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Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

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Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala, I have not had much time to sit and try to explain how it has been for me as a mom to get through life in a rural village in Guatemala. Just to explain a little about me, I am Guatemalan, maybe not the typical Guatemalan, not from the city not from the country, which rather leaves me in a place where I do not know where I belong, even though I feel so Guatemalan. The town I live in is one of the most isolated towns in all of Lake Atitlan.

Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

I guess that was part of why I moved here when I first decided to get a piece of land and start a family. Maybe the order of things was not exactly that, I first got pregnant and after I had to get myself a little piece of land to nest. Well picking a place in the middle of nowhere can be a mistake if you are trying to raise a little one, but it also has its benefits and its beauty. However, I guess we all do our best when we are embarking on this unknown journey.

Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

The years have gone by so fast it is incredible. The hormones are settling in, I am recovering some sleep. Although many people say, you never recover lost sleep.

Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

Living far away from my family has been difficult. Especially in the first months after having a baby and now more than anything because I want her to have that special connection with her grandparents and how I feel she is missing it. But I can’t live in the city, I couldn’t raise her there.

Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

It took me a little while to understand that asking for help is not a bad thing at all, that it shows that you are strong as well.  For some reason I was taught that I needed to be independent and that I could do most of the things I wanted on my own, this was in my engineering career. Nevertheless, of course, I did not know anything about babies.

 

The experience that people here seem to have is so much more than the one I saw when I grew up in different places. It is as if they emanate this love towards kids something I never see in people in the north. Here every kid is a bundle of joy and they just seem to be happy, in between the sisters, aunts, uncles, brother’s grandparents, and the neighbors.

 

It is just like they are one big community when it comes to watching over each other’s kids. Now I have a group of people that are my friends, they watch over my daughter, they enjoy watching her play with the other kids and love talking to her in kakchiquel their language.

 

The funniest thing of all is that I see how happy she is here. It just took me around two years to realize that this sense of community does not happen in other places. We do not always talk about the same things with the women here.

 

I tend to complain much more than they do about everything they are more positive in many ways. We understand each other because it doesn’t matter how we were raised we are all just moms, we all work and we all want to support each other in the way we can. I do not feel judged, and I do not judge them.

 

I still miss my family bond though, even if I made myself an adoptive family here, or several adoptive families, I guess it is never just the same. I’m glad I get to be here, I work doing massages sometimes and come home to my little one, not always easy to come home after a long day of working dealing with other people’s issues.

My Life as a mom in Lake Atitlan Guatemala

There are the other days when we get to have fun doing our herbal products that she seems to enjoy doing with me too. Moreover, since she still does not go to school seems to be a fun education at the moment for her. Those are my most joyful days when I can be at home, in the middle of nowhere, in this little bubble I made for ourselves that we call home for now…

Our First Baby | The Ride Home From The Hospital

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Time passes and my wife is back in her room and the time has come for Father to take our Daughter from the delivery room to be with mom. The next day it was time for the three of us to head home.

Many thanks to all the nurses and staff, my wife is doing remarkable after having a cesarean section, sore and tired she rides the wheel chair with baby in arms as we leave the hospital.

Our First Baby | The Ride Home From The Hospital was like most events for new parents another experience no matter how well you have prepared for it, you are ready perhaps not prepared for dealing with the bay car seat.

I had practiced dealing with this baby car seat, making sure it was facing the right direction, was it attached correctly, check the seat belt 3 times. All this training and practice, okay for sure this is different now having to place the new love of your life in a car seat. Done we are off.

With Mom and Daughter safely secured in the back seat of our car we headed the 11 miles to our home. Funny how having a baby in your car changes your driving habits, a little slower, looking out for on coming cars, and yes my lovely wife offering a lot of back seat driving suggestions.

Our daughter within a few minutes is sound asleep. I read that taking your Newborn for a ride might help with sleep. Silence mother is drifting off.

The ride home was without events, upon arrival fight with the baby seat, help mother and daughter into our home. Me, back to car and unload all that stuff we took to the hospital we never used.

Unpack everything and find mother and daughter cuddled up on our bed sound asleep. An exhausting event for all.

Boston Newborn Care Services

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Boston Newborn Care Services | Boston Newborn Care is always looking for the very best Newborn services.

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Our First Baby | The Delivery Room

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Our First Baby | The Delivery Room, My wife had a pleasant pregnancy, some morning sickness at first which passed. As the months moved along and her hormones changes, my wife became this very happy and forgetful, soon to be mother. Left a few ATM cards in the ATM machine, other then that it was with great join I watched my wife’s stomach grow and we spent nights together sitting watching our baby move around.

We had taken all the classes for delivery, breathing, videos and many nights on-line seeking comfort for that all important day of when the Water Broke and the Mad Dash to the Hospital.

The car had been packed for what seemed like weeks with all the STUFF we had to take to the Hospital. Then contractions started late on a Saturday night. Called all the numbers we had pre programmed in our Cell Phone and it was time we were told, head to the Hospital.

Upon our arrival at the hospital we met our Doctor, all the happy nurses in the delivery room. Only to find out after the initial examination, contractions, it was determined my wife had some time to go before delivery.

24 hours later still in the delivery ward of the Hospital our Doctor came in and informed us that our Daughters had turned downward, all good. NOT, as our Doctor explained your Daughter has a large head and your wife has narrow hips. Okay. Meaning that delivery would be by cesarean section.

