Howdy, Ghoulz!

As some of you may have noticed, I disappeared for a couple years after having our lil’ bebe. (She’ll be known as “the Boss” or “the bebe” in this and future posts! Remember, I’m Starling, and my hubby is Master Betty, and we have Toby Toebeans the cat and Gamera the box turtle who goes by Turtle!) I didn’t take a fun hiatus. My health has been horrible, and I had a difficult pregnancy. Due to that and hormonal chaos after giving birth, I was not okay. I was unable to plan any posts or do any crafting, writing, reading, or hobbies at all! No falling into a long TV series or anything! I couldn’t eat, sleep, or focus on anything other than that lil’ bebe, and not because she was even needing anything at all 85% of the time! I feel it is important for us to discuss these things in our society, so that’s why I’m tossing in a little candid info here in the update real quick so that people can see this is something that can effect everyone ya know who has lil’ babies, tries for lil’ babies, and those close to them!

It was way more intense than it should have been, and she is a very easy to get along with bebe! She’s independent and healthy, but my brain was just OBSESSED, y’all, and I didn’t realize the hormonal imbalance could throw you off in that way. I was only watching out for depression and my physical health, which took a worse turn as I gave birth and the few months after which ended in a life saving surgery a few months after from an ailment I’d had since labor.

I talked to my doc about the anxiety and obsession, of course, but not before some time passed as I didn’t realize TOO MUCH OVERWHELMING LOVE could be a thing, LOL! And we got me some simple little happy pills to even me back out so I chill out and stop wondering what she’s doing, what she’s thinking, how is she feeling, like every. Single. Second. I couldn’t even take a thinkin’ break when my healthy, competent little family support system stepped in often to happily take over SO I could rest.

My advice is, if you’re uncomfortable, don’t let people tell you things like oh that’s just the way it is with a new baby or of course, you’re a mother now, it’s all you’re gonna be and do and of course you’re going to miss a little sleep and worry about your baby. If it is beyond okay for you, make sure to stand firm with that and insist very clearly to your docs that it does NOT seem to be the norm, because imbalances can throw you off in so many ways after poppin’ out a little MacGyver-brain-level engineer bebe.

I think it’s all slowly evening out, and life is good! Now it’s still “OMGodzilla I LOVE HER SO MUCH I DIDN’T KNOW ANYONE COULD LOVE THIS MUCH”, yet I’m not losing myself in the process! Much more what I’d expect for healthy mama/baby dynamic, ha!

I suggest for everyone to be your own advocate in health and be firm and open with your docs if something like this starts poking at ya! It’s totally not abnormal to get outta whack after the physical trauma of creating a tiny human from scratch, and whether you get the obsession with your bebe brand kind of imbalance, or the super depressed even spookier brand of postpartum issues, it IS okay to talk with your doc. Don’t put it off! That’s not you, no one competent thinks you’re a bad or weak parent, and it’s actually SO common. Do not be shy about it! The sooner you grab a little help to balance out, the faster you’ll be back to loving on your family and friends and accepting support and help from all those people you KNOW that they totally know what they’re doin’ and you can let them walk off without freaking out if you can’t see the baby for two seconds. And…the sooner you’ll be getting back to yourself so you can…CROCHET!!!! YAY!!!

I’m really hoping to schedule some regular posts soon, and perhaps even remodel the blog and update my patterns as my skills have improved so much over the last decade! Please be patient with me, and I truly, deeply appreciate my Ghoulz who are still here despite me going MIA! You guyz are such a beautiful community, and you mean so much to me!

An update for now is that our lil’ bebe came out just fine! She is the most confident, social, curious, sweet, brilliant, and somehow pensive little tiny overlord I could ever imagine! We love her SO much!
Toby Toebeans is doing great, and he took to the mini-overlord right away. We are all her minions!

Now I must get back to hunting down neat free crochet patterns all over the place for inspiration and to share with you guyz! Thank you for following along with my journey and to everyone subscribed to my blog, and thank you for bringing your interests in crafting and crochet here to Craftyghoul!

(You can find my blog and links to the FREE CROCHET PATTERNS I have created HERE, and you can follow the Craftyghoul Facebook page here where I regularly share free patterns I found around the web!)

Party on, Ghoulz!

~ Starling