From the Starting Point

I was in my late twenties when my first child was born.  I can't say that we were ready to have children, but we had all the things in place that we needed; income, home family support, healthcare and time.  I was thankful that I could be a stay-at-home mom.  but I wondered how much I would miss teaching.  In many ways, I was in an envied position.  

Our daughter was delivered by C-section, and she was beautiful with no wrinkles and a beautifully round head with no delivery trauma concerns.  I was so happy when we went home, thankful and thinking we were on a path for smooth sailing!  Wow, what a surprise!  My daughter, Leslie, had a very short sleep cycle.  She didn't have her days and nights mixed up, there was just no difference between day and night.  I understand this is normal for the first few months but we jut could not get this scheduled.  She would scream and cry during her scheduled nap time and do the same two, three times per night!  Needless to say, I was exhausted.  My husband, Gary, was self-employed, and had early morning responsibilities so there was no sleeping in for me.  It seemed that he just spent more and more hours at the business and that was putting me on duty pretty much 24/7.

Others mothers were telling me to sleep when she sleeps, but the more exhausted I was, the more anxious I was and the longer it took me to fall asleep.  It was a recipe for disaster and sleep seemed like the elusive elixir I needed was sleep.

Do you remember your start?  Was your child easy or difficult?