*I'm in NC this weekend, so I'm posting this now. I'll visit when I get back Monday night! Have a great weekend.*

This Week's Question is:
Your biggest challenge of motherhood: how things were when baby was first born, how things changed as time went on and what type of challenges are you facing right now?

As a first time Mom with Kayla, I had the normal challenges - basically figuring out how to be a Mom and take care of a baby and be completely responsible for another human being. I actually adjusted to motherhood pretty well. Contrary to what I thought, I had no problems getting up in the middle of the night to feed her (much easier than waking to an alarm clock). Learning decipher her cries and getting her to sleep in her crib was a challenge for a short amount of time. The biggest challend though with Kayla was feeding her. With the nightmare I had trying to b/f and coming to terms with the facts that I just didn't produce, oh, anything. I had a really rough time emotionally dealing with that. Then, during all of this, her reflux disease started at 1 week of age. And it's still kicking to this day. :) Kayla would scream for hours after EVERY feeding! And of course it was worse at night. J was working mostly 12pm-11pm shifts then, so as the evening got closer, I would feel the panic building up. I can't tell you how many times I sat in Kayla's glider and cried with her. Aside from dealing with the crying, it was such a struggle to get her to eat through her pain. Even at 2 weeks old, she figured out that she'd rather feel hungry than suffer the pain of eating. It was hard on all 3 of us. J was great and would help me in the middle of the night - walking the floors with her, driving her in the car, etc. But I handled the crying better than he did - he even told me once we weren't having anymore kids. Ha! With treatment and time, her symptoms improved. But her tummy/eating issues still plague us with her allergy to dairy and her continued reflux disease. She now eats great between the medication she takes and her feeding therapy from a year ago. She has come out of the diagnosis of Failure to Thrive and she looks great. We hope that someday she will outgrow her dairy allergy.

With Alysa - her biggest challenge was also eating. She had reflux disease as well, although not to the same extent of Kayla's. Alysa fought every bottl, but it started later, like after 2-3 weeks of age. I knew the signs and had her put on medication immediately. She never had the severe pain that Kayla did, so no excessive crying. But it was a major struggle getting her to drink her bottles. Luckily though after it was done, she was perfectly content. And she spit up major amounts. And she only stopped spitting up altogether about 2-3 months ago.

I can't say I am having any major challenges with the girls right now. Alysa is 19 months, so we are heading into a more formal form of discipline - time outs, etc. She can be quite defiant when she wants to be. With Kayla, my biggest struggle is coming to terms with sending her to preschool. Although I can't believe my baby is old enough for preschool, the real struggle is coping with someone else managing her food allergy. That is going to be really hard for me. But I will give the preschool all the information they will need, keep on top of them and hope for the best!

But among all the challenges that come with motherhood, I am enjoying my girls and I love to see the world through their eyes.

Hop on over to Mommy Talk to see other responses.