Transitions and surviving motherhood

My youngest daughter is now 6 weeks old. I had forgotten how exhausting those first few weeks and months are, especially since my first born has, for the most part, decided not to nap- so yay for no recovery sleep like we are afforded with "only" one child.

I feel like my time has been cut into fractions of what it once was. I can no longer get anything done, and when I do, it feels like a huge accomplishment. This is difficult for a task oriented person. Otherwise, every task is interrupted with a cry, a poopy diaper, my first born taking opportunity of my now divided attention (aka making messes) or any number of a hundred things.

There is nothing like parenting to expose our weaknesses. It is most definitely not for the faint at heart! I'm realizing that if I don't prioritize "me" time (aka a shower or brushing my teeth), it just wont happen. And it NEEDS to happen or I might just lose my mind.

Survival tips:
Sleep. Let the house be messy. I get unreasonably uptight about the condition of my house and seem to be bothered by messes more when I'm tired. Or maybe it's just that everything in life feels upside down, so in craving a sense of order, I do something with a visible or tangible end so I can feel like I'm accomplishing something, which works great unless it doesn't get done.

Ask for help. As much of it as is necessary. I've had people come and clean, take over meals, take me to doctors appts, etc because I couldn't do it on my own. Especially recovering from a c section.

Surround yourself with strong supporters. Women can be mean, and there are a lot of mommy wars going on out there. Why?  I have no idea. It's not a competition for goodness sake! But stick close to a few people who are invested in your life and you theirs. It will be necessary on the days when you feel at your wits end and want to scream and cry about the woes of parenthood, the lack of sleep, not having time to eat, or the fact that you just lost your temper.

Pump a few bottles of breastmilk (or formula!) if you can and begin letting your little one practice taking a bottle from someone else. Once your milk supply is in and baby and you have established a good latch and nursing routine, there really isn't much concern for nipple confusion. This will come in handy for date nights and so your SO can take over an evening feed for you to get more sleep. My girls both seemed to eat better when I was nursing or feeding them myself- I think this has something to do with smell. So teaching them early to eat from others has been helpful!

Eat right. This is a hard one. My diet has changed almost completely since having my first daughter. I found that if I didn't make time for eating, it would not happen. And everyone knows that a hungry mom is a cranky mom. Not only that, but not eating enough means a drop in milk supply as well as a stall in weight loss. I fell into the habit of making DD her breakfast (or lunch or dinner or 5th snack...) then working on mine, only to be interrupted with her asking for more. I would give her more and before I knew it, the time I could have spent eating was now gone and my newborn was now hollering to be fed.  So, I began making DD wait if she had finished her food before me. I've also started spending some time on the weekends prepping portions of food so that I could easily grab something healthful.

more to come...