So...you know how when you're a first-time parent, and you're staring down at your perfect, sleeping newborn, and you have all these ideas about how you're going to raise this baby, and you craft your plan? Yeah. In Babydoll's first year of life, pretty much nothing went according to plan. It was a good lesson for me - I am a chronic planner and I tend to get a little, um...perturbed...when my plan goes askew.
Plan A: have a totally natural, vaginal birth with no medical interventions
Plan B: induce labor at 36 weeks and have an emergency c-section
Plan A: breastfeed for a year or longer
Plan A: bedshare until baby wants her own bed
Plan B: baby wanted her own bed at 11 months (while I love her growing independence, I deeply miss having her next to me every night)
Plan A: cloth-diaper full-time
Plan B: cloth-diaper part time (BD jumped off the CD train just as soon as he'd jumped on...and now the little stinker soaks through every cloth diaper/insert combo out there overnight)
Plan A: personally make every bit of food that goes in the baby's mouth
Plan B: the occasional pouch of organic baby food makes life easier
Plan A: buy only produce that is organic and in season
Plan B: if your 13-month-old will only eat strawberries, buy strawberries in February
Well...they're organic, at least
Plan A: don't worry so much
Plan B: yeah, right.
And that was just the first year! But, like I said, it's been a very good lesson in going with the flow. Slowing down and enjoying it...every bit of it. Some things have stayed on course, like her alternative vaccination schedule, organic foods only, babywearing (yep, even still and at 20 pounds, Babydoll and I both love it), and never ever letting her Cry It Out. I've learned that it's the core of our parenting beliefs that is most important - respecting the child, loving her, guiding her, showing affection freely. The rest of it is just...stuff, I guess? I can't think of a better word. Just stuff.
By the way, I *planned* to finish this post while Babydoll was having her nap this morning. Plan B: Babydoll wakes up less than 20 minutes after going down, then proceeds to have a clingy, hold-me, put-me-down, hold-me kind of day.
I really just gotta quit planning. I may need a support group for that.
