Diary of a Temporary SAHM (stay at home mom)

I carried the baby for 10 wonderful, mostly uneventful months, given birth, completed my confinement (somewhat – I was one for breaking THOSE rules whenever possible) and here I am!

I had plenty of help during the 4+1 weeks of confinement, my parents and sister were always around to help me out with The Baby. As an added bonus, the house was always spotless and I didn’t have to bother with any house work or cooking. However, I have now moved back to our own place and as of last night, it is a full house – Man, Woman, Baby, Dog and Cat. I am home alone with Baby, Dog and Cat during the day. Having worked professionally for close to a decade prior to this, I have never been in this situation, nor imagined myself to be (not knocking anyone down at all) and want to pen it down for future reminiscence!

Perhaps an explanation as to the title of this blog. I love elephants because they are such wonderful, loyal and intelligent animals. I love the idea of being Mama Elephant - all nurturing, loving, with the trunks to match. Having not wanted to have babies for the longest time, the idea of now being a mom is so wonderfully foreign to me and I am discovering a new side of myself everyday. But more importantly, the acronym of this blog's title is a scramble of the initials of my baby's name. I want a title using his initials but I am painfully NOT creative, so.

Day 1 – 25.7.2016

It was not strictly speaking Day 1 back home, like a dramatic return to The Nest after a month plus of being away. During the course of confinement the entire brood did congregate at home for an afternoon or two, and even one full overnight here. Creative arrangements have had to be made for The Dog and The Cat – it truly takes a village to raise my child (everyone who helped us take care of The Dog and The Cat during our unavailability did, by extension and indirectly, help us with The Baby. I have nothing but gratitude for them).

But it was Day 1 of truly being on my own with The Baby for almost the entire duration of the sun being up in the sky. The mission of Day 1 was…I didn’t have one. I didn’t really know what to expect. Day 1 was also a bit of a cop-out since Babu is still with The Gramps (my in laws) and was only coming home at night. That made a world of difference in terms of having some leeway to leave things out and about the night before.

So Day 1 was pretty much run on survival mode - The Baby nursed very frequently and slept very lightly the night before, and I barely got any sleep. But I silently congratulated myself for having the presence of mind (and will power) to do a grocery run after we came home with our 200 bags of clothes, gears, gadgets, toiletries, travel furnitures etc etc. The house is thus well stocked with food and necessities. Last night I also ordered lunches for today and tomorrow, just minutes before the cut off time – so I had a substantial meal delivered right to the doorstep. Breastfeeding really takes it out of me and I find myself hungry every couple of hours, to the point of feeling faint if.I.don’t.eat.soon.

Overall, I rate Day 1 a success. I managed to eat breakfast, lunch, made myself a cup of tea (and drank it lukewarm because The Baby woke up between straining the tea bag and putting in sugar & milk – but hey, I had tea! It’s practically a luxury when you are home alone with an infant), and even went to the toilet a healthy number of times. I also managed to put most of our things away – mostly haphazardly, but at least most items were out of the immediate reach of The Dog, who has the most tenacious attitude when it comes to getting things he is not meant to have. And I set up 2 diapers station, how I imagined it – one upstairs and one downstairs (though within minutes of The Dog’s return home, it was clear that the downstairs diapers station would not work and had to be modified. The bits of chewed up (clean) diapers really drove home the message).

The Baby slept OK during the daytime of Day 1. He is just 6 weeks old and does not have a routine yet, especially since we have been living away and have to start again with our timing and rhythm. I feed him on demand (ie shoving him to the boobs anytime he shows signs of hunger) instead of following any feeding schedule. That means there is no predicting how long I have until he wakes and how long until his next nap. He nurses anywhere between 20 to 50 minutes – during which I am pinned down for a forced rest.

Takeaway from Day 1 - I think I unlocked the secret to my efficiency – it is in procreation. “While The Baby Naps” is now high on my list of powerful phrases in the English language. It motivates me to MOVE IT like nothing else.