Saturday, July 25, 2009


Elspeth is ten days old today. Here are the things I've learnt in the last ten days:

    Babies are messy, but somehow their mothers don't actually mind the spit-ups and poop.

    Being a mother is also messy - you don't truly appreciate maternity pads and nursing pads until you have a child.

    Babies don't always have a reason for crying, and you can't always fix them.

    Absolutely everybody will make you feel guilty if you contemplate using formula instead of breastmilk, even just sometimes for convenience.

    Everybody will also make you feel terrible if your baby isn't always sleeping flat on her back.

    Babies can't tell the difference between feeling hungry and having gas pains - so I have no idea if I'm feeding her when I should be burping her, or vice versa.

    Post-natal depression and hormonal changes really are a bitch, even in very mild cases.

    It's extremely difficult to concentrate on studying once a baby has entered the equation.


There are probably more things, but I don't remember. My once-sharp brain is turning to mush. Aidan tells me I'm coping well and am a good mother, but I don't feel like it. I guess I need more practice.

8 comments:

elizabeth said...

Congrats! She's adorable.

Don't worry - your brain will return... eventually.

hugs

Lletna said...

Stace - Hug...
- more practice - does that mean more on the way :)

Stace said...

Hope so, Elizabeth, thanks :)

Chantell - heck no, not for a while!

Menchie said...

Now you understand how I feel about my lack of breastmilk. :D

Perfectly normal to feel all those things, I still go through them now despite having had two kids already!

Hang in there. it gets better. Really.

Andrew said...

Hi Stace,

When ever you feel like your brain is going to mush get ten coins and put them in five lines with four coins in each line - that always makes me feel better.

I'll help kick your brain back into gear.

Cheers
A.

Ponita in Real Life said...

Hang in there, Stace! Everyone seems to go through this with their babies and themselves, but it works out just fine in the end. :-)

Stace said...

Menchie - At least you have a good reason not to breastfeed... I'm sticking at it, mostly because I feel too guilty to just make the switch to formula. Hopefully Elspeth and I will both get better at it and more confident!

Andrew - what the?! I can't figure that out... you'll have to show me next time I see you... confused!!

Ponita - nice to know I do not suffer alone ;) hehe

Andrew said...

Play around - obviously some coins will need to be in more than one line.