Mothers groups are wonderful. It's such a pleasure to catch up with other mums who know exactly what you are going through. However there is always the temptation to compare bubs. Isaac is at least a month younger than most of the babies we know, so he is and always will be a little behind in achieving milestones. Adding to that the fact that he was born a month early, I know I have to give him time to get there. However, when everyone pops their baby on their tummy and the other babies raise their heads high on strong arms, Isaac gently lays his cheek against the floor and decides it's as good a time as any for a nap. I start to feel that twinge of mother guilt - what I am doing wrong? Until another mother looks wistfully at Isaac and says "I wish my baby could put himself to sleep like that." At the same time I am thinking "I need to give him more tummy time - he is so behind the other babies". Yet, just shy of 6 months, he decided the other day to roll over. I watched him roll, very precisely, from his back onto his tummy. He played there for a while and then rolled from his tummy to his back. I had been worrying for weeks that he hadn't rolled yet and was very behind on basic milestones.
Isaac has excelled at two things since birth - eating and sleeping (ah he is his father's son). We have had 10 hour stretches of sleep at night since he was around 9 weeks old, for which I am incredibly grateful. I am sure that this was no magic on my part and just an incredible stroke of luck. We have recently started solids and we can't shovel the carrot in fast enough for our little man. One mothers group I was feeding Isaac his favourite carrot when another mother asked "how is doing that? I must be doing something wrong." Mother's groups are wonderful but we need to make sure that we don't assume we are doing something wrong when the babies around us appear to be doing things differently. As I keep reminding myself - by the time they are 3 years old, they will have all caught up to one another. In the meantime I am enjoying my little baby whilst I can.
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