New Mom Life

Having a baby is obviously a drastic change in my life. Many people say you can’t prepare for it and I agree to a large degree. You can certainly mentally and physically prepare to a certain extent, but you don’t know what your baby’s temperament will be, which largely dictates what every day life looks like.

The first few days in the hospital were tough to adjust due extreme sleep deprivation. My husband and I were both up for more than 24 hours the night Tatum was born. At first there was a lot of adrenaline but once that started to wear off, keeping our eyes open became difficult. We suddenly had this new life we were responsible for in this bedside cart as of a few hours ago! We tried our best to nap in rotation when the baby was awake and try to both nap if he was passed out cold. Being a brand new baby, Tatum didn’t sleep for very long periods at all. In fact, his second night was ROUGH. I honestly remember having a split second moment of panic about whether or not I could do this whole mom thing. (Side note: I had the same reaction bringing home every pet I own -6 in total- which clearly never slowed me down).

Coming home officially was another tough transition. How would our 6 pets react to the baby? We have 5 cats and 1 dog… would they be okay and adjust well? They were our babies first, after all! When we got home, our dog was at my parents so it was an introduction to just our cats. As expected, two of our most social “kids” were very curious, sniffing the baby in his car seat immediately. That first day the cats seemed distant, especially from me, so I was very upset, being under the impression they would be permanently pissed; however they started to come around and adapt by day two and three quite well. Now my main snuggle bug has figured out how to share my lap during breastfeeding, so he’s a happy cat.

The dog came home later that same day and my husband had to help control him during his introduction to Tatum. I’m not sure if he was crying (squealing) from pure joy of seeing us, as he’d been at my parents for a few days, or if it was because he was so overjoyed to smell the new baby. He was aggressively trying to shove his nose in Tatum’s face within seconds of coming home! Since then, he’s been a very good guard dog to the baby. He used to get very concerned when the baby would cry, but has since gotten used to the noise and can easily sleep right through it now.

The first two weeks at hone with an infant were challenging. My life became diapers, wipes, poop, pee, and spit up. Laundry was a constant need. I could no longer get up to use the bathroom, shower, walk the dog, or grab a snack without thinking about where to safely put the baby and whether or not he’d start to cry. My sense of self was gone. I went from living day to day for myself the last 28 years to living for a tiny human and catering to him on his wacky time clock! An infant is a difficult, but beautiful life adjustment; it just takes some getting used to.

Now that Tatum is 6 weeks old, I am starting to feel more normal. I’m finally used to actually having a baby and now that he’s bigger and stronger I’m not as paranoid about how fragile he is. He sleeps a lot longer during the night so my mood has improved since I’m not so tired all the time, as well. I think really leaning on any resources available- my husband, family and friends- to help out during the newborn period is critical. I have to be a good mom, but I can’t do that if I’m not a stable and happy lady to begin with. It’s important to speak up when I need help, stay positive and rested, and snuggle my baby as much as possible! The rest of the motions seem to come together on their own, one day at a time.