When you have a baby you must start a blog

Why is it that every time someone has a baby they feel they must start a blog? Well, I got the itch this morning. Who knows if I will actually keep writing or if anyone will even be interested enough in reading what I do write. Here are a few things for sure, I will add tons of pictures of my bilingüe bebé, my grammar is horrible, spell check will hopefully make me look like I know how to spell in English, and just for fun I may write in Español sometimes.

So I have decided to keep more of a journal for Santi rather than a blog. I have a notebook with letters written about every other week starting 2 days after we found out we were going to have a little Rea, but this will be more of a journal. I say this is a journal for Santi, but lets face it, he is a boy and would probably be embarrassed I am even doing this. So this is a journal for me!

I have to say motherhood is a lot harder than I thought. I think that is the case for most people because everyone pretends it is fun all the time. Thankfully I am old enough to have realized this couldn't be the case, but I was still shocked by the many surprises along the way. The only advise given is "get your sleep now, you won't sleep again until he is 18." No one seemed to mention all the crazy things that happen to you while pregnant, how the first night you come home from the hospital your baby will be awake all night LITERALLY, and how once your baby finally starts the wonderful habit of sleeping 7 hours at night he will go through a growth spurt and revert back to sleeping an hour and a half at a time. Most women go through these surprises with grace and beauty, then there is me. I love sleep! Before I had a child I needed at least 8 hours of sleep or I would be a grouch the next morning. Well bye bye 8 hours. I haven't slept that long in over 4 months. So yes, there have been many many many days where I have been a grouch and felt horrible about it. I have looked through my tears of exhaustion at the most beautiful creation God has ever made smiling up at me making goo goo sounds. Yeah, and all I want to do is sleep. The second biggest surprise for me was how boring staying at home can be. When I worked full time I thought it would be the most wonderful thing staying home with my baby. Then, once home with my baby, I realized it can be horribly boring. It is hard to find something to do for just the right amount of time. Reading is out of the question when I am tired because I wont remember a thing. And if I do find something to do often times I don't want to start into something I know will be interrupted by a waking baby in a few minutes. I realized in the first few weeks that I am a huge people person and I need to get out of my house often! I am NOT a homebody as much as I wish I could be! Why don't other moms complain? Am I the only mother in the world that feels this way or at least the only one to admit it?

Once I am able to get past the black circles under my eyes and enjoy my baby I realize I have one of the sweetest children ever. There are plenty of happy babies in the world, but there are also plenty who don't smile nearly as much as Santi. You can pretty much get a smile even mid-cry. All you need to do is speak to him in a sweet or silly voice and he is all yours! I was blessed with a smiley baby from the beginning. I am also blessed with a very mobile child. He learned to roll over from his stomach to back at 12 weeks then the very next week he was rolling over from back to stomach. The latter greatly surprised me because every where I read says he shouldn't be able to do that till 5 months. Now when I go get him from his crib he is in a totally different place, something I am still getting used to. No more laying him on my bed and running to the other room to grab something.

Our living room has changed from a place for adults to sit and maybe watch sports to a giant open space with blankets and toys. When I was pregnant I didn't want a baby swing and other ugly toys because I wanted my house to still be my house, Santi would be part of our house, but his toys would be in his room....yeah that changed. I could care less what the house looks like now as long as I have a happy healthy child. Santi now has more retail space in the house than either Nolan or I.

One of Santi's newest things is the sucking of his thumb. At first he sucked his fist, then he finally found his thumb. Now there is no going back, you can take a paci away, but you can't take a thumb away. I have a feeling this is going to be an issue in a few years, but for now its WONDERFUL! He can calm himself now. Plus its really cute! He doesn't even attempt to make a fist, his fingers are all up in his face.

Well I hear a cry, meaning Santi is up from his nap...until next time.