Promoted: Married >> Parent

Being Real.

After the initial change is status, and all the special attention, you are soon on your way to the old life with new added responsibilities, priorities and roles. A few weeks pass and the level on the conformability scale starts to decline. If you are anything like me, Id like to know what’s ahead on the road, not in a crazy manner, but more to the nature of being somewhat prepared.

So endless reading on baby issues, baby development, baby diapers, baby health, baby rooms, baby toys, baby wipes, baby cream, baby formula, baby monitor, baby gadgets. Research on each of these items on their seemingly limitless choices, can be stressful. Add to these, stages of baby development. It’s kind of funny, if you don’t study what to expect at different stages, you stress and read too much into new behavior. And if you read the stages, you keep waiting to mark it off your check list, constantly worrying why your baby hasn’t passed the bar.

Lets complicate it a bit more, add health to this mix, mother’s, baby’s, possibly fathers. Constant doctor visits, where they point out how high or low your child is on the average scale, further adding to the pressure.

The baby doesn’t make things easier, sure the moments of cuteness and playfulness far out weigh any of the above issues, but you cannot ignore the baby cry. I actually dread it. I always feel I am doing something wrong for him being so uncomfortable. Sleepless nights, feeding and burping issues, all of these attribute a huge percentage of the toll the parent takes.

Every step is a new challenge and at each level, we are (I am) judging, if the decision we make goes in to what and how our child develops.

Mind you I am not trying to be the least bit discouraging; I am just trying to be real.

OK, stop. We get it. Actually we don’t. If you enter parenthood, with out being cognizant of the real issues involved, things will enter a downward spiral, which will be far compounded by the stress in an ever dynamic environment.

To sum this up, Parenthood is not a new lifestyle, it is a new life.

_/sleep-less