We were all such good parents before we became parents. Reflections as my baby turns 1.

A year ago tomorrow I became a mom for the first time. I feel like the time flew by and now my little boy is a toddler.  He is walking around!  He is so happy and such a joy that I cannot even imagine what my life was like without him.  He laughs, babbles, walks, plays, and now we are even taking swimming lessons.  I also have a new respect for my mom.  The level of sacrifice, worry, and joy of parenthood is something that I don't think you can truly comprehend until you hold that little bundle in your arms.  So thanks mom and sorry for all those times I made you worry.  

Being a mom is so wonderful, beautiful, incredible.........and extremely difficult.  I haven't slept in a year.  It was probably more than a year because I know I wasn't sleeping the last month or so of my pregnancy. While I complain about the lack of sleep, I actually have no concrete memory of being well-rested so I'm really not all that upset about it.  I secretly enjoy some of those middle of the night feedings where my baby snuggles up next to me and nurses before drifting back into his baby dreams.  Those crazy love hormones override any other emotion or selfish thought I might have and I just know I would do anything for him.  Which apparently includes getting up every 3-5 hours for the past year. 

So what have I learned since becoming a mother?  That as my parenting class teacher says, "We were all such good parents before we became parents."  And by that I mean it is so easy to judge parents and plan what kind of parent you will be when you don't actually have any kids.  You see the screaming child in the grocery store, the breastfeeding mom, the bottle feeding mom, the mom who doesn't let their kid eat sugar, the one who lets them eat anything, the mom who lets their kids watch TV, the mom who goes to work, and the mom who stays home.  The list could go on and on.  I personally had several preconceived (and ridiculous) notions of how I was going to be as a mom.  Pretty much everything I thought I would and wouldn't do is different.  Here is a small snippet of things I have come to realize.

1.  Feeding (breast, bottle, and regular food):  I am still breastfeeding!  I am shocked, but it is easy now and my little guy is attached so I think I will probably stick with it for the time being.  I never ever thought I would breastfeed this long and I always sort of thought that women who did it past 6 months were a little insane.  In terms of real food he eats pretty much everything, but I admit that I have given him food that I never thought I would or should.  I do try to get him to eat healthy, organic veggies, fruits, yogurt, etc.  But some days all he wants to eat for breakfast is animal crackers with peanut butter or nutella.  And the kid loves hot dogs and boxed macaroni and cheese.  I cringe when I think of how I used to judge moms who gave their kids processed food to stop the whining.

2.  TV/Screen time: I was convinced that we would never let our kid see a TV screen until the age of two.   Do you know how hard it is to not have a TV on during football season?  I mean let's be reasonable people!  I try my best not to have the TV on most of the time he is awake, but it is really more difficult than one would think.  We don't plop him down to watch cartoons, but most days he gets just a little big screen.  And I am okay with that.  Really, I am.  Okay I still have issues with this one, but I am trying not to be too hard on myself.

3.  Working:  I am now a stay at home mom.  I never, ever, in my wildest dreams ever thought I would stay home.  I just had no idea how much I would want to be there for every moment.  I went back to work when he was three months old and I quit when he was seven months old.  And thankfully it worked out for us financially (thus far) so I have been able to be home with my little guy.  It has been a little weird emotionally for me because I always assumed I would be a working mom.  Those stay at home moms always struck me as a little odd.  And now here I am planning my days around story times and naps.  Sometimes I worry about my place in the economy because I am taking a little break, but I have to have faith that it will all work out.  I am thinking of going back to graduate school so that when he is a little older I can go to work and he can go to preschool. 

And sleep...I have no idea about sleep so I will refrain from even commenting on that.  I just know that I will never look at a mom funny when she says she hasn't slept in months, let's her kid cry it out, or that she co-sleeps.  You gotta do what you gotta do.

So on the eve of my baby's birthday I would like to apologize to all those moms and dads whose parenting decisions I questioned or criticized.  I also feel the need to laugh at myself for all the notions that I had about how I was going to raise my little monkey.  I thought I was a good parent before I became a parent, but now I just try to go with the flow.

