Oh, Motherhood!

I'm a mommy now. I've been a mommy for nearly 6 whole months! I'm pretty much living my dream - minus a decent paycheck, a house and a mini van. Yes, those are my only other desired right now - haha. Riiiight. Anyhow, that's beside the point. The point is that I am now a mother. Before I became a mom I had all these ideas on parenthood. Ideas that I assumed would become actual concrete actions. All I have to say to that is this: LOL! Literally, I am laughing out loud at myself and these so-called ideas.

Here are some of the ideas I had in mind and also, what actually happened:

* I was never going to sleep with my baby.
* I started co-sleeping when Julian was 4 months old after many, many, many nights of sitting up in bed and nursing (approx 3-6 times a night), attempting to stay awake and getting a gnarly crick in the neck during the process. Now that we co-sleep (somewhat trying to get him into his new and fancy little crib) I simply have to roll over, whip out the boob (pardon my language! *GASP*) and we both peacefully drift back off to sleep.

* I was going to let my baby "cry it out".....
*.....and then I actually birthed my precious, sweet, innocent little boy (who had just spent the past 39 weeks and 4 days cozy and warm in my uterus) aaaand "CIO" when OUT the window, far, far, faaaar away.

* I was going to wait until my child was 6 months old before I started him on solids.
* I started trying out little tastes here and there about a week shy of 4 months! Granted, I only give him organic, homemade food, of course!

* I wasn't going to rock or nurse my child to sleep.
* And then I realized that after 39 weeks and 4 days in my uterus, being rocked to sleep was something my son was quite accustomed to! Why stop the moment he pops into the big, bright world?? As far as nursing to sleep goes, it seemed only natural. I love nursing. I have to admit, it was extremely painful the first 3 months, but once the initial pain subsided I was golden! I nursed every 1- 1.5 hours the first 4 1/2 months of this kid's life! He just recently started going 2-3 hours between feedings. Anyhow, nursing has a calming effect. It calms the baby, thus putting him to sleep. It calms the mommy, thus reducing stress. I love nursing. Did I say that already?

That's really all I have time for, since it's 10:30pm and I really should go to sleep! (Especially since Julian has been sleeping since 7:15pm!) But let me first leave you with some of my favorite websites, books/authors that has influenced my crunchy way of thinking:

Websites:
www.kellymom.com
www.askdrsears.com
www.spinningbabies.com

Books:
Natural Childbirth: The Bradley Way (revised edition)by Susan McCutcheon-Rosegg
Husband-Coached Childbirth: The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth by Dr. Robert Bradley
The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp
The No-Cry Sleep Solution & The No-Cry Nap Solution by Elizabeth Pantley
The Birth Book by Dr. Sears
The Baby Book by Dr. Sears

Can I just say that I love Dr. Sears? He's the bomb diggity.

That is all. Goodnight....Moon.