As a parent you will become accustomed to not seeing the floors in your house anymore, because they will be covered in lots and lots of toys. You get to the point where you have to ask yourself, why in the world did I buy this many toys for one small child? I just want to know why toys are so dang expensive. They’re made of plastic, they probably cost two cents to make them, companies are going to charge us an arm and a leg for them and they are going to break by the third day. Christmas time breaks the bank for most parents. Even though, you said you wasn’t going to buy one more toy, but what do you do? All you do is buy toys. Just to see your child light up and get excited on Christmas morning, is worth the long lines and over priced toys. And if you are like me, and lately toys have started piling up, then it’s time to finally get rid of some. The best thing to do is take them to a local baby store and trade them in for clothes or something useful. This will make you life so much easier, and will save you money too!
Dress Up Diva
This is for all the little princesses out there, you know what time… it’s Tea Time. Not to mention dress up time, as well, but that’s like every day too. My daughter truly believes that she is a princess, and goes days at a time wearing her frilly dresses. I have to convince her to take it off with another princess dress or Minnie Mouse or something just pink and frilly. Not only is it a time when we serve tea and have crumpets and cake, but we also put on makeup and do our hair. We put on beautiful light up shoes and jewelry. My child has more shoes than I do! Some might think that I might need to tell my child a dose of reality is what she needs, but she’s a child. I’m going to let her be one while she can. In this world now, she’ll have to grow up faster than I did, and I want her to have these precious years to enjoy them while she can. In those short moments she’s just happy for me being there with her, and I am as well. It’s amazing how something so simple can bring you such sweet joy.
Poor Little baby
The most dreaded four letter word any parent never wants to hear…sick. My daughter was just a little over one month old when she became sick. Her father was even worse than her and that was just from worrying so much. We didn’t know what to do, so immediately we took her to the doctors. Of course, we were there for a long time just for them to tell us that it’s a virus, and there’s nothing you can do but let her be sick. She could take tylenol for the fever and to rest easier. Whenever she has a cough a use pineapple juice. As soon as I give it to her, she quits coughing. It does wonders. Just to hear your child crying and not being able to make them feel better is one the worst things as a parent, I think. I felt more helpless than she did. I just wish that I could have traded places with her instead, but she made it through of course, and that was the first time she goes sick. I know there are many, many more times to come, but it still is a horrible time during a parent’s life.
Born too Early
I had my daughter three weeks early and doctors say that it is still considered full term. My daughter weighed 5 pounds and 7 ounces when she was born. She was the tiniest thing I’ve ever seen, and had so much hair! She had hair on her forehead, on her ears, on her back… I had a little Chewbacca baby on my hands. She was born with jaundice, so I had to lie her in the sun every few hours and make sure that she was getting plenty of vitamin D. She was so small that I was afraid of hurting her while just putting on her diaper. Just let you know, after two years, I still can’t figure out how to put a diaper on properly. Should be simple right? Somehow I always mess it up. Another thing was that I just wished that the stores around me had more preemie clothes than they did. I had so many newborn outfits picked out for my daughter to wear, and she couldn’t even fit half of them. The only store that had them was Wal-Mart. They had preemies, but only had two outfits, thanks Wal-Mart. I have a lot of friends that had their babies premature, and had a lot of complications. They survived even though the odds were against them. They were the miracle babies. Their mothers were there every single day fighting for their lives, and made sure that they were going to be able to bring them home. Not all cases have a happy ending, but at least they had those happy moments that they got with their children.
The First Few Days
Since I had my daughter three weeks early, I had to stay in the hospital for her first couple of days. Which it wasn’t really bad for me because I got plenty of rest and help from the nurses. But then, there were times they came and took her away from me to do testing, and all I wanted to do was to hold her. They would keep her for hours at a time. How could they do this to me? That’s my child, not theirs! But of course, I knew it was the best for Gabriella (that’s my daughters name by the way). In the hospital I was at, they actually had really good food, so while I was there, I ate really good. It was hard for me to move, so the beds were a great help lifting me up and down, and plus nurses were there if I ever needed them. But then, on the third day, it was time to go home. It seemed like it was taking hours and hours for them to do our paperwork; all I wanted to do was to get my daughter home and put her in her bedroom for the very first time. Finally, they came in, did the car seat test and told us she was good to go. We were on our way to start our brand new lives as a new family.
