Name: Caley Adams
Website: Wildes District
IG: @wildesdistrict
Age: 34
Number of kids and ages: 18 mo. boy
Location: New York City, NY
The most surprising thing about being a first-time mom is being a first time mum, I was the most surprised by how little time you have for yourself! I went in fully prepared to never sleep again, and to have to work really hard to balance career and baby. But I was not prepared for the biggest trade off, which is the reduced amount of "me time" you have. It was something I really took for granted pre-baby.
My expectation vs. experience breastfeeding was I focused a lot of effort and energy on the birth, and not the post-birth experience. I assumed breastfeeding would be time-intensive, but not difficult. My experience was much more difficult than I imagined it would be...Because I work full time, I had to pump a lot which was not only time-intensive, but also emotionally hard to have to constantly step away from a "flow state" of work.
The best piece of advice about motherhood is you have to work hard to create the ideal experience for yourself. Becoming a mother is hard, so it's very easy to stop going out, to cloister yourself away from friends, to stop traveling, etc. But, if you make a deliberate choice to still do things that are important to you, you'll get back into the rhythm of everything. It'll be very hard at first, but it'll get easier with time.
About Wildes District: