The Mystery of What you Don't Know
And some hopefully helpful tips for becoming a new parent.
When I was pregnant with my first baby I was terrified of everything I didn’t know yet. I studied and read books like there would be a test I could sit down and take. If I could only store enough of the “right” answers in my brain I’d be (we’d all be) F I N E. Well, what I know now is that there isn’t one test but a series of tests, pop quizzes, and essays that mostly appear unexpectedly and the content is always changing. There is no “right” answer, there are many probably good answers, and those also change. How fun, right?
I was searching in the pages of books and the voices of podcasters for some unknowable truth. We’ve been doing this whole populating the planet thing for so long, someone must have unlocked how many types of babies there are in the world and what they need in a given moment. And while on a very (very) broad scale that’s true: usually the answers are food, sleep, or unbridled chaos (just kidding, snuggles is the third one, but also, chaos), it’s also true that there are as many ways to soothe a crying baby as there are babies in the universe. Uncanny! Almost like we are unique individuals. How rude.
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