This will be a random collection of things Cyndi and I have been talking about related to baby stuff. If you want the details, read more…. 1st and foremost, this baby is God's (I'm not getting into the whole infant dying are they in heaven discussion right now nor am I trying to take a stand on election at this point in time. I simply mean that God created this child.) and Cyndi and I want to raise this child up how God wants us to. If he/she feels God's call later in life to the mission field, awesome! If he/she doesn't, that is also awesome!
Raising kids…someone said they don't come with an instruction manual. That's true; however, we can learn alot from others. I'm not one for new "programs" or new "techniques" without a point. I mean people have been raising other people for about 6,000 years now…that is certanly enough time to shake things out and get lots of good general guidelines. I want to learn from people who have had 2 or 3 kids. I want to learn from our parents and grandparents (and Aunt Gert who is 96). I want to learn from the family at church who has 8 kids. I'm not one to rush out and buy the newest "program." Here's an example:
One time an aunt of mine was visiting Berea when we were all there. She had her first child, and he was crying. The council of everyone else there (my mom, other aunts, grandma, great aunts, etc…) was that the baby was hungry and needed fed. Her reply was that the dr. said to give the baby x amount of stuff every x hours and it wasn't time yet.
Here is another example:
Cyndi got given this book (I haven't read it yet) about putting your kids on a schedule (I'm not talking about a set bedime, etc… here). I told her that in addition to reading that book, I would like to read one dealing with the alternative then make up our minds. One of the things that caught my attention was that the book was copyright 1995. 1995! As I said before, humans have been raising kids for about 6,000 years….I'd rather learn from that expereince and put the tried and true guidelines into practice before I would a book written 10 years ago.
We went to Babies R Us last night. What a place…they have so so much stuff. And so much stuff I haven't a clue about 🙂 So, I was asking Cyndi what's the point a lot. They had about 2 isles full of swings and things…all different shapes, styles, and movements. I know everyone has one, but what do they do? Why do they do what they do? What did they do before?
They had a whole isle full of soap, shampoo, etc…. Isn't that what J&J No Tears baby shampoo is for? How about lotion…they had what looked like tons. Don't you put baby oil on babies?
Pacifiers….they had tons and tons. What for? Doesn't the child just suck on them? If they don't want it, what's the big deal? What point do they serve? Do they just keep the kid quiet? What about damaging their <whatever>? I mean they suck to get milk….what happens if they keep sucking and sucking on this thing and get nothing…will they give up eventually?
Feeding older babies. Why start with rice cereal? What did they do before they had that stuff? Why not just moosh up real food and give them? There is something to be said for the convienience of Gerber if you are going out, etc…., but I doubt that Noah had rice cereal to feed his son's when they were growing up 5,000 years ago.
We found a walker (what looked like a good old fashioned kid walker). That was so cool. I thought they quit making them because of saftey reasons, but I guess not. My mom talks about me walking around in my walker as a kid so I think it would be neat to have one for our child. Right now, we have an awesome house for one…no carpet anywhere…just hardwood floors.
Anyway, I could go on and on. If you stumble across this post, I'd like to hear your feedback. Do you have kids? What did you do? What did you find out worked for you? What did you think would work but it turned out to be fluff?