I fed her, check.
She was changed, check.
So why oh why was she still screaming?!
{Ava just a few weeks old}
But she was still crying and screaming like bloody murder, like the kinda crying that makes you feel like you're absolutely going to go crazy. The kinda crying that makes you want to cry too because you're so exhausted yourself. I remember during this crying fit my mom slowly coming in our room and offering to take her and try to calm her so we could get some sleep.
Thank God for Grandmas, right?! My mom was able to calm her down in a couple of minutes and stayed and slept with Ava for a few good hours so we could get some sleep. I was forever grateful for those hours of sleep and for my mom knowing just what to do and that we needed help.
I endured many nights of little to no sleep, late night feedings and lots of crying as most mothers do. Then around three months old Ava did something amazing, she started sleeping for about 8 hours straight at night. I remember the first time she did this, I was waking up all through the night checking on her and making sure she was still breathing. I just couldn't believe she was sleeping still, and sleeping so well.
{Zane just one day old}
At first you kinda think it's a fluke or something. Like surely this is to good to be true, right? After a couple of weeks of her sleeping so well it was time to declare her a champion sleeper in my first time mothering account.
Around the same time I began sleep training Ava and she was starting to get into a nice little routine of napping twice a day for 2-3 hours. I remember it being so glorious, finally I was able to take a shower, get laundry done and feel somewhat human and on top of my household. Those first couple months seemed like a blur as result of being overly tired, not sleeping and trying to make sense of this new mom thing and this new life as parents. At times we felt like we were in a constant fog, the newborn haze I liked to call it.
But once we got a rythm it was good, oh so good. I remember blogging about he sleep habits and other moms telling me how lucky I was. Ava was always a very chill, very content little baby. She always played really well by herself, napped well too. She hardly ever cried except for when she needed something like to eat. She was like my dream baby.
And I remember friends telling us that we couldn't get this lucky twice, that the next one would totally be different. At the time we smiled and laughed having no idea what to expect the next time around but were completely enjoying this new rythm we'd found with our baby. She made parenting easy for us. She was an easy baby.
When you're a new mom all you know is your first baby. What you did with your first baby, how they acted, how they slept, what you did to make them happy and content is all based on the first time account you've had with baby #1. Then you have baby number two, and even though you thought you knew what you were doing all of a sudden everything you knew to do now had to change because baby #2 is oh so very different.
Everyone tells you that each baby is so different, I've heard that a million times. I didn't realize how different they would be till we brought Zane home. I'm slowly trying to figure this whole mom of two thing out.
see I was spoiled by my first.
I'm still trying to figure out #2.
Did you have a similar experience with your children? Tell me about it in the comments below.
