Happy mother’s day to all mom’s everywhere! There are many ways to be a mom, and they are all encompassed with their challenges, struggles, endless love and precious moments. Anyone who has been blessed with the amazing gift of having a newborn knows that it also comes with its challenges. No matter if it’s your first baby or your fourth! For myself, infancy is the hardest stage. (So far anyway. Not sure how those teen years are going to go! Nail biter! 😅) Probably because there are so many demands on a new mom. The biggest being sleep deprivation. Let’s face it, it’s been MONTHS since you had a great eight! If you are like me, you woke up at least a couple times during the night for at least a couple months before baby was born. You gave birth, and then was expected to stay up for the next several hours caring for this beautiful baby that was miraculously curled up inside of you. You finally come home from the hospital where you can possibly get some sleep without someone coming in and poking around on either you or your baby. If you are lucky your baby will let you sleep for an hour and a half at a time! This becomes normal for you for at least the next several weeks.

All of our babies have been different about their sleep when “newborn”. David was difficult because he was our first, and neither Andrew or myself had a clue as to what we were doing! Ha! Poor baby! I tried WAY too hard to feed him, and in doing so we both struggled with sleep and feeding. We supplemented with formula for David because I couldn’t produce enough milk. He was nine months old before he finally started sleeping through the night. It’s why I have pumping PTSD, and now only pump out of necessity. If I were not going to be around to feed my baby on demand, we would definitely be using formula!

Emma was our easiest baby. She rarely ever cried, and didn’t have any stomach issues. I was more comfortable and confident with myself, and produced more milk the second time around. Things just agreed with her, and she was sleeping through the night at four months!

Then there is Samuel! That boy still doesn’t sleep through the night consistently at three years old. He had reflux when he was an infant, and it came to a point where we finally decided to give him medication for it. The reflux kept him from being able to lay on his back after feeding, so he would wake up consistently after feeding and we would be up trying to burp him and soothe him back to sleep. He also had projectile spitting up, more than what is considered normal. After a year he had outgrown the reflux and was able to come off the medication. However, he has always been a terrible sleeper. We recently started giving him the kids melatonin gummies before bed. I can say that I did see a difference in how much he would wake up in the night. He does still occasionally get up, but it is not nearly as much. I guess he is just one of those people.

Now there is sweet Audrey. She seems to be a little bit of a mix between Samuel and Emma. I know that doesn’t exactly make since, but I’ll explain. She has more stomach issues than Emma did, but overall she is sleeping really well. (knock on wood!) She is super fussy when there is gas in her tummy though! The infant gas drops seem to help her enough that she calms down after it is all off her stomach. She has generally been sleeping from around 8:30 to midnight, and then wakes up again around 3:30ish, and 6:30ish at which point I get up to start the day. I consider that great sleeping for life with a three week old!

This post is not a rant, and it is not a complaint. It is me merely admitting to the fact that being a mom is not always easy. It is one of the most challenging tasks any one can undertake. In the same breath it is also one of the most rewarding. It is a paradox that only mom’s can truly understand. That is why we mom’s need to stick together! We need to lift up and encourage one another. It doesn’t matter if we see eye to eye on the many different ways of parenting. We are all facing the same challenges and struggles. It would be great if we were more open and accepting about it. We don’t always have to be picture perfect. We are MOMS!

Audrey had her first bath this past week! Andrew has always given our kids their first baths. In general, he has been the one to bathe them when they are infants. I am so lucky to have Andrew around! He is such an amazing dad!

Audrey can smile! 🙂 I don’t know for sure, but it seems she is doing this much earlier than our others did. Yes, I take a lot of pictures. We are loving all the cute outfits and bows!

We are adjusting to being a family of six. It is an adjustment for the kids, as Audrey requires a lot of my time and care. It’s is equally difficult for myself at times. Figuring out how to juggle a new born and divvying up my time between everyone and household tasks. I have found it is best for everyone to try to keep the routine we were previously used to as much as possible, however, I am having to be a little more creative about how the kids spend their time. I am not able to just go outside or play with them at any moment. We are trying to take our afternoon walks, and the weather is starting to warm up enough that the kids can play outside more. The first picture is of Emma and Samuel doing a kids yoga video. It’s super cute to watch because they really get into it! On our walk a couple days ago we found a baby bird. David HAD to rescue it! We brought it home and put it in a box. It must have jumped out and is trying to fly because later the kids found it in the yard. Hopefully it survives. There have been a few warm days and the kids wanted to play in the sprinkler. I always love it when they get to do this! Maybe it’s nostalgia, as I remember playing in the sprinkler.

Happy Mom’s Day! You Got This!

Love,

PK