22 Things I Underestimated About Parenthood
- how much I would love not being pregnant
- how seriously an unmedicated labor would have me, at least temporarily, thinking we will only ever have one child
- how proud and stubborn I can truly be
- how shockingly bad of a sleeper an infant can be
- how little sleep I can get by on for weeks at a time
- how frustrated I would be when she wakes up from a nap before I am ready
- how lonely I can get when she sleeps longer than usual
- how frustrating it is that she will only sleep well when she is beside me
- how much I would love sleeping next to her
- the vast amount of time breastfeeding an infant takes
- how much I would love breastfeeding
- the thirst breastfeeding can induce
- how enormously helpful, supportive, loving and sympathetic my husband is
- how many people would advise us to leave our infant to cry herself to sleep in her crib in the hope it will help her learn to soothe herself
- how little time I would have to read infant care and parenting books
- how little we would find the crib useful
- how useful we would find a twin mattress placed on the floor beside our bed
- how little I would care about what others think when I breastfeed in public
- how quickly I would learn to speed through chores and tasks to get them completed before she wakes up
- how emotional and weepy I would get the first time I heard her giggle (which was Saturday - it wasn't even at mom or dad - it was at a sweet lady from church!)
- how thankful I am that we planned for me to be a stay-at-home mom - not by increasing our income, but by being careful to not take on debt that would require us both to work.
- how intensely sad I would be for moms who have, for whatever reason, to leave their 6-8 week olds with people they don't know so they can go to work for people who can, apparently, do without them. I would have been heartbroken.
posted by Elle at 7:16 AM
5 Comments:
I could have written that same list. Only my #17 would be "How surprised I would be that my 16 month old would be back in our bed at night after 2 months of sleeping in her crib. And how much I missed her being with us."
They are only babies for such a short amount of time. Why rush through it?
#23: how surprised I would be to turn around one day and realize that my firstborn is about to get a learner's permit ...
;)
Breastfeeding was absolutely magical. To see their little hands cupped around me, there is nothing more tender and heartwarming in the world.
She is three months old today and it seems like it's been a week. It's gone by entirely too fast. Except for those nights I didn't sleep. Those didn't go by fast. Everything else did, though!
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Just goes to show that God did not give your child to your friends or to the government, He gave her to you. The decisions you make on how you raise your child are given to you, not your friends, family, or some social development "expert." You certainly would want to listen to the experience of others, but as long as it does not violate Scripture, each parent makes their own choices on how to raise their child(ren).
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