Well it's me again Margaret. There are so many things to write about and it has been driving me nutty not to get to tell you about them all sooner. I must get better and more timely because this is also serving as my record and journal of sorts. Here goes another long post, hope you're ready...
Motherhood is AMAZING! It is full of emotions, highs and lows, feelings of serious accomplishment and pride and then feelings of crazy doubt and fear. To start with they send you home from the hospital with this sweet bundle of joy and as many say, there is no manual. Ms. Lana and I have had an overly joyous learning experience this last month. I will preface the stories with everyone has an opinion and these are merely mine so take them or leave them, your choice. The most valuable lesson I learned through it all is that you do what works best for you and your baby and thank everyone for their input. Second most valuable is try your hardest to overcome the urge to compare yourself to other mothers. We all have strengths and weaknesses and some will share honestly the struggles and others will hide them and make you feel very incompetent if you let them. So don't! Now on to my experiences.
Breastfeeding was our greatest obstacle. Many of you may recall I had feared this during my pregnancy. I'll spare you all of the gruesome details of our pain and tears, but I will share a couple things I found amazingly interesting and helpful. First prepare yourself for when the milk comes in because my time as a proud member of the "itty bitty titty committee" was over in a very BIG way. It was really kind of scary. When people told me about leaking, I did not fully comprehend the fun that would entail. Let's just say that if you shower before a feeding watch out because when you get out that warm water has stimulated your milk and you will flow like Niagara Falls ladies. Be prepared. Sadly the scary things did not end there, but some lovely products and tips can help you ignore the not so pleasant and focus on the wonderful bonding experience. The most helpful product for me was a nipple shield. You can google for details on how it works and all just know that I LOVE that thing and it has played a major role in my continued efforts. More jewels are Lanolin and breastpads. They help you with the pain and the leaking. A helpful tip from my NP was to apply a warm washcloth and pump prior to feeding to aid in making feeding less painful. Granted that tip was pretty useless when I found my little friend the nipple shield, but you new breastfeeding moms may want to try to do it without the shield and might need that tidbit.
Sleep is another matter all together. Now for me I have been blessed with a GREAT baby girl and she started giving me three hour stretches very early. You will be amazed at what you can do with a three hour stretch of sleep. She has even gifted me with four, five and six (the six hour stretch only happened twice) stretches. This was another emotional experience for me because as a new mom I worry that I may be messing my baby girl up already. I'm sure you will experience this as well. Thank God for wonderful husbands and family to help you through those times. If she slept too little, I worried that my milk was not enough. If she slept the longer stretches, I worried that I should have woke her up because she would be malnourished. It's a mess people. This is where you will hear lots of opinions and when you're worried and sleep-deprived you will want to tell them what to do with those. Some will tell you to wake them up and make them eat. Others will tell you to never wake a sleeping baby. Babywise will have you rushing to get into the cycle of sleeptraining. If you're little bundle likes to snuggle with you to go to sleep, many will imply your baby is spoiled already. Ugghhh!!! I say enjoy the snuggles and cuddles and if you're baby falls asleep during a feeding or while you're holding them, just ENJOY every moment. I have found Lana will do this from time to time and yet she still knows how to soothe herself to sleep when awakened and she will fall asleep on her own when placed in the napper while drowsy. More importantly Lana does very well going to bed now and I do not lose hours of sleep worrying about others opinions or trying to make their method work for us. Yeah girl power soapbox posting haha
I'll step off the preaching for now and talk about what's going on now in our world. My mother who kindly gave her household to a babysitter so to speak and managed things from here so she could help me, has gone home now. It was a great visit. During her stay we had my Aunt Angie come in town for a week. They were so funny together and both were very helpful. Daniel took them on field trips during a couple days so that they did not get house-a-tosis while Lana and I were sticking around the house. Mom's last week here was accompanied by my stepfather and brother Joey. What a wonderful time we had that week. Lana and I were ready to venture out of the house so we all went for a BIG outing to Red Rocks, Boulder for lunch with Louis and Candy, and Golden for Woody's pizza. Lana handled it all like a champ! We also got to be together for Lana's first Easter. It was a truly blessed day. We made it to church as a family and then had a huge dinner with Andrea, Mark, Tony, and Chloe. My cup runneth over for sure. Mom and everyone went home and Poppy Mike came in town. We were very excited and thankful for his visit. This mommy usually is a blubbering mess when her mommy leaves. Poppy Mike's visit helped me transition with only a few less tears. Daniel and Mike got to go skiing, they installed us these nice, new lights in the basement and we all got to hike around Roxborough Park. Lovely family memories were made.
Now everyone has gone home and we are having our first week solo to start establishing our routine. Things are going very well so far. We have been preparing for our upcoming travels and today we are enjoying a lot of SNOW in April. It has been a busy week. I have also started to workout again using Jillian Michael's 30-Day Shred video. Boy has that kicked my booty, but it is no fun leaving the hospital without what once was a "cute, all baby belly," and now is a flabby belly. This mommy has a trip to GA at the end of the month and trips to San Francisco and St. Louis at the end of next month and she needs to fit back in her pre-pregnancy clothing fast!
Well it is almost time for sweet girl to wake up and I used this nap time to type like a madwoman instead of many of the other tasks awaiting my attention like putting away laundry, dishes, thank you notes, reading, cleaning, etc. Time management is a topic for another day...a day when I hopefully have a great rockstar system to share with you. For now we tread water and do what we can during naps ha Have a great week people! I'll try to share more soon.
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