One of the things I have heard over and over from many different moms is that I should prepare to worry about my child (or children) their entire lives - it never stops. In the short 16 months that I think I have been pretty normal in the fact that I have worried about many things - some completely valid, some not so much. As Fisher grows and develops I think back to some of my earlier worries and laugh. I already wish I could go back in time and tell my new mama self not to worry so much! I am sure I will have those feelings over and over again throughout my mamahood career. What I have learned already is that the majority of the things I have worried about are non-issues. The first few months when we had Fisher sleeping in our room to monitor his breathing, I worried that he would be 15 years old and still sleeping in our room. At four months he outgrew the cradle, got the go ahead from the doctor to be in a room by himself, and slept better than ever in his own crib in his own room. No reason to worry.
I was worried that Fisher wouldn't be able to roll over, crawl, walk, and meet the developmental milestones because he couldn't do tummy time for the first several months. I even took him to the doctor when he was 3 months old to discuss my worries. The doctor was kind and did a full evaluation and then assured me that I had no reason to worry at all. He was developing as a normal 3 month old baby. And of course Fisher crawled at 6ish months and walked at 10.5 months. Again, a non-issue.
I guess it never ends because the other day I was reading a toddler book and it mentioned that toddlers should be able to point to a certain number of body parts by 18 or 24 months. I had a panic moment. My son is 16 months old and I haven't started on the body parts! Worst mom in the world. Would Fisher ever get it? So that day (which happened to be about 3 days ago) I started with "Fisher, where is your belly?" and showed him. About two minutes later he was doing it when asked. I then did toes, ears, nose, and head...all of which he has picked up and has been proudly pointing to when asked the last few days. I could repeat this type of story with his talking, his sleeping, adjustment to daycare, napping, and a thousand other things that I suddenly worried about, only to realize once I relaxed and let Fisher develop on his own - he surpassed my limited expectations.
I am daily amazed by what he has figured out, what he is putting together, what he is learning. Now if I could do a little learning of my own - I need to remember to relax and enjoy my amazing little boy and save the worrying to real issues.
LOL! I did the SAME THING with body parts - at about the same age for Gray! I was like OH CRAP! I haven't pointed out ANY body parts. 10 seconds later, he was tapping his, mommy's and daddy's noses like a pro and now he does every body part with ease. Though sometimes, this is fair warning for you, he will come up and stick his finger in my eye wanting me to say "EYE, Where is YOUR EYE??" :)
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