Touch-wood, my
motherhood journey seems quite well when I look back to those days. I had many
issues that could have created road blocks for me, but fortunately, my family always supported me. The best supporter award, of course, goes to my husband who always
stood by me. And even today, he never misses a chance to give me wings.
I am a working mother and when my maternity leaves came to
end, the very first dilemma was “Who would take care of the baby?” My
mother-in-law came to rescue the plot. She stayed with us until my boy was one
and half years old. Then I enrolled him in a daycare and sent my mother-in-back
back to my in-law’s place. Things are going good so far. However, whenever I sail through those initial
days of my motherhood, I find a few things that I would definitely want to
change:
I want to extend my maternity leaves. Now maternity benefit
bill has suggested 26 weeks of maternity leaves but when I was pregnant, it was
only 3 months. I went to my home town
(from Delhi) for my delivery so I traveled
a month before my due date. This way after delivery I had only 2 months to give
to my newborn. That, I always feel, was very unfair and somehow I did this
injustice to my son. I would like to change this first in my motherhood
journey. I would like to give more time and love to my tiny baby before
resuming work.
More efforts for breastfeeding my boy. As I had to resume my work
when my boy was only 2 and half month old, we mother and son struggled to make
our bond. And I feel that’s why I couldn’t feed him for a longer time. In my absence, he was bottle fed, and when back home,
I tried breastfeeding him, my boy used to get irritated. Sucking bottle was
easy for him than striving on the proper
latch. Slowly we both gave up. My lactation dropped and after 5 months, my boy was
on formula only. I want to change this part as well. I should have tried more
to feed him. I missed those beautiful moments that a mother-son enjoys during breastfeeding.
Making my boy sleep close to me. My son never slept putting his legs on
me, or embracing me in love, or putting the head
on my arm. The reason is, he is mostly bottle fed and that’s why he always
slept on his own. I often rocked him and
made him sleep in my lap. But like other breastfed babies, he doesn’t have a habit of sticking to my tummy before sleeping.
Although it’s great that he learned to sleep independent very early but sometimes I want him to sleep putting his head on my arm, close to my heart. So I
would like to go back to the time and try him learn sleep this way.
Rest I feel is perfect in my motherhood trek. I was able to
change my job with preparing for an interview,
even though I had a newborn at home. I was able to get “League Extraordinaire”
award at the office for working extraordinarily throughout the year. It was amazing, I had a baby still I was able to add value to office
work. All thanks to my husband who supported me so much. He took care of our
baby just a mother does. And, I would like to share credit with my boy as well.
Since the beginning he is such a jolly
and adjusting baby. He gets jelled with people easily. He even didn’t make much fuss
when he was infant. So, overall my life is beautiful and nothing much needs any
change. That’s why I feel blessed, you know J
That's a very thoughtful post, true when we look back today we realise certain tweaks here n there would have made that easier for us then.. I can relate to this post so well. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteHi Dipika..yes we always see possibility of changes when we look back. But still what is present is also beautiful. Thanks for reading my thoughts :)
DeleteOh This is so heartfelt shipra! This prompt has made moms come out and share their stories which made me realise there are similar things we all went through. More power to you and your blog! Thanks for writing for #MMM :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for your support Deepa. I feel this is a great opportunity to share and listen to others.Great initiative :)
DeleteShipra I too joined work soon .I was working in a corporate hospital with hardly any leave at thta time.I would like that opportunity too.I understand what you must have gone through .Thank you for writing with us for #MondayMommyMoments
ReplyDeleteThank you for this opportunity Amrita. This was a beautiful topic :)
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