"I just had a Baby, Now what?"

Going through 36 hours of labor and pushing out Sophia was the easy part, the next 6 weeks were the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. There's a book I started to read called, "The Birth of a Mother," and one of the chapters talks about how a mother to be imagines her life with her baby versus what actually happens. Of course I had my fantasies of carrying Sophia around in her little Baby Bjorn or Ergo Carrier (I actually have four different carriers depending on what mood my child is in) as I run errands around the city. Feeling her breath and little body snuggled next to me against my chest was something I dreamed about frequently. Little did I know that carrying around Sophia during those first few weeks of her life didn't always go so smoothly.
There are some newborns that just sleep all the time and are very laid back, my child wasn't one of them. I thought all the Kundalini Yoga I was doing would give me a baby that rarely cried & slept most of the time. It did wonders for me but had not effect on Sophia. Not my little fire cracker. Sophia, according to the author of "The Happiest Baby on the Block," Harvey Karp, is a passionate and sensitive child which means she needs more soothing than a laid back baby who sleeps a lot and rarely cries. You get the child you get and it's up to you to learn how to soothe her.
I had no idea coming home from the hospital what I was in for, and both my husband, Tony, and I were pretty clueless as to how to calm a screaming baby (we nicknamed her "Cougar" because she would let out this blood curdling scream like a wild animal). After we've changed the baby, fed her and held her, while going through our repertoire of songs, and she's still screaming, we really understood why people say, "Having a child is the most rewarding thing and the hardest thing you will ever do in your life." Tony and I were not at the rewarding part; we were at the "Jesus! what did I sign up for? Too late to change my mind now!" Don't get me wrong, we love and adore Sophia and wouldn't change a thing, but we have been learning as we go along. We know people that have hired baby nurses for the first month or so and had a newborn sleep trained from the beginning (I actually like the idea to some degree, but it takes away the mental toughness that I gained from the experience of sleeping 3 hours or less and the confidence I've built in knowing that I can calm Sophia).
So I learned from my baby Guru, Dr. Karp, that there is a 4Th trimester and that means that the first 3 months of a baby's life are an extension of pregnancy, except you have this fetus outside the womb now that needs a lot of care. What many people think is colic, in many cases is not and that was what I thought with Sophia initially, but found out she cried the typical amount of a baby between zero and 6 weeks. Because of her passionate and sensitive nature, she needs more soothing than the laid back kids. This entailed learning how to swaddle (I highly recommend using the Miracle Blanket . I tried using a large blanket like the ones the nurses use to swaddle babies in the hospital, and Sophia always wiggled out of like Harry Houdini (we gave her another nick name: Sophini). What also helps a lot is white noise or a shushing sound. I did a lot of research, and to save my jaw muscles from making a shushing sound, I use a CD that I downloaded as an MP3 from a website that has recorded white noise from hair dryers to air conditioners. What parents don't realize is that a baby can be under stimulated and if it's too quiet that can make them cry. In utero, babies are hearing the sound of their mother's blood going through arteries at a level of 80-90 decibels (that's super loud). They don't go deaf because their ears are not developed enough at that point. So loud white noise actually comforts them . I discovered this after a neighbor told me her child was calmed by the sound of the vent over the stove top, so I tried it and Sophia became very quiet and calm. That's when I started sleeping in the kitchen with Sophia. I put her in her car seat and camped out with her. I did what ever I had to do to get some sleep. Tony and I had been so sleep deprived we did whatever it took. Now with the CD of the air conditioner, we have graduated to the living room couch and Sophia is still in her car seat. We're gradually getting closer to her crib. At least we're not sleeping on the floor. Ouch!
The white noise needs to be the right white noise and that's all trial and error, so you'll find what works for your baby.
We're at the 10 week mark and things are definitely easier. The Cougar is now more like a Lamb these days and Sophia no longer has long bouts of crying, thank God. That was really rough. Now whenever I meet anyone who just had a baby, I'm very happy for them and at the same time I'm secretly saying to myself, "I'm so glad we're past that," and I smile knowing that we made it through Baby Boot camp.