Just stopping here to say a quick hello and be that mom that’s wondering just where the time has gone? (Seriously though, do kids have a time warp button on them that makes months go by in the blink of an eye?!)
I feel like one minute I was soaking up the sun with daily pool sessions in Florida and now I’m bundling up and wondering how many hours a day I can play Christmas music without making Eli go insane.
The last few months hit us like a ton of bricks!
I think we’ve established that even if it goes well, or starts off easy, breastfeeding is hard. freaking. work.
I read something in the depths of a 3am feed that resonated with me hard. Breastfeeding is a new skill you’re learning and simultaneously teaching to someone who has never done it before. So why the heck are we expecting perfection out of this? And why don’t we spend more time talking about all things feeding?! I was lucky to have a supportive and informative support system to lean on and I still found myself with a thousand questions. As a result, I have done a TON of googling research over the past few months and have found some really helpful information along the way. I’m hoping this will save you from having to do your own 2am googling or last minute panic search!
So here’s the first post in our new Sh*t I wish I knew series – the lowdown on breastfeeding. Be warned – there is a lot of information in this post! My hope is that you’ll bookmark this and come back to it whenever you have a question or run into something new!
But isn’t it the most natural thing in the world? I mean, I heard it would be hard but I figured I’d just have to slap some Lanolin on cracked nipples and things would smooth themselves out (literally and figuratively). I was not prepared for just how hard it would become… because it started out so well.
This whole foray into parenthood has resulted in a LOT of googling learning over the past several months and as I watch many friends getting ready to start their own families I’ve found myself thinking about all the sh*t I wish I knew. Sure, you learn a lot of the basics during pregnancy, which are really helpful – but I’m talking those 3am searches to find out how the heck to put your dismantled breast pump back together (oops should have paid better attention in the hospital!) or what the “purple period” is and will it ever end?!
This inspired me to bring a new series to the blog – talking about all the sh*t I wish I knew!
After we found out I was pregnant there were a lot of beautiful, wonderful moments of celebration, reflection and trying to enjoy our last days just the two of us. And then there were several moments when it all hit us – “holy sh*t, I have to push a baby out of me!” It’s a less than glamourous realization that doesn’t tend to make it into the curated feed of all those #pregnancygoals posts on Instagram and it’s one that hit both Paul and I at very different points in our journey.
These moments – no matter how different they may look for everyone – are incredibly important. For us, they lead to some important #realtalk, great learning and amazing discoveries that really helped us to prepare for the events of the day. Let’s get real for a second – there’s nothing you can do to truly prepare you for what the moments leading to the arrival of this new little human will be like. But that doesn’t mean you can’t go into the experience with as many tools as possible so you can walk away feeling empowered.
As I mentioned in Monday’s post our birth began way off plan, but we were making the best of it. When we left off I had just gotten an epidural and was waiting for it to kick in, hoping to get a much needed rest.
The best laid plans.
This was the refrain Paul and I kept coming back to as we navigated the moments leading up to the birth of our son. The events of the day were already shaping us as parents and putting into practice what we knew would be required on this journey – an understanding that we can plan and prepare, but ultimately, this new adventure would require us to be flexible.
It occurred to me as I was re-imaging this space that when I started this blog I never really took the time to introduce myself.
So hello! I’m Belinda, but you can call me Bee (most people do). I’m breaking this down into three things you should know about me and some fun facts – so keep reading to find out what I’m passionate about, inspired by and the things that I crave.
Whew.
Whoa – is anyone else wondering just what happened to July? This month zoomed by but also saw a lot of milestones! So let’s dive in.