Don't Stress

So here is the deal, after a while away, I have a desire to change my blog a bit to more pictures, more fun, less serious.  So this isn't too serious to me, but this should be pretty much my last "serious" issue post.

This is focused toward women who are yet to be married, who are yet to have kids, as well as new moms (as in your child is 0 to 9 months oldish).  Not that others can't read but this should mean the most to that group.

As you know, we did not start off Will's entry to this world as we had planned.  Why I thought anything else would go "by the book" is beyond me.  I am going to focus on two things: eating and sleeping (my pediatrician may be surprised the focus is not on poop:-).

1. Eating: before Will I always claimed I would have a child who ate healthy, he/she wouldn't have a choice, it would be starve or eat "right".  Let's face it, from day 3, Will started the first "wrong" thing, he went from breast, to IV, to breast, to crappy bottles, to Dr. Browns bottles, to breast, back to Dr. Browns, and finally back to breast.  I thought he would only do breast for the first week, then Dr. Browns of my milk.  Thankfully, he only did my milk, but he transitioned with ease from each to the next and back again. 

Second part of eating: solids, I made all of his baby food and started him out only giving healthy options.  He really didn't have sweets until 1 year maybe.  He ate everything, beets, carrots, spinach, asparagus, you name it, he at it pureed.  I thought I did something right, I had succeeded.  HA, NOPE!  Will hit a point where he just stopped eating, at times he refused crap, at times he ate asparagus over cookies, it was up to him, if he wanted to eat, he ate, if not he didn't.  I always thought I would make him sit and just not eat if he didn't eat the option I gave him.  After days of trying, that didn't work for Will, he outright refused, even when starving.  So....he is a picky eater, I don't give him crap but he doesn't eat everything healthy and you know what:

THAT"S OKAY!

2. Sleeping: I claimed I would never nurse my child to sleep, rock him to sleep....the list goes on.  From day 5 Will came home from the hospital on a schedule.  3 hours during the day, 4 to 6 at night.  He slept through the night at 7 weeks old.  He was an AWESOME sleeper.  When he no longer nursed, he went down at 7 pm sharp without a bottle and slept until at least 7 am.  He did that for a very long time.  He was put in his crib, no lingering, he went to sleep.  He napped well, he slept well.  At 22 months that all changed.  We started this change in January, he was in his big boy bed (not an option, he was out of the crib on his own).  We are STILL fighting this battle.  After many failed attempts at trying different things from Super Nanny to spanking to a trip to Mars:-) the child still won't go to bed on his own.  We now sit by his bed, say nothing to him and force him to stay in his bed.  Tonight, 45 minutes later, he went to sleep.  He wakes up by 6:30 in the morning regardless of the time he goes to bed. 

So here it is: you can plan all you want, you can stress all you want, sleep and eating were my biggest stresses as a mom, now they are not.  I did everything "right" and both of these things were turned upside down to no ones fault, just to the fact that Will's personality fits this.  He is a wonderful kid, happy kid, but he is a picky eater that needs little sleep.

I say this to tell you, you can get your panties in a wad all you want and swear you will never give your child crap or rock them to sleep but here is the fact: you can never give your child sweets and never rock them to sleep but it may not matter, they might just turn into a picky eater and a crappy sleeper no matter what you do.

So don't stress: enjoy being a parent, enjoy the ups and downs and all arounds, its fun, its stressful, but take it one day at a time and don't allow yourself to think you are the reason for "failure" in making a good eater or sleeper.