A friend who had a baby six months ago wrote to me last night that she was waiting for things to return to normal. Those weren’t her exact words, but it got me thinking about parenting and how things are never the same again. With the birth of a child, comes the birth of a new normal. And the normal changes from hour to hour, day by day, week by week. That’s the thing about parenting: you think you’re onto something and the game changes or the rules change. But the really crazy thing about the new normal? You wouldn’t have it any other way.
Normal used to be eight or more hours of uninterrupted sleep, coupled with naps on the weekends. The new normal is rarely getting a night of uninterrupted sleep and when you do, you panic and run to the child’s room to make sure he or she is still breathing. Or, on nights you could be sleeping, you lie awake and watch them sleep. This new normal isn’t so bad after all because it’s tiny toes in your side or snoring in your arms. The sleep thing is one of the hardest parts of the new normal, but eventually, (they say), it gets easier.Continue Reading