Do you look back on your life and see all the mountains you had to climb and remember thinking "how the f*ck am I going to do this?" I think that should be one of the motto's of motherhood. You are looking up at that huge mountain that is raising a child and wonder if you can climb it.
However, now looking back at some of those mountains you are saying to yourself "wow I actually did it and it wasn't so bad!" I have been thinking lately at all I have accomplished that I just never thought I would accomplish at the time of facing it.
1. Labor/Delivery- What woman isn't afraid of this aspect of having a child. It is amazing how that even through all the time, the pain, and the healing I am still willing to do it all over again!
2. Sleepless Nights- Yes, you do adjust and it's unbelievable what you can still accomplish with only 4 hours of broken up sleep.
3. Breast Milk Weaning- So I didn't have much of a struggle here as Tristan had decided he was done and had made the decision for the both of us. My struggle was the emotional turmoil that came with it. I wanted to breastfeed until at least a year, I only made it 6 months.
4. Solids- This is still a challenge for me because of my one choking incident. But it is a mountain that I am slowly climbing down the other side of, but just don't feel like I have accomplished it yet.
5. Naps- As many of you know I had been holding Tristan for naps for an entire year. Yes, that means an entire year of holding my son for 4-6 hours a day. Everyone should be in awe of what I could actually accomplish in those few hours of not holding him or when my husband had him. But for about a month now Tristan has been taking 98% of his naps IN HIS CRIB! Yes, I worked hard on this. Yes, it has been one of my biggest if not my biggest struggle. A mother needs those few hours of downtime to recharge and for an entire year I was not getting it. My friends and family are lucky I am not insane locked in a room with padded walls. Who knows, maybe I still should be.
6. Formula Weaning- I thought this was going to be a huge mountain, but really it was the smallest hill ever. Tristan took whole milk like a champ! Like father like son I guess.
7. Bottle Weaning- This is the one I am terrified of. This is the one that kept me up at night, that I dreaded for 3 months before he turned 1. Cutting out the daytime bottles was cake. The morning bottle was somewhat of a harder battle. It just consisted of lots of distraction and a filling solids breakfast. I have yet to remove the bedtime bottle. I don't think I plan to remove that bottle for a few more months. Tristan is just not consistently sleeping through the night and not needing a middle of the night bottle anymore. I am just not ready to disrupt that with taking his bedtime bottle away. You pick your battles in motherhood.
I am sure I have tons more mountains to climb (did anyone say potty training?) and I am sure there are many more I forgot, these are just the ones on my mind. So for all of you moms out there in the midst of starting to climb or in the middle of climbing those mountains, remember once you reach the other side you are going to look back and no longer see that huge mountain but just tiny grain of sand (huge thanks to Miss Carrie Underwood!)
No comments:
Post a Comment