Mother’s Day has come and gone at this point, but it still has me thing about being a new mom and how my life has changed since little Jo arrived. Like I said, I’m definitely new at this, but I wanted to share 5 things that I’ve learned as a new mom!
You have more instincts than you think you do.
When I found out that I was pregnant with Jo, I was number one, shocked, and fear was a close second. My first thought: How am I supposed to take care of a baby? But your natural instincts really do takeover. Books help for sure (at least they helped me. I really love this one) but more than anything your body/mind/soul tells you what to do. It’s crazy! Just evidence to me that it’s meant to be!
Babies are not just blobs. They’re humans with likes & dislikes just like us.
I knew this before of course, but it’s really become more real to me after being a mom. I don’t think we give babies enough credit. I’m of the opinion that they understand a lot more than we think we do. They learn so fast about the world around them and really do come with a lot of knowledge already. Remembering this helps me to avoid getting frustrated when she doesn’t exactly do what I’d like her to at certain moments. It also helps me to appreciate her for who she is and enjoy her personality.
Parenting is humbling.
Yes, you do have a lot of natural instincts, but there are many things that you don’t know too. I’ve tried to take the advice of others with a grain of salt so to speak. Some people will have great advice, some people won’t. For me, I have to take things in, chew on them for a minute, and decide if it’s something that I think is helpful for me or not. Don’t get overwhelmed with everyone else’s opinion. Do what you think is best for you and your baby, but also know that there is an eternal learning curve!
A schedule is SO valuable.
When Jo was first born, things were sort of crazy. I didn’t quite know what I wanted our schedule to be and I was honestly a little stressed. At first, she wanted to sleep all day and party all night. Not exactly awesome, haha. When I found a schedule that I felt comfortable with, I ran with it and never looked back. It was hard at first, but now it’s like clockwork and I am so thankful. It makes life much easier on me and on her. Of course every day isn’t quite the same and we have to veer from our schedule at times, but I know that I can rely on it to give us both stability.
Just roll with it.
I used to really like things going a certain way. Now I know that things won’t always go the way I planned. In fact, they rarely do anymore. But that’s okay! You can’t control your baby, but you can control the environment that you bring them in. Structure helps a lot, but babies can totally be unpredictable. Shiz happens! Literally, poop explosions tend to hit right when you need to be somewhere😂 But I’ve learned, rather quickly, to just roll with it. Babies change your life and you can’t expect to do things exactly he way that you did before they arrived. I thought that I understood that. Then I had a baby & realized that I didn’t, haha.
Motherhood is the BEST. The very best. I always heard that children change your life in the best way and that you’ll love your baby more than you could ever imagine. I believed those things of course, but I now I know them. I know those things more strongly than pretty much anything else. My little lady is only 4.5 month old, so I haven’t been a mom for long, and I know that I have sooo much to learn, but I feel like I’ve definitely learned a lot already!
What have you learned from motherhood?
Xoxo,
Karlee
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