It will get easier
“I wish I could say it gets easier”.
When I had a newborn baby, and even now with an almost two year old, people would always tell me that it only gets harder. When my baby started crawling people would say “now the trouble really starts!”
As a first time parent I had no idea what to expect. The only thing I had to go on was seeing friends and family with babies and imagining it would be something like that. Except, you can never get a real sense of what it’s really like from just a brief glimpse into someone else’s life. And even if you do get an idea of how happy and content their baby is, this doesn’t mean you’ll have the same experience. My family all seem to have perfect babies! Sure they cry and get upset, but overall they are smiling contented little lumps of gorgeousness that built up a false expectation of what it would be like to have my own.
Yes. Having a newborn baby is not easy. Weather you are breast or bottle feeding you still have to wake up every couple of hours for those first few months. Functioning on very little sleep is hard! It will probably test you like nothing else.
However, I promise you that IT WILL GET EASIER! My husband says that it’s still hard, just different. And whilst what may be true for him, I would very strongly add that this different is an easier different! Perhaps because we had a baby with colic, anything was an improvement on that. I just know that when my little girl started crawling and walking it opened up a whole world of independence for her which meant she was so much happier. By month 9 the good times were starting to become the norm. It felt good, so good.
Of course every baby is different and every parent for that matter. How we deal with things will play a huge part with what we can take away from those first few months, or that first year in fact. If I could go back I would hope that instead of being riddled with worry over keeping this tiny little human alive, I would instead take time to savour the moments. Everyone says it goes fast, and in reality the first year compared to the rest of their lives, is indeed fast (or short). Though at the time it for some might seem interminable. If there are any first time parents out there who are reading this and struggling or feeling like they are walking zombies living in a blur of feeding, changing nappies, bathing, soothing and burping their little one then please believe me when I say that it will get easier. Or perhaps a different type of hard that you somehow feel better equipped to handle.
Hang in there! Enjoy the cuddles. Take plenty of photos, they change more in that first year than you can ever prepare yourself for. Know that it is going to be okay. That you are doing a great job! Yes you may sometimes feel sick with worry but you’re not alone with how hard this is, you may feel at your wits end or like you can’t cope but believe me you can, and you will. The struggle is only temporary so again, hang in there, it will get easier.
