Evenings with New Baby, by: New Mom

My beautiful son is 7 weeks old. He has changed my life, definitely for the better, but I just never knew how hard it really is to be a parent. The most difficult thing, and most people have agreed with me on this, is the lack of sleep. I just never knew! You really just never know until you have a kid!

My evenings 2 months ago consisted of the following:

2 hours of tv, 1 hour hot bath, 30 minutes reading in bed, 8-10 hours of blessed sleep. I look at this list now and realize what a luxurious life I once had!

Now my evenings go like this:

Feed baby, bathe baby, feed baby, rock baby, feed baby, put baby down, lie down in bed, worry that baby isn't breathing, check breathing, lie back down, say prayer that baby won't stop breathing, sleep for 4-5 hours, wake up and praise God that baby is still breathing, change baby, feed baby, put baby back down, say another prayer that baby won't stop breathing, sleep for 2-3 more hours and then start day...WHEWWW!

And just when you think they have their schedule down - they change it! Night before last, my son, who usually falls asleep between 10 and 10.30 for the night, did not fall asleep until midnight. I was so tired with just this two hour change. And of course he wasn't happy about either! He cried the whole extra two hours he was awake. Yikes. (Does anyone out there have any tips on soothing baby in situations like that? Is that what is known as colic?)

All-in-all though, I think little "d" is doing pretty well in terms of night sleeping. I've heard so many horror stories from other super moms whose little darlings only slept for 2 hour increments at a time for months! My little guy usually goes at least 4.

And I really do miss my evenings of luxury, but now "d" is starting to smile up at me when he sees me hovering over him, and that small ounce of recognition is full of enough love to get me through. (That, and my husband draws a hot bath for me when I look a little too stressed!!) hehe. ;)