Dear Me in about a week,
You are about to be back in the newborn stage of life, only this time you get to do it while wrangling an energetic 18 month old. So there are a few things I’d like to remind you of before you are too sleep deprived and hormonal to remember them with a clear head.
1. You will sleep again. Maybe not for a few weeks months… but I promise you will get to sleep again someday.
2. You are going to blink and that baby will be a year old.
3. Life might feel ANYTHING but normal right now; but within the next 6 weeks or so, you’ll feel right at home in your new normal.
4. If you start crying, whether it’s for no reason or for a very good reason… there’s no shame in that. The waterworks will go away soon enough.
5. No, your baby doesn’t respond to you much and is basically an ungrateful, demanding, chubby ball of sleeping, eating, and pooping… but cherish it more this go round… b/c before you know it she won’t even stay in one place for more than 2.5 seconds and those quiet baby snuggles will seem like a blurry, distant memory.
6. If nursing doesn’t go smoothly and beautifully from the get-go… well, at least this time you are mentally prepared for that. So… it can’t be much worse than last time, right? And if the baby is starving and you’re stressing about milk production and open nipple wounds and God knows what else… give her a freaking bottle of formula and get some rest.
7. Just because you are breastfeeding does NOT mean you can eat everything in sight… for 9 months straight. You’ll just get really sick of the way you look and have to start over to work it all off again. Seriously, step away from the pantry and go for a walk.
8. If the laundry piles are so big you have to hike over them to get across, and the bathrooms are growing unidentified species, and there are more dirty dishes in the sink than there are clean dishes in the cabinets, and there is 3 weeks worth of dog hair, crumbs, leaves and debris from shoes on the kitchen floor, and you have to order pizza for dinner again this week and it’s only Tuesday… well, what else is new? It’ll all get done eventually… you have two kids who love you in spite of your housekeeping deficiencies.
9. It’s ok to ask for help if you need it. Accept it gratefully.
10. On one of those days…Take a deep breath. Make a big pot of coffee. Say a prayer. Embrace the chaos. And take it one hour at a time.
11. Smile and laugh as much as you can… you have a lot to be thankful for.
Once again your words make me laugh, make me cry, make me miss you, and make me want another! And you’re slipping grammar snob: you have a lot for which to be thankful.