Life 2 weeks later

Two weeks ago we brought our sweet newborn home from the hospital. At times it seems like the last two weeks have flown by and I don’t know where time has gone and at other times it seems like he has been in our lives forever and can barely remember life before him. Time is funny that way.

I would  be lying if I said the last two weeks have been easy. When you are pregnant, people try to prepare you for what life with a newborn is like. As a parent-to-be you listen, smile, nod and accept that taking care of a little one is no walk in the park. But truly, it is so hard to really understand how your world is rocked until it is happening to you.

So, here’s what I’ve learned in the last two weeks . Before having a baby I never knew…

• How well I could function (or not) on 30 minute spurts of sleep. I can do the basics on this level of sleep (feed and change baby, feed myself pre-prepared food and use the restroom), but not much more. It’s more than I thought I would be able to do.
• How dead to the world I could feel. When I get overwhelmed I tend to keep to myself and retreat, and boy oh boy, have I been overwhelmed lately… and sleep deprived… and busy taking care of a newborn who eats every two hours. You get the idea. We’ve had an overwhelming amount of love and congratulations for the little guy’s arrival and I just haven’t been able to keep up with returning calls, emails, texts, etc. I don’t think I’ve been this behind before. Thanks to everyone who has sent their love and congrats to us, we really appreciate it! - I’m working on getting back to everyone, but it’s just a little slow going with everything else that is going on. Sorry!
• How clueless I could feel as a mother. I read the books, I’ve taken care of younger siblings, I’ve babysat, I’ve watched my supermom friends have kids and I figured that I had all of the tools available to me in my tool belt, ready for whatever challenge this little one threw at me. But you quickly realize you know nothing when it’s 3am and your newborn has been screaming at you for two hours and feeding, rocking, swinging, new diapers, different combinations of clothes and blankets, singing, talking and other baby-calming techniques are just not working. It’s quite the reality check.
• How much a meal could mean. I always understood how nice it was to bring a meal to a family who has a new baby, but being on the receiving end, I can say it means the world to us to not have to prepare, cook and clean up after a meal when you’re already exhausted and at the end of your sanity. Blessings to you sweet folks who bring meals to families with new babies. You are doing a greater service than you know.
• How difficult breastfeeding could be. You hear about how other people struggle to breastfeed and you ignorantly think to yourself, “Really? How hard can it be? Women have been doing this for ages…”. Well, I’ll be the first to tell you it IS hard and I can understand how people can give up. I guess I’m lucky that I’m super stubborn and refuse to give up. Perhaps my breastfeeding journey deserves its own post, so more on that later.
• How much poop could come from such a tiny person. My goodness! We’re averaging 11 poopy diapers a day and that doesn’t count the times he poops while we are changing another poopy diaper. Yikes!
• How far a stream of baby pee can shoot. Little guy has some power behind him!
• How much I could unconditionally love this little person. This little boy is everything to us and we are so glad he is a part of our family!

There you have it, all of the things I never knew that I never knew. But this is all worth it! We love our little guy more than anything and are so, so glad that he is now a part of our lives.

We’ll leave you with a little video we shot this morning of him moving and cooing as proof to our families that he does more than sleep (which is all he usually does when we try to Skype!). Feel free to ignore our comments in the background :-)  Enjoy!