Put the books down!

The baby books. Not regular books. If you're a new mom and you have time to read regular books I'm so so so jealous of you. you should keep reading those... but put the baby books down.

I told myself I would NOT stick my nose in a baby book like I did with Noah. Of course what did I do? Buy the baby books. Read the baby books. Feel like a failure when Emily didn't act like the babies in the baby books.

I'm not saying never read one. They are great for advice or to use as a guideline. I'm saying don't expect YOUR baby to conform to the baby book rules. I'm saying don't beat yourself up about it. Everyday almost I would sit with the baby books each with their own solutions and ideas of what is right and wrong.
"This one says baby should be woken up promptly at 7am to start the day."
"This one says to let baby wake up on their own."
"This one says NO swing sleeping."
"This one says swing sleep is soothing to baby." - side note- Emily is is sleeping in her swing as I type....

I was stressing myself out because Emily didn't have a schedule. They say she should have a schedule! Why doesn't she conform to this schedule?!?

I put them away. I'm sure I'll turn to them when I REALLY need to but for now I don't want to look at them. For now I'm fine with Emily taking her morning nap in the swing. She naps the rest of the time in her crib. I can deal with that. I'm fine with our semi co sleep situation. She sleeps in her crib at night. She wakes up around 4am to eat and goes back in the crib. At 6:30 she's up again and I just tuck her into bed with me until it's time for Noah to get up for school.

She likes to be rocked and snuggled to sleep. All the books say this is a sleep crutch. I don't care. I bought a nice gliding chair which should arrive today because my arms and back are killing me from trying to rock her with just my body motion. I will rock her as long as I can (in the comfy chair lol). Before I know it she'll be too big for rocking.

She's well rested and happy so I no longer care if I'm not supposed to be doing some of the things I do.

When you leave the hospital someone should take your hand and say. "This won't be easy. There will be days and nights when you feel like you can't possibly handle this responsibility. You will get through it."
They should also hand you some dry shampoo and face cleansing wipes... they should put those in the going home bag you get with all the other free hospital goodies. They should tell you, "The books don't know everything. The doctor doesn't know everything. Your best friend doesn't know everything. That stranger in the diaper aisle of the grocery store giving you unwanted advice doesn't know everything. You don't know everything and that's okay. You will figure it out. You're a mom. That's just what you do."