Mom Achievement Unlocked

Mom Achievement Unlocked: survived traveling alone with an infant NTH and i took our first big trip, from here in NB to Vancouver...which requires 2 planes each way (my kingsom for a direct flight) but and you know what? NTH is an excellent flyer! i used my moby wrap so my arms wouldn't be exhausted holding him the whole time and to make navigating the airport easier.  luckily i have amazing friends who had tracked down a car seat and base for us at our destination so that was one less thing i had to schlep. also, people in general are so helpful & lovely when one is holding a baby.  people offered to carry my bags while getting off the plane and helped me take me coat off and countless other tiny but helpful things.  i'm the type of person that hates inconveniencing others but having a baby is a good exercise in asking for help...it's somehow empowering in a weird, paradoxical way. so, excuse me pleasant looking stranger, can you please hold this for a second?...

Mom Achievement Unlocked: complain about amount of laundry I just wasn't prepared for the amount of pee-induced laundry... Paris Hilton Laundry GIF TMI Alert: ...both his and mine hot tips: - i knew that when diapering little boys one must gently point is little pee-er downwards...didn't think about it being straight...as in, not pointed towards the leg hole of the diaper! - also, while the yucky umbilical cord stump was still attached i was trying to be so careful around it and not making the diaper tight enough around his waist.  don't.  it's fine. make those diapers snug! - one night i resorted to putting a puppy training pad down under him in the bassinet (before you freak out it was tightly tucked into the mattress and only at his waist down).  but honestly, it made a crinkly kind of noise every time he moved so i eventually took it out. - rub under his belly button with a wipe and wait a minute before changing him. the theory is the cold wipe...

Mom Achievement Unlocked: using my Mom Voice TM the NTH's first dr appointment ended up being about 2 weeks after he was born (both my ob/gyn and our family dr went on vacation around his birth...hello abandonment issues).  as we waited (FOREVER) in the waiting room NTH decided he was done with waiting silently...very done.  he was due to be fed soon, but i thought as soon as i get out my breastfeeding cover and get him situated then they will call us in and then i'll have to schlep in and all the gear 1/2 exposed down the hall...maybe he just needs to be changed. so i grabbed our diaper bag (a bookbag style that i LOVE), the boy, and headed to the bathroom....there was no changing table...in this the year of our lord 2018; in a family doctor's office; in a newly renovated building...no change table?!  i've been a mum for 2 weeks (translation: i haven't properly slept in two weeks) why are you making my life more difficult?! now, i know i could've gotten out...

Mom Achievement Unlocked: they actually trusted me to keep this tiny human alive to be fair, they trusted us: my husband and me when the hospital discharged us my husband looked at our new tiny human (henceforth known as NTH) and said "ok, i guess you're coming home with us" in that kind of new parent bewildered way. we put the sleeping NTH in the giant-seeming car seat and off we went.  2 minutes into the drive i realized why i had seen other parents with the mirrors on the backseat headrests...they weren't raising narcissists -they were making sure they could look back & check on their NTH!  this had never occurred to my pre-parent brain.  with rear facing car seats either extreme of silence or screaming is very suspicious and nerve racking. we had 2 pit stops to make on the way home, each one we had to check on him, and then we have a little 4 minute ferry ride and I made hubby get out and check.  i was telling all of this to my mum who simply said ...