Mottos for Parenthood

I have noticed during the last 20 months that there are phases of parenthood. Seems logical. Maybe obvious. It starts with the deer-in-the-headlights phase when new parents are exhausted and scrambling to figure out how to care properly for this new little person. And through several other phases, a parent ends up at the been-there-done-that phase.

I have found that cliche mottos could help define those phases even further.

The "You-Don't-Know-Until-You-Know" phase.

I've pretty much already covered this one in my post titled CONFESSION so I won't really go into here. Basically, with as annoyed as I used to be when someone would tell me "you'll understand some day"...it's true. You cannot understand the full breadth and depth of a situation until you experience it yourself.

Then there's the Whatever Works phase.

This is where all your preconceived notions about the way you want to parent are quickly disregarded in the name of sanity.

As you know, before I had PB, I had no intention if co-sleeping. Felt quite strongly about it in terms of baby's safety. But I had been encouraged to learn to nurse laying on my side. "You need to rest too", the nurses would say. And when I returned to work and was a zombie from the night-feelings, I decided to give it a try. I learned. And so did PB. PB learned that sleeping with mommy and daddy was far superior to sleeping in his own bed.

Well, I stopped nursing at night 8 months ago. But PB still prefers our bed. You've read my accounts of CIO and we're just about ready to give it another go. But if I want to get any sleep at night...this works. For now.

The It-Never-Fails Phase.

Aw yes. The best one yet. This one is so good, it coincides with all the other phases. Runs concurrently.

I give you this example. Last summer, PB and I were to attend a baby shower. I'd gotten myself and PB bathed and dressed. I placed PB in his jumper and tidied up a bit. When I returned, I found PB jumping happily in his jumper...but...what is this all over the carpet below him?? Oh my goodness. PB's big poopy diaper didn't fare well in the jumper and had exploded. And there was my sweet PB, jumping and jumping....just grinding it into the carpet. Oh. My. Gosh.

It's these kinds of things that never really stop. Although thankfully they're not all nearly this dramatic. But I will tell you, the baby will poop right before you leave the house. But only on the days you're late. The baby will seem happy and awake but will fall asleep in the carseat as soon as you leave the house for a day full of errands. It never fails.

But, my dear readers, that's how you get a lot of my posts. Because the baby has fallen asleep in this air-conditioned car. And I'm not one to wake a sleeping baby. Whatever works. You won't know until you know.