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D.C. Area Babies
I feel totally clueless
I know as a first time mother I am supposed to feel this way sometimes, but I feel this way a lot. I would not have even thought about sippy cups before reading the post below! I still feel clueless about feeding solids (we've moved on from rice cereal to oatmeal). I guess I want someone to tell me exactly what to do, because I don't do well with vague advice! I know, I have to get used to it.
As I've said to many people, DH and I are clueless, so are extremely lucky that DD is such an easy baby!
Just had to vent.
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Re: I feel totally clueless
DD is almost 17mo old and I still sometimes feel like "what am I doing? who is this little person running around calling me Mommy?"
you are totally normal!!
I did read a lot of books and they helped, I liked "Baby 411" and "what to expect the 1st year" (reading the toddler version now) and I read a lot of sleep books.
feel free to ask here anytime, I think you know many of us like to give out advice
I don't know if you saw my response to the sippy cup post, but we didn't introduce the sippy cup to either of our kids until well after 6 months. I don't know, I guess I just didn't think it was that important. My DD #1 is 3 years old now, and is a normal, functioning member of society so she is no worse for wear that she didn't learn a sippy cup until after her first birthday. My DD #2 is still stuggling with how to drink from a sippy cup and she's a year old.
I know you probably already have experienced this, but as they get older, you sort of look back and go "gees, I was so worried about XYZ, and not only did baby reach that milestone, but she's way past it." I felt like this about introducing solids, choosing daycare, potty training, all sorts of things. Right now my DD #1 is practicing drawing circles and DH is like "why can't she draw a proper circle?" Just take a step back... I know my child will draw circles some day. When she's older I'll look back and say "why were we so worried about whether or not she could draw circles? Now she can write the whole alphabet!"
If you are a normal, loving person who even vaguely knows what is going on, you'll raise a great kid. And your pediatrician will let you know at a check up if they're worried about a milestone.
You're a great mom!!!!!
Such sweet (and true) advice. I often feel like I don't know what happens next. I think ti's true for everyone. FWIW, I've been chronicling our sleep training on Facebook and my cousin who has 6 kids (and a daughter around DD's age) was asking me for advice on how we were doing so well. I always think of her as the expert and me as the one fumbling along.
My clueless moment of realization yesterday: WTF do we do about feeding solids during Passover??? Rush to start some veggies and just not give her any cereal that week? Hold off on solids entirely 'til afterward? (We've given her rice cereal maybe three times, so we're far from having a routine.) I'm not giong to go out to get kosher for Passover baby cereal (which I'm told exists).
It's not a huge deal, but simply a question I never thought I needed to ask. And it's the questions I don't know I should be asking, rather than the ones I can't decide what to do about, that give me the most pause. It's hard getting used to being not on top of everything, but not even knowing what I should be learning about makes me feel so clueless some days!
I always ask my friends who have older kids- 'what do I do next?'
This is exactly what I mean! I'm confused about solids, and can do research on it (even though everything contradicts). But stuff I'm not even thinking of, like sippy cups, make me feel clueless.
Also, aren't kids who haven't been bar/bat mitzvah'd exempt from Passover? I'm not even going to bother with that nonsense; I barely keep it myself.
That is why we have these boards. I seriously get the majority of details on such things from shared experiences on my mommy boards. I get the big idea from the pedi or a book but knowing exactly what a ton of other moms have done with their kids helps SO much.
Not to mention that kids are so different so getting a bunch of different perspectives really helps. Some of us have kids using a sippy at 6 mo but my 11mo old still only plays with it (has a great time but there is no actual sipping from said sippy cup). Same thing with eating and sleeping schedules, ideas for finger foods, moving up bedtime, when to drop naps, moving to a toddler bed etc. I am not saying to follow everyone else's advice but seeing how others have done it has been a huge help for me and I don't know what I would do without them.
I always took the slant that solids at that age are just for practice and skipping them once in a while is no biggie because they are getting all their nutritional needs met by formula or BM.
That's sort of where I think I'll end up once I give it some thought. According to a friend who explained it to me yesterday, Passover isn't considered a hardship like Yom Kippur, so there are no exemptions. But she also 1) loves Passover and 2) is hard core enough to go out and buy special baby cereal for her son, so she would plan for things like this.
And now it's time to go find a list of 6-12 month developmental milestones to find some more holes in my knowledge so I can get a head start on figuring out what I need to learn
The reason I asked the sippy cup question is because I am clueless. DS watches us like a hawk when we drink - and loves to pretend (when I hold a cup up to his mouth). I decided to give it a shot - and he looked at me and the sippy cup like it was from outer space.
I have learned a few things in the past 4 months:
1) There isn't much you should stress about when it comes to raising a child
2) Bumpies (esp. DC bumpies) are a wealth of info and guidance.
3) When it is asked on a college application I will worry about it...