Weird and Surprising Parenting Things I Never Expected

March 30, 2016

em and stroller Michael shot this photo while we were running home after getting caught in an unexpected downpour. We were soaked but Maya was dry in her little chariot. We laughed so hard.

On the topic of unexpected things that make you want to run for the hills (or at least your bed)….a few surprising parenting things I never knew I’d be thinking about before Maya arrived.

  1. You can hear the baby’s cries in your ears just about all the time, especially when she isn’t crying. And then you say things like “Is that her?” over and over again and drive your husband nutty.
  2. There are things like wonder weeks and sleep regressions that like to partner with growth spurts to totally mess with sleep and naps and eating and that makes everyone nutty.
  3. The most useful thing about Google at 4am is to tell you that every other mom of a one, two, three and four month old baby is going through some version of exactly what you’re questioning. And they are also up at 4am googling sleep regressions and wonder weeks and simultaneously going totally nutty.
  4. Make a clear plan on what to call the pacifier, since calling it the paci is too Texan and soother is too Irish and nuk-nuk (I think my German aunt called it this?) makes Michael look at me like I have three heads.My parents used to call it the plug, as in put a plug in that baby to shut her up! Ha! Choose a name that doesn’t make you feel nutty when you say it eight million times a week. (We’re still working on this – suggestions?)
  5. You spend so much energy getting them to go to sleep, and then thirty minutes after they’ve fallen asleep you miss them and half-wish they’d wake up. I’m pretty sure it’s the definition of nutty.

Any other new parents as nutty as we are I am?

6 Comments

  • Reply Caitriona March 30, 2016 at 2:19 pm

    In short, yes, 4 years on from our youngest being born and I’m still nutty. Parenting is equally exciting and terrifying daily.
    Around these parts the pacifier/soother is called a dodee, and it’s pronounced doh-dee. That’s a real Northsider thing to call it!

    • Reply emily March 30, 2016 at 2:26 pm

      I was racking my brain trying to remember dodee! I had a co-worker who used to call it that and it always made me crack up. Much prefer dodee to dummy, that’s for sure!

  • Reply Martina March 30, 2016 at 3:05 pm

    We call it dodi too, I grew up in south Tipperary & live in Cork, everyone I know calls it a dodi (spelling it is the challenge)!

  • Reply Lynn March 30, 2016 at 4:20 pm

    Yes, dodi is what I thought all Irish call it! I always thought ‘soother’ was Canadian. 🙂 And the other day I pulled the duvet cover off my 15 year old’s duvet as she slept (so I could get it in the wash before noon!) and I remembered all those times of trying to get her into her cot without waking her up: the tiptoeing, the shushing, the careful rocking, the breath-holding. And now? It’s as hard to wake her. 🙂

  • Reply Debby March 30, 2016 at 6:26 pm

    We always called the pacifier “filler” – for Pie Hole Filler” – “Do you know where her filler is?”

    • Reply emily April 1, 2016 at 3:03 pm

      Ha! That’s excellent, Debby.

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