When you’re a new mom, everything is, well, new! Your body is new (and not necessarily improved), your sleep schedule is new, your routine is new, your lack of a shower is new…you get the idea. Sure you slightly and secretly mourn the “old” life but you adjust like all moms before you and what seemed new and scary at first slowly becomes the new norm until the old life feels like so long ago (even if it has only been weeks).
One new thing that I really struggled with at first was getting out of the house with my “extra cargo”. I never realized how easy it was to run an errand when all I had to do was decide to run said errand, grab the keys and my purse and go. Now I have to think about when Henry last nursed and whether I want to take the stroller or the baby carrier and are there diapers in the diaper bag and the biggest one…what if he cries inconsolably in public? We had been going through a phase where Henry would break into crying fits and no matter what I did – nursing, bouncing, changing his diaper – nothing seemed to make a difference. Having a crying fit at home, though not enjoyable, is manageable because it’s home. But having a crying fit in public, well that is stressful and quite frankly, terrifying to a new mom. So I played it safe and stayed close to home. We went for walks around the block or to the local library branch where I knew I could quickly walk out and walk home if the crying started. But after several weeks of that, even Henry was going stir crazy! So we decided to take a weekend and drive to my Mom’s where there would be plenty of extra hands to help and plenty of parenting experience to ease the fears. And wouldn’t you know, it was easier than I expected. We ran errands, we went to church and we even got to share one of our favorite fall activities with Henry – apple picking!
I started to feel like myself again after that weekend. I got out of the house and I did things that I would always do, I just did them with a baby. And it wasn’t that scary! Even when he did cry in public, I realized it was silly to be embarrassed because most people just looked at him and said “aww”. People expect newborns to cry. That’s life. We can’t sit at home worried about crying. So get ready Henry because we have a lot to see and a lot to do!
a little old fashioned 