Transition into Motherhood

This Saturday I spent my morning at an awesome class at the Hospital called "Transition into Motherhood." The room was full of first-time moms and they taught us about what to expect in the first weeks following delivery, both mentally and physically. Some of the physical stuff makes you squirm, but it's all good information that no one seems to tell you!

The class focused a lot on stress and time management after the baby is born, and not forgetting to take care of ourselves. They had us do an exercise with a big cardboard circle that represented a full 24-hour day, and then gave us colored felt squares that each represented 2 hours of that day. The squares were colored to represent certain activities (e.g. blue = sleep, red = work), and asked us to fill up our day as it stands now. With my 8-hour work and 8-hour sleep schedule, that only left me with 8 hours for housework, homework, cooking, hygene, and any leisure. Well once baby is in the picture, we had to add 8 triangles on the board in their honor, so you have to decide where you will steal the time from. As expected, my sleep, hygene and much else will be compromised once baby gets here! But it was a great visual of how things will change and it was awesome to hear the nurse "give us permission" to let a lot of things go. In the first few months, it's ok to let the dust bunnies run around the house, let the laundry pile up or not cook a 3-course homecooked meal. I'm such a busy body so I think that will be REALY hard for me to do, but as long as Jared is on board with me I know we'll be fine.

The class gave me plenty of new ideas of things I want to get done before the baby's arrival, so my to-do list got a bit longer. I really want to find a cleaning lady to bring around every couple of weeks once the baby is here, because dirt makes me anxious, and our place is so small that it doesn't take a lot of dirt for it to look messy. I'd also like to get some meals prepared and in the freezer so they're ready for us to heat up when we're hungry. I also went to the store and bought plenty of paper plates & silverware to make sure dishes aren't piling up. I really want our first few weeks to be enjoyable and to not be overwhelmed by the stupid little things. Hopefully I can get this all done in time - preparing for a baby feels like preparing for the end of the world!! You have to stock up and prepare for survival!

Finally, the class touched on post-pardum depression/blues. The statistics say that 20% of women will get diagnosed with PP depression, and 80% will just get the "baby blues." A lot of that is driven by sleep deprivation - the nurse told us that it might be a few weeks until we get a full 3 hours of sleep in a day (and not even in a row)...are you kidding me?? She also told us a story of she and her husband - when their baby was about a week old they decided to order pizza and make it exciting by going to pick it up on their own - oh what fun! By the time they were a mile down the road, the baby and mom were both wailing on the backseat, so needless to say they never made it to get their pizza. I think the lifestyle change and sudden loss of freedom will definitely be hard to adjust to, so please accept my apology in advance for any crankiness :)

At the end of the day, transitioning into motherhood feel like a big task, but then I think about the billions of women on this earth who are mothers and if they can do it, I know I can do it too. Being a mom is really the only thing I'll do in my life that I can honestly say I was "born to do", so I'm looking forward to starting the coolest and most rewarding job on the planet!