One of the hardest parts of being a parent, and most notably a very Type-A parent who is highly structured in many aspects of his life, is the unstructured nature of a baby.
Prior to Kai’s existence, I was on a very strict regiment. Sleeping by 9PM every night, going to work consistently (with a bell schedule I might add due to being a teacher), cooking dinner, and of course repeating the process over and over again.
Enter Kai into the equation. No matter how much we try to structure routines, such as mealtimes, nap times, and of course sleep times, his chaotic energy seems to counterbalance all our attempts. Such is the unpredictable nature of a baby of course.
Which of course makes it all the more difficult when pediatricians make suggestions that often time lead to failure. Case in point – moving Kai away from purees and ensuring he is feeding primarily on solids. Easy in principle, but when attempted of course he ended up rolling around all night and not sleeping well due to the lack of calories needed for sustenance. (1000 approximately). So that begs the question, what is more important? Making sure he eats enough to continue growing or letting him starve so he can adapt to eating solids better? I think I already answered that question in my heart.
I’m of course going to take my pediatrician’s primary recommendations, but I have to realize that perhaps every baby is unique to their own mold, and we’re going to have to go about it our way… I guess the best parallel is all the advice that they give you in teacher preparation programs that don’t actually prepare you for the reality of the situation of being in a classroom. Not all students are IB learners and are eager to please their teacher, after all.
An unstructured baby results in of course trying to plan events around his schedule. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t. Right now I’m trying to teach Kai how to eat properly and how to sleep properly – both of which are critical skills he is not doing so great in.
Taking forever to eat. Creating chaos and ruckus in a restaurant. Kai loves to throw things on the floor when he is eating. Though it’s pretty annoying having to clean it all up each time, I will have to do so. He’s definitely going to be a late bloomer. So I guess he’s following in his dad’s footsteps. He should be lucky that my #1 love language is Acts of Service and I’m willing to do it all for him. (A random tangent, but the worst people I have encountered in life are the ones that have Gifts as their primary love language).
Of course, I went to a Thai restaurant with two friends (both male, only one pictured). I bet the restaurant goers looked as us and was wondering where the heck mommy was. Hopefully they didn’t think we were co-parenting without a mom.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying. At least I won’t have to deal with the unpredictable nature of middle schoolers when I go back to work in the Fall. High schoolers, though a bit unpredictable, are mostly more predictable and structured. I’ll save the chaotic energy for the home.
