After surviving life with a colicky newborn following a very long and intense labour, I knew I owed it to myself and anyone else struggling with the transition to parenthood to share a little bit of my story. Since almost all of my blog followers are parents or parents-to-be, I thought, what better place to share?

I’ll admit, I was hesitant to write this, and it took a full YEAR to sit down and do it. I didn’t want to come off ungrateful for being a mom when so many people would give anything to be in the same boat. However, we went through our own long road to becoming parents, and I’ve learned first hand that just because you’re living your dream doesn’t mean it necessarily comes easy. When we talk openly about the challenges of new parenthood, we can all feel a sense of solidarity during what can be a very lonely, isolating chapter of our lives.

Our son Benjamin was born after 3 days of labour - read my birth story if you’re interested in, but to sum it up, it was a very long and intense labour that ended in a long 2+ hour delivery, a team of OBs and forceps assistance, and a toll on my body that took several months of healing. To top it off, Ben had a tongue tie and couldn’t feed properly. I’ll never forget sitting there awake at 2am, crying in the hospital bed, using the hospital pump to try to bring my milk in to no avail, while waiting on donor milk from the nurses. I remember feeling like a failure as a mother because I couldn’t produce milk to feed my child. I was very fortunate to have Ed trading off for me for the syringe feeding that we did for a solid week, because Ben’s marathon 1-hour nursing sessions were leaving me with very little time to sleep between feeds.