…To thriving

Hello everyone! I am shouting out from Baby Land here, and since my Pia has a special baby honing beacon on whatever I’m doing, I’m almost positive she’ll wake up early one paragraph into this post!

I was thinking and praying about what to write about first over the past few days – first impressions and all that! – but really and truly all I kept coming back to is how much change has happened in my new little family such a short amount of time. I am amazed at how much happens in the first few months of a new baby’s life, since it feels like every week there is a new shift and a new “routine” for us. Pia is doing well, smiling, rolling over, cooing, and stretching out her sleeping patterns… and my dear hubby and I have been out on dates (!), are getting a little more sleep, have figured out how to do many things one handed, and I even put on makeup most days (it’s the little things). Praise the Lord and pass the peas! We have moved slowly from the just-surviving camp to the thriving camp.

Even though it’s only been four and a half months, however, there were several weeks in the beginning there that were soooo touch and go that I honestly couldn’t even imagine that it was going to be this way at this point. I couldn’t even picture it. We had a hard labor, a ton of nursing issues, and not a lot of local support, and instead of feeling simply really happy (which is what I desperately wanted to feel!), it just seemed insanely hard. Since Pia is our first, I had no institutional knowledge to tell my sleep deprived self that it was going to get (a ton) better, or that I wasn’t going to be thinking all crazy forever. Other mom’s seemed to come out of the fog eventually(or never even have the fog?!), but me? This seemed permanent! For all I knew a few months ago, I was just going to live in my pajamas for the rest of my life (comfy, but not ideal). And those were very real feelings! Having your first wee one is a steep learning curve! A wonderfully blessed one, but man, let’s be honest, steeeeep.

So…this is just a short note to any of you out there who are newbie mamas and may be struggling ever so slightly. You are doing well. You are doing your best. Keep it up. Don’t compare yourself to anyone. Keep our Lady before you. You are priceless to your sweet bundle, and they wouldn’t trade you for anything. You will figure out the laundry schedule. You will be able to eat a meal without speed eating. You ARE going to see the sun again. You WILL get out of the house again. You will be able to find time again, and you WILL settle into a routine…not the old one, but a new and improved 2.0 version. Breathe. Ask for help. PRAY. And then you’ll wake up one day, not too far into the future, and you’ll be in your new normal…and thriving.