My husband and I welcomed our sweet baby girl into the world on March first. She is pure joy and fabulousness. We are so blessed to have started our own family and to have started on the craziest adventure we might ever encounter in our lives.
After a year of committing to eating healthy and getting more active, we finally got pregnant last year and I took a break from writing. After a fairly uneventful pregnancy, 10 hours of active labor and an unexpected second hospital stay for jaundice, we were home and starting life as a family of three.
Our first month "after baby" was a month of survival. Even with a calm, "easy" baby, we were in survival mode. We slept when she slept. We ate cold food, one handed, sometimes in a half-asleep fugue state.
Our second month was a little more enjoyable. Baby L started sleeping for more than 2 hours at a time. My husband went back to work and L and I kept working out the kinks in our daily routine. We hired a nanny in preparation for my return to work. Three months later and we hit more of a stride. Life as a working, exclusively breastfeeding mother is not easy. I find myself feeling jealous of my husband who can go to work and only focus on work. He does not have to make time for pumping sessions. He does not have to be sure he prepped all the equipment and got the cooler in the freezer, or that he gets home in enough time that the milk will still be cold and good for the next day. He can drive to work without being hooked up to a machine. Parenting is a crazy, tiring, frustrating, amazing, fabulous thing.
Baby L is growing and changing every day. This week she mastered clapping. She knows what many words mean, her favorites being book and milk. She is obsessed with the songs from Frozen. She is starting to stand on her own and has more than mastered crawling. She has brought our family closer together and changed us in all the best ways. Despite our struggles, I'm thankful for the amazing family that I have.
