It's supposed to come naturally right?

I was talking with a friend about a mutual friend that just had a baby. She was telling me about how the new mommy is finally getting into the swing of the breast feeding and the baby is getting bigger, etc, etc.  This Mom is the epitome of an earthy Mom.  She wanted a birth at home, natural baby clothes and cloth diapers for the baby.  You get the idea. So to be struggling with something so natural as breast feeding was killing her.  I just remember thinking the same thing with Gabby.  Here I was with my first.  I got these HUGE knockers and just couldn't figure out how to make it all work.  Seemed like it shouldn't be that hard.  Screaming baby.  Big full boobs.  Yep that seemed like a 2+2 equation, but it really was not that easy.  But isn't that like parenthood in general?

I can tell you that my idea of being a parent before I had kids was so far from what it is now that I actually have my three darlings.  My pre-kid images definitely matched more of the Pampers commercials, Hallmark movie specials, kind of feel. Woman has a child.  Naturally fits into being the perfect Mother.  Kids grow into  overly intelligent/athletic/Olympians by the age of 10.  All naturally perfect.  The reality is the only thing that comes naturally to me is loving them. All the rest of this parenting stuff is foreign and half the time I think they can tell I'm making it up as I go along.   

I thought about my new Mommy friend for the rest of the day and I just wanted to tell her to give herself a break.  Yeah we were blessed (not so sure about that) with being able to provide but that doesn't mean we necessarily can or even want to.  Our baby won't think any less of us.  We aren't naturally going to know the right answer always, but as long as our kids know they have a brick to fall back on if they need it, they will be strong little people.  And if every day we try to help guide them into being the best people they can possible be then we have used our biggest natural ability, love, to it's fullest.