Let’s make this week better than the last.
Even if it was the most amazing week. Let’s make it better.
More coffee, more reading, more doing things for you. Take the time, you deserve it.
May we choose to see the good in this week, and let go of any of the bad.
To the week ahead, let it be better than the last.
Oh, girl. There are going to be hard days.
We just got done going through our first Hurricane with our tiny human and I’m here to tell you they were all hard days. Leading up to it, watching the news and hearing the weather man say words like “total devastation”, makes for one stressful mama.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far as a mom though. Tomorrow will be here before you know it, and the hard day will be over. This doesn’t make it easier, no. But it reminds me that these hard days are honestly far and few between, and in ten years I won’t remember them.
Ok, yes. I’ll remember the hurricane.
But those ordinarily hard days, when you’re tired and have the most active tiny human who just wants to go go go, and then the dog tracks poop all through the house and the end just doesn’t seem in site…those days are going to come to an end.
Tomorrow is going to come and we can make it so much better.
On the hard days, give yourself some grace. To mess up, to have a short fuse. Sometimes I just think it’s better to acknowledge the bad day, get through it, and move on. Than it is to dwell on it. Or try and wrestle with yourself all day to make things change.
It’s ok to have super grumpy days. Been there, done that. Not even sorry considering they happen maybe once a month. That’s why God invented Starbucks and Target. Heaven on earth for mothers.
So on the hard days, just let it be that.
But on the next day, wake up knowing it will be a good one.
And listen to me here. Listen really, really well. Just because you have a hard and terrible day does not mean you are a bad mother. These bad days will happen. You’ll loose your ever loving you know what on the most ridiculous things, and your kids will think you’re a complete loony bin. But that one day doesn’t make up for the other 99% of the time when you’re totally on your game. When nothing goes unnoticed, when everyone is every where on time, when no one is left crying at the dinner table still hungry.
You’re doing an amazing job.
So just let the bad days happen.
I think Thursdays are a good day to take a deep breath, to be reminded of the Good Word, to be inspired by simple and beautiful truths.
Hi, friends! We’re off hunkering down for Hurricane Matthew who is equally annoying and scaring me as a mom.
I have a couple posts scheduled but giving myself some grace and not worrying about the missing days.
Pray for the East Coast, or send up good vibes or do a dance, whatever you do.
Have a great weekend!
Emily is one. Which means things are getting pretty interesting around here.
We’ve talked about how we’ll parent our children before, but when you’re in the thick of things, your mind might change. For instance.
Before Em was born I was really admit about how little tv I wanted her to watch.
Go ahead, you can laugh at me.
But I read all the articles about how you shouldn’t let them watch tv until their two.
Now I’m laughing with you.
Obviously Em watches tv. Sesame Street is my saving grace some days. So while I changed my opinion on that, there are somethings I haven’t changed my opinion on.
Like reprimanding my child.
Here’s a fun story for you.
The other day Em was eating dinner and started banging on her high chair like a barbarian. Vegetables went flying. Peas this way, carrots that way.
I immediatly told her no.
To which she just continued doing what she was doing.
I tried again, “Emily, no!”.
The banging continued.
I tried two more times and then finally went over to her and started to say “No”, while moving her hand down by her side.
Nothing.
Finally, I gave her a little smack on the hand.
TO WHICH SHE LAUGHED IN MY FACE.
I had to turn around and walk away from laughing back at her.
Now some of you might still be caught up on the whole I hit my kid thing, something I was raised with that I’ll do with my kids, BUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN IT DOESN’T WORK.
She’s super sassy right now. Which is equally funny and terrible. But you guys, she laughed at me. Like from the belly giggled laughed at me.
I feel as if I should prepare for the worst at this point.
I’m winning as a mother when I try to reprimand my child and she laughs at me.
That’s what kids are put on this earth for, right? To make us laugh?
For now, I’ll just be off consulting all the parenting books on how to tell your kid no without saying the words and still making them feel like a rainbow.
If you haven’t seen What to Expect When you’re Expecting, you need to.
Let’s just get right to the point. I think we put an immense amount of pressure on new and more importantly, first time moms to breast feed. I remember when I was pregnant reading articles, Facebook posts, and comments left by other moms straight up shaming women who didn’t breast feed their kids.
