What’s so difficult about having a baby, anyway?  If you ask most people or read about it in a book, it is sleep deprivation.  Well, this has not been my experience.  Fortunately I was not working two months previous to Lilly’s birth, so if there’s any truth to banking hours of sleep I was off to a good start.  Most days we got 10+ hours of sleep.  Once Lilly’s birthday approached we knew these ’10-hours of sleep’ days would likely never (and I do mean never) return.

The first week with Lilly was indeed tough because she, like most newborns, was up most of the night.  Since I was recovering from surgery, Bill was her primary caretaker.  He would bring her to me when she was hungry and comfort her the rest of the time.  When we returned home we spent most of our energy that first week trying to get her to ‘sleep’ at night, and were successful.

Since then the ‘lack of sleep’ has not been much of an issue for me.  It’s definitely important to nap when you can during the first month, but never did I feel too exhausted to care for the baby or carry on with day-to-day tasks.  Instead, I have found feeding and lack of time to be most difficult.

I have written about feeding problems previously (see ‘Battle of the Breast’ below), and they continue to persist.  Nothing worrisome, as Lilly continues to gain weight and move up on the growth chart, but anywhere from three times a week to three times a day she can be extremely fussy when eating.  I never know if she is going to drink half an ounce or six ounces and have had to limit the amount of time spent breastfeeding and pump instead.

Time.  So you have a baby who needs your full attention almost the entire time she is awake.  But she naps 12-14 hours a day, right?  Right, but somehow during those 12-14 hours I still feel lucky if I have found time to take a shower.  Taking her anywhere takes twice as long as it used to and so much needs to happen during the day, from laundry, to dishes, pumping, eating, ordering diapers, calling the doctor, updating the blog :), etc.  Of course I usually finish the things on my ‘to do’ list just as she is waking up from her nap, which was an adjustment at first.  When the day winds down (which for me is around 7pm), I typically have gotten in about an hour of ‘me’ time and accomplished a multitude of tasks, feeling every day exhausted but like I truly accomplished something wonderful.