Burn the books!

A playdate with Ramona, Max and Anton

....The parenting books that is. I have finally come to the realization that there is not a book in the world that has all of the answers on how to sleep train, feed, entertain, communicate, or love your child. I'm a huge fan of information and as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I started seeking it. I was determined to become an expert informed parent. I figured the more parenting books I read, the more I would know about parenting. It turns out, the books started driving me crazy once the baby actually arrived. And don't even get me started on googling. The internet can be a very dangerous place for someone who is a constant information seeker. I think I googled "how to get baby to take a nap" 20 times one day. Until I realized he just wasn't really sleepy right then. It reminded me of my masters in teaching program, where they have you read truckloads of educational philosophy - then you step foot in the classroom and you end up in survival mode. I've been asking my mom a lot of questions about how she raised us, because in my mind, she did everything right. She usually says she doesn't remember specifics, she just went with the flow. I keep going back to one of her comments - "I don't think I tried to figure everything out". This statement is pretty powerful to me right now. Don't get me wrong, I think a little parenting info from professionals every once in a while can be helpful, but I think it needs to be balanced with your own intuition. I'm a pretty mellow person, I am going to focus on being a mellow parent and let go of schedules and answers for everything and just enjoy my baby.

So, I'm taking it easy on the books. I was beating myself up about not having Anton on a sleep schedule. Everyone kept reminding me that he's only 2 months old. Babies are all over the place at this age. "but the book says......" This phrase became pretty common in our house the last couple of weeks. Ivalle would come home from work and scoop up Anton to snuggle and play, right when I had just simmered him down for scheduled nap number five. I would get tense and frustrated, until I noticed he was much happier hanging out with daddy than being forced into one of my parent scheduled nap times. I realized it's much better to trust your own instincts. I've been much more relaxed since then. And so has my baby:)