Day 4 - Surprise about Parenthood

I guess my biggest surprise was how emotional I was the first couple of months after giving birth. I have always been one to maintain good control over my emotions but I was a basket case the first three months of Mason's life. I know that was mainly due to my hormones being really out of wack and sleep deprivation. Yeah, that was another surprise that I'll talk abut next. I was fortunate enough to stay home with Mason for 12 weeks before having to return to work. While I absolutely loved that time with him, I am sure being home all day added to my emotional roller coaster. I cried every day. Some days, I think I cried most of the day. I went to the doctor thinking I had postpartum depression but she felt I was such a wreck due to the lack of sleep that I was experiencing.

Sleep deprivation was very surprising to me and was something that I was totally not prepared for! I have never been a great sleeper. Pre-Mason, I would wake up off and on throughout the night so thought that I was somewhat prepared! NOT!! I was in no way prepared and had no idea I would have a non-sleeping newborn. Yep, that's right Mason didn't sleep longer than 1.5 hours at a time until he was 3 months old and then only slept 3-4 hour stretches until he was 6 months old. With that type of sleeping pattern and my lack of ability to fall asleep quickly, I got very little sleep for days at a time. I can vaguely recall a couple of weeks where if I slept 24 hours in a week, I considered that a good week!

Another surpise is how quickly time flies by when you have a child. My little one will be 2 years old in a couple of months and it seems like yesterday that I was sitting in this same recliner holding an infant. Oh how I wish time would slow down drastically and let me continue holding on to my baby. He will be grown before I know it and that scares me to death! I already miss him as an infant and know too soon I will be missing him as a toddler!

I love being a mom and while there have been some challenging times over the past two years, I wouldn't change a thing.

Until next time......