One of the scariest things in the universe is having to transition to being a mom. At first, it's a very romantic and cute idea. You picture the little baby always smiling, and you anticipate getting to hug him or her whenever you want. You think about how sweet it is that you and your spouse made this baby together as a composite of all your love for each other. It's going to be so much fun. You can't wait!
But then, the baby is born and reality sets in.
When my son was born, I called up every friend I knew who had ever had a baby and pleaded, "How do you get him to stop crying?! What's the story?" Some of them said, "Oh, just put him in the car seat and go driving," but that didn't help me much because even though the kid could sleep, I wouldn't be getting any rest. I gave it a try, but he only screamed more.
We had a screamer. It was a constant thing, and we could never figure out what he was screaming about. "Does something hurt?" "Are you wet?" "Are you hungry?" "Are you constipated?" "What is the problem?!" We just wanted to hold up pictures and hope he'd point at whatever was wrong. However, babies don't point or tell you, they just scream. We even got one of those itty bitty baby swings, figuring that the rocking motion was going to work. But it didn't fix anything. Finally, while I was looking through the mail, I came across an advertisement for a stuffed bear that was supposed to help kids sleep. It contained a mechanism inside of it, which emulated the heartbeat sound that the baby hears when he or she is floating around in the uterus's amniotic fluid. When my husband came home from work that day, I said, "Lew, go out and find this bear, and don't come home until you have it."
Yes, I was that crazed, and he knew I meant it.
While he was gone, I was lying on the bed trying to console the crying baby. I put him on my stomach, tried petting him, and hummed/sang to him. Every now and then he'd quiet down, but then he'd start screaming again. Just when I was about to cry myself, Lew walked in the door holding the heart bear. He stuck a nine-volt battery in its tush and turned it on.
My son's eyes got huge, and within a split second, he was out. Boom. Asleep.
Mr. Bear was like a miracle drug. Although my kid is now 26 and doesn't sleep with him anymore, I have kept Mr. Bear (even though he doesn't work anymore) because he sure saved everybody's life.
I use this story about my son to illustrate one of the more frustrating and scary moments about becoming a new mom: when you have no idea what the baby wants. It's an awful feeling when you're standing there willing to do anything for your baby, but you don't know what it is you're supposed to do. You figure it's the standard things - they need warmth, food, contact, or cleaning - but none of those ends up being the problem. In my case, it was the heart bear that did the trick. For some reason, when I lay my son on my own chest and he could hear my heart pounding, it wasn't nearly as impressive to him as his memory of the womb.
New mothers have a lot of reasonable fears. Here are just a few of them:
Everybody who says they want a baby pictures a sweet, happy child who is easy to get along with, studies, does well, has friends, and possesses many talents. However, pregnancy is this big unknown. You have no idea what kind of little person is going to come out until he or she grows up enough to start expressing him or herself. Some kids are cuddly, and some cry a lot. Some seem to bond readily, and others don't. Some are born unhealthy, and others are born healthy. In the meantime, you have a whole lot of uncertainty going on. It can be exciting, but it can also be uncomfortable. There are a lot of challenges that you're not going to know about until the baby is born.
Another worry is that you'll turn into your mother. Whatever your opinion of your mother's mothering, it's your first and strongest model of mothering. A lot of you say, "I am not going to be like my mother," but then you start hearing yourself sounding just like her. That's because it was your first experience, and it's what you are familiar with. Of course you don't want to blindly stumble along in the footprints of familiarity, but you also don't want to reflexively react against your mother's parenting style. Think about the good stuff you learned from your mom, consider the things you don't think were the best, and formulate your own method of mothering. You don't just want to say, "Well, my mother did 'x' so I'm going to do the exact opposite," because the opposite may not always be a good alternative. Remember the Dr. Spock era where kids were encouraged to have total freedom to express themselves? Yeah, that bombed.
You also may worry that your marriage will never be the same again. Well, that's true. Although a baby doesn't weigh much or speak, the minute you have them there, they rule. However, the key to holding on to your marriage is to work together as a team. The experience of having a baby can't be about one of you being superior, more knowledgeable, or more in charge than the other. The two of you need to be a team.
For example, when I was trying to house-train my most recent baby (my Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, Sweet Pea), my husband and I had a system. I'd pick her up and carry her to the door, my husband would open the door, the doggie would relieve herself outside, and then my husband would help open the door to bring her back inside the house. We also had a system years ago when my son was breastfeeding. At a certain time, my husband would get up and bring me the baby. I'd breastfeed, and then one of us would change the baby's diaper. After that, the other one would put the baby back to bed.
That is what you have to maintain to keep your relationship strong: a team effort. On a side note, women's brains are wired very differently for hearing baby sounds than men's brains. The reason is obvious: Since babies come from our bodies and suckle at our breasts, it's a part of our biology for us to hear those little high pitched noises. So, don't think your husband is just being a drag and a bum if he doesn't immediately get up when the baby calls - his brain is simply not wired to hear what you hear.
Another worry is that you're going to be a bad parent. I hear that far too often. I know it's easy to think about that in this extreme age of parenting where people are hovering over their kids and trying to make them be totally happy and successful without having to put in any effort, but you shouldn't worry. Being a good parent is really just about being open and willing to listen, putting your needs aside, and parenting even when it's inconvenient, uncomfortable, or unpleasant. It takes a lot and there may not be one specific way to do it because you and your spouse's personalities have to coordinate, but you can do it.
One of the things new mothers often say early on in the first year is, "I don't think I like this parenting thing. What have I gotten myself into?!" However, you have to remember that kids are always changing, and the experience of motherhood changes along with them. Things won't always be so difficult and overwhelming, and you are bound to have favorite and less favorite phases. Just look at their sweet little faces while they're sleeping, and you'll remember why you got yourself into this.
A final worry is that you'll be trapped. It's not as carefree of a life when you have a baby. Unless you've got grandma living near you so you can go out to dinner and a movie, everything changes. My husband and I would have to bring the car seat into restaurants with us. As soon as our son started fussing, one of us would go outside and rock him while the other ate, and then we switched. We very rarely got to eat together in a restaurant, but we still tried to do it about once a week so we wouldn't go completely stir-crazy.
There is a lot of negative thinking and anxiety when you become a new mom, and there are many adjustments you have to make. Sometimes you think you're going to mess up and do something terribly wrong, or you have nightmares about something horrible happening to your child. You may even feel trapped and want to get out of the situation. However, these are all normal anxieties. The most important thing you can do is talk about them out loud. That's where girlfriends, mothers, or good mother-in-laws come in. I remember one time when I was getting batty, I called up a girlfriend who was already on her second baby. I told her, "Oh my gosh, I'm having terrible thoughts," and she said, "Oh yeah, you're going to think about setting them on the curb from time to time. But don't worry, that's normal." Simply having the support of another mom telling you that what you're feeling is normal is a huge help.
If you are having a hard time as a new mom, don't hate or get down on yourself. When you're feeling stressed out, it's time to hand the baby to Dad and go take a walk or a bath. Do something to refresh yourself for a little bit and then come back. It's a difficult transition, but you can handle it.
And just think - when they become teenagers and start driving, you'll look back and say, "Gosh, that was easy."
