Mommy's second month

I have to admit that the first month had me kind of worried. I thought if she continued on eating every 2 hours at night that I was going to crumble out of sleep deprivation, but can happily report that now that she has a fairly predictable schedule, the transition into motherhood has become much easier. Halfway through this past month Ali began sleeping for 4-5 hour stretches at night, which meant my 3 hours of sleep total for the night went up to about 6 hours. What a difference it makes! I finally was about to feel like a person again instead of a walking zombie. They say a new mother loses 800 hours of sleep over the course of a year and I believe it. Gone are the days of sleeping for 12 hours, but its surprising how you just get used to functioning on less sleep.

This month was also much better for me because the pain from the delivery had subsided and Ali and I worked hard at perfecting our breast feeding technique, so now its second nature. There's no more worrying that she isn't latching correctly, or that she isn't eating enough. She has clear cues for when she's hungry and clear cues for when she's full. Learning her cues has really helped prevent any spitting up from over filling her tummy and therefore saved me a lot of laundry!

The pregnancy hormones are starting to settle down, so the endless emotional ups and downs have begun to settle as well. The draw back to the drop in hormones is the hair loss and the acne. I had such amazing skin and hair while I was pregnant and I had my fingers crossed that it would stay that way, but about 2 weeks ago I noticed a few strands of hair clinging to my shirts and a few red bumps popping up along my jaw line. It should level out in a few weeks when the hormones reach a consistent level again.

The other major change I wasn't expecting was the bottomless pit otherwise known as my stomach. I barely wanted to eat while I was pregnant, but now that I'm breast feeding I am constantly hungry. I've chatted with a few other breast feeding moms and they said the same thing, that they eat far more now then when they were pregnant. I guess its natures way of making sure you have energy to keep producing enough milk.

I feel like everything in my life is starting to mesh well again. Because we have developed a good routine I feel I can manage my time much better now. I have plenty of time to spend with Ali and attend to her needs, as well as plenty of time to keep up on the household chores like laundry, dishes and making dinner every night. Given that she is asleep every night by 8pm, it also allows Rob and I to connect and enjoy each others company without worrying about the baby. Even Jake is reaping the benefits. He knows that as soon as Ali goes to bed its his turn for a good 45 min wrestle or tug of war or game of fetch.

All in all, the second month has been a blast. Ali has developed more personality and is interested in a range of toys and songs and best of all, walking into her room at 6am I know ill be greeted with an ear to ear smile and that makes getting up early totally worth it!