Parenting....What a Trip!

Parenting. Where do I begin? The very long nights of no sleep because your little guy has his nights and days mixed up? Being peed on as soon as you take the diaper off or while giving him a bath? Being pooped on? Plus it really stinks. Not to mention he can really gas you out while you're feeding him. Sometimes my eyes water.

Oh, I forgot that breastfeeding was a bear. I gave it 6 weeks and gave it up. This has caused me to feel a lot of guilt because I know that it is the best food that he could get. But for both of our sakes I gave it up. I became depressed, ornery, and resentful every time he needed to eat. When I stopped, I felt very selfish. FYI you CANNOT CRAM 6 OUNCES OF FORMULA IN TO A 2 OUNCE STOMACH. No matter how hard you try, it is not going to fit, and you'll end up at the ER with the nurses and doctors looking at you like you're an idiot.
Also, the postpartum blues, those were so nasty, I thought I was going to need therapy.

Nobody told me how incredibly hard this would be. On the other hand, I think that people actually could explain it, but you wouldn't truly understand until it happened to you. You really cannot fathom how sleep deprived you become, and how hard it is to take care of someone who is so completely dependent on you for everything.

I truly appreciate my mom for delivering me with no epidural because it didn't work until after I was born. Plus she was in labor for 12 hours. I can see now that I was not an easy child/teenager to raise (no child is easy). Add my sister to the mix, and there was trouble with a headache. Muchas gracias, mom and dad.

This is not easy business. However, it is not all bad. You forget a lot of this stuff when he looks up at you for the first time and smiles because he realizes who you are. Or when he starts cooing at you because he recognizes your voice. Or when you see him reach his milestones. And he is just so darn cute!

I will admit that I have not fallen easily into the motherhood roll. This is harder than being a missionary, but more rewarding. I thought that I would totally bond with Will the moment he came out, but that wasn't how it worked for me. It has taken a while, and I am still falling in love with him.

Technical information:
William was born May 30th, 08 at 12:51 p.m. He weighed 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 18 1/2 inches long. He was a pretty small baby, but according to my OB/GYN he was a pretty big baby for me to deliver. Even now at 7 weeks, strangers see him and think he is only a few weeks old.

William was born with quite a bit of hair. Labor and delivery were not bad at all after my epidural, but before the drugs it was a painfully *rim shot* different story. I was scheduled to be induced May 30th at 7:30am. Dr. Hinson came at about 9:00 to break my water. That is where all my extra weight was. After that contractions started but were tolerable. Then they started me on pitocin and that was when the fun started. I asked for my epidural shortly after, and then everything was pain free. When I was delivering my doctor told me when to push but I could not feel anything from my abdominal region down. I felt like I was pushing with my face. It was a very odd feeling.

I delivered Will on a Friday and came home that Sunday. Life is slowly getting back to "normal", but how normal can life be with an infant I am just glad that Alex and I were able to get one last camping trip in before we had Will. I was 8 months pregnant when we went. It was a little taxing to have to keep putting shoes on and unzipping the tent every half hour to go to the bathroom, but we had a great time.