When it comes to tips, tricks and opinions; advice and two cents about parenting and raising your little ones seems to top the charts.  Now i’m not a parent {unless you count my sweet Doodle bug} so there isn’t much for me to contribute in the advice department so to kick off a little segment about the Adventures in Parenting is the fabulous Maren and her Adorable little munchkin Stella!!  Enjoy! {and please tell me you can’t help but grin when you see this sweet little one’s face…what a cutie!! Love her}

Being a new parent, you tend to rely on a LOT of support and advice from close friends and “experts” in regards to all things baby.   I’m not going to sugar-coat it, being a parent is scary as hell.  This life you have brought into the world relies on you for everything!  The amount of love you never knew you could feel until you hold your little gummy bear in your arms, quickly gets balanced with the same amount of fear.  Am I doing this right?  Am I feeding her enough?  Do I have the best car seat?  Should she be eating solid foods yet?  Shouldn’t she be rolling over/crawling/walking/talking by now?  When should I stop letting her have that paci?  So naturally, you lean on friends for advice.

In the beginning of my journey as a parent, I read a LOT of books and blogs about what I should be doing.  I found comfort knowing other mom friends had the same questions or anxieties about being a parent, so I asked a lot of questions of them too.  You want nothing more to have a happy, healthy, safe and life balanced baby, so you seek to find out what is best.

After doing a lot of research and talking with several moms who shared their advice, I found myself to have strong opinions about how things should be done.  I really wanted to breastfeed, make all her food, teach her sign language, never let her watch a TV until she was 2… As Stella grew older, I found I was somewhat disappointed in myself as a mom that I wasn’t living up to these standards that the public holds for what is best for your child.  However the more I have talked with other new moms about how their style of parenting worked, that is vastly differed from mine or what the public deems as “best”, I have come to realize that what is best for your baby is WHATEVER WORKS.

I had a wonderful conversation with two co-workers about the sleeping patterns of their infants.  They both used non-traditional methods of helping their baby sleep through the night and wasn’t something I had tried.  But what we all ended the conversation on was this, DO WHATEVER WORKS.  Now I am not talking about anything seriously unsafe people, but I am talking about you as a parent being confident in your gut and how you feel caring for your child will work the best for you and your family unit.  You can spend months reading book after book that contradicts every other book and then make yourself crazy.  So my advice about advice, go ahead….ask your friends, read the books and blogs, but most importantly be confident in yourself, in the choices you make for your family and do WHATEVER WORKS.  If you aren’t leaving your kids in hot cars, letting them guzzle laundry detergent or giving them a pair of scissors as a toy, then be rest assured you are doing a great job and your kid will turn out JUST FINE.  Offer them love and support all through life, talk through your decisions with your partner and your little gummy bear will be just as sweet as you dreamed.

BTW – Things that worked for us – A pacifier (gasp!) Formula (gasp!) Sleeping in our bed for the first few months (gasp!) Using a Nap Nanny in her crib to help with acid re-flux (gasp!) Elmo and Sesame Street (gasp!) The Cry-it-Out method to sleep train (gasp!) Store bought (not always organic) baby food (gasp!) Chicken nuggets (gasp!)  All these things worked for my gummy bear, they may work for you, they may not.  But judging people who used a different method that worked for them doesn’t help anyone.  Just be supportive of the new mommy or daddy who is trying to do the best they can for their child.

~ Maren