Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Mom stuff: the expected and the unexpected

Here sits Kacie typing with one hand (holding Nikayda upright as she sleeps with a stuffy/runny nose) and contemplating... Mom stuff.


Things I expected and already knew that came with motherhood:

  • Lots of love and strong feelings of protection towards baby
  • Little sleep
  • Lots of smiles and cuddle time
  • Some tears, too
  • Eat, sleep, play, poop & pee
  • Some frustrations of course...
  • Way too many pictures taken all the time
  • The need to constantly keep an eye on a crawling toddler -- they get into stuff FAST!
  • Whatever is on mom's plate is always better than what's on baby's plate! 
  • An amazing husband will become an amazing dad :)
  • And we knew that this baby will be the most precious, beautiful creature we've ever laid eyes on, and she will be a hybrid mix of characteristics from both mom and dad...and probably will have the most striking blue eyes ever! (I was right!) :)


Things I didn't totally expect with motherhood:

  • How elusive an actual "schedule" can be for said eat, sleep, play, poop & pee; seems like its always changing!
  • Babies are really good at dodging Kleenex and wash cloths for a simple wipe.
  • Babies really DO grow as fast as everyone says
  • And how soon you forget what it was like when they were "little"
  • The excitement that comes with each new skill baby learns (no matter how simple)
  • Hormones...frustrations often taken out on the husband ... Sorry Justin!
  • And little things that never used to irritate me so much will randomly irritate me A LOT, but that's getting better :)
  • Losing weight with breastfeeding...totally didn't expect that... Have had to buy smaller jeans than I had before... But a good problem to have I guess!
  • And my body actually hasn't changed as much as I thought it would have after pregnancy, luckily... not so far that I can tell anyway! :P
  • All the fussiness and crying during the first few months...ugh.
  • How heartbreaking my baby's cries can be...
  • Didn't think it was possible to learn how to do so many things -- make a meal, type, do laundry, clean, etc -- with only one hand.
  • How much this baby hates sleeping in her crib...
  • How much a baby can fight sleep... Stubborn little turkey... LoL
  • How little free time a mom has.
  • How good a hot shower feels (and usually only one every other day... or two! Don't judge me! LoL)
  • How much baby gear and toys one accumulates...
  • And how much of that you think you need beforehand, but actually don't use much.
  • How hard it was to dress a newborn...and how easy it quickly becomes after much practice.
  • How easy cloth diapering is -- once we got a good system going.
  • How easy it was to wean this baby from a bottle (hasn't had one since around 7 months old, just sippy cups now!), but how hard it is/will be to wean from the breast...uffda. (Actually didn't expect to still be breastfeeding at 10 months old...but don't regret it!)
  • Didn't expect myself to want to be a stay-at-home-mom.
  • And didn't expect the decision to change from working-mom to stay-at-home mom to be so hard.
  • How stressful a simple 2 hr car ride would be for this baby...
  • How different all babies (and moms!) can be from one another.


As you can see, there's much more on the unexpected list... But what a fun, exciting, breathtaking, overwhelming, challenging, momentous, rewarding, etc (the adjectives could go on here!) journey it has been thus far!

And as much as I hated it then, I'm glad I had 4 younger siblings to babysit to "practice" on first before having my own little one! ;)

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