Survriving the First year of parenthood

I knew that having kids changed your life, but i was completely unprepared for the baptism of fire i received. In my arms was a hungry monster that didn't know how to, nor want to sleep, The first night at home together Munchkin screamed solid from midnight to eight am. with me breastfeeding her as often as i could to shut her up. by 2am Munchkin was screaming, i was sobbing and hubby was trying to comfort the two of us. funny in hindsight but what a night. and things weren't to improve any time soon. Munchkin didn't sleep through the night regularly till 10 months of age. and met all milestones early crawled at 5 months walking by 9 1/2 months I was so not ready. Where was my sleepy, cuddly baby? There are actually a lot of photos of her sleeping in our photo album as it was such a rare occasion that we always felt the need to get the camera out.

My next challenge came when munchkin was 12 weeks old and hubby had to go away for 3 months with work ( the joys of being a defence family) I had just started coping with him there to give me a break at night to have a shower and 30 minutes of me time. and now i was to discover what being a single mum was like for 3 months.
I became friends with my neighbour who happened to be an army defence family she had a 2 yr old boy. without that support and understanding i probably wouldn't have made it through.
We survrived the first year. Our Munchkin has developed into a beautiful ambitious toddler and we are now settled in to our new posting location with much help of Defence Force play groups. and Hubby is on Australian soil for a while to come, we almost feel like a normal civilian family.