Like many first time moms, I read every book, blog and forum that I could in order to be prepared and educated on how to be the perfect mom. My husband and I planned a natural birth with a midwife, signed up for a cloth diaper service, swore we would never introduce her to a pacifier and more.
It wasn't 5 hours after the birth of our beautiful Wee Bud (after 40+ hours of active, unmedicated labor and then a cesarean) that I realized that all of the "facts" I had been learning were really just theories. And most of them were worthless to me as I held this precious new human. I also realized the ridiculous contradictions that various theories held. An example of such contradictions would be the adamant advice to wake a sleeping baby every three hours to feed versus the equally adamant counsel to never wake a sleeping baby. I decided, then and there, to throw most of the "facts" that I had learned out the window and go with my gut and the advice of women who had actually birthed more than one child and kept them alive to adulthood.
We didn't have the natural birth we planned. I am contemplating giving up on cloth diapers. And our daughter loves her pacifier.
I've decided not to be the perfect mom. Welcome to perfection free motherhood. Long live the mistakes, errors and glorious joy of raising a child!
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