Opinions are like......

We are going on week 3 of parenthood and we have had our share of ups and downs, but the happily the worst has been a few sleepless nights.  Over the past 10 months of both pre and post pregnancy, we have gotten a lot of advice and recommendations from both health care professionals and books on pregnancy and parenthood.  The information from all sources can be summed up as “personal opinions.”  Everything from tests we took while we were pregnant to sleeping recommendations for Hannah now in the first couple of weeks of life are up for interpretations.  One doctor said Hannah was due on the 1^st of October, the other said she was due the 26^th of September.  One book says to let the baby sleep and eat on their own schedule, the other says to set the schedule and let the baby conform to the schedule you set for it.  I think there needs to be big master book for parenthood called “Here are a bunch of things that worked for someone at some point, if they don’t work for you, don’t worry, you could still have a normal child.”  This has been pretty frustrating when you are trying to get a finite answer to a new parent questions, but the more we understand that there is probably more than one answer the less anxious we will be about the answers.

Clark and I have done a good job of sifting through the information and coming up with a solution to a few of the speed bumps we have hit.  We’ll continue to look for different ideas on how to approach problems, but am coming to appreciate how different every child is and what works for one may not work for another.