Happiest Mama On The Block

Since becoming a Mom nearly 5 months ago now, I have toyed with the idea of joining the "mom blog" community and blogging more about my experiences being a Mom in these first few months.  It seemed like it was the perfect fit for me, since I have been blogging now for 4 years, love to blog, and to me, blogging is more about my own personal growth than anything else.  I like to get my thoughts out through my fingertips and receive your feedback in return.  You have all been nothing but amazing blog readers and friends and have offered me lots of valuable feedback and advice - something which I felt I definitely could use navigating my way through the first few months of being a Mom!

But the more I started reading some "mom blogs," the more I started to realize that you need to be pretty darn thick skinned to handle all of the criticism that goes with that territory.  I mean, even when I was pregnant, I could smell the parental judgments coming a mile away.  There are as many parenting styles as there are Moms and babies, none of which are "wrong" and all of which are "right" and the opinions all come from a very personal place in a parent's heart, so they are defended very strongly. 

Throughout these past 5 months I have LOVED being a mom and am continuously surprised at how much better it gets every.single.day.  You just have no idea how much you can love another person until the day you become a mom - and every day after that.  Along with all of that were many, many, many struggles - all of which push you to every possible limit both physically and mentally, I wanted to blog.  Many, many times I wanted to share my experiences with you and get your feedback.  I needed an outlet (hello Twitter! lol), a source of support and maybe even some tips and advice from you other Moms out there.  But, truth be told, I didn't feel like on top of all of the challenges of the time, I firstly, even had the time to write the posts, and secondly, could handle the criticism and debates that would most likely go along with posts involving struggles with breastfeeding and baby sleep habits.  Any of you Mom Blog readers out there know exactly what I'm talking about.

I have struggled with all of the same things every other Mom struggles with; mainly breastfeeding and sleeping.  If you are lucky enough to be dealing with an otherwise healthy baby (thank you Lord), those are the big players that I have faced and I think most Moms agree, those are the big ones.  Now that I feel like I'm through those initial months of "basic training" as a Mom, I'm better able to share a bit more because it's a part of who I am now and I have gained so much through reading the blogs of other Moms that I feel like I want to "contribute" in some way for another first time Mom out there who are about to embark on the same journey.  I will share my two cents about those topics at some point in another post for that reason.

But for now, just because I'm BEYOND happy and excited about this recent development, I will skip right to the present: last night for the first time, my son, the Little Peanut, went to sleep, in his crib, on his own.  Not only that, but he woke up twice throughout the night (not 4+) and both times, going back to sleep were on his own - no breastfeeding, no bottle, no motion - oh and no crying either!  Yes he was fed when he woke, but he wasn't asleep when put back in his crib and he just went back to sleep!  The second time, he even spent 20 minutes "talking" and kicking his legs but then just fell asleep.  (I would have paid $1million for that Oceanwonders Aquarium in retrospect - just sayin! I will post about all of this another day because as you can see I'm already getting long winded!)

Now, I will try to refrain from explaining how freaking amazing that is and how if a genie came to give me just one wish in this world, that this might have just been it because I think you get the idea.  Up until this point, he was waking every 2-3 hours with the exception of a period where he was sleeping for 5-7 hours in the first part of his night, but then he reverted back to the 2-3.  Up until this past week, he was still also sleeping in a bassinet in our room and now he's settled VERY nicely in his own room in his crib and it was an absolutely seamless transition.  He's sleeping in there like he belongs there and it shows.

• Now we don't have to tip toe into our room to go to bed
• I have use of my own bathroom now where I can now enjoy evening time baths in my tub while he is asleep in HIS room down the hall
• Switching sleep positions and making any noise isn't going to wake him
• The dog's fingernails on the floor isn't going to wake him either!

So as you can see, I'm a VERY HAPPY MOM!  So happy that I completely forgot to weigh in this morning until I went to track my morning coffee!  So I marched upstairs to weigh in and then there was the icing on the cake:

-5.4 lbs!!!

Then it gets better! Nan came over watch the Little Peanut while the husband and I went to see a movie and got a bite to eat!

A round of drinks on me!!! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!