The Happenings of Motherhood - The Firsts Weeks

On May 26th, I became a mother.  I had an idea of what I was getting myself into, but you never truly know until you actually get into it.  Many of you know that when I blog, I blog about truths in my life in hopes that I can be of some help to other people.  So here are some truths that came about in the first 3 weeks.

The last time I slept for more than 4 hours was the morning of May 25th.  

Your newborn will not (and honestly should not) sleep through the night.  They need to feed every 2-3 hours.  If you have your baby home with you for the first couple of days, you might think, "Wow! My baby is such a great sleeper, and I'm sleeping for about 5 hours every night.  This parenting thing is no big deal." You just wait.  Your little babe is just as exhausted as you are.  This too shall pass.  Soon, you will be up at all hours of the night to feed her, change her, cuddle with her, and it's seriously amazing.  Don't get me wrong. It is tiring, but it's still amazing.  

Natural birth is possible if you have the right team by your side.  

I'll get into this in another post, so I'll only briefly touch on this.  I went into pregnancy knowing that I wanted to do this all natural. When the contractions and time for pushing came, I felt weak and incapable, but I had a great support team. With their help and the help of my husband, I had the natural, intimate birth that I wanted.  

I need nursing almost as much as she does.

If there are any men reading this, I'm not sorry.  You need to be aware of this too if you ever plan on settling down and having a family.  If I don't nurse on time, I will leak.  It's not even funny, you guys.  It can actually get really painful.  The first week or so of breastfeeding was difficult - it's still difficult, but it's getting easier to understand.  The baby and the body are communicating with each other to establish the milk supply.  I have learned that most of this baby and me stuff is just toughing it out and trusting that our bodies know what they are doing.  

I knew that I would go through tons of diapers, but no one told me about the wipes. 

Yes, you do go through a ton of diapers.  but the same goes for the wipes.  I had a day where we almost ran out and I was ready to resort to DIYing some - thankfully my husband is great at this dad stuff and picked up a pack of wipes on his way home.  

I am always with my baby.

Most days, I go to the bathroom with her.  We co-sleep.  I wear her.  I am breastfeeding her while I write this.  I am one with baby.

My baby wasn't the only one in diapers after birth. 

Yes. I wore adult diapers.  I have no shame in that.  Birth is crazy and the aftermath is no joke.  After you give birth, you have a wound the size of your placenta inside.  So you can imagine how your body is reacting to that.  

This is one of the hardest but most fulfilling things I have done with my life.  

I don't think there's really much elaboration needed here.  I'm tired, but I'm loving every minute of it.  

Feel free to make a conversation in the comments.  Tell me some of your truths that you discovered in the first weeks of motherhood or fatherhood.