You just got home from the hospital with a baby--a brand new screaming, crying, always-hungry baby--and it's yours. This is your first kid and now that you're home, you have to figure out how to take care of the baby all on your own. The nurses and pediatricians are all gone. There is no more "Call Nurse" button on a remote attached to your bed for when you can't get the baby to stop crying. There is no more immediate answer to your questions or help coming through the door as soon as it is needed. No one around is willing to help you with this baby. It's all yours now. It's all your responsibility.

So what do you do when the baby's crying filters through the baby monitor, waking you up again? What do you do when the baby's hunger keeps him pulling aggressively on your sore, swollen breasts for what feels like hours? What do you do when you find you just can't go one more day without a shower because the smell of spit up and sweat is clogging your nose and your hair is so shiny with grease it looks like plastic? What do you do when you have to go to the store and there's no one willing to babysit? What do you do when all you want is to sleep and the baby won't keep his eyes closed unless you are constantly rubbing his full belly?

How do you deal with it?

How do you cope?

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