Moving Backward

I was thinking back recently of my son’s birth and the difficulties that came into our family. My daughter was one month shy of turning terrible two, and she was already proving the saying true. In preparing for our newborn to arrive, we moved Eden out of her crib and into a new bedroom a month before Lance was born. After he came along and turned her world upside-down, life went just a little crazy for all of us.

We all know babies are supposed to wake up frequently for feedings, but our two-year-old was waking up at dead hours of the night too, if for no other reason than she could. Two kids waking up throughout the night on different schedules is not going to produce a happy or healthy mommy.

One night after finally getting Lance to fall asleep around 1 am, Eden came barreling into our room around 2. And I had enough. While I can’t stand the adage, “If Mamma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy,” I think it applied in this case. Thus CHANGE occurred in the Joseph household. Eden was put back into her crib, and everyone slept much better henceforth.

The reason I bring up this story in a health blog is that I learned a lesson that can be applied in more areas than just life-with-a-two-year-old-and-a-newborn. One lesson is that it’s okay to change policy if it’s not working, no matter how backwards it might seem. Plowing ahead gung-ho might be a recipe for burn-out. Another lesson is that part of caring for others means caring for self. (If I didn’t get enough sleep, I was a lousy mom.) And another lesson, something that seems like progress might not be progress at all if it’s not working. In fact, it may just be wishful thinking.

I think about my health strategies and apply life lessons like these. Some health advise works, and some doesn’t. I may have started something that I didn’t finish because it wasn’t working. Sometimes going backward on something is actually moving forward.

Moving Backward

I was thinking back recently of my son’s birth and the difficulties that came into our family. My daughter was one month shy of turning terrible two, and she was already proving the saying true. In preparing for our newborn to arrive, we moved Eden out of her crib and into a new bedroom a month before Lance was born. After he came along and turned her world upside-down, life went just a little crazy for all of us.

We all know babies are supposed to wake up frequently for feedings, but our two-year-old was waking up at dead hours of the night too, if for no other reason than she could. Two kids waking up throughout the night on different schedules is not going to produce a happy or healthy mommy.

One night after finally getting Lance to fall asleep around 1 am, Eden came barreling into our room around 2. And I had enough. While I can’t stand the adage, “If Mamma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy,” I think it applied in this case. Thus CHANGE occurred in the Joseph household. Eden was put back into her crib, and everyone slept much better henceforth.

The reason I bring up this story in a health blog is that I learned a lesson that can be applied in more areas than just life-with-a-two-year-old-and-a-newborn. One lesson is that it’s okay to change policy if it’s not working, no matter how backwards it might seem. Plowing ahead gung-ho might be a recipe for burn-out. Another lesson is that part of caring for others means caring for self. (If I didn’t get enough sleep, I was a lousy mom.) And another lesson, something that seems like progress might not be progress at all if it’s not working. In fact, it may just be wishful thinking.

I think about my health strategies and apply life lessons like these. Some health advise works, and some doesn’t. I may have started something that I didn’t finish because it wasn’t working. Sometimes going backward on something is actually moving forward.