Does being a mom now forever doom me to
being the last one to bed at night and the first one up? I
guess techically Lex is the first one awake, but I’m the first
one up. And then he goes back to sleep an hour later and I’m
still up. They don’t tell you this little tidbit in parenting
books.

Speaking of tidbits, I was
reading an article the other day (Parents
magazine) about pregnancy and babies around the
world. It actually wasn’t an article so much as a series of
photos and bullet points. For example, did you know that in
Norway employers are required by law to give new mothers 46
weeks of time off at full pay! Or 52 weeks at 80% pay. This
country requires 12 weeks and no pay. Go US. Also, Norwegian
mothers are allowed 2 hours off each day for breastfeeding.
Here we try to pump real quick in the bathroom before anyone
notices we’re gone for long. One the other side though, are
countries like Mali where 10% of women die from pregnancy or
childbirth and newborns are often fed sugar water, tea, or
urine because these are believed to have medical benefits. And
in parts of India it is believed that drinking a glass of water
that you’re mother-in-law has dipped her big to into will help
progress labor. Anyway, it’s a very interesting article. And it
got me thinking about misconceptions here in this country.

I find it amazing that with all we know
in this country, you still get tons of conflicting information
from various sources (books, parenting magazines,
pediatricians, etc.) It’s no wonder people stress out about
pregnancy, birth, and parenting. Even basic things seem to be
in dispute. For example, most of what I’ve read says that a
babies eye color can change all the way through their toddler
years. Then I read in a magazine the other day that after 9
months the eye color will not change (yes, they said it quite
matter of factly). It seems silly that there would be conflict
about something that basic. Either there are cases of eye color
changing in toddler years or there aren’t. How hard is this.
Makes me question everything else they say too. Anyway, I guess
the secret to good parenting is to read what you can and make
your own decisions. Heck, that’s probably the secret to a good
life :)

Anyway, Lex is awake now and I
have pay some bills so we can go shopping today. Busy, busy
Saturday.