Within 20 minutes we are in Surgery. The keyword here is we are in Surgery, meaning ME as well as all the Doctors, Nurses, and staff for this event. Sitting at my wife’s I head I occasionally peeked over the drape covering my wife’s from the neck down to see what was going on. This delivery from my point of view was fast. Suddenly our Daughter appears and is handed to a nurse. Okay purple color, and covered with like a cheese coating all over.

The Nurse took our Daughter over to a table in the delivery room and began a series of tests and began cleaning up our Daughter. All the time I am watching the Surgeon finish the surgery. Then the Nurse walked over with our Daughter all wrapped up in a warm blanket and handed her to me.

“Come on the Nurse said” lets go, follow me. Panic, how was I to hold my daughter, what if I tripped or drop her. We made it to a room where our Daughter was placed under like a warming light. Within no time her color went to that pretty pink all babies have. Then the smell of her, was like nothing I had experienced before. That Baby smell.

Time passes and my Wife is back in her room and the time has come for Father to take our Daughter to be with mom.

Rock your baby to sleep

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Rock your baby to sleep have her sleep on your chest, feed her until she’s snoring; that’s fine. Go ahead; but just know you are signing up for this task for at least a year.

Babies like what they like. Who wouldn’t want to snuggle in someone’s cozy arms or be lulled to sleep whilst rocking back and forth to your dads humming?

I remember when I watched my first baby, around 28 years ago. A friend was going to her mother in-laws funeral. She left me with these instructions.

Rock your baby to sleep

  1. Sally will wake up at X time.
  2. Enter her room wearing my scarf, hanging on the outside doorknob.
  3. Do not turn on the lights.
  4. Be sure the bathroom door is open about 5 inches and the shower light is on. (That is enough light for you to see)
  5. Sit in the rocking chair to feed her but don’t move the position it is in.
  6. Be sure to turn on the mobile before you sit down.
  7. When she is done hold her upright for 17 minutes.
  8. Change her while singing somewhere over the rainbow.
  9. Stand on your head and spit jellybeans.

Ok, so the last direction was just me being sarcastic.

Of course I tried to follow all of these steps. And of course she cried the whole time because I probably opened the refrigerator or forgot to turn off the television.

I felt like what a new mom must feel like. I totally turned off my common sense. I didn’t do what seems natural because I had to follow the directions.

My friend came home to a screaming infant. This regime came about because it worked one time. The chair, the light, the noise and the smells suddenly settled her fussy daughter.

I totally get it. Rock your baby to sleep

PARENTS WILL DO ANYTHING TO MAKE IT STOP.

How else did the midnight car rides come about? Desperate parents will do what works. Outsiders will view these intricate steps as ridiculous, but new parents see it as perfectly normal behavior.

When my son was born my husband and I walked around OUR HOUSE with one shoe on. We had to scoot our foot under his bottom in the light-blue bucket chair and bounce it up and down. It became a mindless ritual; Tap-Tap-Tap, rocking him until he fell asleep.

It became the routine; it was our new normal because he stopped crying. It worked!

We did go through a few of those chairs, but it didn’t matter. That chair went everywhere with us. It became more important than my make-up

(whose kidding who here, make -up went out the door when I left work to go on maternity leave)

Eventually there is a break in the insanity. Common sense seeps in a little bit and the routines get much more manageable.

What’s your crazy story? We all have one.

Having a Successful Boston Newborn Experience?

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The upward trend in Boston Baby Nurses, Newborn Care Specialists and Infant Overnight Care in Boston is due to success of the parents.

Lets face it; we have a city of really successful parents. Smart, talented and dedicated people who surround themselves with smart talented and dedicated help.

It’s not by accident that couples move to Boston. In Beacon Hill, Back Bay, South End, Southie and the Seaport you will find like-minded, smart, folks who work hard, and have nice things.

They worked hard at school, are dedicated to their job, their trade, their skill. They put in the time to be a success. Long hours, missed vacations and long weekends at work so they are where they are; they earned their spot as the impressive head of the department, top sales person or savvy entrepreneur.

This didn’t happen overnight. Today most women are ready to have a baby after sometimes up to 10 years after they graduate from college.

Having a successful Boston Newborn experiences?

Having a successful Boston Newborn experiences?

The average age of first time moms in 2000 was 24 years old. Today’s moms are still in school or seeking a career until they are closer to 30. Medical professionals are in their early 30s before they can even consider having a baby.

Not only are first time moms older, but also so is the support system around them.

I am the 3rd born in my family and my mom was 24 when she had me.

I was 25 when my first son was born. At the time my mother was 49 years old and my dad was 50. They were my support system. My dad brought me to Dr’s appointments and my mom put the nursery together, she was my Florence Nightingale, my Mary Poppins and came to support me in the middle of the night.

Today, many first time moms are in their 30’s and 40’s. Having grandparents as support, be it in the early days of chaos or when moms go back to work, just doesn’t seem to be the best option.

Not to mention the fact that many in the Boston area are not from here originally. So grandparents are not next door anymore. Hiring help is the way of the world now.

Don’t get me wrong, grandparents are still very much part of the mix. They come to stay for a few days and definitely help all day. They just do not do the overnight shift. They go to bed at 9 P.M. I usually have a nice chat with them at

6 A.M. when they get up to let the new mom get some more sleep.

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