Daily Life With A 3-Month-Old

Though I promised not to write solely about my day-to-day life and turn this blog into a diary, I have posted about what daily life is like with a 2-month-old, and intend to write a similar post each month as my boy ages.

So, here's what a standard day is like (for me) with a 3-month-old. It really isn't all that different from when he was 2-months-old... he's just awake a little bit more. We were on vacation for two weeks, which sort of threw of his schedule (not that he really had one). But, this is roughly what life was like with him for that month. These are all average times... perhaps in the future I will try and document one full day, if it's an interesting one.

Separation Anxiety: First time away from baby

Many babies, once they reach a few months of age, often experience separation anxiety when separated from a parent (usually Mom). This post, however, is not about baby's separation anxiety, but my own.

I attended a Pregnancy & Beyond Fair a week before Mother's Day and won a free 30 minute-massage, which I had to schedule later. As a Mother's Day gift, my husband scheduled it and extended it to an hour long. I was told to arrive 30 minutes early for a brief chiropractic consultation, and since it was located half an hour from my home, we decided that my husband should come with me to watch the baby. That way, he'd be much closer to me should he get hungry. (He's still nursing about every 2 hours, and the total massage time, plus the consultation and drive would equal 2 1/2 hours).

Baby G slept in the car on the way there, and we hoped he'd sleep a little longer so we just decided that I should go in for my appointment instead of waking him up to feed him. Since he'd only eaten 45 minutes earlier. My husband was planning to push him in the stroller through the shopping center to keep him asleep.

What was strange to me was that I had discussed with my husband the possibility of interviewing babysitters for down the road. Being able to go out for an hour or two for a quick date without baby seemed like a nice idea at the time. Sometimes I feel like just a milk machine and like the baby is just permanently attached to my breast. I can hardly get anything done around the house, and my husband and I can't really cuddle on the couch and watch tv like we used to. So being able to spend an hour or two just the two of us - even if only once a month - at a restaurant or movie theater or even just a frozen yogurt place seemed wonderful.

But then, I was sitting there, in the waiting area, filling out paperwork and started to stress out. The farthest I'd been from my baby since leaving the hospital was about 20 feet. And the only time I wasn't able to really see him or touch him was when I was in the shower. I just kept thinking, "What's going on? What's he doing? How is he? Are he and my husband ok? Is he crying? Is he still asleep?" and so on. I would attempt to calm myself: "He is fine. He's with his daddy. They are okay, daddy knows what he's doing. He ate less than an hour ago, so he shouldn't be hungry yet..." But still... I was experiencing a bit of separation anxiety.

Here Comes Baby Boy! - The Birth Story

Almost 2 months after my baby boy was born, I'm finally writing his birth story. And now scrambling to find my birth notes that my doula gave me... (in reality, I'm calling my husband to find them for me cause I have a baby sleeping on my chest, in the Moby Wrap (which I will write about in more detail later).

Found it!

So if you are only interested in the general picture of my birth, read the short version, which I have here first. If, however, you are interested in the details and specifics, read my novel (aka, the long version), which follows the short version. :)

Short version:
March 14, my due date, I woke up at 4:00am to find my water had broken. 4:30ish I felt my first contraction. I labored at our apartment until 9:00am and arrived at the hospital around 9:50. (Only a 15 minute drive, but it took a while to get down the stairs and out to the car). The nurses were shocked to find I was already completely dilated, and after forcing my feet into stirrups and repeatedly trying (and failing) to get an IV into me, my son was born at 10:31am. The nurses, having forgotten that I had not received an epidural, jabbed me in the leg with a needle to give me pitocin (without my permission), and my doctor then informed me that she was stitching me up from the episiotomy she'd given me (again without my permission and without me even knowing what she was doing). Then another nurse dumped cold water all over me "down there" - to which I shouted "ahh" to. (She then asked, "what?!" to which I told her it was cold and she then said she'd forgotten I hadn't had an epidural). My boy crawled to the breast and began nursing on his own within the hour. Because my husband was deployed, my mom flew out and arrived around 6:00pm.

Read on for the long version...

Welcome! An Introductory Statement

Hello! Thanks for stopping by my new blog Prego to Legos!

When the idea finally struck me to begin this blog, I was already in my third trimester. Wish I would've thought of this earlier so that I could write posts about pregnancy a little more chronologically. But my plans for this blog are to have it be about pregnancy, birth, babies, and parenting - the whole spectrum. I'd love to have my husband contribute some posts about the male perspective, but he's not much one for writing.

Let me begin by saying a little bit about myself and my situation. This will be my first baby - aside from our two fur babies on four legs! I'm relatively young, well older than some, but I feel young! That's what counts, right? I'll officially hit my "mid-twenties" a few months after our baby boy is born. My husband is a Marine, and has been deployed for much of my pregnancy and there's even a chance he won't be home in time for the birth. Gotta love the military - so much uncertainty!