I am starting to take issue with all these wives' tales. While I appreciate where the original thinking came from, I find that these 'tales' have gotten a bit ridiculous. Now, keep in mind that my family is foreign--meaning that we have all kinds of tales and home remedies. And, maybe, without realizing it I still follow or believe in many of these.
Here are a few that stick out in my mind and I have offered a NWT (new wives' tale):
1) OWT: Never wake a sleeping baby.Yes, if they are a newborn, maybe. I never had much reason to wake up Evan when he was a little baby. If he slept longer than 4 hours I would start to watch the clock since he was nursing and needed the nutrients. But as he got older it started becoming necessity sometimes. Like today--we were out and about and he fell asleep in the car about 5 minutes from home and 20 minutes from lunch. He was so pooped that I put him in his crib when we got home and let him sleep, but at 1240 I decided to wake him up--he didn't have his after nap bottle or any lunch. If I continued to let him sleep he would have missed milk and a meal and his entire schedule would have been so off it would have screwed up his afternoon nap. He is now playing quietly and will go down for his regularly scheduled nap in about 45 minutes.
NWT: It is bad for the baby to miss meals due to off-schedule naps.
2) Cutting a child's hair before the age of 1 is bad luck. I am lucky that I have a great mother in law that I love and respect, so for her I waited until Evan's first birthday to cut his hair. For most kids, this isn't an issue but my kid came out with a full head of hair and it only got longer as time went on. For many months I had to deal with Evan trying to blink hair out of his eyes or try, unsuccessfully, to swipe it out of them. I'm surprised he didn't end up cross-eyed. It started getting a little upsetting watching him be bothered with his long, wispy bangs. So, next kid will get a very small bang trim if needed and I will still give a ceremonious 1st birthday haircut.
NWT: If your child's hair is constantly in his or her eyes, it should be trimmed so as not to affect their vision.
3) Raising your arms above your head while you are pregnant can cause the umbilical cord to wrap around baby's neck. This one is just ridiculous anymore. I was at the grocery store and couldn't reach something on the top shelf--even if I weren't pregnant--so I asked an employee to help me out. As he was getting it for me, I hear "you shouldn't be reaching above your head anyway". "I'm sorry--you don't look at all like my doctor", is what I wish I would have said to her but I just ignored her. There are so many things wrong with this I don't know where to begin. Are you saying a pregnant woman can't wash her own hair? And, have the wonderful ladies that teach prenatal yoga been putting my baby at harm while I am selfishly trying to stay in good shape? Please, woman. Keep your completely ridiculous, and unsolicited, tales to yourself!
NWT: Participating in proper prenatal exercise on a regular basis is very good for both mom and baby, even if that requires your arms to raise above your head.
Sometimes I get sucked in to some superstitions because, like I said, I am still a bit superstitious about some things. But sometimes I will just have to follow my own intuition about what's best for me and my baby.
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