Parenting advice

Sometimes, when I am reading parenting books - not that often - I feel like I will never be able to cope with all the challenges of different ages and developments. I also got more scared than normally of various maladies and dangers and malformations that can just appear out of nowhere and never leave you. From a page to another you just feel that you need to go to check your little one again and again, and consider to schedule tomorrow first time in the morning a meeting with the pediatrician. Not funny at all, I know...

But there are also some advantages of reading parenting books: you can find good advice and smart inspiration and some systematic lists of things that you should consider in various situations. Prescription (RX) for Parenting was a good reading, not only because it is brief and uses many examples, but for the quality of the information and the practical advices. It has information addressing both the mother and the father, with advices for the single parent, and a rich collection of addresses - for the US readers - and websites aimed to help the reader to find the right person for the big problem.

Another target of the book is represented by the childcare workers, who are guided through their working challenges. 

I will focus a bit on the sections dedicated to the new moms, The pregnancy process, the birth, the post-birth adaptation, both at the psychologic and physical levels. Even though you may go through all stages smoothly - as it was my case - there is still a lot of pressure that will release when you want it less. Hence, the feeling of an ending - or the need to think that everything as you know it should just stop for good. What the author recommends is to take it easy, relax, not forget who you are, try to exercise daily, find a hobby and, very important, find a support system. The last aspect is particularly important in the case of single parents. 'Don't center all the day's activities around the children. Kids need to learn how to amuse themselves'. 

There is also important that the author outline the need of discipline and rules and the need to contact a specialist as fast as possible in case of various medical or psychological emergencies. I also appreciated that there is a small warning regarding the use of herbal medicine that can create various complications.

It is a book I strongly recommended to mothers and fathers and anyone with a baby project looking for daily practical inspiration.

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange of an honest review

Months 7-8-9 with the baby

Not too much update about our mother and baby life, isn't it? True is that in the last three months, there were a lot going on in my life, and in baby's too, and keeping a straight record of the step-by-step evolution was not always possible. Also, the summer time is here and when I am not at home cleaning and keeping the house maintenance at an acceptable level or finishing my writing assignments, I am out with the baby, enjoying the beautiful summer days.

To keep it to the point, the last three months with the baby were really amazing and every moment I am reminded how blessed I am to have such a jewel of a kid: not crying too much, healthy, most part of the time happy and pretty adaptable to various travel schedule. As an overview, not too many things happened but for him, my little - now - 10-month baby, he went through many changes.

First, the mobility developed a whole lot. He not only can seat independently for many minutes, but he is also crawling very fast. Thus, the most sensitive and dangerous parts of the house - such as corners and sources of electricity, were sealed and secured in a way to not create any harm to the baby.

The food options diversified considerably, and now he accepts more or less almost everything - except the spinach (he is my son too, after all). Solids are now an important part of his daily diet while the frequency of milk bottles decreased. 

One of the many things I've learned in the last months was to stop - definitely stop - comparing my kid with the others. We registered, for instance, for a crawling club, where every Monday together with other babies his age we do for one hour and a half various crawling exercises. At the time, he was not crawling too much, but other babies from the group, maybe one month younger or more were extremely fast at that. I made some worries for a while, thinking that maybe we, again, have a development problem. And waited and waited until one day, just like this, he crossed the entire house in less than 15 minutes, back and forth. 

During this time, we alse went away for three weeks, which meant a complete relocation for the baby, with a different temperature, food habits and bed. He coped with it very well, but there were some important challenges ahead, such as being faced with the problem of the lack of his special juice or the usual bottle food he is used with. 

Another observation for this period is that our baby grew up with very advanced social skills: he is very friendly with new people, utters cries of joy when encountering other kids in the buggy and even more loudly every time when we approach some dogs - or cats. We've been a couple of times to the zoos, and even to some goat park and every time he was very happy to see the animals.

This is all for now...More specific posts to come in the next days, covering the challenges of travelling with a toddler, foodie needs and other day by day challenges!