Even for us, with Zed being only 11 weeks, I feel like things have improved immensely. There are still some struggles (breastfeeding and making the transition from exclusive pumping to exclusive breastfeeding, Zed's fussy times, the fact that we had an extra month in the "fourth trimester" and Zed's really only a two-month-old instead of a three-month-old), but I wouldn't go back to that first week for anything, and I have great hope that in a few more months, 11 weeks will seem like it was so much harder by comparison to 22 weeks.

It was hardest for Mr. Z a couple of days after we got home from the hospital. There was a night he desperately wanted to feel some "normalcy", and needed a reminder that how things were at six days wasn't how they'd always be. He felt like we'd lost our entire lives and it was all so, so different and hard. But we got past that, and we've had some "normal" nights since then. Someday Zed will start going to sleep early and we'll be able to do so much!

For me, I think it was hardest maybe a couple of weeks ago, when I was struggling desperately with trying to keep pumping every 3 hours and yet still latch Zed on and get him to take something at the breast. I thought exclusive pumping was so hard, and then I tried to transition to exclusive breastfeeding, and I just felt like, oh God, I can't do this. Mr. Z was there to remind me that it will get better, that what keeps me going is that I want what comes at the end of this road, and that if I ever want to stop, I can do that and it won't mean I'm failing Zed as a mom.

There will be other hard things coming up, but I think in another month we'll be doing really well. I'm optimistic now, and when we got home from the hospital I was so tired I couldn't even think ahead a day or two. Now I can, and it's very good for my morale!