All right ladies, please don't slap me if I sound selfish. My new little man will be 2 weeks old tomorrow, and man oh man have the postpartum blues hit me BIG time this week. I'm beyond overjoyed and filled with love, but at the same time feel so overwhelmed. I've done some reading and spoken to DH and I don't think I'm feeling anything abnormal. Probably due a lot to being so tired.
Week 2 was a lot harder than week 1. Had an OB appt this afternoon and was looking forward to discussing it with her and getting reassurance from a professional, but they literally called the minute we were putting baby in the carseat to leave to reschedule for tomorrow since she was out delivering a baby. I hope I don't sound ungrateful, I don't and I'm not, but OMG I feel like I am just barely hanging in there sometimes and wonder HOW you keep doing this with no sleep.
it's been hard with the breastfeeding since I have to wake him to eat every 3 hours, and he's a slow eater, so I maybe got a 45 minute to hour nap between feedings. that was last week. after Monday he decided he didn't need as much sleep. I thought all newborns did was sleep and eat? he's totally done eating, clean diaper, and burped, but cried if I put him in his bassinet. he wants to stay awake and watch his hands move, which is adorable, but he's not in a safe crib or bed for mommy to be able to sleep, also had a really hard time getting him to settle at night. he maybe slept 6 hours total around his feedings. we have his ped appt in a few hours so I'm going to talk to her about why it seems he isn't sleeping enough, and how to do better with bottles. we tried doing one daddy bottle an evening so I could nap thru that feeding, but he seems confused and lets a lot of it drool back out, then still doesn't sleep and wakes up hungry very soon after.
I had no idea how hard breastfeeding was going to be, and I feel terrible when I hear him starting to wake up and it's so hard for me to get up and feed him. I how this passes soon, I feel like a bad mom being so down. also going to ask the doc about maybe strictly bottle feeding and pumping since that would give me more sleep time.
mama - I like to think you can get a hint at a child's personality while they are in the womb. I just knew my son was going to be a social butterfly who would also be bit of an imp! He would kick up a storm whenever there were children in the same room as me and at every check up he kept rolling away from the doppler and the doctor had to "chase" him around just to get the heart beat. But between those times he would often lay quiet so I felt he would also be somewhat congenial. My son is more active than what his womb activity seemed to indicate but he does love other kids, is always getting into mischief and loves to laugh and play tricks. He's generally been a very happy, easy-going kid. Just busy. My predictions were not too far off of the mark.
That definitely has given me courage to give personalities to my little angels too. I always felt certain characteristics from them. My first angel would have been a sensitive sweetheart, the twin would have been like DS but to a milder degree, my third angel would have been the Diva and the last one a more practical sort. All of them would be tenacious and stubborn too because they all held on longer than the doctors predicted. They fought for survival. When DS gets sick you can just see him willing himself to get better. Always smiling...even with a high fever.
mama, I do hope you can get the birth you want. Why is your OB so insistent on having an early induction if there is no medical evidence that it is necessary?