First I would like to say that I appreciate that this great country provides working women with maternity leave at all. However, I would like to add that maternity leave is this great and totally amazing time where you learn all about your little baby and bond with him and then are abruptly thrown back into the workforce after only a maximum of 3 months together. Generally, a 3 month old is barely even mobile and is just starting to hit milestones.
Due to my pregnancy morning-sickness days off, I had 10 weeks with my baby boy. The first three weeks were brutal and full of many ups and downs as my husband and I learned how to take care of our new little boy. There were many tears, sleepless nights, a lowered immune system for me, breastfeeding confusion, but lots of pictures! I ended up having to go in to my doctor early for postpartum depression. Something just did not seem right, I was getting upset over the smallest things and did not feel like I was really enjoying the precious time I had with my son before I had to go back to work. The anti-depressant they placed me is considered okay to take while breastfeeding and I felt so much better! Suddenly, I was able to enjoy everything about my little boy and even diaper changing was not the worst (in fact, Elijah generally laughs now when he has his diaper changed - probably because I make funny faces and tell him all about how bad they are).
We had lots of visitors that first week and we were both appreciative of the attention and food. Our church had set up a meal delivery for the first week after I gave birth and it was such a relief not to worry about cooking those first few days. We had an abundance of meals and they all contained lots of beef to help me regain my iron since I had lost so much blood during the delivery.
One of the best moments came when Elijah was almost 4 weeks old. I had read online that newborns would actually copy you if you stuck your tongue out at him. So of course Noah and I both tried it and were so amazed to see our little boy furrow his brow and then poke his little tongue out back at us. It was hilarious to see and so rewarding to feel our baby connect with us in this small way. We had lots of smiles from Elijah very early one but it was hard to tell which ones were real and which smiles were just gas. Eventually we started to catch on :)
Around 8 weeks old, Elijah was already ready making lots of cooing noises and having a blast when we would copy him. We got lots of smiles this way and many serious faces as well. Elijah seems to be quite a thinker as he is always furrowing his brow and studying everything around him.
