Eating My Words

I'm sure it's normal for any woman who has ever dreamed of being a mom to have an idea of what kind of parent they would be. What they would or wouldn't do when they have a child of their own. Before I became a mom, I was careful to try and not have opinions about different parenting styles and tried to avoid saying, "I will never..." After all, how could I have much to say about something that I had no experience in?

Of course, I am not perfect and one situation that I thought I would know exactly how I would handle was going out places with a baby. Before having a baby, Mark and I would say that we wouldn't let the baby's schedule keep us from doing the things that we want to do and were part of our routine.  We had friends that would leave a get together early to put baby to bed or decline lunch plans because it was baby's nap time. Couldn't the little one just sleep wherever we were or sleep on the way home in the car? Surely it couldn't make that much of a difference. Could it? I suppose that some babies can handle that well but it most certainly is not for everyone.

In the first few months of Luke's life, it didn't matter as much. After all, he woke up every 2-3 hours and often slept while being held by one of us anyway. Once he began napping and sleeping in his crib with an actual routine, that all changed. We learned that Luke's morning nap is key and if he didn't have a good, morning, crib nap, we would be in for a looong afternoon. We can get by with an afternoon nap that may take take place in the car as we head to or from a destination, but we are a little more reluctant to do something that may cause us to miss that morning nap.

Luke's evening bedtime routine is pretty solid too and we learned Labor Day weekend how "off" he can easily become if we stray too far from that routine. We stayed out later than normal that Sunday night and that evening was a rough one and so was the next day. Our so called day-off haha.

So yes, I have become that mom that I said I wouldn't be. I am that mom that now politely declines invitations if it doesn't fit into nap time or leaves early to be home for our nightly bedtime routine. It isn't always easy to say no, as I miss that time with my friends and very much being involved in a weeknight Small Group at church. But I also recognize that this is just a short season and saying no is what works best for our family at this moment. So my takeaways from this are: never say never and as a mom, I will do whatever I have to to maintain peace, calm, and regularity at home. I'm thankful to have supportive friends who understand this yet continue to invite me anyway. I'll be back again.💜