Monday, February 20, 2012

What Changes in Month Two

Last month was a whirlwind, there's no doubt about that. From settling in at home with a newborn to adjusting from "just the two of us" to "three's a crowd," last month was a strange mix of hours dragging along to days turning into weeks which has landed us in a new month - still standing, still learning to breathe easier and still wildly in love with that little baby.
Here's what's up:

- Fueled with enough Diet Coke and Soy Chai Lattes, I am still thriving on 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Don't get me wrong, Miss Vivi is usually in bed by 11 at the latest, but once she's in bed, Husband and I like to have an hour or so to ourselves before turning in ourselves. Unfortunately an hour or so usually turns into 2 or 3 and Vivi gets up to eat between 3 and 5 a.m. and wakes up for the day around 7 so....yeah, I'm in a hell of my own making.

- Schedules become your best friend. Vivan wakes up at 7 to eat, she gets to watch the Mommy and Daddy get ready for the day show. She starts to wimper and fuss around 10:30-11 when she needs a little snack before taking her 11:30 nap (It's 1:00 now and she's still asleep...) She takes another nap around 4 and then we start the bedtime routine at 9:00. When she's napping I try to keep up with chores, nap with her or kick back and read a book or magazine. Or blog.... ok, rarely blog :/

- The meltdowns are few and far between, you've been at this Mommy thing for 8 weeks now, you get pretty good at deciphering which cries mean what, and the proper combination of tricks, toys and moves to alleviate the problem.

- You get better at multitasking. Nursing while putting away groceries? Piece of cake! Sending out emails while bouncing a crying baby? Child's play. Driving while reaching around to the backseat to put a wayward paci back into the baby's mouth? A little risky, but we're working on it.


- You begin to think about, and prepare yourself for the fact that you only have 3-4 weeks left of this Stay at Home Mom gig before you have to return to work..... and you're torn between the excitement and the dread of going back to work because....

- Mommyhood is beginning to feel fun. Note I said beginning, because learning how to stop being selfish when that's all you've been for the previous 7 years of your married life is a hard job. You'll have newfound appreciation for mommys everywhere, but more importantly, your own mother. You'll get weepy everytime you sit down to a dinner that's grown cold because the baby needed to eat first, not because it's not fair, but because you'll think of your mom doing it and the countless other things you do for your baby, for you. And then you realize the sacrifices are only just beginning, that the ones you're making now are small potatoes compared to those you'll make in the years to come. Becoming a mother is to truly realize how much you are loved by your own parents. It's a very humbling and earth moving realization. It will hit you like a semi truck each and every time and you'll hope you thanked them enough, appreciated them enough and made those sacrifices worth while for them.


1 comment:

Erica said...

What a great outlook on becoming a parent. Even more so the sentiment towards your own parents. It's funny how your thoughts change as you get older. - Erica