Ya’ll. I can’t.
Breastfeeding is hard. Like really, freaking hard. I honestly don’t think there’s any way a woman can mentally prepare for all that. It’s just so much.
I was lucky enough to breast feed Em for six months. Now, let me give you all the facts. Home girl could eat. Around a month we started to give her formula at night, which I’m not even ashamed to admit made her sleep longer, which was the point. I exclusively breast fed her, no pumping for about four months. And I’ll be even more honest here and say I didn’t love it.
After four months, I started doing every other feeding with formula and finally started pumping. Why I didn’t pump as much before, I’m not sure. Maybe some where I honestly thought that it really was just “Breast is Best”.
I was tired. And also hungry all the time.
I had made the goal before Em was born to make it six months so it was really important to me to keep that. And I did. But leading up to it, I just knew she was done. It was that motherly intuition kicking in again.
I’m more than happy to relay to you that I have a happy and very healthy one year old right now. Formula and all.
I wish I could ban all those mean moms from the Internet. You know, the one’s that think you need to birth your kids at home and that breast feeding is the only way they can survive. They’re the kind that nurse their kids until their old enough to ask for it. Which I’m also not ashamed to say I think is weird.
I’m done with the idea that you’re not a true mother unless you have that bond with your baby.
False. You’re a mother the first time you hold that bundle of joy. Whether you birthed them at home, at a hospital, in the backseat of a car, or you didn’t even birth them yourself. You are a mother.
So you know best.
Which means if feeding your baby formula is what’s best, than do that.
I’m not ashamed to admit that while I loved (and at times miss) that first nursing session with my girl in the morning, I do not miss trying to cover myself up and do it at dinner. I do not miss trying to figure out where the next stop would be so I could climb in the back and nurse her. I’m not ashamed to admit that I didn’t totally over the moon love breast feeding.
Also not ashamed to admit that I’m mad I didn’t keep going just to loose the baby weight. Don’t judge me. You know what I’m talking about.
I have bonded with Emily far more doing other things than breast feeding.
There I said it.
Now here me here. For those of you mamas who can breast feed to that year mark, I am applauding you! As long as you aren’t the mean kind 😉
But I just think we all need to come together and support each other on this. Whether we do it or we don’t. Whether we choose to…or we don’t. Whatever the choice is that you’re making for your baby is the best.
Fed is best.
Because being a mother is all about laughing at yourself, at your kids, at your husband…pretty much at life in general. So while I’ll cover some deep and serious topics this month. Let’s LOL at Mondays.
I spent all day cleaning Saturday and by 10:00am on Sunday it looks like a tornado hit.
I like to use fancy words when possible, but the title of this post could also be, “The Mom Gut”. Because I’m here to tell you it’s a real thing.
Raising tiny humans is hard. In fact the hardest thing I’ve had to ever do in my life, full of beautiful rewards, but so hard at times.
Over the last thirteen months of Ems life, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had the, “I just don’t know what to do” freak out. Times when nothing will soothe her, or she just wouldn’t go to sleep. Times when we had tried everything we knew. Mamas, these times will happen.
But.
The majority of the time, when something is off, or Em just isn’t herself, I know without a doubt what’s wrong. My mom gut kicks in. The part of me that makes completely rational decisions in the blink of an eye. Something pre-Mama Megan was never good at.
I can’t lie and tell you that most of the time when our Mom instincts need to go into over drive, is when the you know what is hitting the fan. For example. A couple weeks ago Sonny was out of town so Em and I headed to my moms for the weekend. On a rare occurance, both my sister were in town as well. We had a super fun weekend planned out for us girls…but one tiny human didn’t get the memo. Em was so fussy, didn’t sleep well and we woke up the first morning and I just knew we needed to go home. I was so bummed. But my gut just kept saying, “Something has over taken your sweet smiley human and you need to go”.
Turns out her molars are coming in. See, I knew it was something.
The point is, that you, better than anyone else in the world know what’s best for your child. Never and I repeat never let anyone make you feel any different.
Sometimes the mom instincts will have to kick in with really stressful situation, other times it just knowing with absolute confindence what outfit will make your kid look the cutest.
Trust your gut, mamas! You really, truly know best.
