Welcome to the January Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting resolutions! Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants: (All the links should be active by noon on Jan. 12. Go to Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama for the most recently updated list.)
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month we're writing about how we want to parent differently — or the same — in the New Year. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
****
2010 is going to be a big year, because in one week, I go back to work after a blissful ten month maternity leave. Fortunately I like my job and having been doing it for ten years, so I feel good about going back. I would not have been ready at 3 months, and 6 months, but I’m ready now. I feel great about the bond my baby and I have achieved, and I think he’ll be OK being away from me and his Dad for 6 hours. (Dad doing late drop off at 9, me doing early pickup by 3:30.)
Speaking of that babydaddy… one big thing I know I should improve in my parenting is involving my husband more in decisions. We don’t always see eye to eye on how to do things- for example, I think co-sleeping is cool, he doesn’t. He’s been really good about letting me do what makes my life easier, but I feel ready now to take more of his suggestions without getting defensive and thinking that he’s criticizing me as a mom. Just recently we had a heated debate over how to get the baby to eat more solid food- after an hour of arguing about it and sundry related topics, turns out we were mostly on the same page. This is very typical of us, but it’s tiring, and I’d like to change that pattern.
Other resolutions: 
2. Get the baby eating more solids so he will stop waking up 3 or 4 times a night. If he can wake less, I can have him in his crib more, where I think both he and I will ultimately sleep better. I’ve been sleeping with him in the guest bed because my husband’s and my bed is not safe for co-sleeping, and I’d like to return to my own bed.
3. Keep in touch with the wonderful moms I’ve met this year by keeping up our Saturday bi-monthly playdates.
4. Keep up with my blog, FC Mom, and with my baby’s blog.
5. Monitor my stress level as I go back to full time work in 2 weeks. I want to be at my best for husband, baby and job- or, as close to my best as I can be while balancing those three.
6. Keep up habit of batch cooking healthy meals for my lunches. That way I can just throw a Tupperware and an apple in my lunch bag and have a good meal at work. Drink lots of water at home and work.
7. Focus while at work. I’m pretty good at this, but I love my coworkers, so sometimes it is tempting to talk to them rather than grading. However, I’ll now be pumping during those “free periods,” so… I am going to have to figure out how to be productive at work, both milk-wise and work-wise.
8. Despite being very busy, I want to take time to stop, look at and listen to people- at least occasionally.
9. FC Mom Video. I would like to work more video into my blog in the form of interviews, mini talk-shows, and skits.
10. Above all, I want to enjoy my baby, husband, job, family, friends and my interests (writing, exercising, Biggest Loser), and do whatever it takes to allow me to enjoy life.
What about you, readers? What are your resolutions?
****
Visit Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!
• To Yell or Not to Yell — The Adventures of Lactating Girl
• It Is All About Empathy: Nurturing a Toddler's Compassion Potential — Baby Dust Diaries
• To my babies: this year… — BluebirdMama
• Mindfully Loving My Children — Breastfeeding Moms Unite!
• January Carnival of Natural Parenting: Resolutions — Code Name: Mama
• Imperfect Mother — Consider Eden
• Resolutions — Craphead (aka Mommy)
• FC Mom's Parenting Resolutions 2010 — FC Mom
• What’s in a Resolution? — Happy Mothering
• January Carnival of Natural Parenting: Parenting resolutions — Hobo Mama
• Natural Parenting Resolutions — Little Green Blog
• This year, I will mostly... — Look Left of the Pleiades
• Parenting Resolutions — The Mahogany Way
• I Resolve to Breastfeed In Public More Often — mama2mama tips
• Moving to Two Kids — Megna the Destroyer
• Use Love — Momopoly
• My parenting resolutions — Musings of a Milk Maker
• Talkin' 'bout My Resolutions — Navelgazing
• Parenting Resolutions — One Starry Night
• Invitations, not resolutions — Raising My Boychick
• No more multitasking during kid time — The Recovering Procrastinator
• I need to slow down, smell those roses AND the poopy diapers — Tales of a Kitchen Witch Momma
• Resolutely Parenting in 2010 — This Is Worthwhile
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Natural Parenting Blog Carnival: Parenting Resolutions 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
Great post - enjoy going back to work. I love how you want to include your DH more with decisions; that's so important so that he feels validated too. Best of luck with everything, you have some great ideas for resolutions lined up :)
Those are some great resolutions. Good luck with returning to work. I did it at 4 months and wish I could have had longer. Will you need to pump at work?
