A new beginning

When pregnant with Noah I knew my life was about to change in a big way. I knew that children were an incredible and sometimes challenging blessing. I knew that I had the love and support of family and friends. I had read every book, every article, listened to everyones advice but there was one thing I did not expect.

My heart grew... The moment I met him and every minute since, it continues to grow.

Noah is now eight weeks old! The most intense and fulfilling eight weeks of my life so far! Andrew and I are learning new things ever day. I never thought Andrew could add expert swaddling to his CV but after eight weeks of swaddling, soothing and rocking. I think we have mastered the skill of calming a baby!
The first two or so weeks of Noahs life, our focus was surviving. It sounds a bit harsh but the first two weeks are very trying. It is like the newborn telling you that up until this point in time you lived a purely selfish life and now thats over. Noah struggled in the beginning to gain weight, he was a very sleepy baby  and within the first two weeks had lost over 10% of his birth weight. He was very unsettled and miserable. We powered on, got sleep when we could. Tried every trick in the book and started formula top ups at night.  Around 4 weeks he opened his eyes... He had opened his eyes before but never like this. He was awake and aware and it was beautiful. We discovered things that he loved that helped us through the tough times.

1. Cars/Planes/Trains put Noah to sleep in seconds! I believe the car seat has magic powers that I will never understand!

2. The shower is a baby whisperer. Noah loves the shower. He will stay in my arms wide awake but totally blissed out. Its also incredibly relaxing for my to stand under the shower with my amazing little man!

3. The saying "This too say pass" At 2am when your trying to feed a screaming baby while your husband lays there snoring that is the only thing that will get me through.

4. Understanding that I cannot be the perfect "mum" but I am the perfect "mum for Noah" has helped me so much! After deciding to give him Formula at night and breastfeed during the day I waited for the criticism but not one person questioned our decision. It was evident that we were doing the best thing for Noah and he is now thriving. And I realised that as Mothers we will have to make decisions for our Children, for our families that we may not even agree with but it is what is best.

Breastfeeding is seriously empowering. I don't know what it is but it just makes me feel like i'm a mother. Although our breastfeeding journey hasn't been the smoothest I am not ready to give it up just yet :)

Anyways In my next post I'll write about our adventures. Noah is a very chilled out kid and we are so blessed that we can still do things that we like :)

xx