Never Say Never!

As future parents, we spend time daydreaming and planning - what is life going to be like once the little Bean arrives? What kind of baby will I have? What kind of parent will I be?
We think we know what we will and won't do.

Hey, it's great to have a plan, but you know what they say- even the best laid plans of Mice and Men often go awry.

Pre-baby me knew enough not to get too stuck in any mindsets before the baby came along. But I'm human, so of course I had a list in my head of things I thought I would never do.

Here are some of the things I've done, that I thought would never happen:

1) The Whale Pod in My Bathroom
The "Whale Pod" is a bath toy holder that sticks to the wall above the bathtub. My first encounter with this type of thing was a few years ago while visiting a friend who had a toddler and a baby. It was bath time at their house, and I noticed their bath toy holder (shaped like a frog) above the bathtub. I thought it was cute, but I also couldn't imagine ever putting one up in my own bathroom. Best case scenario for me at that time was that our kids wouldn't have to share a bathroom with us, so if we did have these sorts of things around it wouldn't interfere with the aesthetic of our own bathroom. Otherwise I figured I'd devise a plan to cleverly hide all toys from sight. Well, flash forward a few years and lo and behold, there is a giant plastic whale attached to the travertine tile in our bathroom. Yes, we have a second bathroom, but it's in the basement and there's no way I'm going to go up and down the stairs a million times to bathe the baby. And our bathroom is small- I couldn't cleverly hide his toys if I wanted to. Truthfully, aesthetics go out the window in some cases, in order to make room for convenience.

2) Become "that" Mom
"That" mom is the one who fills up your facebook newsfeed with pictures and updates about her children, and who rarely has anything else to talk about. I told myself that wouldn't be me. Oh, how I look back and laugh at myself now. I'm fully aware I may be irritating to some of my friends when it comes to my incessant posting of adorable Sam pictures on facebook. But hey, they can unsubscribe from my posts! I know that one day I will reclaim more of that person that I was before having a baby, but right now I'm just going to give in to the all-consuming role of being a mommy to a new baby.

3) Amber Necklaces
I never could understand the amber necklace thing. Amber necklaces are supposed to be a safe way to dull teething pain for babies. They wear the amber, and the amber interacts with their body heat by releasing its oils. These oils are thought to produce an analgesic effect and help manage the pain and side effects of teething.  It sounds very hokey, plus I didn't like how they looked.
Then we went through two nights of my normally easy-going baby being full-out miserable and almost inconsolable. By the second night I was grasping at straws and booked it to the nearest place where I could pick one of these things up. I came back with an anklet so that it wouldn't be seen all the time. Also, it was multi-coloured as opposed to the honey colour I'd seen in the past and didn't really like. I still have no idea if it really makes a difference, but we haven't seen that sort of fussiness since. Now our son wears an actual amber necklace every day (ditched the anklet because it always fell off) and I don't care if anyone else thinks it's weird.

4) I Want to be a Stay at Home Mom
I was completely blindsided by this new development in my feelings, especially considering I had always been on the fence about kids in general, and in the first couple months of motherhood I was pining away to go back to work. I'm not saying that staying at home every day is the most amazing thing ever. I get frustrated, lonely, annoyed...but I feel like for once in my life that I'm doing what I should be doing, and that I have an actual purpose. I have always tried to pick a career path that would lead to that sort of fulfillment, but had yet to succeed. And of course, like many other moms, I just can't imagine someone else looking after my baby. Unfortunately our reality is such that I will have to go back to work because we need the dual income. But I don't want to and I never thought I'd say that.

5) Sleep In
Here's one that actually worked out in my favour! I thought for sure that a baby meant I would never sleep in again- I mean, "they" are always throwing that in your face from the second your pregnancy goes public. I was saddened at the thought that my lazy weekend mornings spent in my pajamas, hanging out in bed and drinking coffee, would be gone forever.
Well thank Heavens, that didn't happen. My baby is a crap-tacular sleeper. He stays up late and wakes up multiple times a night. But so far he has one redeeming sleep quality- he generally doesn't get up for the day until between 9 - 10 a.m. And then he goes for a nap roughly an hour and a half after waking up. So weekends still work out well for me. I may not spend the morning in bed as often, but I don't have to wake up early, I can stay in my pajamas, and I can relax with my cup of coffee while my husband and I take turns with the baby. I fully expect this perk to end any time (if not with this baby then for sure when we add a second to the mix), but for now it's one of the only times I can say I was happy to be wrong.

I know these five things are just the tip of the iceberg, and as the baby gets older I'll probably do a million more things I never thought I would. But the important thing is to try to remember to never say never, and don't judge other people who do things differently because you never know when that person will end up being you!