Things I Learned as a New Mom

When I started blogging almost 7 years ago, I never thought that one day, I’d actually have a post similar to this. Hahaha. 🙂  Back then, the hubby was still my boyfriend.  So, if you’re reading this today & you somehow caught us on Tumblr, thank you & we’re sending you big virtual hugs. 🙂

Above: First month as a family. 🙂 Gahh…Things were scattered everywhere and we were in our pambahay but we just tried to make this happen with Mr. Tripod since it’s a milestone. Haha.

Anyway, here’s something I wrote before going to sleep during one of the nights / midnights that I was awake.  I only had 5 hours of sleep in a span of 48 hours, super overwhelmed about life in general and for some reason, it got me typing on my phone.  I just thought it’s apt that I upload this today, International Women’s day 🙂

Here goes…

Things I Learned so Far as a New Mom

1. It’s amazing how little sleep you get by taking care of a human being who sleeps for 16 hours a day. Hahaha. I don’t know how our parents took care of us without a single complaint. Kudos to all the parents out there more so single moms (and dads). You’re awesome. *I’m still learning.* 🙂

2. If there’s one thing I’d probably tell girls these days, it’s that women are strong. It’s just amazing how we’re built to nourish a baby for months inside the womb, endure childbirth and recover from it while nourishing another human being. Society has placed so much pressure on how women look on the outside. I just realized it’s okay if we look, for lack of a better term, daintier than our male counterparts. We don’t have to prove anything because we’re internally strong. 🙂 *Cue girl power music here.*. I always laugh at how I wrote this conviction I have about this but eez trueeee! 🙂

*insert gif of me dancing to R&B confidently when really, I’m just an ex-ballerina dancing like a jell-o with zero swag* lol.

3.  Probably the second greatest gift of motherhood is you end up having too many responsibilities you actually stop caring about the tiny things that consumed you in the past. Every time someone chats me up about someone else’s life, I end up giving a standard yet truly honest comment “Sorry, too busy to care” with a happy cactus sticker and I move on because really, I’m busy trying to keep another human being alive ( I also need to take care of myself, get enough sleep, take a bath, make sure I actually get to eat, work, have some sane me time et cetera).

The many faces of Riley.  You know, we can easily make a comic out of this. 😀

I finally learned to prioritize things & learn how to say no without feeling guilty. “I just need to sleep guys. Good night. I still love you. I just need to recover.” ??

4. When you’re a mom, you just make do with the time & resources you have. I used to have all the time in the world to obsess on a single slide on my presentation.

I truly miss being in the outside world and I don’t regret doing all those tedious travels before but I won’t change anything today just for that. (I always thought parents who said were just trying to make things sound better, cheesier & more marketable. Hahaha.). Also, I never knew how errands like dropping off laundry and grocery can be so therapeutic. I used to be bothered by them because I always thought they were in the way of my goal to be an efficient worker. Haha.

“What mom? No more milk?”

5.  I’m amazed at how resilient the human body is. Patty told me this before. She was up every hour for one month but she didn’t get sick. In my case, I didn’t get to enjoy a 4 hour nap until Riley was 6 weeks old.  *Thank you mom for taking care of Riley*.  There was even a time when my body no longer knew how to sleep beyond 3 hours long OMG. In the past 48 hours (prior to recovering this evening), I only had 5 hours of sleep and was running on adrenaline without the help of coffee or an energy drink. Thanks body for keeping up with me!
The same body you hate for being fat here & there will be the same body you’ll thank for having endured so much.

Also LOLing at myself when I thought I was fat before I got pregnant not realizing that was probably the best my adult body could get. Bwahahaha. *Hello 20 pounds of clingy bonus weight.*

6. When they say enjoy your time when you don’t have kids yet, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to party each week if that’s not your thing. Just do whatever it is that you love doing so that when the time comes, you look forward to sharing what makes you happy with the little hooman being you’re taking care of.

The businessman & his intern, Mr. Giraffe 😀

7.  If there’s a will, there’s a way. No matter how overwhelmingly busy we are, the hubby still finds time to cook something (anywhere from noodles to risotto to steak). I, on the other hand would always find around my schedule to dance / workout no matter how sleepless and insane my schedule is 🙂 I guess it makes me happy and the energy boost I get out of doing it is just awesome.

I just realized that collectively, I’ve been dancing as a hobby for 20 years now. *I’m so old* 🙂 I always told myself that I’ll publicly declare my love for ballet , Zumba and figure skating & post photos of myself when I finally have the typical dancer’s body as I was always asked to lose weight in my teen years. Well, in my post-partum form, that ain’t happening anytime soon but I still enjoy being able to move with the music. 🙂 So, here’s to dancing in whatever shape until my body won’t let me. 🙂

8.  It’s okay to ask for some help. Except for the food department, I must say I always tried to do whatever I can when I still can. When I was pregnant, I would drive myself to my workout place up until my 39th week. I was still shopping for hours on end (hoping that it would help with labor). I would drive myself within the metro to art events & such. These days though, I just raise the white flag & be humble enough to admit that I need help–lots of it.

That’s it for now. I must say I’m still too excited to some pending work as this household is asleep but it’s 4am & I gotta catch up on some ZzzZZz’s. 🙂

Happy Women’s Day! <3
Sending you lots of love & hugs and please excuse this photo of myself from when Riley was 3 weeks old. Haha. 🙂

(Don’t be fooled. Of course I didn’t look like that at home. Haha. I just had to dress up for my cousin’s wedding. :D)

XOXO,
Tipsy

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