My Strong Willed Child

Look at this redhead... Can you tell he's Irish?!

Before I had Noah, I think I lived under a cloud of naivete because I always looked at moms with toddlers misbehaving and thought "no way! Not gonna happen to me..." Ha. Was I wrong. I thought that parenting had to be easy; how could you not make your child do what you want him or her to do or what you tell him or her to do?

When I was pregnant with #1, we received many books on Christian parenting. We got lots of Dobson from both the Bealls and the Hawkins but the one book my mom gave me that I chaffed at was "Screamfree Parenting: The Revolutionary Approach to Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool" by Hal E. Runkel. Here we are, 2 years and 4 months post Noah's birth and I have only just started to read it. I should've begun it "years" ago.

So many times lately - maybe due to my 9 month pregnant hormones, or Dan NEVER, EVER being home to co-parent lately, or because of Noah just doing everything he can to test me - I have caught myself screaming at him in frustration. That is not good. My mom says she was guilty of screaming at me and Kelly (I remember a few times when we were screamed at) and she says she still regrets it. And I know that as soon as I have calmed down, I regret it right away.

Noah's so precious but so difficult. He is beyond Dobson's so called "strong willed child." I haven't ever seen a will as strong as his. He will look me dead in the eye while I tell him 'no,' and do exactly the opposite of what I say to do. It is maddening. Yet, he's got the sweetest spirit - I cannot get enough of that baby but I also cannot get away from him fast enough when he's in a defiant mood.

The child does not really respond to spankings - unless they are on a bare bottom and I hate having to do that unless absolutely necessary. What we have had to really buckle down on - because he responds to this - is the classic time out. We have bought a little mat that is his "time out mat" and it is small enough that I can take it wherever we go. We have just really started implementing this form of discipline so I will let you know how it goes.

I am so ready for "normal" again... Normal means that I have my husband back home and Noah has a daddy to help co-parent him and play with him; it means that I have Baby Ellyotte soon and I get to feeling "normal" again. I am a basket case of hormonal emotions lately due to stress and terrible lack of sleep. I swear I slept better in Noah's first weeks of life (because I craved sleep so desperately!) than I have in the past month. This is miserable!

Come on, baby girl! I am ready... Lots of contractions today but that means nothing to me. And even if I do go into labor, ceserean section is still inevitable (Praise the Lord! I am so thankful that will be our method of birth again).