Clarification

I was rocking Bobby tonight to put him down to sleep and I was thinking about my last blog post. I realized the last paragraph made it sound like we were somewhat ungrateful for our little bundle of lungs. Not true, but I will be honest for a moment. Personally, I was completely and totally unprepared for those first four months. I don't think every single parent feels this way, but I have a feeling that the majority do.

Pre-pregnancy, we were ready to add to our family. In other words, he was not a surprise. And during pregnancy, I was never once worried about what to do once he came. I was very worried about his well being inside my tummy because that was out of my control (for the most part). I guess I figured that once he arrived, he would be in my arms and I could control the situations we encountered together. Unfortunately, you cannot control how much your child wants to sleep. And you can't trust the hospital or books to tell you how much your 9 pound newborn should be eating. They'll tell you what a normal 6-7 pound newborn should be eating and your big hefty 9 pounder will be starving.

What we had planned for his sleeping situation perfectly sums up my vision of parenting a newborn vs. the reality. We had a beautiful cradle made up just for him to sleep sweetly and soundly in our room. I imagined he would fall asleep right after his 10 PM feeding and we would join him by turning out our lights. He would squeak and stir to let me know he was ready for his 3 AM feeding. I would gently (without waking Tim) take him into his room and rock him and feed him back to sleep. I would place him back in his cradle for him to peacefully sleep another 4 hours and we would all wake up refreshed and ready for the day. Did it ever cross my mind that he wouldn't sleep in a cradle that (God forbid) didn't vibrate? No, because cradles are for sleeping. Did I ever think that we wouldn't sleep a wink with him in our room because he was the noisiest (and still is) sleeper? No, because parents sleep with their babies all the time. And honestly, I never even thought about the fact that perhaps he wouldn't want to go to sleep at 10 or 10:30 or 11 every night.

Now that we are in a stage where we are very comfortable with what we are doing as parents (and he sleeps through the night), we sometimes refer to a second child. I know that I won't be so uptight and worried about doing what some book says or not doing what parents with bratty kids do. I think I learned my lesson with that. Maybe with the second one you just know more, or just know of different things to try. I do know that I will be praying for nine months for an easy, quiet child who likes to sleep.

However, don't be expecting a super special post about some surprising news soon. I just wanted to let you all know that we love being parents and love this little family God put together.