The Mom I Want To Be

Greetings all, and welcome to my first post as a new mom (aside from my labor and delivery story  that began while I was still pregnant). Life after birth and with a newborn can be rough. Life after c-section birth with a newborn can be especially rough. You can get through it if you have a great support system, lots of opportunities to cry freely, and photos of when your baby is an angel to remind you that his own periods of crying freely will end eventually. Plus he will be an absolute adorable doll while he's asleep, and when he's awake will (sometimes) stare up at you with enormous eyes filled with wonder. But I'm here for some real talk--what to expect those first days and weeks after surgery and with a new, helpless baby in tow. The things no one tells you (aside from, "You will not get any sleep," which everyone tells you, and is absolutely true, for the record). #1. You will not get any sleep Don't think your situation might be different, th...

I wrote the majority of this post from my hospital bed two days after my son was born. Even though they say sleep when the baby sleeps, I was wide awake in the late night/early morning with the sounds of medical equipment passing through my ears, and thoughts of the big day running through my head: So this is what motherhood looks like. Holding a sleeping baby at 1:40am after nursing because he is finally full, balancing his body above an incision wound and learning as I go that he is the least fussy when he's warm. Yes, I had a scheduled induction for Thursday, June 6 to bring my baby into the world. And then my water broke on Wednesday, June 5 at 8:36 in the morning. Luckily, I had just finished breakfast. I was sitting at the end of the breakfast table about to share updates with my writing group on Facebook to let them know what my doctor said at Tuesday's appointment. I was excited to let them know that I was going to be induced, because at least then I knew for sur...

Graph of baby's heartbeat and my contractions! I can't feel them yet, but something is progressing! Well, unless something changes last minute, this might be my last post before I officially become the mom I've always wanted to be. At my appointment this morning (now two days past my due date), my doctor recommended inducing before I go too far. He gave me a choice of course--we could continue to wait for Baby to come naturally, but if he takes too long to arrive there are risks that could go up. Luckily, according to the doctor, my cervix is "favorable" and so my risk of c-section during an induction at this stage is about the same as if I went into labor naturally. I'm already either slightly less or right around 3 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced, which is good news for induction because they're not trying to start labor from scratch (inducing while you're closed up and thick is a lot harder than when you're already opening up and thinni...

What I want to do all day. No calls or texts, please. Lol. Due date is officially tomorrow! We are on Baby Watch 2019, as Hubby now calls it, and essentially we've been there since my maternity leave began on Tuesday. For a while the biggest update was that someone finally asked me if I was having twins (a great  comment for the self esteem, as other pregnant ladies will attest to). However, every other comment I've received (solicited or unsolicited) has been positive, with even strangers wishing me good luck and saying, "you got this!" Family and friends have also been especially supportive. My mom and my husband have helped so much with chores, making sure I don't lift anything, bend down, or even walk too far on my own. It's sweet, but I can still do things like buckle my own seat belt. I just might need a little extra help climbing out of the car. Each day, I get a flurry of texts, Facebook messages, and phone calls. They usually start with "H...