Murphy's Laws for Moms

I do believe this statement is true. But, it brings into question: what are the 3rd and 4th children's roles?

It's been a while since my last blog.  Life seems to take up so much more time once my Sweet Pea started walking.  It's been just over a month, but I've already lost the ability to focus on individual tasks as they continually get interrupted by the need to get someone out of the dog bowls, out of the plants, into the potty, or redressed.  Busyness has been completely redefined when you're looking our for someone with a 30-second attention span. However, life as a mother is also a lot more interesting and challenging as each new accomplishment is achieved. My Sweet Pea interacts with me (albeit, not always for the best) and tells me some of what she wants (apparently, I never feed her as she's always asking for "more").  She looks at the world with eyes I wish I still had...eyes that never get bored.  She can read Dr. Seuss's Mr Brown Can Moo over and over and, every time she gets to "He can sound like a hand on a door..." she knocks her own...

Before having a child, I thought that I didn't have many regrets.  I have had a good life and been blessed to do many things.  What was there to regret? However, as I watch my child grow, I notice that there are so many times when I have rushed through life and avoided really focusing on what's around me.  Having a child has changed that.  Not only do I now have to notice everything around me (for fear that my child will get into it), but I have to teach my child about all that surrounds her...to know the difference between red and purple, one and ten, dogs and cats, edible and yucky, play time and quite time, good and bad, right and wrong, and so many more things. Just this morning, I found myself trying to rush through the day so that we could get to nap time.  I needed rest after the lack of sleep this week has brought me.  But, my daughter didn't want anything to do with it.  She wasn't throwing a temper tantrum (thankfully) and she wasn't screechi...

Transition is always difficult.  Whether it's moving to a new home, changing jobs, changing relationship statuses...there are always obstacles to overcome and challenges to face.  The same is true for transitions in my Sweet Pea.  The periods of transitions are the toughest for us.  First, it was transitioning from in the womb to in my arms.  After all, she had to learn to breathe on her own, nurse, sleep during the night and stay awake during daytime - not to mention allowing all of her body systems to function.  That's one tough job for someone so tiny.  The next major transition was to eating solid foods.  She had to learn tastes, textures, swallowing while getting rid of the tongue thrust reflex.  Other transitions are to moving her own body via crawling or walking, talking and communicating, playing on her own or entertaining herself.  The list goes on and on and on.  While these periods of change have included many sleepless n...

Exercise can either be a good or bad thing depending on your personality, past experiences, and lifestyle.  But, there's no doubt that exercise, whether you like it or not, is a fact of life once you become a parent. The first few weeks after we brought Baby home, the only way to calm her was to walk up and down the stairs in our house.  We did this over and over and over - all through the day and the night.  My husband and I would take turns and our calves turned into rock solid muscle.  As Baby began to get bored with the stairs, I had to develop some creativity.  We would bounce on the ball (a core balancing exercise), do sit ups on the ball (an ab/oblique workout), and even do squats against the wall with the ball (a quad/hamstring/glute workout).  As Baby grew and gained more weight, my biceps and triceps developed into a sculpted phenomenon of which I had only previously dreamed.  I even managed to work in some deltoid/rhomboid/trap (shoulder and...

None of us really remember how we learned to go to the bathroom.  To us, it's simpler than almost any other function we do.  But, when you have a child all of that changes. Now, most of you probably think that this blog is going to be about potty training your child.  Well, it's not.  Let's face it; there's a lot that needs to be learned about "going potty" even before you get to potty training.  I won't get into the details of going to the bathroom after delivery...I don't want to scare away any blog readers who haven't yet had children.  No, let's talk about going to the bathroom when you have nowhere to put Baby.  The obvious decision is then to retrain yourself in how to go to the bathroom with Baby. As women, we know how to effectively use public restrooms.  We can hover, squat, and maneuver our bodies into positions so that we never have to touch the toilet seat.  But, you add a child to this equation and things become a little bit more...

There are a lot of professions that take years upon years to develop the skills, intelligence, intuition, and abilities in order to properly function in the profession.  People take thousands of hours of classes and practicums.  They spend decades developing and advancing their technologies and furthering their professions.  These professions are truly amazing.  They're not meant for the average person. Motherhood is similar to these professions - except that you're not given years to prepare or thousands of hours to perfect your skills and enhance your knowledge.  It's a "learn by fire" career.  And, yes, it is a career.  If lucky, you're given nine short (although they may seem long at the time) months to prepare. Some may say that a girl prepares all her life to be a mother.  But, is this really true?  From a young age we "play" mom, and we may even babysit or work as a childcare provider.  But, is this truly learning how to be a mom?...

Ever since becoming a mom, I've realized just how great it is to be a child - especially a baby.  Think about it...you have someone else taking care of your every waking need.  You're fed, changed, warmed, loved, burped...it's one gigantic party!  Well, since it is Baby's party, I guess that explains why sometimes she just wants to cry.  This week has been no exception! We've had a busy week. Not only was it time to get more shots, but we're also getting ready for more family to visit, a possible move, trying to finish up end of the fiscal year work, and started eating solid foods.  All of these things have truly affected Baby's sleep schedule and Momma's sanity. We've also learned a new thing this week...Mom is going to have to let Baby cry a little longer sometimes!  Now, I am probably not going to be the mom that does the whole Ferber method.  Fifteen minutes is about as long as I can go before I'm in tears too.  But, I did come to realize tha...

We often think of pregnancy the way that we see it in the movies: happy, cheerful, and finished within two hours.  But, the reality is - just as Dickens wrote - that pregnancy is both the best and worst of times.  Pregnancy is filled with excitement, curiosity, worries, fears, weight gain, and more.  I'll never forget the second that I knew I was pregnant.  It was not due to a positive pregnancy test...that came later.  It was due to my becoming absolutely furious with my husband because of some trivial thing that I cannot recollect.  My hormones were raging, and I knew that something was different.  So, I took the test, found out my suspicions were indeed correct, and immediately was ecstatic - did I mention those hormones??? My husband and I decided to wait to tell people that we were expecting.  That's easier said than done.  I managed to do this (after only telling a few people that I knew wouldn't let the secret slip), but it became hard...

Since I assume that most of you reading this are either mothers or women who want to eventually be mothers, then we each know that our child (or child-to-be) is the brightest and most well-developed child out there (who wouldn't agree?!).  Our prodigy child wants to see and do everything - especially at night.  And, as mothers, we all know who gets to wake up during the middle of the night to teach Baby that, when the moon is out, we sleep...us!  A mother's physical need for sleep seems to diminish during the first months after Baby arrives.  But, our mental need for sleep is still ever present reminding us - day after day - that we are exhausted. Well, establishing night time sleep isn't impossible, and this blog will tell you how I did it and had my baby sleeping through the night by nine weeks old (which, for her age, was six hours of blessed, uninterrupted sleep). I read many books prior to Baby's arrival about establishing a good sleep habit.  On Becoming ...

When my husband and I first found out that we were expecting, we were excited.  We had desired a family for a while and thought that we were as ready as we could be; however, we quickly learned that we had a lot to learn about raising a child.  We began researching libraries, the Internet, and questioning friends and families about raising a child and determined that a. there is no manual for children and b. every thing you read or every person you talk to will tell you different information - information which is often times extremely divergent. From pregnancy to labor and delivery, whether or not to use cloth diapers, setting up sleep schedules, breastfeeding vs. bottle feeding, and so on and so on, the advice is too numerous to count.  As I have read about all of the numerous ways you can grow your baby, I have - at times - become completely overwhelmed with the possibility of messing up my child.  Thankfully, I have come across some wise mothers who have reminded...