The Mom I Want To Be

As we prepared our entrance in matching outfits, Hubby wisely told our son: "You're Captain America, and your mom and I will always be your shield." Aww. It's only Wednesday (Baby's 7-week birthday!) and already this week has been filled with more excitement and challenges than we've had in quite a few days. After posting about how things get a little easier with time, Baby blessed us in the wee hours of July 21 and 22 with two nights of about two hours total sleep (right when I was getting used to six...). He wasn't in pain or sick. He cried, but not that much more so than usual. Mostly he just couldn't fall asleep after hours of trying the things that usually worked. New things didn't work either--we attempted to introduce a pacifier (our third attempt) to no avail. And he'd wake up the moment we tried to move him to a bassinet. I kept thinking of the phrase "one step forward and two steps back" as I rocked my nearly 10 pound...

This Wednesday is my six-week post-delivery checkup at the OB-GYN. It's been six weeks since the c-section and six weeks since the birth of my baby. My baby is six weeks old. That's over a month now, and halfway through my 12 weeks of maternity leave. The days have definitely blurred together and gone by as fast as any mom will tell you about her children growing up. "Don't blink." "The days are long but the years are short." "Treasure every moment." Yes, "it goes by so fast." The good news is that in this time, things have actually gotten easier, little by little. Sometimes in small, imperceptible ways, until you realize how much has changed and you have more moments of feeling like something was accomplished. Progress toward a goal of "getting the hang of this." I remember at my two-week post-delivery checkup sitting in the waiting room next to my husband. Baby was in his car seat after fighting to be strapped in an...

A friend of mine asked me today if I've been super emotional since the birth of my child, because she knows about how women's hormones can be after birth. I told her my husband thinks I've been super emotional-- I think I've been a normal amount of emotional. After all, I've been operating on evening sleep of anywhere between 2 and 6 hours (at the most, on a good day). Each week is a new challenge, from round the clock feeding, to breastfeeding pain, to colic, to Baby not wanting to sleep in his bassinet. Plus being cooped up and unable to sneak out to grab even just coffee (I. Miss. Coffee.). Then add the balancing of emotions: you want to sneak out but you also miss your baby and want him back the second you hand him off to someone else, even your husband. And, of course, there's the anxiety that comes with already thinking about going back to work at the end of maternity leave (not to mention the tears that come with recovering from surgery ). Wouldn...

So I've been at this whole "mom" gig for a total of four weeks, but already I find myself giving advice based on my experience (as all moms end up doing, which is how I've ended up with so much awesome--and occasionally conflicting--advice on this journey so far). My friend whose baby was due in July ended up having a c-section one month early, and I quickly advised her to rest up since c-section recovery can be rough (after I congratulated her on the new baby, of course). All my blog post ideas postpartum have been about real talk for new moms--advice on what it's really like to have a new baby. And now I want to put together a post about the items you'll  actually  need after having a baby. Cute onesies, sensory toys, and bottle sanitizers are definitely nice, but in the first few weeks they may not be all that necessary (depending on your situation, of course). Here is my personal survival guide that got me through the first month with Baby: What B...