1) My little man NOO arrived in April, and for the most part, motherhood has been a blast. I am a stay-at-home mom temporarily. I am blessed for the opportunity to not have to work outside the home for now.
2) 9 days after I gave birth to my son, I greaduated with my PhD and my husband graduated too. It was really God that saw us through.
3) A month after, we both moved to Maryland for hubby to start his job.
Lessons learned so far
- Baby determines your schedule. You have to put your needs/ wants on hold to tend to his own needs.
- Difficult leaving him in care of others. I miss him terribly when I am away from him, but I know that it's also important for me to get breaks from time to time.
- I only do the essentials and quickly too. I really value my TIME now. I thought I was a pro at time management, but I am re-learning how to manage my time, or should I say OUR time.
- You get very good at doing things with one hand.
The other day I was trying to revise a paper for re-submission that was sent to me almost 3 months ago. The editor gave me a 2-month deadline. I had to ask for an extension till the end of August. I was sent a reminder 2 weeks ago and I had not started squat. I was busy thinking in my head, revisions take me about 3-4 days to complete. Moreover, this paper had few revisions so i figured all i needed was about 2 days, 3 max. Boy! Was I wrong or what? It took me almost a week to 10 days. Everytime I would pick up the paper to work on, little man is demanding something from me. I had to pull a couple of all nighters to get it done. This boy needs to be put on a schedule for real.
Essentials that got me through the first couple of months
Lansinoh cream (used only for about 3 days)
My brestfriend pillow (esp. for CS moms)
Avent nursing pad (disposable and washable)
Bodreaux’s butt paste cream
My baby bjorn carrier
My baby bjorn carrier
I love Huggies diapers. Pampers are useless in my opinion.
Breastfeeding is going great for us. In the beginning when he would latch on, I would be in so much pain. After 1 week we were good. The lies they tell you that if it hurts, he is not latched on properly. BIG FAT LIE. NOO was latched on properly and it still hurt in the beginning, but it did get better. He is being exclusively breastfed and I plan on doing that for 6 months and then we will introduce solids. Though I had to supplement with formula before my milk came in, because he lost about 90% of his birthweight. He was born at 6lbs13oz and by the time we left the hospital he was at 6lbs3oz. Now at 4-months and 1 week he weighs about 17lbs. Everyone keeps asking what I am feeding him 'cos of his baby rolls which I love so much. My boy is growing like a champ! He sleeps for about 7-8 hours at night and only wakes up twice to eat and falls right asleep. That's about it for now.
