The cliches
Mo had a few rough nights sleeping sunday and Monday. Which meant that he was waking up more than once throughout the night. In those early morning hours I was annoyed and frustrated with my little boy and the struggle of sleep. But around 5am Monday morning, which I know is not SUPER early but still not a normal hour for me or us to be up, my boy gave me a big smile. And that smile turned my frustration, annoyance and frown upside down. In that moment I quickly saw and realized that all the cliches are coming true. I don't think anybody else's smile at that hour could make my heart smile and make me happy.
So with that moment as my inspiration I have decided to list out for you all the cliches that have hit me hard.
- My baby is cute. It took me a while to get there. Time for him to get out of his alien newborn phase where he was looking more Benjamin Button than adorable baby of mine. And now with friends, family and strangers confirming, I know he is cute.
- The 'gugu gaga' talk. I snap a weekly photo of Mo on the rug in his bedroom and now that the boy can smile I try my hardest to make him smile for these photos. Just yesterday I caught myself shaking my head and sing song talking to him to get a smile. And guess what, it works. The things we do for a smile cliche is 100% true.
- Introducing myself to strangers and their babies. When I was pregnant I would see other families and wonder how old the baby was so that I could have a reference for size and activity of my unborn child in the years to come. The same goes now. With instagram I follow other parents/babies and like to see babies a few days, weeks, months older than Mo and the best part, aside from the baby clothes, is getting a peek into the future of development for our little guy, baby laughs will be coming soon it seems! But the other part is that both Mike and I when out will introduce ourselves to other folks with babies and proudly share that our boy is 12 weeks or some other small anecdote about him. It is fun to share the baby stuff.
- I post pics of my baby. My Making La Madre instagram has become the home to far too many photos of Mo. I am a strict curator of my social channels and have always kept truly special and personal content to a minimum. I feel awkward putting each and every big moment out there asking people to like it. This doesn't mean that I am not happy about these moments and don't want to share them with people, but I prefer to live in the moment and appreciate it without the likes and comments as distraction. I do tend to share the personal things after the fact, but only when it is meaningful. I did though announce Mo's arrival on my personal instagram a week after his arrival and have continued to post photos every two weeks or so, when he is so cute (see #1 above) how can you not! Plus the boy drives my engagement on these social platforms better than anything I have posted before!
- Enjoying breastfeeding. With my initial struggles I would have never believed that I would be able to easily and pain freely breastfeed. It is such a different experience now. I have to say I am enjoying it because what I had before was torture!
- Nicknames, petnames and nonsense. Finding out I was having a boy, I struggled with what I would call him as a pet name. For all the little girls in my family I call them 'mama' and pictured myself with my own 'little mama' and loved that idea. I didn't want to call my boy 'papa' or 'papi' they seemed to awkward. Don't ask me my reasoning why 'mama' isn't awkward... But surprisingly Mo's pet name is 'papas' coming from 'papacito'. Out of no where once he got here and I would speak to him I called him my 'little papacito' and it came off my tongue naturally and quickly morphed into 'papas' which truly translates in spanish to potatoes- ha! I now talk to him and call him 'my little papas' weird, right? The best part is that Mike initially made fun of me about this but has begun to use this little name for our guy too.
- Still blogging/ blogging at all. The initial embarrassment I had of doing the whole 'mommy blog' thing was what had me thinking I would retire this thing. Coupled with my assumption that I would be too busy or tired to want to continue writing this blog. But the competitor in me has to persevere. I enjoy writing my posts and connecting with other people. This is fun and I enjoy it.
- No fun. Then of course there are the negative cliches of: no time for your partner, no time for friends, no time for yourself, no time for the gym, no time for drinks, no time for fun. These cliches are 100% bs in my opinion. I know I have the luxury of supportive family up the street but I can't believe that even without the support that you can't make any of the above happen for you. Your happiness, independence mental and physical health are just as important to help your baby thrive as everything else you give them.
Those are the things off the top of my head that have surprised me after 12 weeks with Mo. Any other cliches that have hit you hard?
xx Ly