 It's a good day when there is no poop on the floor.

Are mommy groups the new mean girls?

I left a mommy group on Saturday afternoon in tears.  I managed to make it to the car before I started crying, but the tears started flowing fast and furious as I buckled my 6 month old son into his car seat.  I have never felt so bad about myself and my identity as a mother.  I pride myself on being a good mother.  And yet within an hour this mommy group managed to destroy my self-esteem and image of a good mother.  And the worst part?  It was over my child's nap schedule.  NAP SCHEDULE. Or, to be more accurate, my lack of a nap schedule.  These women have set schedules and routines for their children.  Everyday.  Every single day.  That means on the weekend an activity, such as lunch, visiting a friend, going on a run, going to grandmas, etc. falls during a nap time they just don't go.  They prioritize nap time over every other aspect of their lives.  Does it make me selfish that I don't/won't do that?  I know he needs to nap, but half the time at home he will only get a few 30 minute cat naps a day even if we aren't doing anything.  I just feel like life is too short to run back home for his afternoon nap.  I try to get him to sleep, but I am not going to cancel things on the 50/50 chance he might sleep.  Besides, he sleeps in the car about 70 percent of time anyway.  I want to see the world.  And trust me, my son does to.  My child does not nap very well.  He never has.  He came out of the womb wide-eyed and ready to take on the world.  In all his newborn pictures his big eyes are staring at the camera.  He was never destined to be napper.  Apparently I never napped as a child.  Legend has it my husband never napped as baby either.  Have I made my point?  My baby doesn't nap well.

So the trouble all started on Saturday when my child got a little fussy after being on the baby swing (and I am sure I got some sideways glances for swinging my child higher than the other moms were swing their kids.)  I knew my baby was tired because he only slept for about 45 minutes earlier in the day.  We went to my birthday lunch and he slept in the car afterwards and then it was time for the mommy play group.  I made the mistake of telling these women that my child only slept for 45 minutes that day.  A few of these ladies were aghast.  They weren't all overtly aghast, but the judgement was clearly on a few of their faces.  One lady in particular launched into a monologue about the importance of sleep for their happiness and growing brains.  Strongly implying (at least this is how I interpreted it) that my baby was going to be miserable and stupid because I haven't submitted to a master nap schedule.  Of course this triggered a flood of emotions in me.  Am I a horrible mom?  Is my child going to hate me because he didn't get at least three hours of napping a day?  Is my child going to be stupid?  Is he going to have a developmental delay because of me?  Am I a bad mom for wanting to go to my birthday lunch?  Should I cancel my scheduled run with a friend on the weekends?  At this point I could feel the tears forming so I got up politely, said my goodbyes, and fled to my car.

Now in full disclosure I haven't had a full nights sleep in 6 months so I am a little bit emotional.  But so far my experience of mom groups has been a little unnerving.  I don't even think these ladies meant to bring me to tears.  Individually they all seem like very nice women.  One I have known since we were in high school and I don't think she has a mean bone in her body.  And really it was only the one mom who seemed to be on a parenting rampage against me.  But I still felt a little like that girl in high school being picked on by the mean girls.  I think the problem is that mommy groups are supposed to be a time to meet up, let babies interact, support one another.  But the issue is that most moms are constantly judging each other.  I don't even think that we realize it most of the time.  At another mommy group last week someone started talking about labor, and it instantly became an unsaid competition.  Whose labors was longest, who didn't get an epidural, etc.  I fully admit that I joined in on the competition and proudly toted my all natural birth.  It's the same thing with parenting styles.  All of sudden these groups that are supposed to be fun turn into a little bit of competition for these women.  Seemingly well-intended parenting advice feels like a personal attack.  Because parenting is personal.  This is your child they are talking about.  Your mommy skills.  Criticism feels like you have been branded with a Scarlett, "Bad Mom" across your chest.

