The Week After Delivery

There is nothing as exciting, overwhelming, sweet, precious, wonderful, and scary as coming home with your newborn baby. The minute we strapped Hudson into his car seat and the nurse wheeled us together out to the car, I was a ball of emotion. But I couldn’t quite figure out which emotion I was feeling. I had never done this before and had no idea what to expect. For a control freak, that’s hard.

We came home to a surprise from my mom. She had ordered a large wooden stork to be placed in our yard and it had Hudson’s name and birth stats on it. It was such a sweet surprise.

It’s an overwhelming thing to come home and be responsible for a brand-new, perfect little person. Especially when it’s your first time. I had never bathed a baby or cleaned a belly button. Hudson came home on the biliblanket and that added a new level of stress. We were measuring out all of the breast milk he was getting and taking him for weight checks and heel pricks every day. But I was in a fog.

We had wonderful friends bringing meals every single day, and because of this, we had daily visitors. I tried to keep it to just one visitor per day so we could try to maintain a schedule and so we could all get our rest. But everyone is so excited and wants to see the baby. Maintaining a good “one visitor per day” rule was effective for us. If someone called and we weren’t up for visitors, we asked if they might be able to come the next day or later in the week. We love our friends and family so much and wanted to just have a house full of people, but sometimes you’re just tired and want to be in a quiet house, holding your precious newborn.

I was very fortunate to have my mom stay with us for about a month. She cleaned for us, warmed up the food our friends brought, and generally helped me learn how to take care of a baby. She was patient with me and loving and it was such a special time as Todd and I learned from her.

The best thing about having my mom around? That whole sleep-when-the-baby-sleeps thing? It’s so much easier when you can count on your mother to take care of the baby in case he does wake up. I slept so soundly during all of those naps. And when your newborn baby sleeps 21 hours a day, it’s easy to get caught up on sleep.

The day she left, however, was a very sad day. Deep in my heart I knew I could do everything by myself, but I was scared. And I had gotten so used to her company and her advice. (Solicited and unsolicited!) But five minutes after she left I stopped crying. And I looked at my 10-pound baby boy and something clicked for the first time. He’s mine! He’s mine.

He is my baby and I know him. Better than anyone else. He’s a part of me and even if I don’t have every single answer, I will figure it out. And he and I will grow together.

We were so fortunate when Hudson and Hayes were born to have so much help from friends and family members to help us ease into this new life as a growing family. The day would come when the meals would stop. And the visitors would stop coming by every day. There would be many wonderful days, but just as many hard days as we figured it all out. But we do, eventually, figure it out. This experience is unlike any other, and that first week of pure bliss mixed with complete fear really did a great job of preparing me for the full range of emotions that come with motherhood.

Find more posts from bloggers sharing their experiences of motherhood on the Huggies page on BlogHer.com.

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Comments

  1. says

    I am anxiously awaiting that day in July when we go through all of those emotions ourselves. I am such a planner, and I know it will be quite the adjustment. I am just hoping I am not a hot mess of emotions… but I probably will be. 🙂

  2. Bethany says

    I’m due with my first in 9 days so this couldn’t have come at a better time for me 🙂 I am stressing thinking about how we are going to manage all the visitors we will have coming from both near and far. I really like the one visitor per day idea and think I will talk to my husband about it – great way to fit everyone in but still feel like you get that special time with both baby and husband in the early days. Thanks, Erin!

  3. says

    I love that you are doing these look back posts because they are so timely for us! We our expecting our little one in August and your posts are always so thoughtful and honest! Love it Erin!

  4. says

    Beautiful post! You seriously touched on the realities WONDERFULLY, without being “been there done that”. LOVED it! This is a fabulous series.

  5. says

    I’m due at the end of July with my sweet baby girl and I am scared to death!! I’ve been around kids and worked with foster kids for years, but it’s not the same as your own!!

  6. says

    I’m so grateful that Huggies decided to launch this now, cannot wait to read all of these! 🙂 I’m afraid of how I’ll juggle all the visitors, but in my case it’ll be all the people who want to come to the hospital right after she’s born… I’m the type of person who will not go to the hospital to visit (unless I’m specifically asked to come), in order to give the new parents some space, but I think I’m the only friend of mine who has this position. I know everyone means well, but I’m afraid of not having a minute to adjust to things and recover once the baby is delivered. Eeek!

  7. says

    I’m due in September and I’m SO grateful for your posts! They’re really helping a new mommy to be! My parents luckily live in the same town as us, so I anticipate lots of help. I’m still nervous and just want to be the best mama I can be.

  8. emily says

    my mom will be coming up to stay with us when we have our 1st baby as well. i am trying to figure out all of the logistics of her stay… is she there from day 1? how long is too long? did you feel like your mom could have left sooner? will i want it just to be me and my hubby? will my hubby feel “left out”? our place will be small, so i don’t want it to be too crowded, but i want the help! any suggestions, input?

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