By Andrea Seagrave
For our first child, my husband and I planned everything as well as two first time parents possibly could. We read several books on newborns and how to care for them, parenting philosophies, and discipline philosophies. We spent hours poring over safety information about car seats, strollers, flying with a baby, immunizations, and every other conceivable concern. When she arrived, of course we encountered daily challenges, but we still feel as if all our preparation was not in vain, and that we were well on our way to winning some sort of parenting trophy for all our efforts.
It didn’t hurt that we had plenty of help and knowledge of several parenting resources in our community, such as The Motherhood Center, playgroups, and a loving grandmother willing to help at the drop of a hat. We approached parenting with confidence and enthusiasm, and we loved almost every minute of it (not the reflux minutes, not the gassy minutes, not the constipation minutes, and certainly not the oh-my-goodness-why-won’t-she-stop-crying-minutes, but most of the minutes, yes).
Life was good.
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