"You take the good, you take the bad..."

"You take them both and there you have the facts of life."

A funny thing happened last week that I thought was interesting and thought I'd share. Within about 48 hours, I had two friends send their condolences because they had read my blog and was sorry that John and I had to go through all these hard, difficult times with Jack. Then a different two friends saw me and complained that my blog was too happy and made motherhood seem too easy. The really interesting part? All four of these people were new moms. So I was confused. Previously I was worried that I was complaining too much about the little guy and all the trouble he was giving us. Then I thought twice and thought that maybe I posted too many smiley pictures of Jack. So, I don't know. Here's what I've come up with. By some miracle, I know about 10 women who have had babies in the past 6 months. And of course I read some new mommy blogs. As far as I can tell, Jack is definitely not an easy baby. Some of these babies sleep for most of the night, love being thrown into a carrier on their moms chests, and will nap in their car seats. But, while he's not easy, I also don't think he's the most difficult. He's not colicky, doesn't have acid reflux or any health problems, and he doesn't really cry that much. Well, he will cry, but not if we hold and bounce him. (that's another blog post for another time.) So he's rarely inconsolable. He gets fussy in the evenings like every other baby but he's also all smiles and laughs for certain parts of the day.

So what do I think? It's just fascinating how completely different the motherhood experience is. How many variations there are in new baby behavior. I hope no one reads this blog and thinks that John and I are suffering too bad. Yes, the lack of sleep is rough but Jack is so alert and so happy that it's a fair trade-off. And of course I also don't want anyone to think that I'm making motherhood sound easy. That's ridiculous! In fact, I'm already brainstorming a post about all the ways that motherhood is hell. But I'll save that for when Jack is really behaving badly. :)