Here is something I think about every single day. The hardest part of parenting. The answer…loving them too much. Haha. As if you could do such a thing!
Seriously though, to me, the hardest part is figuring out what the right thing to do is. You see, since the beginning, I have struggled with getting Maggie to nap. Even as a newborn, she was not a napper unless she was in my arms near my boobs. I just went with it, and didn’t get a whole lot done. When I found out I was pregnant with baby #2 (now – Charlie), I figured I should push the nap thing and try to get her to nap in her crib, or my bed, or anywhere but my arms. Well, it didn’t go so well. She would go to sleep without tears, but it didn’t last long, and when I left the room, it usually ended quickly. Then, I started sitting on the couch with her and trying to get her to go to sleep. Well, that worked out pretty good. Sometimes she would nurse, sometimes just snuggling up with me was enough. She’s lay up against my side with her head in my armpit (ewww) and go to sleep. Turns out, this was the only thing that worked. It saved me tons of tears when I figured that out. I stressed myself out so much trying to get her to sleep in her room and it wasn’t worth it.
Now with Charlie here, I have a baby in each arm (and sometimes on each boob hahaha!), and they sleep, sometimes, so do I. Sometimes, I move them off my lap and get something done…usually blogging. It’s so great to have that snuggle time in the middle of the day. Lately, I have been working on getting her to sleep in her room again only because she is waking up early and won’t go back to sleep even though she is tired and crabby still. That’s not working out, so here we are, all sitting on the couch again.
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| Our first nap together, still in the hospital |
Many days throughout my mommyhood, I have cried over not knowing what the right answer is for whatever we may be going through. I ask opinions, and think about everything I hear, but the fact is, I have to decide what’s the best option for us. Nobody else in the world parents just like you, and nobody knows your kids better than you. I cry and pray and talk a lot about what may be happening, but eventually, we figure it out.
What do you think is the hardest part of parenting?
Learning patience… 🙂
Keeping the patience is even harder I think!
It’s hard being a parent. You want to do the best for your child, but sometimes it’s hard to know what the right choice is. Many times I remember wishing that I had a manual that would give me the ‘correct’ answers! But like you said, only you know what is truly best for your child.
A manual would save me lots of tears for the tough times.
I think I’ve decided that there’s no such thing as the (one) ‘right’ thing to do – and that there are a lot of ‘right’ ways to do things. It just makes life much easier to not think that there is something out there that’s ‘perfect’, and that I’m probably missing it! 🙂
So true. Babies are humans, no one thing works for everybody.
Boy ain’t that they truth. If tears were money I would be rich. The single hardest thing is being a parent and knowing what to do when. Good luck!
I like that, I would be rich too.
My son was the same way. He would not nap unless he was being held. He still reverts back to it sometimes. It was terrible feeling so helpless and unable to do anything but sit for hours at a time. Eventually though, he figured it out. Now I don’t mind holding him when he naps, because it’s not all day!
That’s how I felt too. Still do. She just likes to touch me when she sleeps now.