Advice: Take it, or Leave it?

I'm not the best at taking advice. I'm very picky about the advice I'm willing to take. It has to come from people I trust, and who have the same mommy-ing style as me. It has to make sense in my mind, and it has to fit into how I want to raise my kids. But there has been some advice that I've passed up that I wish I had followed.

The one I thought about the other day, as I was rummaging through all my boys old baby clothes. It came from my mom. She told me, "Just dress them in the outfits you like as often as you can. That's how you'll enjoy them the most, and they grow so fast you'll just want to enjoy them."

I stupidly thought, "I have to use every piece of clothing I have, so that every piece gets good use out of it. I won't do wash until I absolutely need clean clothes."

Now looking through all their clothes just makes me sad because we have all these cute outfits that I feel like I barely got to see them wear. And now that we are just having one I'm realizing that I may not get to enjoy these clothes again. There's just so many one baby is not going to be able to wear them all.

I came cross some other advice that I know I need to follow. It came from a baby magazine- usually not a place I turn to for advice. It was a "What's Your Mommy Style" quiz and, even though I somehow tied between all 3 mommy styles, there was part of one of the mommy styles that stuck out to me.

It said something along the lines of you are good at keeping a schedule, which is good for your baby, but remember to not let your schedule control you. You need to be willing to let things slide.

So true! Not only for schedules, but for other things in my life. I'm OCD, and being so can lead to me to have momentary outbursts of insanity. Sometimes I get so frustrated when I can't get a good routine down with the cloth diapers, or I can't get all the clothes on the clothes line, or I didn't empty the dishwasher in time, so now I'm going to have to do two loads of dishes a day instead of one, or we go out one day and play and come back to a very messy house. When I get like this I just need to remember to take a step back, and let the pieces fall. I don't have to have the house picked up everyday. I can pick it up tomorrow. The dirty dishes will still be there tomorrow for me to wash, so don't worry about it. If all the clothes don't fit on the clothes line then just dry them in the dryer, and go ahead and use disposable diapers for a couples days until you get the wash all caught up. You'll still be saving money.

Yes, my OCD can have dangerous effects on me. I'm grateful for it most the time because it leads to things running smoothly. But when the train starts to crash, the buzzers go off in my head and I have to calm myself down and say, "Things are just going to happen no matter how hard you try to prepare."

One last story. We bought a triplet stroller from a lady who, consequently had triplets. All girls, and one had Autism. She also had an older daughter with autism. We also found out that she is a single mother. She must be a truly amazing person, and I wish her the best. But we were talking, and I was telling her that we were so glad to have found this stroller because we heard that it would just be a lifesaver with the new baby. She told us that was for sure. She said this stroller, and lollipops, were the best things in the world when her babies were little.

Isn't it so true? I can't tell you how many times suckers have gotten us out of a hard place. I love those things. Even if they do end up making a big mess.