After Nine Months

As soon as you find out you’re pregnant, you start following your baby’s development in the womb and do this for the following 9 months. You eagerly await that 9th month, excited to have baby in your arms.

That was my experience exactly, along with maybe 99% of the rest of the pregnant world. But I don’t think anybody ever thought of life’s developments every month after baby, so I decided to look at my own life’s turns 9 months after baby was born.

Month 1
I guess this can be summarized as the no-sleep month. I got no sleep from baby nursing all night and day, from being paranoid about every single hiccup and from researching and looking up everything I can to answer my 10,001 questions.

Month 2
Semi-sleep month. At this point he can nurse in bed next to me, allowing me to doze off while nursing. I was slowly recovering from child birth – not much aches and pains anymore, but definitely still looked like I gave birth the day before.

Month 3
I got a 3-hour break from baby care for the first time – I attended a friend’s wedding with another friend while hubby took care of our baby (he called 5 times). I also quit my job and officially became a SAHM (stay-at-home mom).

Month 4
I didn’t think I could shed hair more than a dog or a cat could. The stress of preparing for our baby’s baptism didn’t help either – I thought I’d go bald before my husband did. I also started my home-based business: personalized chocolates and candy bars. Why or how I thought I’d have time to work on it is beyond me.

Month 5
Why was I still depressed? My doctor best friend didn’t think it’s the post-partum blues. It was probably the lack-of-interaction-with-friends-family-and-other-adults-in-general blues. And from my family and friends being so far away. And from the fact that I was unemployed and not earning money to go shopping. And that I can’t go shopping because I’d rather buy something my baby needs. And that I haven’t had a massage.

Month 6
My life revolved around feeding baby solids twice a day, observing every poopy diaper and helping him be mobile. His baby book stayed unmarked, sitting in our closet. And I think my blog started growing cobwebs. Time is just so hard to get a hold of! But there is one milestone for me: I fit in my old, pre-pregnancy jeans!

Month 7
I officially got my period back. It’s still very irregular, though, because I didn’t get my period for 2 months after that, which led me to take a pregnancy test. Thankfully, it was negative -- and I say thankfully because I know I’m not emotionally ready for another baby. My baby is still a baby, and I’d like to cherish our moments with him as the baby before a new one comes to be the baby.

Month 8
In-laws arrived and our house was jam-packed. I was excited for company and stressed because of it at the same time. So was our baby, who experienced Disneyland, a plane ride to San Francisco, biting cold weather, Black Friday shopping (in a factory outlet, no less), colds and a trip to the ER all in over a week.

Month 9
Our first holiday season with our newest family member. It was bittersweet, because we celebrated our Christmas and New Year together, but we missed out on sharing this milestone with our family and friends back home, not to mention missing out on sharing with their own milestones. At least some of our brothers and sisters got to visit with us and our baby met a few of his cousins.

I wonder what the next months will bring. I’m excited and scared at the same time, just like how I was 9 months before our baby was born. But this time, it’s because he’s growing so fast right before our eyes. Pretty soon, I’ll be planning his 1st birthday party.

But also, just like the last 9 months, we’ve learned to savor every moment that Milo is a baby while at the same time taking every challenge one day at a time. I guess there’s really no need to worry.