Never will we ever...

So I've been wanting to do this post for a while and now that we are road tripping to Gas City for shower #1 I finally have Chris pinned down long enough for us to talk about it without any distractions - 4 hours in the car in a snow storm will do that for you! 

For years we've caught ourselves saying "One of these days when we have kids we will never do that" or "we will for sure do this" and then we sit back and just laugh because we know that it will all change when our little one is here because let's face it - we have no clue what we are doing or what we are getting ourselves into. So I want to start with a few things that I said I would never do or would do during pregnancy that have proven to be true or not true:

1. I swore up and down I would be the healthiest pregnant lady around! Dark leafy greens, nothing fried, all natural organic everything. You get the point. Well as I sit here with a belly full of hash brown and egg mc muffin I can tell you that's so not true. Case in point - I gained 8 lbs in the last two weeks. However I did make some changes - I cut out all artificial sweeteners including my beloved Splenda and sugar free gum (I chew pur gum now with no aspartame - not fab but an acceptable solution) and we do eat organic. But as for kale or many other leafy greens - ain't seen one leaf of it for 9 months! It's not because I intentionally am trying to be unhealthy but I've been fortunate this pregnancy with no nausea - only food aversions which include many veggies and chicken - big time.

2. I was going to be the mom lifting and running at the gym at 9 moths pregnant. Here I consider this a half win - I didn't work out until week 16 because of the hemorrhage but since then I've managed to work out consistently 5-6 days a week. Never at the gym and no running - but strength training and cardio videos at home!

3. We are still going to travel and go out while pregnant just the way we did before . All I can do is laugh at this one! Because of the scare I refused to get on a plane this whole pregnancy and most nights I'm in bed before 8pm - but I'm perfectly happy with that! 

So now that leads me to the things we say we will never do (or will for sure do) when baby Wik joins us. Mommas, you might want to stop drinking your coffee because I'm sure most of these will be hilarious to you!

1. We will never feed our kid chicken nuggets and hot dogs. Ok - we won't consistently let them survive on a diet of chicken nuggets, hot dogs and happy meals. Seems like this is an easy way to pacify kiddos and they seem to love them - we just are hoping we can avoid the love of nuggets - or really the inability to eat anything but chicken nuggets - for as long as possible.

2. We plan to take the baby out with us all the time. Meaning we plan to keep up our schedule of going out for dinner Friday and Saturday nights. We also plan to our the baby in the carrier or stroller and attend all the same festivals and street fairs that we've come to love living in Chicago in the summer!

3. We don't want the baby's sleep schedule to control our lives. We are all for maintaining and sleep and nap schedule that the baby can get used to but we also want to get the baby used to sleeping wherever we are - if that be the mall, grandma and grandpas house for dinner, or a party. I know everyone says this may be impossible but our naive, not yet parent minds think maybe it can be done 😀

4. We want to travel with the baby from day 1. As soon as the doc says momma and baby are fine to travel we want to do so. Ideally we would love to take baby to Hawaii this fall/winter and I've heard from a lot of moms there is a lot of stuff you have to travel with in the earlier months but that it's easier to go when they aren't so mobile yet.

5. We would like baby to not get used to playing with the iPad, iPhone or other electronics - especially at dinner. Books and little toys are ok - but we'd prefer they learn to interact with us or keep themselves occupied without so many electronics. We survived without them - I'm sure they can too.

6. I've said I plan to make all baby's food on my own. (Chris is not in on this one - he said he can't make his own lunch how's he going to make baby food?!). This is something I am hoping to follow through on!

7. We plan to leave the baby with family and friends early on to have a momma and daddy date! We think in our minds this is going to be easy - I'm second guessing that! ☺️

8. We'll never holler at our kids in public. I am not the most patient person - I hope baby Wik changes that. But when this happens it just makes me cringe and makes me so uncomfortable. Case in point - today in the line for the bathroom at the gas station a mom was screaming at her daughter for accidentally dropping a marker on her dress when they were driving to the point where it made me uncomfortable! I hope this is something as a mom I can avoid.

Lastly I want to say that this post isn't meant to be judgemental at all so please please don't take it that way. It's the same as when I posted about the decisions we were making for our family about cord blood banking, circumcision, etc - this is an outlet and a journal of sorts for me that I look back and reflect on often. I know many absolutely amazing parents who do everything on the list above and their kids are perfect and just fine! It's more for Chris and I to look back at this in 6 months or a year and giggle and say to each other "haha look at how naive and dumb we really were" as we are throwing a chicken nugget in baby Wik's mouth while he or she is playing candy crush on my phone as we rush out of a party because nap time is in 20 minutes...

XOXO

K