Also, great plan for cooking in batches. I want to try to do this too.
Looking forward to following your blog this year!
Good luck going back to work!!
I had a (very brief) part time job when Kieran was about 16 months old - it was a little bit stressful, but it sounds like you guys will have an awesome schedule!
I wanted to share a link with you. I think this article is more for younger babies, so I'm not sure whether the advice would ring true for a 10 month old, but I'm not sure solids = more sleep. http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-sleep.html
Just wanted to share something I'd read awhile back, feel free to use it or discard it :)
I need to let me husband have a say in parenting decisions more often too. It's really hard for me though when I completely disagree with something he thinks/believes will work. Sometimes, like you guys, after an argument it appears we are on the same page, but this area needs lots of work regardless.
Going back to work is such a big transition...it is really reflected in your resolutions. I hope it goes well.
Including the husband is important, but it IS difficult sometimes!
Great post, by the way, and good luck going back to work!
Thanks for the feedback you guys! I will be pumping- not looking forward to it exactly, especially bc it will take up the few precious chunks of time I have to get work done at work, but it's a temporary inconvenience to be able to continue breastfeeding! My boss and coworkers are very supportive.
And Melodie and Sara, yes. It is really hard to reach a consensus on parenting issues sometimes, especially ones that involve such personal areas as sleep!
I had the hardest time with my husband and parenting. I wouldn't let him decide anything with our first,especially for the first several months.
Good luck with going back to work!
Great post :)
I love the picture of you bloggin' and babywearing in your kitchen. I do the same thing!
Good luck going back to work :) Lovely post!
<3
Oh my that picture of you on the computer IS cute! If I had a picture like that it would be of me sitting in our big chair nursing a baby with the computer on the arm of the chair! lol
Good luck on going back to work! It sounds like it's going to be great for you all, but will certainly add one more big thing to juggle in to your life. Good for you for making yourself aware of the need for balance before you dive in!
Working in the co-parent's voice is sometimes very hard. I wish more fathers wrote about their experiences so we could better understand what it's like being a dude. I bet it'd be enlightening and hilarious.
Great list!
Great resolutions. I, too, have a reluctant eater. My youngest is nine months now and still prefers exclusively breastfeeding. I'm fine with that except I'm soooo tired from being a milk machine 24/7. She did gobble up my homemade guacamole, so that's a start. Good luck!
(And I love your photo of you wearing your kiddo at the computer. An Ergo, right? I could not live without my Ergo.)
Blessings!
Good luck going back to work. It sounds like your husband wants to be involved and that is great, even if it makes it harder. haha. It sounds like you will at least have something to write about for next month's carnival. :)
wondering how things are with the work/daycare thing. have you started yet? i lost track of the date you were planning to return. great resolutions! keep in mind that everything is temporary. that's what having #2 has taught me. as soon as you get into a routine or reach a milestone with the baby, you're onto something else that will surely disrupt the routine. and there's always a new milestone to reach. you have such a happy little boy and really that's all that matters.
I agree that it would be great to hear the partner's perspective more! I keep trying to convince Sam to guest post on my blog, and he keeps turning me down. :)
I hope your transition back to work and into pumping goes smoothly and that you allow yourself grace not to accomplish absolutely every goal perfectly at all times. I only say this because yours is one of those astounding lists where I can only look on in wonder!
I sometimes do batch cooking, and then I want to eat something fresh anyway so let the frozen stuff just get freezer burn. Sigh... I should resolve to eat up the stuff in the freezer!
Post a Comment