Friday, January 21, 2011

Never Say Never!

Have you found yourself changed as a mom since that first time you snapped that teeny little bundle in the car seat at the hospital? Sure, now you can change a diaper in 10 seconds flat while avoiding pee spray AND singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But, do you do things you thought you would never do? Here's some ways that I've changed as a mom.

  • I never thought I would have snot-nosed kids. I said this to a friendly stranger at Aldi yesterday. She was sweeting-talking Elliot, who was turning on the charm through a smile smothered in slimy boogers.
  • Parent Directed Feeding. :) Ah, Babywise; I pledged allegiance to you morning, noon and night during Luke's first year. With Simon, I turned to the Baby Whisperer for additional input and advice, but I ended up throwing both books out the window in frustration. And finally, with Elliot, I kissed some rules goodbye and rocked my baby until he wouldn't let me rock him anymore. Turns out, that was okay, because E was the sweetest and best baby ever and almost always did what Momma wanted him to!
  • Sleep. I used to get some; now I have changed and I do not! Ha. Not really. But when Luke was a baby and I was intoxicated by all things babywise and 7,10,1,4,7,10, I would not rest until I figured out exactly why Luke was waking up at night and what I should do about it. When he woke up, I would not nurse him right away; I would let him cry a bit, and even if I ended up feeding him, he usually would not wake up the next night. Fast forward 5 years, Elliot is a baby, sleeping a few feet away in my closet (yeah, my closet), and I would barely be fully conscious by the time I had a bottle in E's mouth. My point is, I didn't worry anymore about why he was waking up. I knew he would get over it and get good sleep again. And he did. I learned this primarily from Baby Simon. Dear Baby Simon, he just did not sleep through the night for a LONG time, hence the throwing the books out the window. I about drove myself and Chris to clinical insanity trying to figure that boy out. Finally I admitted that I wouldn't figure him out, that I would eventually sleep again, and that I would just be thankful for my sweet and healthy boy.
  • Baby Sign Language: Luke knew the signs for please, thank you, all done, and more. Simon knew please, kinda. Elliot rocks back and forth in his booster seat when he's ready to be done.
How have you changed as a mom? What's something you said you would never do, but now find yourself doing??

I know I have more examples of my own, but I'm too tired to think of them right now. And Elliot is crying and probably needs his Momma to rock him. He's getting some monster teeth in right now.

9 comments:

the johnson crew said...

i never thought i would have snotty nosed kids and i do. all of them except amos. my oldest is 8 and she doesn't even feel that boogers are dripping out of her nose on her upper lip. AAHHHHH! all the other things... never had time to think about it... just went with the flow.

love you.

Katie said...

Aren't kids the funniest? Luke wore shorts and a muscle shirt all day (when it was like FIVE degrees outside our windows), and he kept complaining that he was cold.

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Unknown said...

RIGHT-ON! It's so interesting to look back and see how I've lightened up now that I'm a momma of three. I certainly aren't as judgmental of other moms as I used to be!

I never thought I'd have a crazy messy toy-cluttered house. But I do. It's not like that all the time but that's the general state during the day. I NEVER thought I'd be able to walk over toys instead of picking them up. That used to drive me bonkers when I'd visit homes with kids. Now I don't even SEE the toys on the floor. Oh well! Much more important in my mind to soak up these sweet babes and enjoy them instead of running behind them tidying up and stressing!

Ben and Carissa said...

Oh, Katie! I am sooo with you! I am a "roll with it" mom now too and am enjoying my baby so much more!
I look back and wish I could have enjoyed my others as much as I do this one. My funniest memory of my first is sitting on the couch all set up with pillows to nurse and then actually timing each feeding with a kitchen timer!! I would not stop until I got at least 20 minutes of active nursing on each side...by the time I finished this, it was time to nurse again! Now I nurse and vacuum and wipe a nose or make dinner. Love it!

Megan (Best of Fates) said...

I don't have any kids yet, but I now feel as though I'm destined to get snotty nosed ones and I'm not excited about it!

Anonymous said...

Believe it not I never thought I had snotty nosed kids, not like the neighbor boy. But Rock, that was what I was good at and realized more and more those days soon would be gone, so I sang, prayed, slept while rocking, it was as comforting to me as my children. There is a time you put them down and let them cry when they are all well. I am praying for you my dear Katie.
Love Mother xo xo

jeileenbaylor said...

Haha- I LOVE this post. It makes me laugh ;) I said I would NEVER be the parent that is pushing screaming children through the grocery store. MY children would know better and would NEVER do that - ha! More often than I would care to admit, my newborn is wailing while my two year old is pitching a fit and I'm just rushing through the store (almost oblivious to them both) as fast as I can tossing things in the cart and rushing to the check out -haha!

Bethany said...

I needed to read this today! Wow--do I relate--yep, Babywise went bye-bye with baby number 2, yes, the snot flows freely here now, yes, I am sleep deprived, yes, my 9 month old sleeps in my bedroom, while currently my bed is in the living room floor :-) Yes, I am thankful for my kids and love them more than I did when I first brought Callie home--isn't it the craziest thing!? Anyways--Your post made me laugh SO hard because even with just two I could relate to ALL of it!