Pearly Wisdom: Looking Back

Today’s Pearly Wisdom topic is:

Looking Back: Things you thought you’d NEVER do (but now do) and/or craziest things you thought about being a Mom before becoming a Mom

For me, I don’t think I had a ton of expectations of what having a baby would be like… There is one thing though; I never thought I’d be completely content during the first few weeks at home with sitting on the couch and having him just sleep on me. Now, as a Mama to an almost 1 year old, I long for those days!

Let’s hear some insight and experiences from other Mama’s!

Cara

• I never thought I'd use the Nose Frida or wipe baby snots with my hand, or get poop all over me and not be totally disgusted.
• I didn't think I'd last very long with cloth diapering. But, it's been a year and we're still using them!
• Everyone with children told me that you wouldn't mind not having time for yourself and I think that's true. I obviously wish I had more time to sleep or eat or do things with my friends. But, not a day goes by where I don't think God for my daughter. She brings so much joy into my life. More than I ever thought possible and I would gladly trade "me time" for her.

Samantha

It's going to sound super cheesy, but I just didn't know I could love anything or anyone so much.

Shanna

I never thought I would stay at home with my baby. Sam was such a high needs child for the first eight months of his life, I could have never had a full time job. The craziest thing is that I never, ever thought I would be a SAHM but I am loving it. I used to think that being a SAHM would be a piece of cake but many days, I think working outside the house would've been much easier.

McKeever

I always saw parents feeding their children food off of the restaurant tables and said I would never let my child do that-oh but we do. I would have never let my child sit in a buggy or high chair without one of those covers- but now we do. I would have never put someone else's style over my own- oh but I do! I am wearing the same ol' thing but I bet my child looks fabulous!

Melissa

I thought FOR SURE that I would have my kid on a pretty rigid schedule starting at 12ish weeks...hahaha. We have routines, but Landon eats on demand, so there are no set feeding times. Now that he has some solids, I try to give those to him around the same time each day, but it's not exact. I do put him down for his first nap 2 hours after he wakes up, but he wakes up at different times each day. We also do the same bedtime routine every night at the same time. It works well for us.

Emily

-I never thought I would use a sound machine or swaddle but both worked amazingly for Georgia because she had colic for the first 7 weeks of her life although we don’t swaddle anymore.

-I thought I would have just a wee bit more free time…turns out I DON’T! Ha…what was I thinking?!

Sara

- We swore up and down that we wouldn't bed-share and now look who's in the bed with us.

Heather

Bed sharing. I was so anti bed sharing when I was pregnant but when you work a 10 hour day, your husband goes to third shift and you have to be back up at 6 am to go to work for another 10 hours, you let the baby sleep in your bed if it means you get a full night's rest!

Pacifiers. I tried to convince myself not to use one but her constant need to be latched to me, for hours at a time, led me to cave in and let her have one.  IT was the best thing I could have done, and by 7 months, she had weaned herself off of it!

Breastfeed.  I was scared to death to do it, convinced I wouldn't be able to or it would be painful but as we near 11 months we're still going strong!

Thank you to this week’s contributors!

Cara, Mama to Amelia (Millie), 1 year

Samantha, Mama to Xavier, 6 months, Author of Three Beasts One Baby

Shanna, Mama to Samuel, 1 year, Author of The Life and Times of Lubey

McKeever, Mama to Grayson, 10 Months, Author of The Cobia Family

Melissa, Mama to Landon, 7 Months, Author of Love, Marriage, and a Baby Carriage!

Emily, Mama to Georgia, 8 months, Author of Live a Charmed Life

Sara, Mama to Saige, 3 years & Gabe, 3 months, Author of Saige Wisdom

Heather, Mama to Emmalee, 10 months, Author of Keeping Up With the Giffords