Becoming a parent has been one of the best things that has happened to me to date. However, I will also have to say that it has been one of the hardest things I have ever experienced. After having a baby I came to the realization that everything stops being about you. Every decision we make we have to stop and think how said decision is going to affect the baby.
BECOMING A PARENT: THE THINGS NO ONE TELLS YOU
The sleep deprivation is no joke. Our little guy just likes being around us, at least that is what we tell ourselves. He does not like to go to bed on his own. We have been trying to sleep train him. The only advice I ever give anyone pregnant (a lot of people hate getting parenting advice) is to accept any help family offers. My husband and his mom would watch the baby while I took a quick nap in the evenings. That hour or two really left me refreshed.
You will find yourself doing laundry ALL the time. I hate doing laundry. I absolutely loathe it. My husband knows my hate for doing laundry so that is one thing he helps out with.
When your child is breastfed they will go through a phase in the first 3 months where they only want you. They know your heart beat, your voice, your smells from being in the womb. Its only natural that you end up being the only person at times that can help calm them. Everyone tells me they are not babies for long and to cherish each of these moments.
Every baby is different- this is a phrase a lot of friends and family would say to me. I would roll my eyes and thought with all the research and inquiries we had made we had everything figured out. Nope! Each baby should come with a manual. They are all different and its all trial and error till you figure out what works for YOUR child.
Breast feeding is hard. We spend so much time preparing for the birth of the baby, but no one thinks to prepare for the breastfeeding piece. I thought babies come out and automatically know what they should be doing, however, there is so much more to them latching. Latching properly at that, so you do not end up with raw nipples. It takes your milk a few days to come in and I wish I would have known what to do if that happened. Most of what I read said that what comes out is enough to keep your baby satisfied, however, that was not the case for our little one. I remember crying in the middle of the night in the hospital because he just would not sleep. One of the nurses suggested giving him formula because he was hungry and I was all for it. I breast fed him during the day so my milk would come in and we would supplement with formula for his midnight feeding. That helped a lot.
You wil cry a lot. Your hormones are still out of wack and you will find yourself emotional. I remember holding the baby the first week and just balling my eyes out. The lack of sleep did not help any. I did not realize how hard it is to be up every 2-3 hours to nurse the baby and then try to go right back to sleep. After about 2 months you become a pro at it and your body somewhat gets used to functioning with less hours of sleep.
Your body will be different and you have to try and embrace your postpartum mom bod. We have not had much time to get back into working out. We do try to eat as healthy as we possibly can.
They will reach milestones, and if you are a working parent they tend to do all the cool stuff at daycare. I cried when I got a text that he was sitting, rolling over, and crawling. Oh, they also never do the cool stuff when you take them home and try to encourage them to roll over. The best piece of advice I got after crying to another working mom that I missed him rolling over was “Celebrate those milestones when your child does it in front of you. Do not dwell on what is happening at daycare.”
You will love your little one more than you will ever know. Nothing brings us more joy than seeing his happy smile in the morning and when I pick him up from daycare. Listening to him laugh and get excited. Watching my husband come up with songs to entertain and see our son look up to him and smile intently.
I honestly would not trade becoming a parent and this mom life in for anything.