our story and my one piece of advice for new moms | Green Fingerprint
We dealt with things for which we were totally unprepared this year. And yet, the crazy thing to me is that when Nick and I look back on it, we think “wow, that wasn’t so bad.” Why? Because once we got through our first year with our first baby, we knew there was an end in sight. We knew we’d get through it. We had confidence that we’d sleep again. We’d feel normal again. I’d feel like myself again. I didn’t have that with my first. I had no idea if or when our lives would normalize. This time around, even given the health struggles and the craziness of those initial months, I knew that barring anything catastrophic, we’d get through it. We’d figure it out.
I am hopeful for a similar experience with our second baby.
My first year as a mom was not exactly the easiest thing. Ok, that’s putting it a little mildly — it was HARD for me. There were many times when I wondered what on earth I had done to my life by having a kid. I will admit to being a bit fearful of going through that first year of life with a baby again…but now I do have the knowledge that everything is just a phase, and they do eventually turn into awesome little people, and I do eventually feel normal again.
when you struggle to breastfeed | Coffee + Crumbs
My experience with Emma has a lot of similarities to this story, and the lessons are I learned then are another thing I hope to remember for baby #2.
F1 Engine Recovery | Bezos Expeditions
This came up in conversation with Jose a couple weeks ago. Jeff Bezos (of Amazon fame) funded an expedition a couple years ago that recovered parts of several F-1 engines used to power the first stage of the Saturn V rocket that took men to the moon 45+ years ago. There’s not much of an update on the site — I assume the engine parts are still being restored — but there was this cool video that gives an overview of the project.
11 cars help astronaut’s daughter deliver a message to him in space | Mashable
Advertisement or not, this made me go “awwww.” (Interesting note: the astronaut’s name isn’t mentioned, likely because astronauts are not allowed to endorse products — like Hyundai cars, for instance.)
Misti says
It’s entirely frustrating that it seems like no one opens up to a future new mom about that first year postpartum *before* she has the baby. I don’t know if people forget how it is or what, but everything I learned I found out after—the first year is friggin’ hard! I’m only 8 months in, and things are slowly looking up, but man. It was rougher than I imagined it to be. It is good to know that I am certainly not alone.
I hope things are easier for you the second time around, too.
Sarah says
Congratulations!
I totally agree with the idea that the first year is easier with the 2nd baby. We had a “fussy, colicky, gassy” first baby, we were transforming into parents, and we felt a certain pressure to figure out how to do everything the best way. Second baby had a different personality, but I also knew so much more about taking care of a baby and how quickly they change over that first year. I could see better which were small problems and which were big problems. Plus, my husband and I had gotten over some hurdles that I think were selfishness and were better equipped to help each other.
And with the new baby you’ll have a 3 year old live-in super star. My oldest turned 3 a couple weeks after her brother was born and he would spend ages just watching her be awesome. I felt like I had more time to do odds and ends because I’d set her up with something and then put him down to watch her and they both felt special about it.
Best wishes to you!