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| Sweet Tacy doing some tummy time |
Five days after having my baby I started nursing school. It was a good thing I had her early because otherwise she would have been born during school and I would have missed a lot and been behind, which was a big concern for me and the instructors.
Well, having a baby and starting school right away had not exactly been a cake walk either. The night before school started I was an emotional wreck. I was crying uncontrollably and freaking out and paranoid about being a bad mom and failing school. Brad thank goodness is amazing and calmed me down and gave me a blessing. The first day of school went okay. The program director was happy to hear that I was healthy, that my baby was healthy, and that we no longer had to worry about me missing school to have a baby. My nursing class has 40 total students, 5 guys and 35 women. I'd say about half of the students are parents. We all had to go around and say a bit about ourselves and why we wanted to be nurses. Well, telling everyone that I had a baby 5 days previous has made me very memorable. I had girls coming up to me asking "How are you doing this?" or "You are amazing I don't know how you are doing this!"
They are all very nice and ask me every day how my baby is doing. I was ready to quit after the first day of class though. When they went through the schedule and how fast the program moves and how demanding it is, I was ready to quit. Brad once again calmed me down and assured me that I could do this. I survived the first week, even with minimal sleep because Tacy woke up every hour some nights. The next Sunday night I had another breakdown though. I had a test the next day and was freaking out because I had not been able to study as much as I would have liked and didn't know how I could manage school and being a mom. Brad calmed me down again (see how lucky I am to have him?).
I passed my test the next day. I can thank my husband and family for helping me by watching Tacy so I could study. When I have homework or studying to do, there is usually someone I can pass her off to. Other than the crazyness of balancing school and baby, I have been having a hard time being able to rely solely on breastfeeding. My doctor said that even with pumping, it's probably just all of the crazy stress/life that I have right now with my crazy schedule. Granted, formula does help so Brad can get up and feed Tacy at night, or family can feed her while I'm studying, but I wish breastfeeding satisfied her enough because formula is expensive. Oh well, I keep doing my best and hoping that fenugreek helps.
On the plus side, I have been doing well in school and actually got a 98 on my test today, which is pretty awesome. We will see how it goes, but hopefully I can survive this crazy time with a sane mind. One good thing about my schedule is I have no time for postpartum depression because school keeps me occupied when I'm not home with the baby.
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I am glad you posted this. I have been wondering "how you're doing it". When I was in Dental Hygiene school, one of the girls got pregnant right away...and only took 5 days off. She had to sit on a doughnut thing and stuff because she was so sore. I mean, how did THAT part go? Because I felt like a train wreck down there for at least 3 weeks. But maybe it's because I had stitches. And I think I hurt my tailbone by pushing so hard..I only pushed for 45 minutes. Anyway, you really are amazing and I hope you continue to be able to balance these two demanding things. If you haven't read Babywise, I suggest it. I followed it's principles and I will just say it makes things a lot easier. Ava has always slept like a champ. Don't stress about the breastfeeding thing. Yes it is best for baby, but you can only do what you can do. Formula fed babies grow just fine :) If you can, just pump as much as you can (but not so much that your supply is constantly coming in when you don't want it to), but then you can store it in the fridge or freezer and other people can feed her breastmilk, in a bottle. So if you don't always have the time to actually breastfeed, just make the time to pump so she can still have those nutrients. When I was still breastfeeding and working, I would get to work a little early to pump, pump at lunch break, and pump again right after work. Anyway...wish you the best, congrats!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! You are doing awesome! I can't even imagine how difficult that must be, but I am so impressed and sure you are capable of pulling it off. Good luck!!!
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