The beauty of a routine.

I've found that there are a lot of things in life that no one can possibly prepare you for. Like getting married. Someone can tell you all about it, but you just don't know till it happens, till you're living the married life. Having a baby is the same way. You have absolutely no idea what you're getting yourself into. There is no way to fully comprehend beforehand how amazing, scary, confusing, and joyful being a parent is.

I love her so much. I wish there was another way to say that; a way that means more. She is everything I've ever cared about. It's like everything I've ever wanted for myself no longer matters and I want her to have it instead.

This is a simple story about how we gained a little confidence in parenting. We are SO blessed that Jayden was born beautiful and healthy, but ya know what? Babies are hard to take care of sometimes!

The past 7 weeks have been the most wonderful, hardest weeks of my life. I know a lot of mom's can't wait to leave the hospital, but I was completely scared to leave. Recovering from a c-section takes quite a toll on your body. Three days after the surgery part of my legs were still numb and I could barely walk. The idea of being completely responsible for my little one while still having to take care of myself seemed like too much. So we waited till the last second, and then took our trip home late one night.

Precious little Jayden had her nights & days mixed up. :) I thought I would at least get a little sleep, but that's not what Jayden had in mind! Her first night home she cried all night, and I stayed up with her from 10pm to 10am. Poor girl. :( Things slowly got better. The next night she was awake from 10pm to 10am again, but she wasn't crying the whole time! The next night I think she slept 3 hours, and so on. Now, all this probably wouldn't be so bad now, but when you're full of all those pregnancy hormones, and you're crying all the time no matter what...you start to feel like you're world is falling apart. It was so hard. Having said that, it was also so amazing to finally have our healthy little girl. We are so blessed!

It only took about 2 weeks for Jayden to learn to sleep at night. She wouldn't go to bed before 2am, but once she was asleep she would sleep as long as I let her! SO wonderful! The only thing our poor little girl had to deal with was gas. She had gas, and she had it bad. She wasn't a good burper, and would suffer the consequences later. She would be in the middle of a peaceful sleep, but wake up with a sudden scream of pain. It was so horrible! To see your little girl suffer like that is unbearable. There is nothing worse than seeing her in pain. She wanted to sleep so bad (and so did I!) but couldn't because of the pain. Once we got a burp out, she would fall fast asleep, just to wake up soon with more gas.

We tried many things to help Jayden get through her days and nights, and finally found an answer. I full heartedly believe that giving your baby a routine helps her know what to expect throughout her day. We started by waking her up and getting ready around the same time everyday. She would eat about every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, and would cycle through a feed, then wake-time, then sleeping routine. I used a lot of ideas and based Jayden's day on what I've read from a book called Babywise. (Keyword: based. I definitely didn't follow it exactly. It's a little extreme, but the basic ideas in the book are genius.)

It took a while to help her establish what time to do things, but after a few weeks our lives were so different. The gas problem almost completely disappeared and she started to go to sleep every night at 9 or 10pm! There's even more. She became the happiest baby I've ever seen! She is never fussy (unless she misses a nap, but that's my fault!). She is SO happy! She wakes up cooing and smiling every time!

One great thing I've learned is how to put your baby to sleep. We wrap her, love her, cuddle for a bit, and put her to bed awake. She easily puts herself to sleep for every nap, and every night. This took a little practice, but it was so worth it! We were able to accomplish this without making her "cry it out". If she cried, we would pat her and rub her, and sometimes pick her up and burp her. It took a good week, but now bed time is wonderful and consistent.

It's gotten to the point where she's just so dang easy to take care of, it just doesn't seem real. I'm SO proud of my little girl. :)