Going With The Flow

You know, I was pretty clueless about parenting and certainly still am. I keep remembering a particular instance when Brian and I went on a little weekend getaway to a spa. It was really the first week that I was truly showing; I had just “popped” a few days earlier. That trip was the first time that strangers would ask about my pregnancy as it was absolutely clear that I was indeed pregnant. It was also the first time that I received unsolicited parenting advice and I realized that everyone has their own opinions and apparently their way is the only right way. Interesting!

Anyways, I digress. There was a young lady in the hot tub with me. Isn’t that always fun, the awkward sharing hot tub forced “hello”? She asked all about my pregnancy and then asked a question that has kind of stuck with me. “So, have you decided on a parenting technique yet?” I stumbled and awkwardly laughed and said something along of the lines of winging it and just loving my daughter. Yeah, she looked at me like I had five eyes or something. I hadn’t decided on a parenting technique, gasp!

Since when do us humans need a stinking technique to semi successfully raise these small creatures we call kids?  Don’t get me wrong, I sure as heck don’t know the right way to raise children, but I definitely don’t think there is a particular man made method that is going to turn little Hannah into the perfect angel and make me Mommy of the year Sure, books may certainly help. I admit, I am grateful for the 5 s’s from Happiest Baby on the Block that help soothe her. I am also starting to believe in the Wonder Weeks and maybe one day we might even want to use some kind of sleep training. I am totally guilty of reading not one, not two, but FIVE, count them FVE books on natural childbirth. They definitely helped and I used techniques from all five books. One minute I was Hypnobirthing the next I was Bradleying it up. You know what though, women have been birthing dem’ babies since the beginning of time without birthing classes, movies, books, etc. I do love that we have resources to make life with babies a little easier. However, humans have been raising babies and children forever but yet we only seem to be getting more messed up as time and technology advances.

So yeah, I am totally clueless about having a baby. There are days I choose cuddling and baby smiles over tummy time torture and I am pretty for sure our kid will be sleeping in her car seat until she is twelve. I do know that I want to raise her, pray for her, discipline her, and mentor her through love. That’s the best I can do. For now I am winging it and you know, it seems to be going pretty well. I find the more relaxed I am, the more relaxed she is. Sure, I know we are totally spoiled with a pretty easy baby and I am pretty confident that if we have another child, he or she will probably throw us for a loop. I might be pulling every book off the library shelves and totally dismiss my current ideas here. For now I am just going to go with the flow, love this little girl, and hopefully listen to God on how I should raise her.

Well my little babe has awoken from her slumber; my cue to end this strange rant and go cuddle with the cutie.

Psalm 139:13-14 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made