It cannot be.
Say it isn't so.
But when we do the math, it works out - she really is six months old. I'm not really sure how it happened. This was the age I never really thought past when I was pregnant. Logically, I knew that I'd eventually have a crawler, a walker, a toddler, a teenager, but I couldn't ever picture it. I could only imagine a sleeping newborn. And yet, sitting behind me is a little girl up on all fours, rocking away, days (hours? minutes?) away from crawling off to the toy across the room, the dog's squeaky doll, or her college dorm room.
I have learned a lot in the last six months; most importantly, I'd better get used to the feeling that I don't know what I'm doing. She is working on something new everyday, changing so fast that I can hardly keep up. I get used to one phase, and she moves to the next.
But one thing I have learned is that there's no one right way to raise a baby (or a child, for that matter). There are books for everything: books that say that you MUST MUST MUST put your baby awake in her bed at the same time every night or she will never sleep through the night or learn to fall asleep by herself. Then there are books that say co-sleeping is a must, and your baby will never been a well-adjusted, happy child without it. It's easy to agree with the co-sleepers when you're laying awake, thinking every little noise is surely a baby snatcher who has broken into your home - but then it's easy to agree with the put-them-in-the-cribbers when you realize that co-sleeping means going to bed when they do and eventually explaining to a 2-year-old why she has to sleep in her own bed even though she's snuggled between Mom and Dad for her whole life.
And then there are people who say pre-packaged baby food is downright terrible and you must make your own baby food, or you should give them whole food rather than pureed food, or you should give them vegetables before fruit, or you should never give them sweets or processed food, not even when they're nine and having a birthday party. Or you should pick them up when they cry; or you shouldn't pick them up when they cry. Some say that unless the house is burning down, you should not interrupt their nap schedule; some insist you should take them wherever, whenever and teach them to be flexible. Or, you should not use strollers, but should carry them in a sling instead (I can only believe that these are the old ladies who walk half bent over...and how would one take a shower while toting a baby around all the time? It's a miracle if I shave my legs once a week, and my kid plays on the floor and naps in a crib.)
Or whatever. You get my point.
I'm calling shenanigans on all of this, and if I meet someone who's going to get on a high horse about any of the aforementioned topics, we're not going to be friends. Parents have to do what's right for their little families, so we're going to do what we think it best for us and our girl.
We're making Nora's baby food, not because we think it's wrong to do otherwise, but because it's cheaper, we got a Baby Bullet for Christmas, and I have a husband who doesn't mind spending a few hours every week pureeing vegetables and then freezing them in ice cube trays. (He's a good man.) She sleeps in her own bed, because Ryan rolls around too much at night and I can't get past the idea that if you let the baby sleep with you, the baby turns into a 2 year old who wants to sleep sideways and all of the sudden you wind up on the floor. I'm still breastfeeding, because it's healthy and saving a lot of money, but I also know that it's exhausting and sometimes painful; there are days I literally fantasize about my milk drying up so we don't have any other option.
At the of the day, none of this is really that important. What's important is that she's happy, she's healthy, and we're doing our best to teach her to be kind and loving, and to do her homework.
Also, of course, pictures of our sweet girl:
She never ceases to amaze me.
YES. Shenanigans.
ReplyDelete