Worries

Baby Z has had a very uneventful and healthy first 11 months. Perhaps that is why I tend to make up things to worry about.

I've heard it's a first child phenomenon to worry about every little thing. John and I had a 30-minute "discussion" while I was on the verge of hysterics when Baby Z was 2 weeks old about whether my Mom's dog would be a contaminant for him or not. Dog germs and temperature were John's big anxieties in the first month. Mine was all related to breastfeeding and clocks.

And it seems that every new stage brings it's own set of worries (see Child Proofing). After the baby starts crawling, you realize quickly that they are going to be touching everything you don't want them to. It only took two times of finding Baby Z gnawing on my shoe to stop freaking out about it (however, we do put our shoes away now rather than leaving them out). I've started to relax a lot with germ-y thing, too, letting Baby Z touch tabletops at restaurants and not disinfecting his toys every time they touch the ground (unless it's outside or in public places). Okay, so I'm still a little germ-phob...or...uh conscious, let's say.

My latest worries (thank you all for saving me a therapist's bill) are about developmental milestones like pulling up and progressing to more mature food. Baby Z is getting more and more coordinated in his crawling, and he can even hold onto a table and stand up on his own (until he forgets and randomly lets go-yikes!). But his crawl has never been traditional with his belly off the floor. He does the commando crawl, pushing with one leg and has the blister on his right big toe to prove it. As for progressing in his solid food... he has lately developed an overly dramatic (in my opinion) gag reflex. Anything I put on his tray for him to try feeding himself is immediately suspect. Paradoxically, anything found on the ground is fair game for his mouth. Sigh. Oh, and the sippy cup...man, the sippy cup. This is an object only for chewing, apparently.

So, I vacillate between being convinced I'm a bad mother and determination to keep trying, come what may (including vomit). A little research online helped me understand the developmental aspect of learning to chew, so I'm relaxing a bit and trying a number of different things to see what might be easier for Baby Z. And as for the pulling up and walking, I have to keep reminding myself how one day Baby Z just rolled over. Just like that-- it clicks. So, relax, Mom, and enjoy the current stage, because before you know it Baby Z will be begging for cookies and bumping his head into every sharp corner in the house.