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October 2012 Moms
Elsa1984
member
From an Oct 2011 mom.....
Elsa1984
member
A year ago this month, our Oct board was in your current shoes.....wondering when our little pumpkin would arrive!
Would our water break in public? What will our baby(ies) look like? Will my Team Green baby become part of Team Pink or Team Blue? Will I poo while pushing and embarrass myself?
Some of you first time moms may be worried about the pain of labor and delivery. Some of you may be panicking because you haven't come up with a name......I won't judge, we walked into the hospital with nine boy names and ten girl names....and she was named within ten minutes. Some will have complications arise...whether during labor and delivery, or after with your newborn. Some may be complication-free. And some may be dealing with psycho MIL's who demand to be there for the birth, talk poo about the name you picked out, or just make you want to rip your hair out in general.....
For the first time moms, I have some advice:
*Take as many pictures as humanly possible between now and Oct 2013....and when you think you have taken enough....take five more. Your baby will change so much in the next year, you will start to forget how little they were.
*Keep a regular calendar by your bed! Someone mentioned this to me and I thought they were crazy. But the point of the calendar is so when climbing into bed at night you can jot down in the space for the day, anything you want to remember.....first tooth, first bite of food, vacations taken, started pointing, said "da-da", etc. Its amazing how quickly you forget when you are exhausted but having the calendar nearby, it's easy to jot it down and refer back to it later when filling in his or her baby book.
*Never say "I will never....."........because a lot of times, you are going to do what you said you would never do. I said I would NEVER cloth diaper, and there is currently a cloth diaper on my baby's arse. Some ladies in our group have said they will never let their baby watch tv, yet now they occasionally turn it on just for a sanity break. There are moms that said they would "NEVER give their baby formula", only to find they couldn't breastfeed and had to give their baby formula anyway.
*Enjoy every moment! There are going to be some nights where your baby is crying, there are dishes piled in the sink, dirty laundry piled a mile high, and you are feeling extremely overwhelmed. Ignore the dishes and all of the other chores, get your comfy clothes on.....and snuggle your baby. You will always have chores....you won't always have an infant.....enjoy the infant stage while it lasts! In this year, it goes by so fast that it feels like one day you are rocking a newborn and the next day your baby feels like he or she is the size of a toddler. You will never catch up on chores and there is nothing wrong with that.
*Don't feel bad if someone stops by and you haven't showered all day, you are still in your sweats, your house is a disaster, and your baby is crying. If they are a parent.....they will understand and will not care what you look like, that you smell, or that your house is in shambles. Their first thought is going to be "how can we comfort this baby?", their next thought will be "how can I help?" Or "do you need a drink?"
*Get out of the house. Even if it just for a walk around the neighborhood, the fresh air will make you feel SO much better!
*And last but not least, don't be afraid to be a biotch towards people who overstep their boundaries on making comments about your parenting. There are times when you need to turn your back and not say anything.....but there are other times when you need to put someone in their place. It is YOUR child. You will make decisions based on what works for YOUR family. Parenting is hard enough......to have people constantly butting in with comments on what you are doing wrong will wear you out! Sometimes you just have to be snarky in real life for them to get the point!
Anyway, from one Oct 2011 mom to all of the Oct 2012 moms....enjoy the ride! It seems like yesterday I was watching football on tv while in labor, with a thousand thoughts running through my head......and now I have a non-stop mobile baby, who likes to wrestle with the dog, throw her binkies out of her crib, dance to music, and her new talent she discovered...picking her nose.....
Good luck to everyone! Love lots on those babies!!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: From an Oct 2011 mom.....
Well said! And as a soon to be STM, I whole-heartedly agree!!
Very sweet of you to share advice. Your DD is too cute, BTW!
DS born 9/25/12
DS #2 due 6/13/16
sooo sweet! thank for posting...your little one is a cutie!
thank you! She is so cute we decided to keep her!
i am sure other Oct 2011 moms have other things I missed.....I will send them to this post and they may add to it!
I just remember being so nervous about everything going into it.....it can make you feel so overwhelmed!
great post Elsa1984!
