What it’s like with a Newborn

We had our baby girl in February and it was such a struggle in the beginning. Until our daughter hit one month it was a major trial and error with her. This was our first child and my husband had never been around babies before. So it was a learning curve for him. For me, I have three younger siblings and I helped out with them when they were babies, but I had no idea what my mom and dad went through. I'm going to tell you my experience with having a baby.

Side note...

This is not to scare you out of having kids. I love my daughter so much and can't wait to have another one. I'm doing this blog post because I wish someone would have given me a realistic view on how it was going to be in the beginning.

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30 mins after my daughter was born

I had just gave birth to my daughter. She was weighed and was given medications to help her. Then she was swaddled and the nurses gave her back to me. We packed up our room so I could be moved to the recovery room. I wasn't in a lot of pain because I still had the wonderful effects of the epidural.

Once we were in the recovery room we tried to nurse for the first time. I had such high expectations to nurse my child. Well, it wasn't working the way I wanted it to. We had a bad latch that was painful, and somehow, she cut me open with her gums. We tried, and tried, and tried to get a good latch but it still wasn’t working. we had to supplement with donor milk because I couldn't get her to feed.

She was mostly sleepy. She really didn't wake up for the whole day. The night time was the worst though. She wouldn't sleep at all and I just cried because I was so tired from giving birth that morning.

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Four days after giving Birth

Our first day home, we went down to Eau Claire to pick up my breast pump. I just slept for the entire one hour car ride down. I wasn't feeling great, but that's normal for just giving birth not too long ago. We picked up my pump from the hospital and then went to eat. My daughter was sleeping soundly in the carseat for this whole time. Once we got to where we were going to eat, I got her out to feed her. Her diaper was full so it was time to change my daughter in a public restroom for the first time ever! There's something scary about changing a baby in the bathroom by yourself. I was still new at this whole mom thing. I grabbed a diaper and wipes, and took her to the bathroom to change her. Halfway through changing her, she started to pee herself... I had just taken the diaper off right before she did this. Her outfit was soaked and I had to call my mom to bring the diaper bag in so I could get her changed into a new outfit.

Once all that was over I still wasn't feeling good. When I got home I felt like I had a fever. I checked my temp, and it turns out that I had a fever. I went to the ER to see what was wrong. Turns out nothing was wrong in the sense of an infection. With the amount of exhaustion and how run down my body was gave me a stress reaction of a fever. My parents said that I could leave my daughter with them for the night so I could get some well needed rest. I took that opportunity to sleep as much as I could. I went to bed at 9:00 that night and woke up at 1:00 in the afternoon the next day. This was a difficult time in my life because I felt like I wasn’t being a good mother. I left my child at my parents to fulfill my needs of sleep. We did this for two nights so I could get better quick and get back to doing my motherly duties.

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One Month Old

One month after giving birth, we still had so many troubles. Sleep was one a big issue for us. My husband works the night shift so his sleep schedule is pretty messed up. Having a baby added to the mix just made his sleep get worse. I don’t sleep very well to begin with, so when we had Autumn, I didn’t get any sleep at all. Autumn would wake up every 30 minutes to an hour, so there wasn’t a lot of time to sleep. My dad came over at 11pm to stay with her so I could sleep. Then, when she got up at 2:30, I would at least have gotten some sleep. She would wake up at 2:30 and stay up till 5am. It was so hard to stay awake that long during the night. People say sleep when the baby sleeps. That’s pretty hard to do when the only way the baby will sleep durinG the day is on her mama. Another struggle was the daily house chores. With Autumn around, I couldn’t get anything done. The house is still a mess to this day, although I’m working on organizing it and remodeling some parts of the house.

By now, you’re probably wondering if we ever got her to sleep? Yes we did... eventually. Just recently, she started sleeping through almost the whole night! So how did we get her to sleep? We used the Boppy Lounger in her pack & play. I know you’re not supposed to let babies sleep in it unattended, but it was the only thing to get her to sleep. We swaddle her up and put on her Owlet sock to monitor her at night. The monitor will go off if something is wrong with her heart rate or breathing. In this time of covid-19, the monitor gives us peace of mind. I definitely recommend buying the Owlet sock.

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Two Month Old

We’re now into our second month and things are starting to get easier. They say every stage in the life of a child brings it’s own difficulties. So far, we haven’t experienced any other difficulties besides the sleep issue. I’m sure we’ll go through something else sooner or later, but for now, we’re going to enjoy our little girl the just the way she is.

Life is so much different with my little one. She’s grown so much in just the last couple of weeks. She’s gained some weight which is great when you’re a baby. Also, she moved up into size one diapers and 0-3 month clothes. She fits perfectly now in newborn clothes. We don’t have many newborn or 0-3 month clothes so I’m putting her in both. I did just order some of the cutest clothes from this website called PatPat. You can get the app on your phone or smart device and look at all that they offer.

That’s all I have for now about my life with a baby. I’ll keep writing about it every couple of months to keep you guys updated on how it is to live with a baby.