Before being a mother, there were a number of things that I said that I would do or wouldn't do. I read A.LOT ... and talked to a lot of moms... before I had Sophie (and since I've had Sophie too), so I was "well-educated" in pretty much every area. Based off of what I learned, I made decisions about what I thought I would want to do as a mother. Here is a list of what I decided before having Sophie:
1. I wanted to have a birthing center birth
2. I wanted to have a natural birth (i.e. no meds)
3. I wanted to breastfeed
4. I wanted to cloth diaper
5. I didn't want to give baby a pacifier in the beginning (known to cause nipple confusion)
6. I wanted to make my own pureed baby food
7. Then I wanted to do baby led weaning (google it if you don't know the term) and wanted to wait until 6 months
8. I wanted to delay all shots and follow Dr. Sears' delayed vax schedule
9. I wanted this really nice car seat that's more pricey and has super good reviews (True Fit)
10. I wanted to read to baby A LOT
11. I wanted to try the Babywise method
So what did I/we do?
1. I didn't get to give birth at a birthing center. :( Insurance wouldn't cover it. (fyi, birthing center births are proven to be at least just as safe as hospital births). I did have an excellent hospital birth though and am thankful.
2. I mostly had a med-free birth. I did get pitocin while pushing because my contractions fizzled out, but I didn't get any pain meds!
3. I still breastfeed!
4. I still cloth diaper!
5. We gave Sophie a pacifier the very first night (or maybe 2nd?), haha! We were so tired, and she was so fussy, so I tossed the hospital paci to Ben, and I've never regretted using it!
6. I occasionally make my own pureed baby food (like butternut squash), but usually, I'm too lazy.
7. We started at 5 months with solids instead of 6 months... and decided following the BLW method exactly was not our style... it has it's good parts, so we've followed the BLW method in some food areas, but sometimes pureed food is nice, and Sophie does great with it... so she usually has 2 baby good jars of food a day, but she also has been eating whole bananas since she was 6 months.
8. I delayed vaccinations at first, but when I realized she didn't have any reactions the first time, we combined more shots after that. There's still a few shots that I'm putting off more than what ped's would like, but I feel more educated than the general population in this area, so I feel confident in following the schedule I choose. I did learn that I'm not quite as "tight-minded" in this area as I thought I would be, and since we plan to go overseas, I can't be quite as selective as vaccinations as I might be if we stayed in the U.S. our whole lives
9. I decided all car seats have to pass the same safety test and paying a lot for a car seat wasn't practical for us. So we got cheaper car seats and they've worked great :)
10. I do read to Sophie, but not as much as I thought I might... like I thought I'd do it everyday, but I don't. But once she starts enjoying being read to more, I will probably do it more. Mostly right now she just likes to turn pages and chew on the books.
11. I have followed some of the Babywise methods, but we modified it a lot to fit us.
Basically, I learned that you can read and talk to people and make decisions, but once you're in the moment, your decisions might change, and that's ok. However, I am so glad I prepared myself as much as I did in all of these areas. There are SO many different viewpoints out there on every area of parenting, and it can sometimes be overwhelming. But now when other people tell me what they think I should do as a parent (which happens often enough, from people I know and from doctors and strangers too), I feel educated enough and confident enough to tell them what my decision is and why.
She's sunshine in our lives...
And she's started pulling up like crazy (she's not good at getting down yet though, so this face is a "get me down, mom!" face)...
