As a new parent, Black Friday has become less about deals for myself and more for my kid. Little V outgrows clothing so much more quickly than I do, so I’m always waiting for the latest sales. With Christmas around the corner, it’s also a great time to find some cute holiday outfits! Here are a few I checked out for my daughter today:
Zara Check Bow Dress (so cute with black leggings and this red coat)
I’m just as nervous as you, honey.
When Mr. Wonderful first suggested we spend the rest of his paternity leave going to Europe, I thought he was out of his mind. Little V was only 2 months old at the time, and the idea of hauling my sleep-deprived, half-crazed self with a baby in tow just seemed insane. I could barely get through the day by day, and he wanted to travel?!
“Fine,” he said. “You’re no fun.”
Sigh. Apparently giving birth to a baby also turned me into a party-pooping old grouch.
So I relented, though in the weeks and days leading up to the trip I was half-hoping that a minor catastrophe would happen. Just bad enough where Mr. Wonderful would have to admit cancelling the trip would be for the best, but of course not so bad that anybody got permanently hurt. I did end up with a foot injury, and Little V did pick up an ear infection (we went to urgent care two days before the trip), but Mr. Wonderful cheerily carried on with his packing. So off we went. And here are some things I learned:
Let me preface this by saying my experience was not the norm. It’s probably why it took me awhile before I realized why a normally good thing was the problem.
I felt exhausted but happy for the first two days after I gave birth. Then Little V started losing more weight than what the doctors considered normal. I was struggling with breastfeeding, but hey, most new moms do. Within 48 hours we had not one, not two, but three lactation consultants offer advice. Someone was always telling me something was wrong. The shape of my nipple. My baby’s latch. My baby had a tongue tie. But don’t worry, there were solutions to all these things so I could keep breastfeeding. I was constantly reminded that “breast is best.”
“I thought you just stick a baby on the boob,” said an exhausted Mr. Wonderful, who gallantly sat with me though every consultation and every feeding.
If only. It’s so natural for mama dogs and cows and horses; why couldn’t it be for me?
It’s my first Mother’s Day.
I haven’t written a post in awhile, and while the break during these last two months have been unintentional, I have started wondering about the course of this blog. What do I write about if my daily outfit nowadays consists of pajama bottoms, a Madewell tee (which is, by the way, the perfect, slouchy shirt), and an oversized cardigan?
Write about your new life right now, a friend suggested. About motherhood and the way you’re experiencing it.
It sounded so simple. And yet, I worried. Will writing about parenthood struggles and the everyday mundane feel relevant to my readers? Will people lose interest when I start talking about sleep deprivation, the challenges of breastfeeding and bloody nipples (yes, I said that), or struggling with postpartum depression? This is my life right now, but who would care?
My husband gave me my Mother’s Day gift this morning, a t-shirt that said, “World’s Okayest Mom.” It was not only a confirmation of who I am, but an affirmation that it’s ok to just be ok.
And I realized this: I never started a blog to garner lots of followers. It was always about sharing what was real and authentic to me, even if that came at a risk of being raw and off-putting. I may never have the greatest blog, just like I’ll probably never be the greatest mom. But that’s ok. As long as I stay true to me.
I hope you’ll stay around.
Last week I made a trip to the hospital, expecting to get some IV fluids after a night of vomiting/diarrhea and then head back home for some much needed rest. Instead, I ended up delivering a baby girl 14 hours later! Little V arrived 3 weeks early, with all her fingers and toes (yes, I counted).
