Motherhood

I realize that I am no expert in the field, but I have been thinking alot about motherhood lately and a few things came to mind I wanted to jot down. This is for all you Moms out there:

Life changes after you have a baby (whether it be the first or fifteenth time)

• The moment you finally deliver your little one starts what I like to call the "Magic 48". This refers to the first 48 hours after birth where nothing can phase you, nothing can distract you away from your baby- not even sleep. You don't remember anything about your labor except that when it was over you got to meet your new center of attention, even if your labor lasted 20+ hours and involved stitches, forceps, and a manly looking nurse whose hands were a little too big for your taste.
• After these 48 hours starts the "Wake up" when you snap back into reality and realize a few things you didn't quite notice before. For example: Your body has just gone through pure hell. You can't quite put a finger on it but something just does not feel right about your "lower region" and you wonder why the doctors do not have you on blood transfusions considering you are practically draining gallons by the hour. - You start to slur your speech and have episodes where you can't quite remember 10-15 minute intervals here and there. This is because you are only awake on the outside, on the inside your mind starts hibernating to make up for loss of sleep.
• If this is your first baby, you can't wait to get home and start your family time, sleep in your own bed, and start having visitors over. If you have done this before, you contemplate faking a small injury to get an extra night stay in the hospital because, though you love your other child/children, the peace you get in a private room is heaven compared to the house you left behind that needs to be cleaned, where laundry has to be done to make up for the days you were gone (because we all know no one does laundry but you), kids need to be washed and groomed properly, and meals are NOT delivered to your room. You also know the idea of actually sleeping in your own bed is far from reality. Let's not forget the visitors. While you appreciate the love and excitement of your friends and family, you wish you could just hang a sign on the door that says "No visitors please-because if you wake my baby who I just spent 3 hours calming down and finally putting to sleep I may go completely psycho-mom-meltdown and strangle you. Thanks"
• Over the first few weeks after baby come home a routine of sorts starts to come into play and you can almost claim sanity- that is if you could just manage to sleep more than 2 hours a night and if you could figure out how to get baby diarrhea out of your new blouse, and if your other children didn't seem to suddenly come down with the worst bug ever so you spend the few hours you could be sleeping cleaning up vomit all around the house. I swear there must be a rule somewhere about that- your kids can not remain healthy when you bring a newborn home. I mean, that would make things too easy right?!
• You form a love/hate relationship with your breasts. On the one hand, you have to admit they look great. You can't remember the last time you walked down the hall, even dressed up, and your hubby couldn't keep his eyes off of you. Now you can be in sweats, hair in knots, and baby spit up on your shirt and he can't pull his little peepers away. Even more, he makes innuendos and comments about your "new developments" on a regular basis. On the other hand, your breasts are no longer your own. You can't look at your baby, watch an even remotely sad movie, take a hot shower, or steal a hot kiss with the hubs without niagra falls taking place beneath your bra cups. It's like your boobs are PMSing 24/7... and there is no stopping it. Plus, our bodies are built to supply nutrition for our babies for as long as they need it, so basically you are now an all hours bar of sorts, specializing in milk on tap and on demand.
• Let's talk about hygiene... or lack there of. The first few weeks home from the hospital are all about learning about your baby and establishing a relationship with them. This leaves little time for other things like showers, mani-pedis, hair dye touch ups, shaving, and sometimes in extreme cases, changing clothes more than once a week. The funny thing is, you notice but you don't care. You aren't leaving the house anyway so no one has to see you like this but your kids and it doesn't phase them... that is until you become so scary looking your kids have nightmares of monster mommy
• Sex? Please! You must be kidding! To your partner's dismay, intimacy takes a major back seat to motherhood. The idea of him even touching you can cause pain, nausea, or sometimes anger. Your still have a body full of hormones and let's not forget your total lack of sleep. If he can manage to get you into bed, $50 says you fall asleep before he can superman change into his birthday suit. It's not that you don't love them anymore, it's just not a priority and the memories of labor are still fresh in your mind. (let's not forget that it's all their fault we had to go through that right?!)
• How can one tiny little person go through so many diapers in one day?! I am a firm believer that in those first few months there is no such things as too many diapers, baby wipes, spit up rags, or onesies. There are all essential items that I start stocking up months before baby arrives because you'd be surprised just how quickly they go through them. It doesn't take long before you start counting down the days until you can start potty training... I mean, does a child really have to be able to walk first?
• There are few things more exciting then clothes shopping for your newborn. You will spend more money on an outfit for your baby then you would on yourself- and it will contain 1/20th of the fabric. Tiny baby shoes, hats, sleepers, even bibs. You are hard pressed to walk into a store and NOT buy something for your baby, even if they don't need it.
• A picture is worth a thousand words. You take more pictures the first year of your child's life than you will over the course of the rest of their lives. I have caught myself snapping 15-20 pictures of the same exact sleeping pose/face my baby is making, just because it's "so cute!" and then a few hours later doing the same thing for pretty much the exact same sleeping portrait. How else do you fill a camera with 300+ pictures in a day when the typical newborn sleeps 19 hours a day?
• The "aww" reaction never really goes away. No matter how many kids you have, each time you bring a new baby home all the same things that amazed you before amaze you all over again. Every little yawn, every sneeze and stretch, every curled up fist or hiccup your baby makes is just simply too adorable for words... hence the "aww".
• When the day is coming to an end, no matter how exhausted you are from your busy day, it seems unbelievably hard to separate yourself from your baby. The very idea of laying your little one down and walking away, no longer holding and kissing and cooing over your precious bundle, actually makes you contemplate staying awake a few more hours instead of sleeping. How can you be this insane? You are so tired that when you go to the bathroom -one of the few places you actually can find a few moments of quiet- you take cat naps and pray you don't fall off the seat, and yet you would rather put off rest a little longer just to stare at your baby. Who knew a sleeping child could be so fascinating.

The craziest part of all this is how incredibly worth it all the sleep deprivation, loss of social life, and insanity really is. There is nothing more precious, more heavenly then holding and loving on your new special little family member and even as they grow older you can not imagine your life without them. That's the true joy of motherhood. Knowing you have helped bring such an amazing person into this world, and getting to shower them with love everyday of their life. Sure, there is ALOT of crap you go through being a mom, but I have never met a woman who would say they'd change one minute.

Hold your babies, even if they are 35 years old. Love them and take their picture, ooh and aww over them, brag about them to everyone you know, appreciate every moment you have with them... because you are a Mom, and that's what we do... that's our blessing in life.