As I type this I can hear the washing machine filling up with water and the constant tick tick tick in the distance of the miracle baby swing. These two sounds often bring me comfort in the middle of the day. They are familiar noises that mean it's just an ordinary day and things are the way they should be.
In my last blog post I was pretty much drowning in the sea of new motherhood and talking about how I knew the time would go by so fast but I had no idea how fast they would really go. Beau already doesn't look like a newborn anymore and is twelve pounds making life a whole lot easier. He can hold his head up and is very easy to carry around because there's a lot more rolls to hold onto. He feels strong instead of a weak newborn and is able to sleep five and six hours at a time at night. He's finally gotten his days and nights figured out, so at night he only wakes up to feed once and then goes right back to sleep. It's made my life SO much easier.
I've been trying to teach him some things for sleep training later, one of which is not to rely on a sleep prop and wow, has he done REALLY well. Granted, I have a baby that likes his space so being in his moses basket when he's tired without being held is up his alley. I doubt it would work for all babies because of differing personalities, but he has been able to put himself to sleep lately and that has been really nice. I even put him in his bed after a night feeding with his eyes wide open and ten minutes later he's snoozing without one single tear or whimper. I'm so proud of him.
All moms have different ways of approaching these early days which I think is great, but what has worked best for me is just following him. I don't have any other babies or agendas so I can watch his cues and go with his flow. He has figured out day and night on his own, it just took a bit. He is only seven weeks old and doing so great in figuring out how this life thing works and it's been nice being able to go with the flow at whatever pace he feels like. A newborn knows what he needs much more than I do and they are built to tell us what they want and need in ways I could never figure out on my own.
My personality is the opposite of type A so a schedule this early in the game would just make me feel like a failure. Flexibility has definitely been my friend. And the odd thing is, even though I don't have a schedule schedule per say...he's starting to make one of his own. Though newborns will always throw you for a loop, so I'm not getting too cozy in our routine this week. You just never know and realizing that has made me a pretty relaxed new mama. That's my motto...just breathe and relax and let my baby's cues take the wheel. I don't want to get caught up in what I think should be happening and stress myself out. Each day I just take it as it comes and it's a very relaxed way of parenting a newborn, and I like that. I'm already too high strung as it is so I don't need to add anything to stress about quite yet. There will plenty of room for that in the future. He's a good little sleeper and pretty happy except for those dreaded few fussy hours at night before his longest sleep.
It's gotten so much easier now that I've taken most of my sleep back. He sleeps five and six hours at a time before waking up which has made all the difference. I feel like I'm becoming myself again and even started thinking about a second baby which I never thought I'd do after all I've been through. But when you're holding your precious baby in your arms and he's being and angel and you were somehow able to do the laundry, you think you just might be able to do it all over again.
So, it DOES get easier for any moms to be out there. I'd say weeks 3-5 are the absolute hardest because you're just so tired and they are still sleeping only two or three hours at a time. You have been tired and continue to be tired on levels you never thought a human could survive on...but then something during week six happens and it suddenly gets easier. At least for me anyway. I thought being a new mom would feel like more of a burden than it actually is. I knew I'd love it, but I thought all day would feel like a super hard job but it's really not when there's only one. I actually don't feel a lot different than I did before I had a baby because I still get my DVR's in and time to relax. I just get to hold a cutie while I'm doing it. And have to lug in a baby when I go tell the cashier I want forty bucks on pump seven.