The Biggest Day of Your Life
The big day, this is the moment that you have been waiting on for nine miserable months. But at the same time, you’re still nervous and anxious, and not ready for this just yet. Even though you have been preparing for the last seven months, and getting the baby’s room together was just done the other day. Just make sure that you have your bags packed and ready to go, just in case, I’d say around a month ahead of time. I went into labor three weeks early, so it’s better to be prepared. Labor is different for every woman; sometimes they can last for hours and hours, even days on end, and sometimes, it can last just a little bit, and its done and over with. Whatever the case, just try to stay calm and just think that soon your little one will be safe in your arms, and you’ll finally get to see what their face looks like. You will finally get to hear the sound of their voice and the touch of their skin. Labor really wasn’t that bad for me, but I opted for the epidural. I’m a wussy and I wasn’t going to deal with all that pain, but if you are the mother who did, then that is all more power to you; it’s just not for me. The worst part about labor was the after part. Just having to heal from doing 15 hours of labor took me almost two weeks to really not have any more sharp pains. But like I said, it just depends on the woman because every pregnancy is different.
Baby Shower Time!
The baby shower is an exciting milestone in your pregnancy. This is supposed to be a day where the expecting mother is showered with gifts, and doesn’t have to worry about a thing. But if you are like me, then of course, you had to be involved in the planning process just to make sure that everything went according to plan. Just trying to remember the invitations was a task in itself, since I always had pregnancy brain. Most of the time, I was too tired to do anything anyways besides laying around and taking naps, but it gave me something to do to help plan my own baby shower. It was nothing fancy or anything like that; just something simple with my family and friends. Once you have kids and your other friends don’t, they tend to forget about you and can’t really relate to you anymore. They have different games at baby showers some are really corny, and others are just silly, but it’s all good fun. One thing at baby showers is that you are guaranteed to receive blankets. I suggest that you keep the tags on these, and not even open them because you’re going to get hand-me-downs anyway. So you might as well just use those, and return the other ones to get diapers or wipes (some things that you definitely need to use every single day). The best thing to do is to write what you might need on the invitations that you send out, so you can give your guests an idea of what to buy. If not, everybody is going to end up buying the same exact things (believe me it happened at my first baby shower). I had to have a second baby shower for going back home, because my hometown is two hours away. And this time, I made sure to tell exactly what I didn’t have at all, and that if they wanted to buy me some things I suggested stuff for them. I mean, it’s your baby, you know what you need and what you don’t need.
Preparing for your Baby
When first starting to think about what you need to buy, for your child on the way, you need to think about the essentials. First off a crib, we had to think about what kind we needed. There were all kinds of different types: some are drop-down, which are dangerous, some that were lower than others and some that had changing tables. it all just depends on how much money you want to spend. Then, there is the car seat. What brand is the best one to get and how much do you want to spend? You should ask your family and friends, since everybody has their own opinion. it is really just up to you and what you think would be best for the vehicle that you drive. Then there are the baby clothes. More than likely you will have way too many clothes to even think about what to do with; and more than likely most of those clothes won’t even be worn by your child, but they are so cute right? I suggest that you can buy a few cute outfits yourself, but more than likely at your baby shower, that is the one thing everybody is going to buy for you, especially if you have a little baby girl. Once everything is bought, you are ready for the “nesting” stage, which is just getting all this stuff put together in your baby room and deciding on the theme that you want to go with. And, by my own personal experience, I highly suggest that if you have a daughter do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy Hello Kitty for her theme. Just the mobile alone was $50, and the bedspread was $130,if you did not decide to make one yourself. Best bet is to just go for something simple. They’re not going to remember the room anyway; only you are, so keep it plain and simple. I’m just suggesting anyways.
Dealing with Doctors
Never in my life, until I was pregnant, did I ever have to go to the doctors so much. It was ridiculous! I was poked and prodded every chance the doctors could get. Blood was taken from me constantly, and I had to drink a nasty drink to check my sugar. Then to top it all off, most of the time I could not eat before I went there. And, as you will know, trying to tell a pregnant woman that she can’t have the food that she wants is not the best idea, but it is the best for the baby. I just wish that there was an easier way to do it all instead of having all these scars and bruises all over me, but like I said, it is the best for the baby. I went through quite a few doctors myself, I think I went through every one there at the OBGYN, and my favorite doctor was called Dr. Dre. I had it all planned out with my doctor for him to be the one to deliver. In the end, it turned out that I was in labor for too long, and he had to go home. So instead, I had a woman doctor come in, and she was not what I was expecting. She was a little bit rough and stern with me, but in the end, she knew what she was doing and I’m glad she was the one that helped delivered my child.
The Plus Sign
15 weeks
At 22 years old,I discovered that I was pregnant. I had just come home for my summer break from ETSU and had planned on doing my live burn training (I’m a volunteer firefighter), but much greater things were in store for me. I found out I was pregnant and from that day on my name went from Samantha to Mom. I was scared and excited, especially when it came to telling my family. My grandma told me that I was eff-n stupid, but she was just upset because she didn’t think I was going to finish college.
I actually just called my grandma the other day, that after almost six years of college, I had made the Dean’s list! She told me she couldn’t be prouder. I actually make better grades now than before I had my baby. I only have two semesters left and I’ll have my bachelor’s degree in hand! All I can do is work hard to make sure I am a good role model for my child!
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