Grace………………..>>>>>>>>>
Give yourself LOTS of grace as you transition into a new norm. Having a new baby in the house is like having a long lost relative from another country come to live with you. You don’t know their routine, they are needy because everything is new, they can’t do things for themselves, they may have their day and night backwards because of where they are from or time change is an issue for them, they depend solely on you and your company until they are ready to branch out and do things on their own.
YIKES right!?!
I always tell friends that it takes AT LEAST 3 months to get your life into a solid routine after a new baby is born and get your baby sleeping through the night. For most, that is a long time to go sleep deprived, have a baby attached to your hip 24/7, and not venture out of your home for a period of time when you are used to packing up and leaving. Not to mention the winter blues where you are stuck in the house for weeks on end because it is too cold to take the baby out in the weather.
Ha! Can you tell what stage of infancy we are in in our household?
I make it sound terrible and depressing…and BELIEVE ME, it can be (and that is ok because most people adjust within that 3 month time period)…but transitioning into something brand new is scary and takes time. I think mom’s are afraid to talk about the ugly with having a newborn. It isn’t that you love your child any less than the other person, or that you aren’t grateful for the gift God has blessed you with…it is just….Different. It is different for Sally across the street than it is for me. There is no easy way to “adjust” to adding a new family member to the household.
I am here to say that it gets easier. If it didn’t, I would have not done this 3 times over. You would think that each time I would adjust easier..but it isn’t the case. Each time you adjust, you are adjusting to having a new little family member, transitioning the family into having a new little one in the house, spreading your time out between your kids even more, etc.
I write this blog because the process is BEAUTIFUL and I encourage you to look at it through those eyes. It is hard. BUT…It is a learning process that not everyone has the opportunity to enjoy and embrace and you were given that GIFT. Embrace the messy…it truly never goes away, Enjoy the journey…yours is unique to you and your family, and Create lasting memories…it is the relationships we create and embrace that truly matter.
Babies are amazing little creatures that, once adjusted, seem to fit right in with the family and you can’t imagine a day go by without them. So I leave you with my last piece of advice: Enjoy the little quirks of that infancy stage because believe it or not, you miss it when it is gone.
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