline and just around the edges) up there or give her a suppository.

My husband insisted on the latter and brought some infant suppositories home after work. We only gave her a little. She went almost instantly! YAY! All done....or so we thought...

I wanted to give her a bath to
A. help her tummy (why didn't I push for that before?)
and
B. I wanted her nice and fresh when she met everyone.

As soon as her tushie hit that water it all went down hill from there (no pun intended). She poopied in the tub and then we took her out and she poopied on the changing table. We put her back in the tub and she poopied again. Then we picked her up and she poopied in the towel and again on the changing table. Then we finally got a diaper on her and she poopied in that. My husband just looked at me and said "There's $#!T EVERYWHERE!"

So needless to say when we went out that night we had a new parent story to tell that only other parents can appreciate. I was also a nervous wreck, by the way, but that's another story. And now we have a story to tell her to embarrass her when she gets older as well. :)



New parent hiccups can make you embarrassed or feel like a terrible parent. I feel sad for SweetPea because she is like our training baby. She is training us how to be parents.
I read and read and read but experience seems to be the only way to learn when it comes to child rearing as each one is different.
Does anyone out there have some less than proud parenting moments? Please tell me I am not the only one...