On Being "That Mom"

I'm certain that nearly every female human daydreams/plans/obsesses over two things; their wedding day and motherhood. I can't even count the times I played "house" and fought over who was going to be the "Mommy", or how often I used one of my moms slips as a veil and pretended to get married. With the wedding day nearly 5 years (?!?!?) behind me, and a slight delay on the road to motherhood, I've had an abundance of time to think about the kind of mommy I wanted to be.  I had this kind if rule book for how to best raise my children (thank you Ohio State and my Human Development degree for teaching me plenty of ways to screw a kid up).   As I sit here this sunny morning, snuggling my constipated daughter, I present to you a list of the rules I've broken a mere 12 days into their lives.

Rule #1- No pacifiers (and especially no calling them a "paci"). No, no...my children would learn to be well adjusted self-soothers and would not need that addictive tool.

• Hahahaha! Yeah right! I think I was still in the hospital when I broke this one. The minute that precious little being was inconsolable to shushing and swinging, I popped that bad boy in! While we do try to use it sparingly, it is definitely a play we run in regular rotation.

Rule #2- No co-sleeping in mommy and daddy's bed. Besides being incredibly dangerous, I didn't want to start a bad habit.

• 2am- Hudson crying

          3am- Dylan crying

          4am- Sloane crying

          4:05am- babies in bed

          I don't even care, we needed to sleep.

Rule #3- I will not freak out about every tiny noise, fluid, or smell that comes out (or does not come out) of my children's bodies. I will remain calm and rational.

• Yesterday I cried over Hudson's blocked tear duct. It's fine now, by the way.

Rule #4- Cal and I will not feel guilty about taking time out for ourselves. It's important for us to stay connected and happy, if that means taking the grandparents up on an offer to babysit while we go to dinner, that's just fine.

• I nearly had an anxiety attack during a 30 minute Giant Eagle trip.

Rule #5- I will read to my babies everyday.  You can never start language acquisition too early!

• Not. Enough. Hours. In. The. Day.

I shamed myself for breaking those rules for all of 10 seconds before accepting that being "That Mom" is exactly the kind of mom that suits me just fine!  I’m doing my best and forgetting the rest!  Literally...forgetting the rest...anybody remember sleep?  I sort of do,  I recall it being pretty great.*

* Not as great as snuggling the heck out of our babies (in or out of our bed!)