My Adventures in Motherhood...better late than never

Since I am not a scrapbooking kind of gal and can't see myself keeping a baby book, I've decided to start blogging about the newest chapter in my life, the chapter of motherhood. Granted, I am a little late since Mia is now 3 1/2 months old, but as the title of this first post states, "Better late than never."

These last three months have been somewhat of a whirlwind. Mia was born on March 15, 2009; however, we weren't expecting her until around April 15. Waking up in the middle of the night to my water, not just breaking, but gushing, came as quite a shock to both myself and to Cody. And then to discover she was breach and that I would need a C-section was also not in the plan. I hate it when things do not go according to my plan. I barely remember them bringing her to me after I got back to my hospital room. All I remember is trying to nurse and that she was having trouble latching, something that never really changed even when she was a month old. I remember people telling me to get some rest while I was in the hospital because I wouldn't be getting much once I got home. I wondered if those people had ever stayed in a hospital? It was loud; there was always some kind of nurse or doctor or hospital billing person in my room. I found the hospital exhausting with the exception of one day when I was alone and able to nap because I put the baby in the nursery.

Of course, the exhaustion didn't end when I left the hospital. Mia slept a lot...during the day. She would wake every 2 - 3 hours at night and then would be incredibly difficult to put back to sleep. People would say to me, "Enjoy this time. They grow up so fast!" Enjoy??? Really? I didn't enjoy much about the first two months of motherhood. I missed the way my life had been before, and I felt so guilty for feeling that way. (In fact, I still feel that way sometimes. No one told me that was going to happen.) I was incredibly emotional. I missed my family so much. It was a difficult time for me.

Since then, things have gotten much easier. Don't get me wrong, there are still challenges. She sleeps a lot better, although she still has some nights where she wakes up randomly (like last night). But her days and nights are definitely straight. She is so funny and makes me laugh all the time. I miss her during the day since I've gone back to work, but my job has allowed me to keep my sanity. So much has changed for Cody and me over the past three months, that it's almost hard to believe that the little baby in the picture actually is growing so fast! What an interesting journey this will be. Stay tuned...