Rhys

Who doesn't love a baby picture? I know they make my day! This is my little 3 month old. Currently he needs to be entertained almost 24/7. He can almost sit up on his own, he grabs things, is interested in toys, and is rapidly outgrowing all of his clothes. On a controversial note, my son has recently started eating baby oatmeal. Now before I have a roaring tornado of moms telling me he is too young, let me explain how this came to be. I started with a lot of research into how to tell if your baby is requiring more substantial food. My son happened to be showing signs for awhile. Let me just say as a start, my son is mildly colic so he screams frequently. Luckily, with help from the doctor, and some rule bending, we got some of his tummy issues under control so the colic was finally subsiding! But, all of a sudden one day out of nowhere, he started screaming after every feed, with greater intensity as the ay went on. By bedtime, he sounded like I was killing him and would only have a few sips of his bottle, intentionally choke on it, and then scream, repeating this over and over until he fell asleep or finished the bottle. This went on for days, it was extremely exhausting. So, I talked to some other moms and even a pharmacist or 2, and read labels on baby cereal. Oatmeal for babies is meant for babies who can't even sit up yet, once a baby can sit up, they get rice cereal. So, most doctors say that a baby must be 6 months old before they get cereal, I've never met a 6 month old baby that couldn't sit up. They wouldn't make the oatmeal if they didn't expect parents to buy it. Either way, he gets it once a day and not very much at that, and his screaming stopped when I started it.

Moving on, if you read my introduction post, you know not only do I live with family but I also have hit post partum depression. I will try to keep this short but I did want to quickly tough on these subjects. For starters. yes I have more help than most first time moms because I am living with family. That being said, every single person I live with works full time. My dad, has 2 full time jobs, my mom works 13 hour days and the babies dad works 8+ hour days most days himself. It is extremely rare for everyone to be off on the same day. So, I do end up being home alone most days more the majority of the day. On top of that, I have post partum depression. I don't know how it affects other moms but for me, I am always drained, I never want to get out of bed, I don't want to play with my son, I don't want to have any human contact at all. For being a mom who is alone most days, with a son that literally wants to do nothing but play and be attached to me all day, it hasn't been easy. I beg for people to take him when they are around because I just can't deal. Plus, when I'm upset and trying to care for a screaming baby, he feels my emotions and cries more. It creates a situation where it is nearly impossible to make him happy and then I get more drained and sad and tired. If you know anyone suffering, please just offer to help once in awhile and/or visit/talk to them frequently. It is heartbreaking in so many ways.