This First Time Mom's First Year

Resurection

mamaswain — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 19:47:05 +0000

I found this blog again so I decided to resurrect it. My daughter is now almost 8 months old! Life with baby is much less painful at this stage, but it is still quite the experience. She has taken a liking to pulling my hair and pinching me any chance she gets. I read before that you should not react when they do this, because it will only encourage them, but you try not to scream when she has a fistful of flesh that she thinks she is taking with her! She is also been trying to crawl. She usually just ends up face planting into the carpet, but she is a very determined little girl. I’ll think of some more interesting stories to tell and get back to you later!

The First Four Weeks

mamaswain — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 23:51:04 +0000

I will spare you the details of labor. I’ll just say that no one can prepare you for the pain that you will go through, or the pure happiness you feel when they place that baby on your chest. She was all slimy and bloody and wet and the most wonderful little curmudgeon I have ever seen.

The first few nights were quite a challenge and as with the labor all my ideas of how I would parent my daughter went out the window. After being awake for over 24 hours straight, I gladly let the nurse take her to the nurse’s desk the second night we were there. I tried and tried and tried to get her to latch on correctly and was no better off by the time I left the hospital. Thanks to a very helpful lactation consultant, however, I was much more confident that I was failing no more than everyone else.

Once we got home it only got more challenging. Two weeks of feeling like I was doing everything wrong and losing my cool at every turn. The days weren’t too bad, but the nights were horrible. I was exhausted, stressed and overwhelmed. This tiny little girl’s life rested in my hands, and I felt like I was doing everything wrong. I couldn’t get her to eat, I couldn’t get her to sleep and my nipples felt like they had been gnawed on by rats. Brian was an angel. He helped me as best he could through it all. He sat up with me at night even though he had class and work in the morning. He changed many diapers that I told him he would never have to before she was born. He was my hero and I only got through it with help from him and God.

Now she is four weeks old and we finally have a routine down and I have my sanity back. We stay up until 11 pm and then I feed her lying down so she will fall asleep. Then she sleeps for 3-5 hours and wakes up to eat again. Then she sleeps until morning. There are still days when she wants to eat and eat and eat all day. I still get frustrated when I can’t figure out what she wants, and I still have so much more to learn. But looking back on the last four weeks I feel so accomplished. We have come so far. And I can’t wait to overcome the next challenge.

Hello world!

mamaswain — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 21:27:11 +0000

I have decided it might be fun to start a blog about what the first year of motherhood is like. I don’t know a thing about blogging so if I’m doing it wrong let me know. So to start off I’m not officially a mom yet, My due date was the 17th but my daughter, Charleigh Elizabeth, is a little tardy. So I am impatiently waiting for her arrival. It may actually be boredom that has caused me to start this blog in the first place.