I joined a facebook baby group for local moms and I asked a question about how to end co-sleeping.  I feel like my husband and I just don't sleep that well with a baby in the middle of the bed so I want to get my son to sleep in his crib all night.  Oh yeah, we've ended up as a family that co-sleeps about half the time.  Some nights he stays in his crib, some nights he ends up in the middle of our bed.  So depending on what type of mom you are on this issue I am either going to roll over on my kid in my sleep, or somehow injure him, or I am a bad mom for even suggesting that I kick him out of our bed.  This online mommy group has over 15 responses to my question.  But they aren't really helpful responses, a few told me it was too early to kick him out of our bed, a few told me to consider the idea of swaddling him, (as though they had invented the concept of swaddling) and more than one told me to be thankful that I was getting more than 45 minutes of sleep in a row.  Even my question became a competition among the moms, whose baby sleeps through the night because of swaddling and routine and on the other end of the spectrum whose baby could keep the parents up all night.  In other words, we were all playing "Are you mom enough?" as the recent cover of Time magazine illustrated.  Although Time Magazine was talking about breastfeeding, I think these mommy groups find any aspect of parenting to be competitive about.  Let's not even talk about breastfeeding.  I am still doing it and it has gotten easier and more enjoyable, but I still maintain it is one of the hardest things about being a new mom and I am in no place to judge anyone about their feeding choices.

I joined all of these mommy groups because most of my friends don't have babies yet, or the ones that do are very busy or live too far away for play dates.  I want to socialize my baby and meet other women going through the same thing as me.  But I don't want the competition.  I have no idea how to stop the competition, how to not take the advice so personally, or even how to not join in on the competition.  I try really hard not to give parenting advice, the only time I say something is when I see people looking at breast pumps at the store.  I always feel the need to tell them they can rent a better one from the hospital.  I learned this the hard way after buying a piece of crap pump for 150 dollars.  But other than that I try really hard not to give advice.  And now that I think about it, that advice might be kind of annoying to a new mom as well.  I might just be bitter, but I know that all babies are different.  What worked for your baby might not work for mine.  Yes, I know I should probably do better with a baby sleep routine.  I know nursing him to sleep isn't ideal and I know we should put him down when he falls asleep in our arms.  But sometimes we just want to stare at that cute little face so peacefully sleeping in our arms.  One day far too soon he will probably be over 6 feet tall staring down at me.  I want to cherish these moments when he is so little.  I know these moms think that they are just trying to be kind when they start offering up tips and telling me which parenting books I should read.  (Where they find the time to read all these books is beyond me.  Writing this blog post will probably take me at least a few days or it will be completed in the wee hours of the morning when my child is sleeping).

If I could have an honest conversation with these women I would like to say that I would love to hear stories about the funny things your child does.  How your baby reacts to shots, new faces, glasses and beards.  I want to be friends with you.  I want to discuss how tired we all are.  I want to discuss what a trip parenting is.   I would love, love, love to share a glass of wine with you and laugh about poop stories.  But please don't judge what I am doing with my kid.  If I am not beating him, he is clothed, and happy, then let it go.  It's not like I am poking my kid at night to keep him awake.  Most of the time I am not sure what I am doing with my son.  I just do what seems to work for us.  So far he seems to be happy and he is in the 90th percentile across the board.  So I feel like I am doing something right.  But I am not all that organized and thus routines have never been a strong point for me.

So now I am at a loss.  I will probably have to bow out of the online facebook group because every time a new post pops up in my newsfeed I am literally filled with anxiety.  I am not sure what to do about mommy groups.  I think I might need to toughen up my skin.  A lot.  Take their advice with a grain of salt and know that my baby loves me and he is happy and that is all that matters in the end.  I am not quite ready to give up on these mom groups yet, I think my son needs to be exposed to other babies.  Maybe I should start my own mommy meet up.  An appropriate title might be, "My baby doesn't sleep, sometimes I give him formula, he eats jarred baby food and we don't really have a routine.  Come join me with a glass of wine and we can laugh about it."