How a Puma and her cubs were the support I needed postpartum :)

Pure exhaustion is what I remember those first few days and weeks when the babies arrived. We also had a full house. We had one of our moms and or my sister staying with us. We took all the help we could get!

I remember a few things in those early days:

The first was realizing I didn’t know the next time I would have a good night's sleep. It’s a really scary thing when you are a person who has no problem falling asleep and will sleep like a log for eight hours straight.

I once slept thought a friend jumping on the bed while trying to remove a hornet that was flying around the room. The hornet was removed successfully with no harm done to it or my friend. Saying all of that, I was feeling just a little overwhelmed with the idea of not sleeping for the next year.

The second thing I remember was the exhaustion. I guess sleep deprivation and exhaustion go hand in hand.  It may have been those two things I was feeling when I would lock myself in the only bathroom in our house and flip through National Geographic magazines.

I may have also been hiding from my babies… But I kept coming back to an article about a puma and her 2 cubs.

There was this one image of her and her two cubs snuggling together. They looked more like teenagers at this point and all I saw in her eyes was pure exhaustion. Talk about projecting my feelings onto her.

I would look at it so often that I had decided which puma cub was Nina and which was Lawrence. I did what any rational new mom would do. I ripped that page out of the magazine and stuck it on the fridge. I thought to myself if she can raise 2 cubs so can I! I came so close to writing my kids’ names on each cub and framing it. Good thing we moved before I had the chance to do it!

I guess the point of my story is. You may lose your mind a little bit after giving birth.

And that is totally normal! It’s all for love and survival!

Xo,

Lexie