The Things I've Learned Being A Mother

1. If Lila is crying, there's something wrong with her. All these women who are are mother's age or my grandmother's age had told me not to pick up the baby every time she cries. After reading LOTS of articles about developing babies and their needs, I had come to the conclusion that at this age, babies aren't able to manipulate their parents. Don't get me wrong, sometimes she will be screaming and I will pick her up and the instant that I do that, she's fine. I'll put her back down and she's screaming again. She obviously needs the comfort of my arms to make her feel better at that time because she doesn't do that ALL the time.

2. Never change a poopy diaper right away. If you do, you just may get another explosion at you, this time with the diaper off! Nuff said!

3. The whole "sleep when the baby sleeps" thing is just a bunch of CRAP!! Now people, I'm a sleeping. Just ask my husband or anyone in my family. I can sleep for 18 hours a day if someone would let me...that is, BB (Before Baby). Even those first few weeks when we were up ever couple of hours to eat, if it was during the day, I couldn't sleep. I could lay there, on my ass, all day, doing nothing, but I couldn't make myself fall asleep. Now I've finally learned that since she's set her bedtime around 8:00 every night, that she's also set my bedtime around 8:00 every night.

4. You can't plan anything. This has actually gotten better since she's gotten a little older and I'm not nursing her anymore. She was the SLOWEST eater on the face of the earth. If we needed to be somewhere and it was 30 min before she needed to eat, we just weren't making it on time. That pissed me off. I don't like to be late and I don't like to mosey around. Just sitting there, waiting on her to eat made me so antsy. This is another reason why I think I sucked at breastfeeding.

5. A larger number of women have problems with breastfeeding than those who just keep going with no a single care in the world. Lila was losing and losing and it was giving me a complex. I realized that my supplementing it would have a huge affect on my supply, but I had to do what was best for my baby. The poor thing was STARVING. She responded very well to the formula, actually she sucked it down faster than anything I'd ever seen! It made me so sad that I couldn't provide all she needed, but I know that in this day in age she will be fine on formula. 100 years ago we couldn't say the same thing.

6. It's ok to WANT to get away from your baby every once in a while. My mom told me everyday from the day I got pregnant, "you will wish you could stay home all the time" or "I hated going back to work after I had you kids. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do". At 4 weeks I was getting a little antsy for stuff to do. At 5 weeks I was just about to go stir crazy. At 6 weeks, I sent her across the street to my Aunt's and came to work part time as I could. It's been the best thing for me. If I was still at home we be in debt (even more than we are now) and I'd be divorced because Neil wouldn't be able to handle me and my spending!

7. Your family can't wait to see you, but for a different reason now. I haven't had an identity for a while. For the past 5 or so years, I've either been "Capel's Sister" or "Connor's Sister" and I've even been known (for my whole life) as "Coach Henshaw's Daughter". Let's just add another one to that..."Lila's Mom". This is fine. I don't mind it, but if I'm out somewhere and don't have her with me, people really start freaking out. "Where's Lila?" "Who has her?" Listen people she's not attached to me anymore. I can leave her different places and it's ok!

8. Working out isn't quite what it used to be. :( Wom wom wom :(

Now matter how much I want my belly to go back to the rock solid abs (quit your laughing) that I had before my baby, it's just not so easy to get my butt up there and burn calories anymore! I'm just doing what I can and hopefully, one day soon I'll be able to get back up there. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to do the half-marathon in Nashville again this spring. I so hope it can happen!

One more GREAT piece of advice that was given to me from a new mom and good friend of mine, Miss Laura Minor Zurliene: The best advice is to ignore most of the advice given to you. You know what's best for your baby. After all, we are mothers for a reason!

That's all I can think of at this point, but it's a pretty good start. Happy naked baby!!!