I just want to add....
no one has all the answers, you will question yourself every single day--just go with your gut and follow your mommy intuition.
the exhaustion sucks and can be overwhelming--ask for help if you need it! Try and sleep when your LO sleeps and just remember that it won't be forever...eventually your LO will sleep through the night, I promise.
and just enjoy...it goes so fast. Big hugs and good luck to all of you!
This is great advice as is all the above. I never accept help with my 1st and looking back I was just being dumb.
Also, to the moms of preemies... Don't let anyone tell you that you should be less overbearing with your child. If you feel like you need to baby your baby or protect them because of all they endured from being born early, then do it! My son was a preemie. I did what I felt comfortable with and looking back I don't regret it. I wouldn't allow him near large groups of people for a long time and I got so much crap about it but he spent time in the NICU and there was no way we were going back!
Enjoy this time ladies... It really does go fast, but it will be greatest ride ever!
BFP 2/10/2012!
Due Date: 10/15/2012!
Baby Boy Born 10/11/12! (Not on purpose)
Do it anyway! They won't know the difference, but YOU will. Make special items/remarks/pictures in her baby book and do the stuff you didn't get to do with your 1st with your new LO.
Another thing for STM's to remember is you will feel so unbelievably guilty after #2 is born. You will feel so torn and so pulled in so many directions that you will wonder what the h3ll you did having a 2nd. I promise it all works out and you will one day not even remember (too much) having just 1. There will be times when you feel guilty not tending to #1, or not tending to #2 right away. It all goes away, I promise. And you will love #2 just as much as you love #1, which doesn't even seem possible right now... but it's just so true! And sibling love is the most unbelievable thing in the world. You will just love it.
Yet another Oct. 2011 Mom here, feeling really emotional because my LO will be 1 on Friday. Elsa said such wonderful and beautiful words, but I do have to add on to #1. PLEASE include yourself in those pictures. DON'T think "Oh, I look so fat, tired, dirty, etc". Just take them. I wish I had more pictures of myself and my LO when he was first born. There are a ton of him and his Dad. I know that I've heard others say the same. You don't have to share them with others, but you'll have them for yourself to look back on.
The days seem long while your are living them, but when you look back, they are gone in a blink of an eye. Enjoy the ride.
And we only have two newborn videos of her....one at the hospital while I was in recovery, and one at home that I took while sitting on the couch with her. I just recently found the couch one and was amazing at her little lamb sounds she used to make....which I had totally forgotten about! Makes me sad I don't have more video.
Yet another 2011 mom here with my suggestions.
Labor and delivery - be prepared to be flexible. In the end all that matters is a healthy mom and a healthy baby. At the beginning of my induction (when C was 11 days past her due date) the nurse asked me what my one unacceptable outcome was and I told her leaving without a baby. 30 minutes later I had to have a crash c-section and Caroline nearly didn't make it. A section wasn't in my plan, but there is very little you can control and what you can control is how you react.
PPD isn't just crying and feeling sad. My PPD came in the form of constant anger, constant annoyance, quick temper and hating everything. If you don't feel right talk to your doctor. Don't let PPD steal any time from you and your baby.
Motherhood is hard. You are going to have bad days and you are going to have good days. There are times that you are going to feel like the worst mom ever but you aren't. Breathe. Take time for you. If you need to set the baby down in their crib and cry and let them cry, do it. You are going to put an ungodly amount of pressure on yourself to be perfect and that takes a toll. Ask for help if you need to and say yes when people offer to help you.
Motherhood is amazing. Make sure that you take the time to really drink it in and live in the moment. The time goes by so fast that you feel like you blinked and your baby went from a newborn to a 3 month old to a 6 month old to a 9 month old to a one year old and you will wonder where the time went.
Enjoy this time and enjoy those sweet babies.
BFP Chart
OCT 2011 Moms BlogGood luck Oct 2012 moms!
I just wanted to add - back up your phone pics and videos! If you have an iPhone you can download the Shutterfly app and back them up that way. If you are anything like me you'll snap many "in the moment" pictures of your LO on your phone and you don't want to lose all of those precious pictures if your phone dies or your toddler drops it in the toilet! (They become toddlers so fast!
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