Before (and shortly after) we welcomed Ryder, I couldn’t get enough advice on just about everything baby-related. I joined chat groups, searched the Internet like a woman possessed, and asked fellow moms (the experts!) about their do’s and don’ts.
And now, since I’ve been there and back, I feel somewhat qualified to lend a few of my own words of wisdom:
1. If you wonder whether you’ll be a good mom – the answer is yes. Never forget that. The fact that you care at all makes you a-okay. A bad mom wouldn’t give a fig whether she was good or not.
2. There are two things in this world that you can catch up on: your favourite recorded TV shows and sleep. It seems bad now, but the body has an amazing ability to recuperate all that shuteye you missed out on in the first 6 months. You’ve got the rest of your life to sleep. Your child will fit snugly in your arms for only a limited time.
3. There’s a special place in hell for people who hurt puppies and moms who judge other moms. Never forget that. To quote John 8:7 ~ “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
(If this seems helpful to you, drop me a line. I’m full of insightful wisdom!)
And that’s why I’m happy to participate in the “Pampers: A Parent is Born” project. Pampers has joined with Mom Central to create insightful, community-driven tip sheets for new and expectant parents to download and share in their own mommy circles. As a mom, you inevitably find yourself filled with experience and knowledge that new parents need, and this is a wonderful opportunity to share valued information.
To join in the fun, simply visit Mom Central and share your number one parenting tip on one or both of the following subjects:
How to Cope with Going Back To Work: Ways mom can prepare for the big day and ways to soothe the unease.
Baby/Mommy Sleep Tips: Tips on helping both Baby and mom sleep through the night.
Pampers and Mom Central will be judging which tips to share with the new parent community and January 2010 will see the unveiling of the tips sheet online at http://www.pampers.ca/. Twenty-five randomly selected tips will receive a $20 gift card, while one grand prize winner will receive $500!
Here’s my best tip:
Sleep Tip: In good faith, I can’t take the credit for this one, as my darling husband came up with it all on his own – but I’d love to share. We had an ongoing problem with being able to put our then 14-month old to bed. No matter the routine – bath, snuggle time, reading, etc – he refused to go down until well after 10pm. We knew it was too late for a child his age, and tried sabotaging his naps, giving him warm milk – anything to make him sleepy. Finally, my husband reasoned that perhaps he didn’t want to go down because we weren’t going to sleep, and the prospect of missing out was too much to bear. So here’s what he did: before we put our son down to sleep at 8:30pm, we went in the hall and turned off all the lights. Then, after we put him down, we huddled in our room and pretended to be asleep. Through the monitor, we could hear him thumping around in his crib – but the darkness and silence seemed to fool him – he simply went to sleep! A bonus – my husband and I used that time to catch up, talk about our day, etc. After 10 minutes we resumed what we were doing and didn’t hear a peep out of him again. For the first week, we used this system, and it quickly became a tradition for my husband and me to huddle in the dark, chatting away. And now, even though we no longer need to impose a blackout to get our son to sleep, we still hold a quick “mommy and daddy time” conference for a few minutes after he goes to bed!
Fingers crossed :) Click here to enter your own special tip for new moms and moms-to-be! Contest ends December 10th. Good luck!