All About Baby Emails and the Stress that Follows

When I was pregnant I signed up for all of those weekly emails that told me what to expect that week of pregnancy. I was hoping that I'd show symptoms for weeks in advance and that I'd stop being pregnant a month before my due date. That didn't happen. While I did show advanced symptoms,  I was right on track for my due date. Sad.

Anyway, now that the boy is finally here, I still get weekly emails from these places telling me what my baby should be doing.

 
Baby should be rolling over both ways? Crap! He gets stuck on his tummy and gets mad and won't go on his back again. Is he slow?

Baby should be sitting unassisted? He just slumps over, and then his fat belly gets in the way and he cries and/or falls over. Is he retarded?

Baby should be holding his own spoon? What? He's 6 months old! He just bangs himself in the eye with a spoon. Is he falling so behind that he's going to be the drooling weirdo in the corner when he's 6 years old?

Baby should be able to drink out of a cup? Ok, maybe he can do this one, we just have to try it out. Maybe he's not retarded.

Baby should be crawling? He's so behind! He only rocks on his hands and knees. Is his brain not functioning at the 6 month level?

Baby should be saying "ma" and "da"? He's only saying "guh" and "uh". 

Am I a bad parent? Am I hampering his success? Will he fail to thrive because I'm not pushing him to do these things yet?

Oh the stress!

Evan pointed out that these emails are at least helping us to know what we should be practicing with him, so I guess I'll keep reading them. And stressing that my baby is challenged.

Even if he is "challenged", he's pretty cute.