So True

Okay so I love Parents magazine. I had never gotten a subscription to it until a few months ago when I bought a thermometer that came with a free subscription. This is one magazine I will always have in my home, until my kids are older. Last night I couldn't put it down. We had rented "Failure to Launch" and I told Jody to go ahead and start it without me because I was engrossed in my current issue of Parents. My favorite part this month was an article about the difference between having your first child and your second. Well let me just quote it because no one could have said it better.

"When you first become a mother, every little decision can throw you into a fit of anxiety. Should you pick up your baby or let her cry? Is it okay to call the doctor at 2 a.m. about a rash? Too many women stress themselves out instead of enjoying the experience. But baby number two is a different story. By then, the angst is gone. You've learned to trust your instincts and figured out how to make life simpler." One mother said, "I worried about the timing of every milestone when Isabella was a baby. When would she roll over? When would she start walking? I never stopped to appreciate our little moments together. When Michael was born two and a half years later, I stopped obsessing and let myself enjoy the baby stage. So what if he walked a little later? That just meant I got to hold and cuddle him even more."

I think this article explains exactly how I felt as a first time mom. SO overwhelmed! But when Cohen was born I wasn't worried about the lack of sleep, when he would start crawling or eating solid foods because I suddenly realized that this time truly does fly by and I just wanted to enjoy it while I could. I was in too big of a hurry for Ammon to get bigger, so we could do fun things together, to enjoy him as a baby. With Cohen I have tried to enjoy this precious time.

Another article I read both scared me and made me aware of the risks of drowning. As many of you know we spend much of our summer at Trinity Lake and this article was really good for me to read. I am very paranoid with my kids when I go to the lake. My mom told me just last weekend while we were there that if one of my kids fell in the lake we would have time to get to him because they wouldn't just sink. Untrue mom, the article says they would sink to the bottom like a rock. Yes, horrible to think about but it will keep me in paranoia which could be a good thing. It also says not to leave kiddie pools out with water in them because even a 3 year old could get a mouthful of water, get scared, not know what to do and drown in a few minutes. Lastly it says a child will lose consciousness after 2 minutes and suffer irreversible brain damage within 4 to 6 minutes. I tell you all this not to scare you but because I know a lot of you have kids and want you to be aware of the risks of drowning. Our kids are so precious and we have to keep them safe. If you have access to this magazine please read it! Let me just finish with this.

"The bottom line is that drowning is almost always preventable, emphasizes Dr. Eichelberfer. "Whenever you're in or near the water, you should be able to reach out and touch your child. Sadly when a child drowns or is disabled after a near-drowning, parents have to live with the fact that they could have done something to protect him. You never want to be in that position."