confused mama



Thank goodness children are resilient.  I feel like I am constantly experimenting on my poor child, because I never really know what I am doing.  Every month there are new milestones and new challenges, so I am constantly re-figuring things out.  I often find myself conflicted by all of the different pieces of expert advice out there on baby topics (e.g. sleeping though the night, naps, etc).

Then, my friend shared this article with me.  You may have read it already.  It's basically an essay that puts all of the expert baby advice together.  Turns out, all the advice seems to be contradictory.

http://www.today.com/moms/exhausted-new-moms-hilarious-take-expert-sleep-advice-goes-viral-6C9559908

One of my favorite parts...

"Don’t let your baby sleep too long, except when they’ve been napping too much, then you should wake them. Never wake a sleeping baby. Any baby problem can be solved by putting them to bed earlier, even if they are waking up too early. If your baby wakes up too early, put them to bed later or cut out a nap. Don’t let them nap after 5 p.m. Sleep begets sleep, so try to get your child to sleep as much as possible. Put the baby to bed awake but drowsy. Don't wake the baby if it fell asleep while nursing."

HAH!  No wonder I felt like I was on crazy pills.

People say to follow your "instinct."  But, sometimes its hard to hear your "instinct" when your baby is crying and you have all of this contradicting "baby advice" floating around in your head!

Bottom line...I realize I am not alone here in my frustration, and as my sister says..."just RELAX." ;)  So, I have decided to just make things up as I go along, try different pieces of advice that sound good to me, and accept that trial-and-error is going to be part of the process.

And, I have to say...I have come a long way since Quinn was born.  Babies are a blessing, and they teach us so much that we could not learn on our own!