Becoming “Mom”

you’ll get to be off for 12 weeks—that sounds like a long time.”

you’ll be able to get so much done around the house.”

you’ll have time to go to lunch with my best friend.”

Then just several months later after your baby is born is, the view is…well, different!

“I’m always changing diapers, baby’s clothes or my clothes.”

“Will my baby ever stop eating?? I’d like to have some lunch too.”

“My life has changed so much more than his.

“How does a new mom learn this new job??

There really is no orientation manual. There’s a lot of information on the internet; sometimes too much information. New mothers are surrounded by so much advice—who should they listen to?

And here’s the hard part. She is doing this new job alone. A lot of new mother’s get help for a weekend or a week or two weeks if they are lucky. But ultimately, it’s just the two of them and it feels…lonely.

New mothers need good information, but they also need a new set of friends. Friends who understand what they are going through. Friends who make them feel like they are not alone.

How can new mothers meet?

Join a new moms group, there you can connect with other new moms and you can share and sift through all that advice everyone is giving you.

• You can: watch how other mothers handle their babies.
• tell each other about what new baby products that have been found to be most helpful.
• understand when another mother says, “I didn’t get a shower yet today” or “the baby was up a lot last night and I’m really tired.”
• Laugh…and cry together.
• They can reassure each other— “That happened to us too!”

When mothers join a new mothers group they have a lot in common, just because they have a new baby. They can also share other enjoyable activities like:

• Walking in the mall—babies in strollers or slings.
• Taking turns hosting a playgroup at their house.
• Making homemade baby food together.
  Celebrating your children’s birthdays together.
• Keeping in touch by e-mail, or on Facebook!

How do you find a new mother’s group?

When I had my first child I also believed that my baby would never stop eating. Its bad enough when you bottle feed your baby but if you breast feed and the baby feeds every few hours you start to think I wish I had put her on the bottle. Then of course you spend all that time cleaning bottles and making up the bottles for the whole day. When I had my second child I promtly put him on th bottle, boy was I glad I did. He was a hungry little thing. By the time he was three months he was eating baby cerial and rice.

Things have changed these days, the pediatricion tells you when and how to feed your baby but its still a work in progress. You ultimately have to decide what is good for your baby.