Jun 03 2008
So now what? or Baby Makes Three
So you bring the baby home… now what? Once you’re a parent, people feel like they have free license to give you advice. Unfortunately, most of it tends to be about what you are doing wrong.
Actually, I lied. The advice usually begins long before delivery. When people realize you’re pregnant, they become a virtual encyclopedia of useless information. The advice isn’t really advice either. It looks like advice and sounds like advice, but that oh-so-concerned person is really saying “My way is right and you SHOULD do it my way!”
Problem #1 - Ask 5 different parents for their take on something and you will likely get at least 3 completely different answers. The majority of us can’t be wrong that often. What works for that kid or that parent might be futile for the rest of us.
I had a wonderful pediatrician when my first little one was born. I would pepper him with questions. Does he have colic? Am I feeding him too soon? And on and on I would go. He finally said that raising children was an art, not a science. If your baby is healthy and content, why drive yourself nuts about textbook answers?
That doc moved away before my son was a year-old. We’ve had our fair share of pediatricians come through the area. It was nearly a decade before we found another doc like him: knowledgeable, calming AND actually seems to like children.
Want my advice? Find a good pediatrician who is each of these things and blackmail him into never moving his practice out of town! But then we both know that it isn’t really advice…. So you should just do it my way! 
