How We Do Series

One of the most helpful things I have found since becoming a mom a few months ago is blog posts by other women who are in a similar stage as me or have already gone through it – especially those accounts that are raw, truthful, and humorous about how hard and ridiculous being a mom sometimes is. I love when I find myself nodding along with something I am reading and realizing that thousands of other mothers around the world go through the exact same things as I do, every single day. Motherhood can feel so isolating sometimes and even though I have plenty of girlfriends I could talk to about it (and I do quite often), sometimes I just want that anonymity of connection from a stranger on the internet without having to actually say a word.

In this new series I’m calling “How We Do” I’m going to talk about all the things that Gavin and I have started to figure out together. It’s funny how before we have a kid we think we will have so much control over this little person and they will just listen to us and do what we say because “we know what is best.” HA. In reality, motherhood is so much trial and error, working with your baby to find out what works best for the pair of you. Some of the things we have *somewhat* got a handle on now are:

1. Breastfeeding

2. Sleeping (LOL JK – but I’ll tell you what we DON’T know about this one)

3. Play time

4. Car rides

5. Dealing with other people (strangers, friends, and family)

6. Getting dressed/diaper changing/baths

7. Multi-tasking (cleaning, cooking, organizing, and just general taking care of life stuff)

8. Self-care for mom (working out, showering, relaxing (haha), eating, and wine drinking)

I am by no means an expert on any of these topics, but I do know what works for us right now. I am so aware that this could change at any moment, but it’s helping me to gain confidence that at least I have figured these things out in the short-term. And who knows – maybe what we do will work for you, too. Or maybe not!

So my plan is to go through these topics (and more as I think of them) one by one and just share what we currently have going on in that space. I hope to re-visit these topics as Gavin grows so I am able to look back on the progress we’ve made and to show other moms at earlier stages that things really do get easier with a baby as time progresses. Sure, there are regressions and bigger things that come into play as a child grows, but I already know that there’s nothing like that newborn stage.

Now that we are right at the edge of being out of that fourth trimester (also known as the newborn stage during the first three months), I can honestly look back and say that there were more times than I can count that I really thought I couldn’t do this. Between sleepless nights, a baby who just won’t go to bed even though he is obviously exhausted, postpartum pains, and just adjusting to a completely new way of life, it is so easy to feel like it will never get better. But I am sitting here tonight to tell you that yes it will. There will come a day where your baby will just fall asleep when he’s tired. Then he might sleep seven hours straight one night. You’ll learn how to multi-task, but even better – your baby will start to entertain himself a little bit! And then what you will find most ridiculous about the whole thing is that one day you will find yourself missing when he was only a week old, screaming or sleeping all the time, and just wanted to lay on you. Being a mom is so weird.

So this is my long-winded way of saying that I’m really excited to talk about these topics and hopefully bring light to the fact that sometimes we can figure things out, but it’s only just for now and only just for us. We will never do things exactly the same as another mom and baby combo, because how boring would that be if babies were all like little robots and mom’s raised them all the same?

#Baby #Mom