Once Parker was born, Darrell went back to work immediately. We came home on a Monday evening and he went to work on Tuesday morning. I don't think I could have survived without my Mom by my side. She stayed with us for the first week and was my left and right hand. She literally suffered as much lack of sleep as I did. For all you Mommies-to-be, TAKE the help!!!!!! YOU NEED IT!!!! :) Once my mom started leaving in the evenings to go to her own house, I would cry. I didn't want my Mom to leave! I needed someone to show me exactly how to do everything! I was so nervous! I thought I was ready for a baby, but am I really?? I have to do this by myself? I don't know what to do!!!! My mom said we needed to learn our own routine. MAN! My Mom knows everything. She is so right!!!
It got much easier, with time. And turns out, I do know how to take care of my baby.
The first week of Parker's life I wasted trying to force nursing. That week was miserable for me. I was determined to nurse and to do whatever was necessary to make it happen. By the 7th day, I felt like I could not even enjoy my little bundle of joy. He was miserable and I was miserable. So off to formula we went! I thought this was the solution to all of our problems! Boy, was I wrong. The first day after formula began, Parker would cry after every feeding. I took him to the Doctor and they said he had colic. I was devastated. How could my precious baby have colic? Darrell would come home from work and we would take turns holding a crying baby. That lasted about 5 days and I decided to switch his formula again. No progress. I was beginning to think I really did have a colicky baby. 5 more days and no progress. Back to the Doctor we went, who said again, Parker had colic. I was determined he was not a colic baby! My baby was fine on breast milk!!! So, this time we switched to soy milk, thinking it may just be too hard on his little tummy. That did the trick! Parker was like a new little boy. I thought it was almost strange that he would eat and go to sleep. It felt weird that he didn't cry!
In the midst of all of this, we were packing up the condo because we bought a house!!!! Special thanks to our realtor, Amanda Tucker with CTC Real Estate!!!! Our condo had been on the market since January and finally sold at the busiest time of our lives! SO again, my poor Mama came over and packed our condo up everyday. Talk about some major stress. All good stress though!
FINALLY, we were moved in and settled down. At this time Parker was about 3 weeks old. We slowly began to have a normal routine and I enjoyed spending all my time with Parker. He is such a good baby! He literally smiles all the time. And he is SO happy. Which makes for a VERY happy Mama!
I stayed out of work until Parker was 9 weeks old. The first day back was the worst day of my life. I say that with no exaggeration. I believe that Mama's should get paid to stay home with their babies. It might do this world a little good. I just don't understand how some Mom's live off of the government and don't have to go to work. The government basically pays them to stay at home, and their children are more of a burden to them than a joy. Yet, those of us that work and try to provide for our children everything that they need and keep them in a safe and loving environment get penalized by having to work everyday, pay someone else to take care of our child, and be away from them and get basically 2 days - the weekend - with them. Ok, ok, my rant is done. Anyway, I cried for most of the day, and every night for the next week or so. Some nights I still cry when I am rocking Parker to sleep. Thankfully, my Mom and my Mother -in- Law took extremely good care of Parker for the rest of my first work week, which put my heart at ease.
After that, Darrell took 2.5 weeks from work and stayed with Parker. That was our original plan and why Darrell went back to work so soon after Parker's birth. We didn't want Parker to start daycare until he was at least 12 weeks old. Since I didn't have the full 12 weeks of maternity leave, we had to make arrangements until Parker was 12 weeks old.
I was really impressed with Darrell's "Daddy" abilities. I think we were both nervous the first day he stayed alone with Parker. AND he did such an amazing job! Darrell has even taught me some baby tricks. He is the best person to get Parker to burp...He is also the best booger grabber with the suction & dirty diapers don't scare him at all! Parker and I are very blessed.
During this time we got to celebrate Parker's first Christmas. Of course, he had no clue it was any different than any other day, but he sure did make a cute Christmas baby!!!
The next hardest day of my life was the day Parker started daycare. I dreaded it since Parker was born. It's not that I don't like daycares, it's just, nobody can take care of your baby like you do. He's only been at daycare for a few days and hopefully it will get easier for me. He is doing great though.
Now that Parker is a month older, he is developing a personality. He is SO sweet! Parker loves to be talked to. He will talk back with his sweet little coos. Parker also loves bath time. He loves to suck on a wet rag and he likes to splash. Parker gets to watch limited television and he loves Nick Jr. His little feet kick and he talks to that TV as much as he can. He like stuffed animals, I think because they are big enough that he can wrap his arms around them and hold them to his mouth....because that is where everything goes.
My sweetest moments with Parker are of course bath time. Now that he is in daycare all day, they get the best part of Parker's day and I get the leftovers, (yes, I am jealous!) He sleeps when I get him because he is exhausted from daycare. Then I get to get him up and get him ready for bath and bed. I count down the minutes until I can wake him up and then it feels like time flies by for the next hour.
My most precious moment is every night when we play before bath time, I will put my face close to Parkers' and right in front of him. Since he is starting to grab everything, he will grab both sides of my face and pull me to his mouth. Then he sucks on my nose! He is so funny, but it is so sweet!!!! I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
