Baby Blues

I wasn't sure if I wanted to publish this post or not, but decided to because it's part of my baby experience.

It's been 12 days since Fiona was born and I'm finally starting to feel like myself again. The first two days in the hospital were such a blur and there was so much activity that I don't think the enormity of my responsibilities hit me until we got home. I started to worry about everything, but especially feeding and comforting her, I think since I felt like I had the most control over these. Was she eating enough? Sleeping enough? Sleeping too much? Was there something else I should be doing for her? I felt like no matter what I did it wasn't quite right or could be done better. I would cry for no reason and couldn't seem to stop sometimes, but it's been 4 days now since my last major meltdown. After that I started to read up more on the baby blues vs. postpartum depression and the symptoms of the former fit me the best. As I've been able to heal, eat, get some exercise and a fair amount of sleep, I've started to feel better. I also had a great support system during this time, which I feel helped tremendously. I still worry, but not as frequently or obsessively.

So this is remind me (and anyone else that's interested) that these feelings affect 50-80% of new mothers and are usually temporary. I found these articles on The Baby Blues, Baby Blues vs. Postpartum Depression and Postpartum Depression or the Baby Blues? very helpful.