The First Two Weeks

I wish I knew then what I know now.... despite the pain of recovering from childbirth and the new sleep deprivation..... the first two weeks of motherhood were EASY.


I say this because I had a perfectly happy, comfortably and healthy baby. Had... meaning that immediately after those two weeks, he started to whine, wince, cry inconsolably.

You are probably thinking "Oh no, that sounds like colic...", and you would be right. But not just colic, reflux induced colic which is a whole other brand of miserable. And then of course came along the GI problems and then the early teething.

But, those first two weeks were bliss.

Both Daniel and I were on the same schedule. We did all the same things.

Sleep. a lot. It took me until the New Year to finally feel rested up from the birth, and Daniel seemed to get sleepy from just being cute.

Eat. I was ravenous due to breastfeeding. Would raid the fridge after every feeding at night! I found myself one night eating hamburger buns because we were low on quick foods and I needed something I could eat without cooking.

Swaddle. I became a swaddle expert. I could swaddle you, if I had a big enough blanket. But as Daniel kept growing rounder, he just kept getting longer! It was insane, and he outgrew the pink-blue striped hospital blankets too fast, which I preferred to the velcro easy swaddles. And then he was too long for those as well.

It's obvious that he loved it as well, since now that he's on the verge of rolling over and swaddling is out of the picture, he flails around like he's trying to hail a cab. It's pretty drastic, and I wish that I could still swaddle him up. I used to call him my little burrito.

Cuddle. at every opportunity. I loved bonding with this little guy, and loved that he seemed to know I was more that just another set of arms.

One regret I have is that I do wish I had done more skin to skin with him. I love holding him in just a diaper and feeling his soft, warm baby skin.

But, I was pretty terrified of breaking a limb every time I changed his onesies... so I gave up the idea of skin to skin. I doubt my blood pressure could have handled the stress of his screaming through getting changed more than he already was. He hated it, but maybe it was because it took me 10 minutes to get him changed. He was probably just telling me to hurry up already, and not be such a pansy. Tom was much better at it.

 Play. I loved talking with him, trying to get any reaction he could manage in those early days. We'd wake up and I'd prop him back against my bent knees and I'd make faces at him. An hour or more would pass before we'd stop, when he was obviously sleepy and then we'd both go back to bed.

Pose for the camera. I became one of those people that you either love or hate. I took a ton of photos, of every phase and of course shared many to Instagram and Facebook. To the delight of family and most friends and likely the dismay of some of my still single friends. Oh well, it's the price you pay when you lead the pack towards marriage, then parenthood.

Learn our new roles. Granted, in the beginning I was pretty slow moving and concentrated on eating well and healing, but eventually I started to put away the items, organize some things brought home from the hospital and even cooked a meal. I really didn't utilize my in-laws during the first few weeks, and weren't called on to babysit.

I would feed him, diaper him and as he was drowsy I would deliver a calm happy baby into the arms as I came back to my apartment to do some cleaning, etc. Then Tom would arrive home and we'd go pick Daniel up an hour or so after he went over to visit his grandparents.

Little did I know how much I would come to rely on them in the coming months once the colic started.

Wait for daddy to get home. I loved when Tom got home, because then I got to take a shower, ask how life was outside our building, and get some actual conversation. Daniel likely didn't have much an opinion about it, other than perhaps noting that the diaper master had returned.

Of all the things we were learning to do, I was learning how to nurse, and Tom was doing every diaper when he was home (that is at nights too. Yep, he woke for every nightime feeding. What a guy).

It was a transitional period for me in learning how to be a new mom, but also for Tom in becoming a dad. It already feels like so long ago that Daniel was such a tiny thing, with his tiny arms and legs, wrinkly skin and little newborn cry of "El-La!".

Many things have changed but even though I look back and miss the first few weeks, I can't wait until he is able to interact with us and learn more about his world.





So tell me...
What do you remember about the first few weeks with your child(ren)?
Did you document those days, or are they as I've heard a lot of, forgotten?


                 
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