The Last Call: Heather’s* Story
In our series, “Mom’s Story,” members of our community share snapshots of their real, personal journeys through motherhood. Every story is different. We ask all members to be respectful in their comments on these posts. Offensive or disparaging remarks will not be tolerated.
*Names have been changed at the request of the family.
Life is going pretty well. Spending time with Eli* is a lot of fun. It’s like I’m experiencing my childhood all over again. Eli started crawling a couple of weeks ago and started sitting up by himself a few days ago. He makes all these cute babble noises, like “dadada bababa!” Every single thing he does makes both my husband and me so grateful.
It feels like a decade ago when we came home with Eli. We were extremely overwhelmed with joy and love for having a healthy baby, but at the same time, we were so nervous because the reality of a having a newborn was totally different from what we had in mind. We took all the baby classes ahead of time, but when he arrived we were lost and we didn’t know what we were doing. Even holding him was nerve-wracking. After we came home, we found out that Eli lost more than 10% of his weight and he was extremely dehydrated. His pediatrician ordered us to supplement with formula along with breastfeeding.
After 2 days, Eli refused to latch on my breasts. That day was the hardest and most heartbreaking day of all. I remember I was crying all day and was so desperate and helpless. I was pushing him so much to my boobs and he was turning his face away and crying and screaming. It felt like a rejection from the person you love the most and would do anything for. After numerous tries, I was so depressed that I was about to give up. In one last effort, I asked a LA moms’ group on Facebook for advice and almost everyone recommended Linda, “the Messiah of First Time Moms!”
We’re taught motherhood comes naturally, and in some ways it does! From the moment I saw my son, I fell in love with him. My biggest joy is to cuddle and feel his skin on mine. But nothing’s easy about having a baby. My delivery was quite a process that ended up with vacuuming. I wasn’t able to nurse the first few days and suffered postpartum depression. I was so naive. I thought once I decide to breastfeed, it will just happen “naturally.” I approached it the same way we approach our professional careers; we usually plan for it, analyze it and make it happen.
Linda enlightened me with the best part of motherhood. It would have been my greatest regret if I couldn’t breastfeed my son. It was like Linda was reading my baby’s mind. She was so on top of the problem and I knew that I could completely trust her. The best part of meeting Linda was the extensive help I’m receiving through the support group. I learned so much about not just lactation but the whole motherhood realm. Mahmee’s services helped me by being available even after the in-house lactation services ended. Being a member gave me access to a healthcare professional who responded to my emails and texts within 2 hours, saving me possible trips to the doctor’s office. Emotionally, my husband, mother, sister-in-law and friends’ support is the biggest gift I’m blessed with to get through this thing called motherhood.
Almost everything was surprising about motherhood. Your whole entire world changes the moment the baby is born. I’m still surprised that months of researching on the internet, reading books and taking baby care classes didn’t teach me as much as experiencing motherhood first hand when my son was born. Having a baby is both overwhelming and joyful; having an expert guide you in your times of need makes the process of raising a baby a lot easier.
The internet is not your best friend, and often your friends can be unreliable baby resources. While it’s great to have access to the internet and other moms for general help, experts who have broad experience with lots of kids is your true solution. In your world, your baby is the most precious gift you ever received and you don’t want to experiment with just anyone’s guidelines on them to find out which one works the best. You want the best, period.