What’s sleep? When I was pregnant, someone told me and Steve to prepare ourselves for no sleep for the first year. I’m pretty sure we laughed it off, but boy, he was not kidding. And we are only into month three!
Real talk, when the little bundle of joy flashes her first toothless gummy smile, everything melts in your heart, but no one and nothing can prepare you for the life with a newborn. It’s hard as it is when you are first time parents trying to figure everything out for the first time, but when you are sleep deprived in addition to that, it’s exhaustion times 100. And there will be days and/or nights when you just cry and desperately miss the days when you were pregnant. But I promise it gets better each day. Soon you get used to running on 5 hours of sleep (on a good day), and when your baby hits their milestones and shows you something new, you forget all those sleepless nights and mental breakdowns. Oh, and wait until your little love bug looks right into your eyes and starts getting so excited to see you. Emma does this every morning when she wakes up. I die. Nothing can compare to those little moments! But for real though, it ain’t easy having a baby. The life as your know it, will literally change forever – for the better, of course. 🙂
To be honest, the first month or so postpartum is bit of a blur to me. Thank god we had help from our parents. Although I was extra cranky and sensitive and probably was a pain in the ass, I’m so glad I had my mom and my MIL here to help. My mom came the day after my delivery and stayed for full two weeks. Then my MIL stayed for a week following my mom’s departure. Even though Steve and I wanted to take care of Emma on our own, having them around to cook and do household chores was amazing. It was one less thing we had to worry about, and looking back, we really appreciate their help so much!
Now into three months postpartum, Steve and I are just getting in the groove of our life with a baby. Emma’s schedule is becoming more apparent, she is more active and alert and sleeps less during the day. AND she went from waking up every 2 hours at night to feed to doing 4-5 hour stretches at night. On a good night, she even goes 6 hours! Hallelujah! I feel like Emma is now more human like and we are having so much fun with her. Just the other day, she started laughing because she found something funny! [Emma’s First Laughing Spell Video] She also discovered her hands and is fascinated by them! She grabs everything, puts her hands in her mouth, reaches and hits her toys… Human development is such a powerful thing! We are so amazed at all her milestones, she literally does something new every day! I seriously cannot believe it’s been over three months already since she was born. She is growing up too fast! Now I know why our parents always said, “Stop growing up!” I feel like her newborn days are long gone already. Gotta soak in every cuddle moment as much as possible before she stops wanting to be a mommy’s girl. Fortunately for me, I get to work from home, so we decided to hire a sitter to come care for her while I work in my home office. It’s been two weeks since I went back to work from my maternity leave. I’m still getting used to not spending all of my waking moment with her. Even though she’s just downstairs of my home, I miss her terribly! Is this what motherhood is like? 😛
As for me, even with going back to work, my days seem to fly by. Sometimes I don’t even get to wash up. I know it’s nasty, but it’s reality. I want to snooze that extra 5 minutes instead of brushing my teeth, give me a break. But being back at work makes me feel a bit like my old self. My physical appearance isn’t anywhere near pre-pregnancy, I still have 13 lbs to lose to get to my pre-pregnancy weight, and my roots have grown out to the point I can probably pass for having a bad ombre job done, but it’s a slow working process. My pregnancy weight is coming off, albeit turtle speed, and I shall make that hair appointment in the near future to feel alive again. I am still holding on to hope that my pre-pregnancy jeans will fit, eventually. And yes, I gotta start working out again which probably would help with shedding my preggo weight quicker. But again, I’d rather sleep than go to the gym.. problem #483423698723. But overall, I feel good! Oh, other than the fact that I am experiencing postpartum hair loss. It started exactly at three month mark. Y’all know I don’t have a lot of hair to begin with, so having fuller/thicker hair during pregnancy was heaven. But now that all that pregnancy juice has expelled my body, my hair is back to being limp and lifeless with extra hair loss. Le sigh. Gotta start popping prenatal vitamins again.
All in all, Steve and I have survived the first three months with a newborn! I hear the first three months are the toughest! And not because Emma is my daughter, but I have to say, she was/is a pretty easy, non-fussy baby for the most part. And of course, we are most thankful for Emma being healthy and growing like a weed! We cannot wait for what this little cutie has to show in the next three months!
-m
Nara says
Congratulations Maddie and Steve! Emma is absolutely gorgeous. Thanks for the update – you must be exhausted!
Maddie and Steve says
Thank you so much! It took forever for me to update my blog – it’s a slow working process 😉