Friday, June 5, 2009

Flashback Friday

The excitement of the first couple of days after Luke was born quickly turned into feelings inadequacy; he was totally dependant on me ad I didn't feel capable of taking care of him. These feelings came as a total shock to me and to Ryan. You see I grew up around babies, I had 3 younger sisters, 14 younger cousins, and I was always babysitting, so I thought being a mommy would come easy to me.

It started the second day in the hospital, Luke spent most of this entire day screaming, and we didn't realize he was crying because he was so hungry until the middle of the second night. Since Luke was so big when he was born he needed to eat more often and on top of that we were really struggling with nursing. Ryan and I felt terrible when we realized we were starving our son.

It only got harder when we went home, Luke cried practically the entire first night at home (come to find out this happens with most newborns...wish some one would have warned me about it!). I was already extremely tired, and I don't do well without sleep. The lack of sleep paired with my hormones made me very emotional. After several days and lots of encouragement from Ryan, I started to realize that I did have what it takes to be a good mommy. Ryan was a very involved daddy, and we learned together what was the best way to care for Luke.

I love being a mom and wouldn't trade my job for any other in the world. We learned a lot from Luke's newborn days, and we hope that it will be much easier the second time around!

All of the middle of the night feedings led to a lot of napping during the day.

I'm so grateful that Ryan helped with those middle of the night feedings!

During that 1st week home we learned that Luke loved the sound of running water.
Anytime he was screaming all we had to do was turn on the water and hold him close to it & soon the silence came!

These are the pictures we used for his birth announcements.
I couldn't narrow it down to 1 or 2, so we used 4 pictures!




5 comments:

Amy said...

Oh I'm right there with you about the feelings of inadequacy that come with the first child. I really do believe the second baby is 'easier' only b/c you know a little more about what to expect. Props to Ryan. Involved daddies make all the difference in the world.
I love the picture of you and Luke napping...so sweet. Those days go by so quickly.

Kathleen said...

aweeee i barely remember when he was that little!

MamaHen said...

Hi Christen! I wanted to say thank you so much for coming to visit me on my blog. Your little boy is ADORABLE! Oh, my goodness, get me a spoon! I signed up to follow you. Can't wait to hear some baby news!

Unknown said...

YAY i helped with taking those birth announcement pictures! You woulda thought he was a little girl as much as we accesorized him and changed his clothes for his photo shoot! He was truely the most beautiful newborn ive ever seen, i bet Aubrey will be even more perfect :)

Rachel said...

He was SO cute!!

And you know I was right there with you too - as Chris says, giving birth creates a hormonal nuclear bomb that ravishes everything in sight. However, I have heard that the second time around the impact is much less, since the shock of being a new Mom isn't there.