Day 3: Breathe, breathe, breathe...

When my daughter was three days old, we were allowed to leave the hospital after extended monitoring for infection from an early water break. Holy cow did I have all the feels. With my hormones raging, we had to face the hard truth that there would no longer be nurses there to swoop in superhero style to fix the swaddle that my baby had Houdini-ed out of. As we drove from the hospital, with my husband white-knuckling the wheel and crawling along at fifteen miles per hour, I took a deep breath. And another. And another. During the infinite times I have been completely overwhelmed since my babe came home from the hospital, I keep coming back to my breath. When she is screaming and I can’t figure out why, when I am flooded with crazy hormones and cry after a receptionist looks at me askance, when it's 2am and we are still breastfeeding after 45 minutes, I breathe. Don't forget to breathe. Slowly in...even more slowly out. Try a count of four in and a count of six out. Soothe that frazzled nervous system.

#mindfulness #postpatrum #newborn