Memories of the First Month

How time flies! Kaelyn is already 1 month old. I have so many things I want to say about the first month but guess I should just keep them relatively short for now. Will expand on them in subsequent posts as we go along..

(1) Bringing Kaelyn home
I can never forget that day. Kaelyn wailed in the car from the hospital all the way back home. I thought babies are supposed to be lulled in cars.... Back home, tried to breastfeed her but she couldnt seem to be appeased. So I made my very first mistake - I tried to feed her the bottle of Similac milk the hospital gave me.... From then on, I just supplement her with formula when I think she does not have enough of my milk. Also learnt that newborns feel more secure when they are swaddled - my confinement lady did just that and she stopped crying immediately!

A family picture at TMC upon discharge

(2) Breastfeeding
Whoever says that breastfeeding was easy probably hasnt attempted it before. The idea may sound simple - just latch the baby on when she's hungry... but there are so many problems that come with it. My 3 biggest problems are improper latch on, bleeding nipple and insufficient milk supply. It's really tough!

(3) Baby blues
All that I heard about hormonal changes post pregnancy are true! After giving birth, I felt that I have lost control of my emotions. I get agitated and impatient easily, and I cant seem to stop my tears from flowing under certain circumstances. I cried when I have trouble breastfeeding Kaelyn, cried when I sing "Top of the world" to her, cried when I think of how miserable I was having to endure the episiotomy pain and feeding Kaelyn every 1.5 to 2 hours, cried when Sandy called to encourage me not to give up breastfeeding however tough it may be etc...

(4) Confinement
I've heard friends commenting on how the confinement month was the hardest to bear. I would agree with that - having to endure washing my hair only once every few days, bathing with some funny looking water, perspiring endlessly, eating the same boring food everyday. But the good thing about confinement is that you have someone looking after you and the baby. I felt really lost when the confinement nanny left.

(5) Motherhood
Overall, I would say that motherhood is tough. At the pregnancy stage, you have to put up with nauseousness, fatigue, giving up your favourite sports etc. During delivery, you have to endure the excruciating labour pains and the episiotomy pain thereafter. Then you have to struggle with breastfeeding, cope with baby blues / post natal depression, learn to care for a newborn, decipher her cries, worry when she has blocked nose, phlegm, cant poo etc. And lastly you'll look really tired and 'aunty', and ugly...

Ugly me during confinement