The First Month With A Newborn

I cannot believe that almost one month has gone by with our sweet little Peter already.  A lot of people have been asking how we are doing and honestly the answer is GREAT!  Peter is such a fantastic baby, and I do not want to jinx it, but he is a phenomenal sleeper (which makes a HUGE difference).  Since a few days old he has been sleeping 5-6 hour stretches every night (from about 10pm- 3 or 4am) which that alone allows for me to get more sleep than I did for the first 8-9 months with some of our other babies!  Also, with each and every child I think that we relax more and more into our parenting, have gained confidence and most importantly have learned what really matters! 

Although life is a lot crazier now than with just one child I find myself slowing down more now than I did before.  I have found more time to just sit and relax with our baby, just staring at him and appreciating this amazing gift that God has given to us.  I have learned how fast our children grow and change and how much I adore this newborn phase.  I love learning each of their features, being graced with each new expression and those adorable first smiles. 

 

 

I no longer am doing things like recording feedings and diapers like I did with our first baby.  When the baby cries now, I feed him.  If he is sleeping, I let him sleep!  If he is fussy at night I bring him in bed with me and cuddle.  I do not find myself worrying about if he is gaining weight or reaching milestones, I just let him be who he is and trust that for the most part children will all grow and learn at their own rates in their own time. 

I am appreciating having little helpers in our home!  When our last child was born our other children were 3 1/2 years old and 19 months old.  Now our other children are almost 6 years old, 4 years, and 2 1/2 years old, which is a HUGE difference!  I find myself being able to enjoy the simple pleasures that I never felt like I had before with infants in our home like going to the bathroom by myself.  We have slowly been learning what we trust our boys to do with the baby and are teaching them new things every day!  I am also appreciating the fact that I have stopped feeling the "need" to entertain our children all of the time and realized that they can play with each other well and do not always need me.  I find our boys reading books to each other, setting up games to play together and even enjoying quiet time individually so much more than I did even a few months ago!

 

 

I have learned to appreciate homeschooling on a whole new level with having a newborn in our home.  As I expected, our older children did not really want to take a true break from doing school work, but I love how we can adjust our schedule as needed to flow with the changes in our life.  It has been such a blessing for our family to not have to rush to drop kids off at school and to be able to do reading lessons while I am nursing the baby!  When the children have had activities out of our home I have learned when to ask for other people to help so that I can stay home and not push myself too much during the first few weeks.  In balance with that though, I have also learned to say "yes" more to our children to fun simple activities that have always been a part of our daily routine like bike rides around the lake.

The biggest thing that is helping though this first month is learning to accept and appreciate help!  6 years ago when I was a brand new mom to our first son I not only thought I could do everything and anything all by myself, but I thought that I NEEDED to do it all!  I have humbly and graciously learned that having a community and giving myself the grace of taking a few things off my platter makes me a better person.  My dear husband came to me a few weeks before our newest son was born and tactfully told me that he thought that I keep our home tended to well but wanted to know if I would want him to hire a housekeeper for a while once the baby was born.  I was kind of against it at first, feeling like it is truly part of my role in our home to clean, but humbly accepted his kind gesture.  Our housekeeper is now coming two times a month and it has made such a difference to take things like scrubbing the showers or other heavy cleaning off my to-do list!  Am I really weird to love really clean carpet, and even more that I was not the one to have to clean it?

 

The other part is having a community who support me and my family.  Between my family, dear friends, our church and homeschool communities we have had over 20 meals brought to us this first month.  Yes, you read that correctly, TWENTY!  And when you figure in how large most of these meals are and all of the left overs, the people who bring breakfast as well for the next morning; I basically have not had to make a thing for dinner all month!  I think that our children might be truly depressed once they realize that people are not bringing meals every night because usually they involve not only dinner but also dessert!  My parents and in laws have helped with our older boys bringing them to activities and creating fun special moments for them.  My friends have even gone out of their way to create special playdates with our children as well!  All of these things truly help our family realize that we are a part of a wonderful community and it makes the transition of a new baby into our family so much smoother.  I cannot express my thankfulness and appreciation enough.  We are truly blessed.

Happy 1st month of life little Peter!