Four-Thirty Feedings

One word of advice: cherish them!

Yes you read that correctly, I said cherish them! I know I do!!!

I cherish them because I know they too will pass soon. Babies grow and eventually won’t need you during the night, they will be sleeping soundly through the night. So I cherish the 4:30 mommy and me time. Especially now that this will be my last time doing it. It’s different.

As mentioned in other blogs this time around I have found the blessing in the pregnancy and everything that it entails.

The morning sickness meant everything was going as planned, the back pain meant my baby was growing, the hip pain meant my body was preparing for my baby. And then the nighttime feedings meant my baby was alive and eating as any healthy baby should.

So I cherish it.

It’s funny though, how one day something just clicks in your brain and you stop seeing the night time feedings as an annoyance, but as a beautiful time with your baby.

So mamas cherish these moments, because when people say time flies or if you blink it will pass, it’s so true! My baby is already three months old! He’s already down to one feeding at night and even that is sometimes not until 5 or 6 in the morning. He’s getting so big, today he tried holding his own bottle for the first time, which I know I still have time before that milestone, but just the fact that he tried was another reminder it was getting close. So I cherished our time a little more this morning.

And now for some raw truth talk about why we all should cherish it!

Cherish this moment because there are so many women out there that won’t get the opportunity. Which is also what I thought about, correction, what I think about every time I am sitting with my baby during these 4:30 feedings. Remember my own daughter lost her baby boy to stillborn while I had a healthy and happy baby boy in the same year. So I cherish these times probably more than some, but all of this is true nonetheless.

In 2020 alone there were 24,000 stillborns; that’s 24,000 babies that made it past 20 weeks and suddenly passed away with no explanation. Their mothers never got to experience the 4:30 wake up calls, they never got to experience the sacred “mommy and me time” that I get to experience. And according to the CDC, 1 in 4 women who become pregnant lose those babies to miscarriages each year; in 2010 it was reported that number was as high as 1 million babies miscarried, so I cherish the baby I hold in my arms. I cherish it because I can. And I should.

Babies are gifts! They are little blessings given to us, it is not our right to be a mother, it is a blessing from the Lord to allow us to be a mother. So cherish those 4:30 feedings, because before you know it, they will be gone, and if you were one of the blessed ones to get the opportunity to experience this, see it for what it is, a GIFT to be cherished.

I never knew I’d cherish getting woken up from my REM sleep so much, but now that it’s getting to the end of my time as a newborn mother, I will miss these 4:30 feedings. As my baby gets closer to moving into his crib and into his room with his big brother I will miss rolling over and just being able to watch him sleep soundly. Now I’ll have to walk down the hall to watch them both sleep and heaven forbid if the door squeaks when I open it and wake them both up. I’ll miss holding his little, but big 16lb body in my arms and watching that sweet little smile form on his face as he drifts off to sleep. I’ll miss it all!

So I’ll cherish it while I have it!

So I’ll say it again mamas, cherish these 4:30 feedings! Cherish every minute of it!