We’re good at this parenting a baby thing, and I’m owning that. It’s a fun place to be, and the complete opposite of how we felt when we had our first baby.
When Kendall was a baby, I constantly found myself telling people, “I don’t know. Don’t ask me. I’m not an expert. This is hard.” And he was hard. He was a hard baby, and we were rigid parents. The whole experience was hard.
But now, 4 babies into it, we’re broken in, and it’s fun. 90% of the time, it’s really fun.
I think we’ve actually become those people I used to hate- the ones that tell you to cherish this time while they are babies because it goes so fast and it only gets harder. Except I actually know better than to tell this to parents, especially first time parents. I know they are cherishing it as best they can, but blisters are bound to happen when you are wearing something new. So I just whisper it in my mind.
And I’m still not an expert, but I’m confident that nobody is. So I feel like I know as much as anyone could know about raising a baby who is totally different from any and all other babies, as they all are.
My mom took the 3 big kids for the week last week, and Scott and I got to enjoy life with just Wallace. It was a joy. I know it’s not entirely because we are baby parent graduates. Wallace is super, duper easy and happy most days and Kendall had some legit colic. It’s like comparing apples and arsenic.
In my mind, I waiver between framing this two ways. I feel sad that I didn’t have this kind of fun with, for sure, the first two. (Lowell, third baby, was this kind of happy, easy baby, too, but we weren’t quite to this level of ease as parents just yet.) Then I feel comforted that maybe we will feel this kind of ease by the time the 4th is a 9 year old.
Because we are terrible, horrible parents of a 9 year old. 9 year olds are hard. I hope we are good at parenting 9 year olds by the time we do it the 4th time. I enjoy feeling like I’m good at parenting.
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3 comments
Enjoy the win! Parenting is seriously hard so when we get the wins and the good days, we need to savor them. There are days when my husband and I look at each other and we are completely confused as to why our three kids are utter maniacs. Then sometimes they are actually human. 9 year olds are hard, though almost 7 year old boys are crazy insane hard and almost 12 year olds are also quite tough.
I think you should totally have a fifth.
Ditto on 9 year olds being hard! It’s funny because when I was pregnant I thought of the baby stage and thought about what they’d be like as teenagers, but never really though of the in between. Finding our way one day at a time.