I'm a schedule person...Amelia is not

About 2 weeks ago, when Amelia was 5 weeks old, I thought I had this schedule thing down. Amelia was following the BabyWise schedule precisely. Every day. Every minute. She was like a clock, which I liked. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a very schedule oriented person. I like schedules...they comfort me. If I don't like what I'm doing one particular minute, I can simply look at the calendar to see what I'll be doing an hour from now or a day from now or a week from now. How many days until my vacation? So, I fell in love with my new daughter, Amelia, once again and proudly proclaimed to the other mommies I know that my child was a great sleeper and wholeheartedly on a firm schedule. The other mommies were jealous.

So, here we are, 2 weeks later, and the schedule is out the window. So, I've started reading...lots. And, what I've found is that you can find a book with a theory that says exactly what you need/want to hear and you can find a book with a theory that says exactly what you don't need to hear, leaving you in tears. Which, by the way, come oh so easily when it's 4 am and you've already been up feeding the baby twice that night. And, why is it that your brain gravitates to the one sentence that makes you feel like a bad mom? It never spends time on the 5 billion sentences that say you're a good mom and you're doing it right...you always focus on the bad one.

Where I've netted out: Babies are all unique and ever changing. They will all get on a schedule eventually, but never as soon as you'd like, no matter what method you follow. And, there are a billion ways to do it right.

My mother-in-law gave me a great quote that I posted on the fridge and read at least once a day:

"The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one."--Jill Churchill

I think that sums it up well; do your best...you and the baby will figure it out.