Soap Box

Warning: Potentially preachy/whiny/ranty blog entry ahead...lol

In the world of having babies, there is so much information out there, there are so many choices, it's ridiculous! Then there's the infinite number of opinions on everything from what kind of birth to have, to feeding, diapering, sleeping. And of course there's choosing the "right" baby gear, clothes, toys, etc., etc. Ugh. It can be very overwhelming. 

We all want to be the best parents we can be, and want to choose all the "right" things, but inevitably we question our decisions from time to time, especially if we've made any choices that are deemed at all controversial. Am I a bad mother if I have an epidural? let the baby stay in the nursery while I'm at the hospital? if I use formula? let my child use a pacifier or bottle after a certain age? let my child sleep with me? use disposable diapers? send my child to daycare? watch TV? nurse my child after a certain age? stop nursing before a certain age? (the short answer to all these questions, is of course, no.)

I could make this list go on for days. 

And parenting magazines are THE WORST. I don't know what purpose they actually serve other than to thoroughly confuse people. Articles with their varying viewpoints, ads that often seem at odds with what the articles are preaching and the occasional opinion column that inevitably says you should just go with your gut and do what makes sense to you is enough to make your head explode. 

Anyway, I can say with some certainty that one of the advantages of going through all of this baby stuff for a third time is that the vast majority of those nagging questions have just *poof* disappeared.  It's a nice place to be. I know what works for me - it took two kids to figure it all out. That's not to say I have all the answers - not even close! But I definitely feel more comfortable in my mommy skin than I used to. I have also learned to just say no when offered free subscriptions to Parenting and American Baby magazine! HA!