Doing it all wrong

When you start to tell you are pregnant, you start to get lots of advice, and to learn about all the things you shouldn't do.  Well I firmly believe in following your own intuition, so if you want to throw that advice out, do it!  I did quite a few things that are big no no's, and we survived. 

When my son was about 4 weeks old we hadn't slept more than 2 hours in a row since he was born.  He had bad gas, some colic, and would cry and cry.  I tried swaddling, holding him, the only way he'd fall asleep was on me, belly to belly.  So I was desperate.  And I put him to sleep on his tummy.  Five hours later I woke up in a panic, sure I'd killed him.  He was fine, though I often wonder how long he might have slept if I hadn't gone poking around to see if he was still breathing.  He is now still a tummy sleeper, and I have to admit, I will likely do the same with the next baby. 

Another moment of desperation at 6 weeks, there just wasn't time to warm a bottle, he was screaming for food and the 10 minutes it would take to warm it up was torture, so I just gave it to him.  I had one in the warming process in case he totally rejected the cold one, but he took it!  And has ever since.  I stopped warming them at all, and never looked back. 

Then of course there's the fact that I answer every cry.  My mom says I'm spoiling him.  I think I'm teaching him that if he needs me I will be there.  When he is older, and can understand a little better, we can work on teaching him how to express himself without crying, and how crying doesn't get people what they want.  Well, crying and throwing a fit doesn't any way. 

Then there's the way I chose to introduce solids.  I tried purees and cereals, I really did.  But it never felt right.  Which is when I started to search for a better way, and found Baby Led Weaning.  It felt right, and has been amazing.  My little boy will eat anything you give him.  We had pad Thai for supper tonight and he gobbled it up.  Give him Mexican, Chinese, pizza, roast, fish, anything! and he will eat it.  He loves his veggies and his fruit, potatoes and rice.  I have yet to find a food he doesn't care for.  But of course I hear about it from family that they don't approve.  I have to say though, when I compare him to other kids that will still only eat purees, or hot dogs and chicken nuggets, well I'll take my little adventurous eater any day.

It is a unique thing to be a single mom, there isn't another parent to share the duties, no one else is going to question your decisions, it's all up to you.  For me, that's a great thing.  I like being the one in charge, the one to decide where we'll go, what we'll eat.  I like being able to trust my intuition, and not have anyone to argue it with me.