As a new parent, you’ll find that you generally aren’t all that open to trying other people’s suggestions and opinions on how to raise your child.  Generally.  However we are much more willing to take advice from so-called experts through books on online postings.  Whether it has to do with sleep schedules, potty training, vaccinations etc. etc., I’ve found it increasingly hard to take other parents advice unless I specifically ask for it.  That being said I am also guilty of this when it comes to my own hubby and his ideas about J.

As you know, J still doesn’t sleep through the night.  The hubby has basically refused to get up with him anytime during the night unless I make him take a turn (which I generally don’t).  On a good night J wakes up about every 4 hours, which is pretty decent…albeit not ideal.  Tonight Hubby suggested that we should try putting J to bed later than his usual 7pm bedtime to see if that makes a difference.  Maybe if we wear him out more, he’ll sleep longer – was his rational.  My immediate answer?  NO.

Aaaaand that’s where my “mama knows best” syndrome reared its ugly head.  My reasoning? Well everything that I’ve read from said so-called experts, is that when kiddos wake up early that means that you need to put them to bed earlier.  Doesn’t really make sense…but in our previous trials with bedtime, it did seem to help to put J to bed earlier.  And I don’t want to screw with his bedtime schedule.  Turns out I do this a lot.  Almost always actually.  Whenever Daddy makes a suggestion I tell him why he’s wrong and we end up continuing with whatever we were doing before.

At this point I feel like it’s reflex.  After all, I should know my little one best right?  I can’t say that I like being “that mama” though.  I don’t think I realized how anti-suggestion I was until the Hubbs pointed it out.  I’m probably more polite about it with other people.  And actually I think I’m much better at swapping ideas with other mama’s.  Why I feel the need to say NO to all the Hubby’s ideas is a little confusing.

Oh, the things you discover about yourself as you are also discovering the many twists and turns of parenthood!  Thankfully I have a wonderful Hubby who doesn’t take my Crazy Mama moments too seriously 🙂