Life now has a totally different meaning and purpose as we have just grown into a family of 3 👨👩👦 + 🐶. A couple of weeks ago, we have welcomed our baby boy who is our little bundle of joy... sort of. I say sort of for now as it’s all about eat, sleep and diaper changing a majority of the time with very little play time as he is still very, very young and little.
Our little one arrived a little earlier than expected and it was a pretty last minute decision to bring him into this world earlier due to a number of concerns from the obstetrician. It was considered a term pregnancy so everything would be fine. We were obviously a bit worried with the potential risks and problems laid out by the obstetrician and could only pray that our baby was healthy and we are so glad he was! Tiny but oh so loud. That’s the first impression of him the moment the curtains were dropped and we laid eyes on our baby as he cried.
I literally fell in love with him and a huge part of me was glad that I got to meet him at last after 9 months of baking and waiting. No more ultrasounds and figuring out that 4D scan to work out what he really looks like and what features he had inherited from the two of us. This was something we constantly talked about this during the whole pregnancy.
As first time parents, looking after a little human and trying to work out each of his cries/communication was hard in the beginning. The first week with him home with us left us feeling helpless as we turned to Google to look up all sorts of things and asking our parents what the problem could be. It’d be a lie to say I did not shed a single tear from frustration, impatience and from being so tired. Somehow things fell into place, we tried to share the workload wheee possible and it got us working better as a team at each step at a time.
Things also got better as I worked out a close enough routine with the bub after getting more familiar with this new role as a mother. I tried to take it easy and just do what really made us all comfortable and allowed rest time for everyone. Of course routines don’t always work out with a newborn as we have had days where things just didn’t go as planned and it meant that extra effort had to be pulled in by everyone to try get back on track. What usually goes wrong are sleep schedules. I’ve learnt that at his age, a missed nap does not mean better sleep later on in the day for us. It actually causes more sleep deprivation and extra time and effort needs to be put in to soothe, settle and have the baby sleep or even catch up with the missed sleep if possible.
Our friends and family have been asking how we were doing and our general answer would be “fine”. Tired but fine as long as we get food in our tummies and able to have a nice warm shower each day. We’ve also been able to enjoy a few shows on tv and being couch potatoes while the baby has his naps. This is something relaxing we never did together before having a baby as life was always on the get go and tv time was generally a waste of time (for us it was). That “waste of time” moment has now become precious and also serves as a bonding time for hubby and I.
This moment in life won’t last long as our baby won’t stay a newborn forever. Though challenging at times, these moments with him are important as we try to soak up as much as possible and enjoy each and every moment with him. As each day goes by, we notice the changes in him and watch as he gets stronger and stronger. We wouldn’t have it any other way.