Harper is nearing 6 months of age. Wow. She giggles...a lot. She smiles all the time, she "talks," eats well from a spoon and has outgrown her baby tub. Don't get me wrong -- she cries, too. She is very vocal. She has good nights where she is asleep by 8 and doesn't wake until 6. She also has nights where she wakes up at 2 and again at 5. Her naps are getting better, but her morning nap is the worst. It lasts 37 minutes -- almost exactly...everytime.

A good friend came to visit us last week. She brought her 6-week old son, Beckett. We had a chance to catch up. She is one of the few people who was absolutely real with me about having a baby. (Beckett is her second child.) We talked about motherhood. She told me that there are two things moms lie about: how their baby sleeps and how much weight they gained. Haha. Hysterical. As if either impacts the type of parent you are. It's crazy how moms (and dads, whether they mean to or not) make each other feel guilty about their parenting choices. It's the formula vs. breastfed babies, stomach sleepers vs. back sleepers, natural birth (no drugs) vs. vaginal vs. c-section, stay-at-home moms vs. back-to-work moms. It's just crazy. It's also sad. Instead of knocking each other down, we should be supporting each other. 

Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive. When I hear people say "but we want to do it naturally," I can't help but take it as a little jab. I am sure most women start out wanting to do it naturally. I don't want to deter anyone from that. I can also say, my baby was 9 lbs 5 oz and 21.5 inches long. I didn't have a c-section....but you can be certain that I had an epidural. I didn't ask for one until the pain of the contractions was too much and there was not much time in between them. See, I went from 2cm dilated to 10cm in a matter of 2-3 hours. I was given pitocin because my water broke. Once your water breaks, they like to deliver the baby within 24 hours to prevent infection. Pitocin speeds up the process, but it also intensifies the contractions. Let's just say...it was a humbling experience. I have broken my arm twice, crushed a pinky and had a couple surgeries on it, fractured my tailbone, my tooth busted through my lip, and fractured my foot (twice). I thought I could handle pain.

My focus has remained unchanged...Harper is almost 6 months. She is an absolute angel who smiles when she sees me, tries to eat my face, holds her arms out to the dogs while she closes her eyes (she knows they will lick her), giggles when her daddy tickles her belly, loves being in the stroller, and doesn't judge us as parents. She doesn't care that I gained quite a bit of weight while pregnant (mostly me indulging, but also being a teacher on my feet all day didn't leave much energy for exercise), she doesn't care that I had an epidural, and she certainly doesn't judge me because I didn't go back to work. The only people who care about that are people who don't matter.