Parenting Book Overload

I was putting books back on the shelf, and I made the mistake of counting how many parenting books I've read in recent months....twelve. Most of these have to do with various parenting philosophies. The problem I've encountered is that nearly every book not only says it's the best way to parent an infant (of course), but has some very sharp criticism for all of the other books out there. Some of them actually name the other authors, and say that this or that is going to scar your child for life, make them unhealthy, make them not trust you, allow them to run your life, and on and on. There's attachment parenting, child-led feeding, demand feeding, parent-directed feeding, Ferberizing, the Baby Whisperer, Babywise, Happiest Baby on the Block, and on and on and on! Prior to becoming a parent myself, I had no idea about this huge debate going on (each with its own set of devotees, bloggers, endorsements, critics, etc.), and I'm glad. It's all too much for my brain to handle.

I need to stop reading these books! But it's sort of addictive because, in truth, I really don't know what I'm doing. All of this parenting stuff is pretty new to me, and I'm just learning as I go like everyone else. Anyway, whenever the library books come due I'm returning them and not getting them again. Gotta save my sanity. :)

It has been a LONG day!

So sleepy... After a somewhat difficult night that involved moving our car away from advancing floodwaters at 2:30am, then having baby at home by myself while Will was at church, then having the power go out, I finally couldn't take it anymore and a friend helped us get to her place. It is great to get out of the house, be with other people, and not think about the sandbagging and power outage going on at our place!

Flooding

It has barely stopped raining in the past 24 hours and it looks like we are in danger of flooding if the water keeps rising. From our window it looks like we may not be able get the car out of the alley tomorrow. As long as the first floor of our building doesn't flood!

One month old today!

I can't believe he's a month old already! Wow. Elijah is getting very big, and seems to be changing every day.