First Month of Mommyhood

I've been trying to decide what I wanted to write about next. I've also been looking for the time. For now, I think I'll just do a sort of review of being a mommy so far. Unlike other blog reviews, however, I do not have a baby to giveaway to a lucky winner (not yet anyway).

For the first week, everything was pretty grand. I had a beautiful baby doing baby things. Eating, sleeping, and so on. Weeks two and three started to wear on me though. As someone who's breastfeeding exclusively, I started to despair at night, thinking about how I would never sleep through the night again. Particularly around the two week growth spurt, he would just eat continually for hours and scream if there wasn't a boob in his mouth for 5 minutes. My nipples stopped aching after about a week thankfully. I couldn't imagine how I would ever be able to have another baby and do this with another child. I can honestly say that for those two weeks or so, I did not like being a mom.

Thankfully, as I've mentioned before, I have a wonderful, supportive husband. I started pumping, and that gave me the freedom to get out of the house for a couple hours. I felt a little bad when I was out at the Tampa Bay Men's Roller Derby bout with my mom and wife, but it wasn't because I felt bad for leaving him. I felt bad that I didn't feel bad about leaving him. I felt bad that I wasn't worried about him. I needed the break. I needed to have some fun without someone latched on to my chest, and I did! I had so much fun! (By the way, have you ever tried to find a private outlet to pump at a roller skating rink? Next to impossible. I wound up hanging the cord over the edge of the skate rental desk and sitting on the floor behind it between games).

It's getting better, though. I am incredibly lucky to have a baby who will sleep anywhere from 3-5 hour stretches at night. I even have to wake him up sometimes (which is particularly hard for me). The current struggle is day time naps. He can fall asleep, but staying asleep is another story. Even our daily walk didn't keep him down for more than 20 minutes.

I can now say that I would do it again. I've developed some amnesia over the birth, and I can see that it does get better. I'm going back to work in just over a week, and I'm confident that he will be fine with his Nana. This mommy thing isn't so bad after all.

4 Weeks Old - 10 lbs 7 oz

In other news, I was nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award by a blog that makes my mouth water with every new post. Thank you Luminous Vegans! You inspire me to get back in the kitchen!

So I'm supposed to share seven things about myself. I don't know if I can come up with seven new things...

1. I'm so obsessed with cloth diapers right now, I dream about them.
2. I'm also obsessed with babywearing, and even though I have two fully functional carriers, I'm plotting my next purchase (either a Mei Tai or Bali Breeze woven wrap... or maybe a water wrap...)
3. I'm ordering new skates today!
4. I wish I was craftier than I am.
5. I just saw Melancholia. I give it two stars for being super boring.
6. I'm only on 6? Umm...
7. My reading has slowed way down. I want to get a couple more books in before I go back to school though.

I also get to nominate blogs I love, so:

1.  Bella Blogs - I worked with this mama in high school. It's amazing to read her blog because she has changed so much. She's still crazy funny though, and her little boy is adorable.
2.  Vegan Derby Girl - I love vegan derby girls (and boys)!
3. Leslie & Pete - I only met Leslie once to talk about veganism, but I love reading about her pregnancy journey. She also has a pretty cool blog called Salvaged Spaces.