Breaking Some Of The Rules

Words & Photography
by Chantelle Nelson



Saturdays are for slow mornings, strong coffee, and our very first attempt at tummy time.

I broke all the parenting rules last night and Zion slept curled up on my chest all night and we had a great, restful sleep with no middle-of-the-night tears or screams. I asked the Lord if letting him sleep on my chest in our bed would be okay. He sweetly reassured me and said, "Right now, Zion just needs to be close to know that you'll never leave him. He needs that security right now - to know that you'll always be there." So I slept with my cuddly son lying on my chest all night with full confidence that he was going to be just fine!

It's easy to think you're going to parent in this ideal, by-the-book kind of a way...But when push comes to shove, and your child needs something different, you bend and you shift to what works in the moment.

It's easy to think you're going to parent in this ideal, by-the-book kind of a way...that was always my Type-A intent. But when push comes to shove, and your child needs something different, you bend and you shift to what works in the moment. I'm realizing that I've almost had to unlearn, in a sense, what I've read in all these parenting books because my child simply isn't a cookie cutter, babywise, happiest baby on the block, mold of a child. He has his own specific set of needs that I won't always find in the chapters of these parenting books. And he is my focus - even if it means breaking some of the rules.