Adapting to Parenthood
ADAPTING TO PARENTHOOD
From the start, parenthood is a 168-hour-a-week job. When I had my son everything changed, from when I went to sleep, to what I was buying at the grocery store, to my daily conversations, to when I could clean my house. Parenthood is the most wonderful thing in the world, but it is also very difficult at times. It took a big adjustment to get from my old life to get to the life I’m living today. Before I decided to have my son I had a plan for how I wanted things to workout. But then I found myself throwing those plans out the window and then finding myself lost. This little boy who just entered my life was about to change my so many ways.
Day and night blended into an endless round of feeding, diaper changes, laundry, and rocking or pacing the floor with a crying infant. One of the most physical demanding changes I had to deal with as a new parent was sudden disruption to my sleep pattern. Getting up four-five times a night to feed and change him. Definite scheduling of my time was now impossible I couldn’t be sure when or how often my son was going to need me. Every plan that I made that involved people or a specific time had to be expandable or at least have an alternate, this way I could shift gears at a moment notice when my son needed an extra feeding or some other natural but unanticipated incident took place. I constantly had to allow more time than thought I needed.
My mother and sisters tried to tell me that parenthood would change my life and that it would be hard, but I didn’t know how hard or how my life was about to change. When everybody at the grocery store was staring at me because my son was throwing one of temper tantrums or I had been taking care of a feverish, vomiting baby all night long it was hard to remember that being a parent was a gift. But then I’d see a sleeping, beautiful baby or my son would draw a picture of a giant, smiling, stick-figure mom with a red crayon heart, and then I would remember. I have a
From the start, parenthood is a 168-hour-a-week job. When I had my son everything changed, from when I went to sleep, to what I was buying at the grocery store, to my daily conversations, to when I could clean my house. Parenthood is the most wonderful thing in the world, but it is also very difficult at times. It took a big adjustment to get from my old life to get to the life I’m living today. Before I decided to have my son I had a plan for how I wanted things to workout. But then I found myself throwing those plans out the window and then finding myself lost. This little boy who just entered my life was about to change my so many ways.
Day and night blended into an endless round of feeding, diaper changes, laundry, and rocking or pacing the floor with a crying infant. One of the most physical demanding changes I had to deal with as a new parent was sudden disruption to my sleep pattern. Getting up four-five times a night to feed and change him. Definite scheduling of my time was now impossible I couldn’t be sure when or how often my son was going to need me. Every plan that I made that involved people or a specific time had to be expandable or at least have an alternate, this way I could shift gears at a moment notice when my son needed an extra feeding or some other natural but unanticipated incident took place. I constantly had to allow more time than thought I needed.
My mother and sisters tried to tell me that parenthood would change my life and that it would be hard, but I didn’t know how hard or how my life was about to change. When everybody at the grocery store was staring at me because my son was throwing one of temper tantrums or I had been taking care of a feverish, vomiting baby all night long it was hard to remember that being a parent was a gift. But then I’d see a sleeping, beautiful baby or my son would draw a picture of a giant, smiling, stick-figure mom with a red crayon heart, and then I would remember. I have a