Guess what I got for my birthday in October. A baby girl! She was born on my birthday. What a great gift, huh? She was born via emergency c-section, 5 days late, weighed 6 lbs 4 oz, and was 19.5 inches. She’s 2.5 months old now, 10+ pounds, 22ish inches, and I love being her mom. Life has changed drastically since her arrival. I naively thought I would be able to return to work shortly after her birth. Ha! Wrong. I don’t even know what I was thinking. I took my maternity leave from the salon and ended up quitting. I went back one day when baby girl was 3 weeks for a few hours to see a client and that was the worst 3 hours ever. She stayed with one of her grandmas so I knew she was fine, but I hated being away from her! We were working really hard on getting breastfeeding worked out, so being away from her would have made that even more difficult. So I am now a stay at home mommy. I love my new job as a full time mom, but wowza. When people say it’s the hardest job ever, they’re not kidding. It’s seriously a 24/7 job. But it’s also the greatest job ever. And lowest paying. Although I love it, I’ve also found that it can get really lonely staying home all day with a newborn. I’ve discovered that when you have a baby, all your baby-free friends feel like they need to give you space because you’re too busy to see them. In reality the opposite is true. I feel like I need my friends more than ever! Sometimes I just want to have adult conversation or a trip out to lunch. Lesson: when your friends have babies, they’re not too busy for you. Sure, it’s a little rough at the beginning, but once they get into the swing of things with the baby, they’ll be ready to hang out with you again.
Before baby girl was born I thought I’d have tons of free time to myself while she slept. I thought she’d be sleeping all the time. She is sleeping lots, but free time…what? It doesn’t exist. I used to think I didn’t have any free time. Ha! Silly me! I used to be the queen of Facebook. I kept up with everything. Over the past 2.5 months, I’ve barely read anything on Facebook. During those precious moments I’m supposed to have to myself while she sleeps, here’s what I do: check the baby, frantically search the kitchen for something to eat, check the baby, shower very quickly, check the baby, laundry, check the baby, fold laundry, check the baby, attempt to check and respond to email and Facebook, check the baby, attempt to get dressed, check the baby, try to clean the house up a bit, check the baby, attempt to make dinner, check the baby, and lots and lots of other things. Yes, I’m one of those obsessed, paranoid parents who is constantly checking on my baby. Go ahead, make fun of me. I don’t care. The point is, free time does not exist. Baby girl always knows when it’s time for me to eat because, as soon as I get my food prepared, she wakes up. Every time. How does she know? Ah well. It’s chaos but I love it and I love her and it’s all good.
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