Nice things I love since having a baby

Yesterday  I wrote about gross things I now love since giving birth, which as you can tell by the title, discusses some pretty gross things. In order to not scare anyone off child birth, I wanted to share some of the nice things I love since having a baby. After all, it’s not all bad! Let’s just not talk about the whole “going into labour” thing – otherwise I will scare people off.

Let’s get into the good stuff.

Developing a whole new love for my husband

I was pretty loved up before we had a child, but this just took it to a new level. When my hormones were raging, I cried over how much I loved him. Looking at our wedding photo made me break down. The thing is that it’s not just that my heart melts when I watch him holding our child. It’s more than that.

We had a hard start to the week when we came home from the hospital, with some pretty crazy sleep deprivation. Since then we’ve also had to navigate our way through many other situations. Each time, we’ve worked through it together.  There hasn’t been a moment yet when I haven’t felt supported by him.  

To be honest we still get frustrated with each other, and I’m sure I can be super annoying. We both have opposing views on some things (I’m for swaddling, he’s not), yet when that happens we discuss it together and determine a way forward. We have each other’s back.

Yesterday afternoon I was mentally exhausted. Bub had been feeding for most of the afternoon and didn’t want to be put down to take a nap. I hadn’t been able to move for hours, and felt chained to the couch. The tears came and I felt overwhelmed. I asked my husband if he wouldn’t mind taking the baby just so I could take a few minutes to myself. Without any complaint, Mario took our bub and I got the rest I needed. I was so grateful.

The mushy stuff about him and our child is just a bonus on top. Watching him interact with our son just melts my heart fifty times over. The joy and love on his face when he looks at our son is just beautiful. I cherish each moment I get to witness it. Mario would do anything for this child, and he’s a completely hands-on father. He changes nappies, baths our bub, helps me as much as possible with feeds, etc etc etc. The list goes on. I’m so glad he’s my husband, my son’s father, and who I get to spend the rest of my life with. He’s an amazing father.

Baby cuddles are awesome

In the past when people would hand me their babies I would hold it out in front of me, dangling, and ask “what do I do now?”

Thankfully I’ve figured out the answer to that question now that I have my own child, otherwise that could have been awkward. Although I would have had some awesome shoulder muscles – holding that much weight out permanently would certainly become taxing.

Our bub loves to fall asleep while feeding – he’s a supreme expert of it. Generally we have to wait a bit before moving him, otherwise he will wake right up (unless we want him to wake up so he feeds more of course). When we’re trying to burp him, if we put him up on our shoulder he snuggles in for cuddles. Likewise when he’s laying on our chest. And holy cow, the feels!

When he snuggles in it kick starts this whole warm fuzzy feeling that is totally foreign to me. Is it cluckiness? General love for a baby? Something else? Whatever it is, it’s awesome – I can feel myself totally just chill out and relax. That is, unless I need to pee, in which case I think “awww, loving the cuddles buddy but I NEED TO FREAKING PEE!”

If you don’t have a child yet, and someone hands you a baby, don’t dangle the child in front of you. Get that child all in on your neck/chest and cuddle that thing tight. It’s awesome.

Appreciating sleep…when we get it

I wrote in the past about the first few nights being sheer hell with sleep. I’m probably going to massively jinx this by writing about how it’s not been so bad since. Especially since he’s slept a lot today, so we might be in for a rough night.

Excluding the first few night,s our bub has been quite generous to us with sleep.

He’s worked out day and night, and now we’re averaging 5 – 7 hours of sleep overnight. It’s broken up with feeds and nappy changes in the middle, but every little bit adds up. Normally he’s asleep anywhere between 8 – 10pm, with the first sleep lasting 3 – 4 hours before he’s ready for a feed. Half an hour or so later he’s fed and goes down again for another 3 hours or so. Some nights he only wakes once, other nights might be two or three times.

I am so grateful for bub letting us get half decent amounts. I’ve been able to function.

In saying that, I’ve just jinxed it. Better have a nap before bed tonight so I’m prepared for a shitty night, just in case. I’ve got some expressed breast milk as backup too, so if needed I can take one shift and Mario can take the next. Gotta have a backup plan!

The response from our loved ones

Watching my friends and family meet our bub for the first time and seeing the joy on their faces is fantastic. At the moment we’re a bit hardcore on who can hold him. He’s not yet 6 weeks old, which means he hasn’t had his vaccinations. We don’t want him getting sick, so unless the person has recently had vaccinations (the whooping cough in particular) then we’ve asked them to stay away until after the 6 weeks.

Everyone has mostly supported this, which has been greatly appreciated. I can’t wait to be able to pass bub around for cuddles, particularly while he’s in this small newborn phase. I’ve felt a little bit of an underlying resentment from a couple of people, but I’ve ignored it for the most part. I stand by our decision, and hubby has been very vocal on this point as well. The health of our child comes first.

So i’m extremely grateful and love that our immediately family got shots so they could come earlier, and that others have held off out of respect for our wishes.

I love you guys!

Doing housework

This sounds wanky, but whenever I get a chance to do housework it’s like I’m hitting a reset button my level of sanity.

Doing housework feels normal to me, and it’s something I enjoy. Vacuuming the floors, unpacking the dishwasher, putting clothes on to wash….it feels like a normal life again. Pre-birth I had a morning routine: wake, put on washing, breakfast, unpack dishwasher, clean kitchen, hang out clothes, vacuum, shower, get ready for work, leave. Pre-pregnancy that also included a 30-60min workout (we got up quite early).

Right now that routine is just not possible. I’m feeding bub whenever he needs it, and sleeping in as late as he lets us. With the recovery from a c section I’ve had to take it easy, which includes not doing housework. Mario has been doing it all while I rest on the couch and feed baby.

However in the last few days I’ve started to feel better, and I’ve been able to get bub down for daytime naps. As we have been getting decent sleep overnight I’ve been able to pick at little bits of housework here and there, and it means I’m contributing!

I’m not someone who does well with a lack of independence and physical activity, so for every little bit I can get it feels so good.

Honourable mentions:

• Dressing baby in cool little fun outfits and getting epic pictures as a result

Happy Halloween!! pic.twitter.com/HxCCiZOEDq

— kelsbells (@Kelsbells) October 31, 2017

• Giving baby a bath/shower and watching him soak in the water with a serene look on his face
• Making it through another day having not totally f**ked up yet

What nice things did you love and appreciate so much more once you had a child?